So this weekend recovering from a birthday party on my sofa. As a result I spent a lot of time thinking about my story, The Wolves of Autumn. It is going to be a Sci-fi Band of Brothers, so I spent a bit of time watching an episode of that, and also just reading the paper, seeing what is relevant now. Good Sci-fi is always a mirror of its time. It allows you to talk about things which you may not be allowed to in a general piece of drama.

I used to, when I was a bit younger, just write for the sake of it, if a little idea popped into my head, I would knock a short story out as soon as I could. But now, since I wrote a novella, I have taken a different tack. I have chosen to do more planning, as I find world building makes things far easier when writing. You give yourself a set of simple rules, and as long as stuff sits within that comfortably, then it is all gravy.

So what are the rules that help me write?

1. Number 1, the golden rule, is fiction is about emotion. There is no other reason to write fiction. Some people say story and plot is more important, but they are wrong. The Old Man and the Sea is about a man going fishing, and his relationship with a young boy. Nothing else, and it is possibly the greatest story ever written. I have been thinking about characters for the Wolves story. At first it was quite James Cameron. Over the top weapons and stuff, but then I thought, technology gets in the way. Lets strip all that out. This is a bunch of grunts, out on the edge of space. Far more to be gained from that than guys with giant space hammers and super soldier programmes.
2. Have a mood to the piece. What is the tone? My sci-fi mood is going to be 2 pronged. It is going to be about the morality of war, but also the loneliness of space, and how time and distance affect us. All description is an opinion about the world. I recommend finding a place to stand.
3. Never open with weather. The only book that has ever done this successfully in my opinion was The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. Everyone else thinks it sets a place for piece. It doesn’t, it just makes you think of weather. Benefit of being a space thing, there is only one type of weather, cold and dark.
4. There is nothing wrong with the word ‘said’. Some people obsess that they use it too much, and so go for things like ‘gasped’ and ‘sighed’ … try sighing and saying something. You can’t! Said is fine! Dialogue is tricky, you try to make it sound natural, and inevitably it comes out written. So think about what they are saying, and then say it out loud till something sounds right.
5. If it sounds like writing, rewrite it. That might sound strange, and it is because it is difficult to self edit. But take some time, step back, and then have another read. If something feels like you are shoe horning in descriptions and adverbs, get rid of it. I use the Hemmingway rule, is the word vital to the sentence. If not, get rid of it. With screenplays it is doubly important. A lot of well regarded series are about what is unsaid. That is what I will try and not have any of my grunts go around exclaiming.
6. Share it! Giving stories to people and listening to their feedback is the only way to make it better. Never take it personally because you have asked them for this, and the only way you can make something better is with criticism. I know some people who love some sci fi, so I will give it to them.
7. Stop writing when you still have a bit of you that wants to continue. When you have story left in your brain. That way, when you wake the next day, you can hit the ground running. I am still in the planning stage. This normally means me doodling in meetings, drawing characters and thinking about their stories in my head. This can take 6 months to a year, but then it will all coalesce in my head.
8. Listen to music whilst you do it. If it is linked to the mood of your piece, all the better. I generally listen to quiet music because it blocks out the other noises, and lets me think clearly about being my characters. I have been listening to some string guitar / blues to try and capture a sound in my head for the show.
9. Get a note pad. Write in it things you read, things people say, the way they move. For fear of sounding like a stalker, watch people. Watch people arguing, watch people catching buses. The greatest thing a writer can do is make an observation that everyone knows, but no one ever mentions, be it the way a pretty girl puts her hair behind her ear when she likes you. Or the way a parent wants to talk to you on the phone, but also always seems preoccupied with something else.
10. Disconnect the internet. You cannot write with the internet being sat there. Luring you with trivial things that stop you writing your story. I honestly believe if I wasn’t so lazy, my handwriting so terrible, and the thing taking too much effort, I would write whole things by hand. Writing a story deserves you give it all of your attention. This is probably why I take ages to think about a story, because when I knuckle down, it is all I allow myself.

I am not even a published author or anything, so the above are just some things I do to help me. I love reading, it is one of the few ways we can totally leave our mundane lives and do something terrible, or wonderful, or anything in between. So go write yourself a story, you probably haven’t since you were a kid, and you will remember that it used to be fun.

- Anand