The Jenny Colgan Method From Interview no. 21 • Read voraciously from a very early age. Read every genre at every possible opportunity. • Get lots of practical advice about writing. Use all the books and articles on the web. But ignore the extreme stuff like, ‘shut yourself in a room and don’t let your children talk to you’. Tell yourself that the recipe for writing is fairly simple. • Have a routine. Get up and get anything easy, like writing features, out of the way first. Then go running, have a nice long lunch, have a bath (spend a lot of time in the bath – preferably reading at the same time), then sit down in the afternoon and write three pages. Do this every day. • Do not believe in writers’ block (i.e. as something different to not being arsed). You can’t be a writer without doing the basic, humdrum, tap, tap, tap at the computer. Tell yourself you cannot leave this computer until it’s done… • Keep the books quite short and don’t do too much research. That way you can write a book in eight months and fart about the rest of the year. Aim for one book a year. • Write about things that you find funny. You’ll never run out of things you find funny so you’ll never run out of things to write about. • Decide on a beginning and end to make you feel secure, but allow unexpected things to happen in the middle. • If you can, choose a story with a series of obvious events (e.g. an engagement party, a hen night, a stag night, a wedding), so you don’t have to worry about where the story’s leading. • Spend at least 30 pages faffing about at the start, getting people to walk in so you can introduce them. When you’ve finished the book, go back and chop out the beginning. You never know where your book starts until it’s finished. • When your book goes to the publisher there’s no point in starting something else for a couple of months. You need to clear the characters out of your head and let it lie fallow for a bit. • Learn to trust your editor because you’re not the best judge of what works. Don’t give it to friends to read, because they’ll say they like it and you won’t believe them, or that they don’t like it and you’ll be upset. You know your editor will tell the truth because she’s paying money for it. Do not believe in writers’ block (i.e. as something different to not being arsed). You can’t be a writer without doing the basic, humdrum, tap, tap, tap at the computer. Tell yourself you cannot leave this computer until it’s done…
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