Blog Tour: The Memory Book by Rowan Coleman

Last week, I had the utter pleasure of reading the brilliant new book from one of my favourite writers ever, Rowan Coleman. The Memory Book is a very unique novel, emotional yet uplifting and had me totally consumed from start to finish. I am now lucky enough to be part of Rowan's blog tour, and she was kind enough to share her top 5 writing tips with me, and they are very important tips too! Enjoy the read, and my thanks go to Amelia at Random House, and to Rowan for taking the time to write these for me. Also, please enjoy the amazing video Rowan kindly made for me, I love it!

You can buy The Memory Book as a hardback or an eBook now.

Rowan Coleman's Top 5 Writing Tips

1. Writing is like learning to play a musical instrument, the more you do, the better you get. Ring fence some time for you every day, or at least every week, and make sure you write something.

2. Know your characters. Bringing you characters alive on the page is the surefire way to make your reader care. Ask you characters a series of questions, find out their secrets, what kind of ice-cream do they like? What their favourite colour? The answers may well never make it into the page, but they are all important when it comes to making a character believable.

3. Don't edit, just write. When I tutor, I meet so many writers who can't get past the first chapter of their work in progress, because they are constantly tweaking and perfecting it before they move on. It’s a big mistake. You need to give yourself permission to write a pretty awful first draft, because when you've got it down, then you have something to work on. You can't edit a blank page.

4. Think about the kind of writer you are an why. You might think you are the same sort of writer as your favourite author, but just because you like to read certain books, it doesn't mean that they are the books you are destined to write. Think about your voice, your tone, what you want your book to achieve. Try to know yourself as a writer, before you start writing a novel. It will save you a lot of time.

5. Make inspiration happen. If we all sat around waiting for our muse to turn up, no books would get written ever. It is the universal rule of writing fiction that you will always have to slog your way through a thousand terrible words to get to the thousand good ones. If you can do that, and not give up to go and drink tea, and watch repeats of Grey's Anatomy, then you are well on your way to being a writer.

Thank you so much, Rowan!

RowanChloe from Chloe Spooner on Vimeo.