John Dean – Crime Writer

I recently chaired a ‘meet-the-authors’ event at the excellent Kirkcudbright Book Week, which took place in the south-west Scotland town near which I live.

It featured crime writers May Rinaldi and David Haigh and finished with a question and answer session in which we were asked if we had to give one piece of advice to an aspiring writer what would it be?

I chose a line that my good friend the children’s author and award-winning short story writer Mike Watson, pictured here, often cites. He says: ‘If you want to be a writer, write’.

He contends that an author should write something every day and that, even if what they write is not that good, it is still worth doing because, as he says  ‘even if it is no good for ninety nine days, the one hundredth could see you hit a rich seam that ends up being a short story or a book – but you won’t find it unless you write.’

I agree wholeheartedly; writers are very good at allowing themselves to be distracted but the best way to write is indeed to write.

I would add that if you do hit that seam, find time to mine it there and then. Those times when the writing is flowing are so precious to an author that they should not be wasted and if that means delaying tea because you want to write, nay, need to write, so be it.

If that comes over as selfish that’s because often writing is selfish but it is that intense focus that makes for good fiction and I speak as someone who has from time to time over the years sat down at the computer meaning to write for an hour and looked up at the clock to discover to my surprise that I have written for four hours non-stop!

You can find plenty of other bits of free advice in my various ‘handy hints’ sections on this website and more information on Kirkcudbright Book Week can be obtained on http://www.kirkcudbrightbookweek.org