Ever dreamed of writing a novel but didn't know where to start? Now's the perfect time to pick up your pen (or keyboard) and dive into the world of storytelling—no experience needed, just your imagination.
In a new series, author and critic Aimée Walsh offers some tips for the budding novelist.
Writing can feel like a solitary task and in many ways it is. When you first start out on a novel, it's hard to think of the document running to tens of thousands of words, sprawling out as you go. It’s an exercise in trust. Trusting that it will go somewhere, that the words on the pages will come together to make a coherent story, and that it will find its readers. To explain this trust process to friends who don’t write can feel like a futile act. In this piece, I’d like to help guide you to your writing community. These will be the people who will read your work, hear your frustrations when writing isn’t quite working (and that it will happen!), celebrate your successes (that too will happen!), and keep you going between the peaks and troughs.
Finding a writing community was the key that allowed me to take myself and my writing seriously. The Irish Writers Centre and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland were instrumental this, by awarding me a bursary to take a course that helped me finish Exile. I gained so much more than I anticipated from doing this course: I had a new network of writers to swap work with, to bring fresh eyes to my characters, and to go to when I needed advice on funding, writing, or anything at all.
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Listen to an episode of The Stinging Fly podcast
Of course, some writers go down the Creative Writing degree route, but this is not strictly necessary. Saying this, there are many benefits to taking a university course in Creative Writing. Signing up to a degree will allow you to dedicate time to thinking through your writing as a craft, as a creative practice which you must work diligently on, in order to hone your skills. Look at the staff lists for universities that you are interested in applying to. The Creative Writing faculty will be the people who work closely with you on your writing. So, think about the writers hired by the university you are interested in: are they working in the form you wish to write? Are they poets, screenwriters, prose writers? But don’t be hemmed in by genre: explore! Be open-minded with your craft!
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LIsten to an episode of The Paris Review podcast
There are many other avenues to build writing communities. Here are some I would recommend in Ireland:
- The Stinging Fly Summer School, which every summer hosts brilliant writers such as Danielle McLaughlin and Annemarie Ní Churreáin, who hold weeklong workshops both in Dublin and online.
- The Irish Writers’ Centre’s Finish Your Novel course, which begins annually in January for 10 weeks and held online.
- Set up your own! If you have a group of friends interested in writing, get them together in a coffee shop or over email and begin talking about each of your works. Take it seriously and offer kind feedback.
Digital world at your fingertips
In my experience, writers are open and welcome to supporting new up-and-coming writers. There is a huge culture of ‘Paying it Forward’ in Irish writing circles. This is a brilliant position to be in for new writers emerging in an increasingly difficult publishing market. By this stage of your writing career, you should explore the types of writers you enjoy reading, the genres, and the editors who publish in this area. Follow them on social media! Connect with other writers online, by following their Substacks, Instagrams and any other social media accounts they may have. Try Bluesky, where a lot of publishing and writers have moved to from Twitter. However, be mindful that writers are under a lot of pressure in the digital world, with many protecting their privacy. Engage respectfully, as you would a work colleague.
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Listen to The New Yorker: Fiction podcast
I would also recommend engaging with culture around writing, such as book criticism in the media, podcasts, literary journals. We are incredibly fortunate in Ireland to have a wealth of brilliant literary journals that support new talent. Check out Banshee, Stinging Fly, The Dublin Review, and Tolka, to name but a handful! Beyond journals, I listen to podcasts and read writer interviews for solace. To hear and read other writers on their own writing practice is a tonic. I would recommend: Paris Review Interviews, The New Yorker's Fiction or Poetry podcasts, or the Stinging Fly podcast.
