So you have a great idea. A spark of inspiration floating around in your head. You grab a pad and jot down a few notes and before long, you have the foundations of an original plot. 

“This would make an amazing book”, you tell yourself. A moment of excitement is swiftly followed by a dozen reasons why you simply don’t have the time, the self-belief, or the motivation to follow through. You end up shelving the idea, and become one of the millions of people walking around with an unwritten story buried under a mountain of ideas, plans and memories.

If that’s you, then I’m going to share some of the things that helped me to get my story out of my head and onto the pages of a novel, which has now been published by Austin Macauley. 

One thing I can tell you is that writing is a lot of fun once you get started.  It’s a chance to get lost within your thoughts and express your creativity.  You can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone.  It’s an opportunity to challenge yourself. A means of escaping from the pressures of life for a few hours to have some much needed “YOU” time.

Please don’t fall into the trap of convincing yourself that there aren’t enough hours in the day. If you own a smartphone, then take a moment to consider how much time is wasted each day browsing social media, looking at how other people spend their time, as opposed to investing that time in yourself. Think of how many hours a week you might spend watching soap operas, or even reading some trashy magazine, when you could be writing your own novel. 

The first step is to recognise that there are many pointless things you spend (or dare I say waste) your time doing each day.  When you accept this fact and commit to sacrificing some of those unimportant pass times, then the only thing left to do is to make time, (not excuses) and work on your masterpiece.  

I used to take my laptop to the park on my lunch breaks. I’d write in the airport waiting lounge, and on the plane, in the cafes and even sitting in my car while my kids warmed up for their football match.  If I didn’t have my laptop handy, I would type passages into the notes section of my phone. Once I started, it was amazing how much time I was able to make for my new-found hobby.

Fear is also a common deterrent among would-be authors. “Will my work be good enough?” “Will a critic shatter my confidence with a brutal review?” The truth is that your ideas won’t resonate with some readers, while others will simply enjoy trolling your work because that’s just who they are and how they get their kicks.  I’ve always imagined that the most scathing critics have never successfully completed their own novel.  If they had, then they would undoubtedly appreciate that it takes time, commitment, and tremendous courage. Anyone who has completed that journey deserves a little respect, even if their work is not deemed to be a prize worthy best seller.  

I’m a huge fan of cinema, but the one beautiful thing that reading a book has over watching a movie is that nobody will visualise your story exactly as you have.  Some of us have a far more vivid imagination than others, and no two people will paint the same picture of characters, scenes, and situations in the same way.  Everyone’s experience of your novel will be unique.  Understanding this notion is the key to accepting that your book will not appeal to everyone.  My suggestion is to draw encouragement from the fact that there are going to be many people who will love your work, rather than dwelling on the notion that there are likely to be others who won’t.

So how do you get started on your opening chapter?  And once you’re in the zone, how do you stay motivated and focussed enough to see it through to the closing chapter? I can only tell you what worked for me.  To do that, I need to share the story of how the idea for the Devil’s Tea Party came to being. 

One night I experienced a terrifying nightmare in which I was being pursued by a tall man wearing a sharp pinstripe suit and a hideous mask. I tried to escape him, moving with the awkward, stumbling, heavy-legged motion that many of us experience when we try to run while in a dream state.  I darted down dark alleys, through dimly lit parks and waded through crowds of people as I tried to evade him.  Yet, every time I looked back, he was right there, gaining ground on me.  Eventually I was cornered, helpless and confused as to what I had done to incur his wrath.  When he finally spoke, the voice behind the mask was deep and raspy.  In his demonic tone, he explained that I was not his intended victim.  It was my wife who had wronged him.  He confirmed that they had become close, but she had betrayed his trust.  Before I was able to gather more detail or fight to save her, I awoke from the nightmare in a state of panic and confusion.

I lay awake for hours playing the details back in my mind over and over again.  I have always loved a good horror, but down the years I had become less sensitive to the genre.  In my pursuit of the ultimate fear inducing villain, I was convinced that I had dreamed up the makings of the perfect thriller.  It had been a very long time since I had experienced the same thrill, excitement and fear in anything I had watched on the big screen or read in a novel, and I was determined to recreate those emotions for my own readers.

I am aware that some authors have the ability to just start typing and craft their entire story off the cuff.  The words and ideas just fall out of them effortlessly as they write.  I say kudos to these creative wizards, but if you have the foundations of a good story and find it easier to map out your entire plot before you even begin writing, then this is the route you should take.  

Planning ahead has always worked for me, so that is precisely what I did.  At 2am I snatched my phone from the bedside table and began piecing together ideas and names for characters. I’ve always hated a slow opening, so I decided that my novel would begin where a prequel (if there ever was one) would reach its natural climax.  I was going to draw my readers in with a heart pounding thrill ride of an opening, before guiding them into the twists and turns of my main story.  

No thriller would be complete without an epic twist.  It was this final piece of the puzzle which kept my mind whirling for hours, until my imagination finally fell upon a frenzied finale with multiple plot twists.  

That night my first thriller was born.  The title did not come to me until several days later, but once I wrote it down and saw the words on the page, then unlike the sequel (the name of which I have changed three times already and still remains undecided) I was convinced that “The Devil’s Tea Party” was the perfect name for my dark, seductive and bitter-sweet crime thriller.

I was under no illusion that writing an entire manuscript would be a huge undertaking. How could I ever bring myself to finish it?  To answer this question, I posed another.  What did I want to gain most from this whole experience? The answer was simple. I wanted to feel the deep sense of accomplishment that comes with holding a copy of my own novel. I imagined sitting on a train and seeing someone reading my work and asking them if they were enjoying it. In that moment I understood that my greatest motivation would be to see what my book would actually look like.

That same week, I visited a talented artist called Greenwell who goes by the name of dARC Artz, in the hope that he would work on my cover design. The pensive artist gave little away as he sat in silence for over an hour while I explained my ideas in great detail. When I concluded, he leapt out of his seat and began pacing around his lounge, throwing countless creative concepts at me with fierce enthusiasm. I was overjoyed to discover that he was totally in love with my story.  He not only agreed to work on the cover design, but also went on to commission an entire body of art including paintings, sculptures, mannequins and masks which he called the Devil’s Tea Party collection. 

One month after our meeting, I was presented with the first draft of the cover design.  The moment I laid eyes on it, I was speechless. Haunting, engaging, sinister and mesmerising.  It was everything I had envisaged and more. Greenwell had nailed the brief and now that I had a visual reference for what my book could look like, I was hooked. His art was all the incentive I needed to get writing. 

The final step was to set myself a realistic timeline for finishing my novel.  Some professional authors can pen a masterpiece in just a few short weeks. But for most first-time writers, it begins as a pass time, slotted in around work, family, and social commitments. But that’s ok. I promised myself that I would finish within two years.  Eighteen months later, the first draft was completed. 

I’m not going to pretend that it was all plain sailing. There are a host of tricks I picked up along the way for setting the right mood to write and making sure that I stayed on track, and I will share some of these with you in my next blog. 

Overcoming my fears and doubts about how the book would be received, mapping out my storyline and plot in advance, creating a visual image of what my book would look like from the outset, and setting a realistic and achievable timeline for completion, were all powerful motivational tools which helped me to finish my novel.  I sincerely hope that my personal experiences will spur you on to take a similar leap of faith.  Or perhaps you’ve completed a novel of your own and wish to share your thoughts on how to reach that all important final chapter?  If so, then I urge you to share your ideas with the writing community, as there will always be room for more new literature in the world. 

I will conclude by saying that there are few more satisfying moments for a writer than typing the last few words in the final  paragraph of your very first novel. So if you are like me, and you think you have story to tell, then please do not be afraid. Seize the moment and start your journey to becoming an author today.