- Start with the idea that a blank screen is your friend; it is there waiting to be filled with words. Don’t let it intimidate you, even if it can have a menacing appearance.
- Everybody has some kind of plan before they start to write. Do you make a detailed outline or have just a vague idea of what is going to happen? It doesn’t matter as long as you know what you are doing.
- Keep notes of everything. Did you get a great idea at work? Make a quick note before you forget it. Are you sure that you mentioned, say, the colour of your character’s toothbrush, somewhere. I hope you made a note of it (I didn’t – it didn’t seem so important at the time) in the appropriate character sheet, because it is much easier to check that way when you need that information. I use OneNote for this; I can access my notes from all my devices.
- Descriptions are hard to do. It’s not just describing something that exists only in your mind’s eye, but you must allow for just enough detail to allow your reader fill in the rest.
- Names are very important. I can use months to decide what to call my main characters to bring out something of their qualities. Conversely, when I name an incidental character quickly, they can suddenly gain more importance in the story just because of their name. Here name really is an omen of what the character is like.
- Metaphors are important. They are the stuff creativity is made of. You might forget that your whole story is a metaphor.
- Google is nice if you need to check something quickly, but don’t use it for procrastination. It’s all too easy to spend the whole evening ‘doing research’.
- If you get stuck, try writing something else. This could be another scene or chapter in the same story that you find more inspiring at the moment, or it could be another story.
- Raymond Chandler once said: “When in doubt have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand”. It doesn’t have to be a man, and they don’t need to have a gun, or even come through a door; just make something happen. You can always delete it, if it doesn’t fit, but keep on writing.
- Sometimes your characters don’t want to do what you have in mind. This is because your plot wants them to behave in ways that are inconsistent with their way of thinking and doing. If it is crucial for your plot, think what might motivate them to behave in the way you want?
- Rules are to be broken. Actually, these are not even rules. They are just my ideas, good or bad. Mainly they work for me, at least part of the time.
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Sakke Myllymäki writes and draws the online comic Enter the Fairy. His aim is to create entertaining stories about characters gay people can identify with. His comics are inspired by the adventure stories he read as teenager, but with a gay twist.