Setting Out

Block one of my Open University course - Start Writing Fiction - gives a few tips on what to do before you start writing.

• Make sure you know enough about the characters, setting, and plot. I've mentioned this is my post about planning; the first time I tried to write a novel, I failed miserably because I hadn't planned enough. I advise having an idea of what happens in every single chapter before you even think about writing. Of course, some people work just as well beginning with no plan at all, but if you're new to this (I'm hardly an expert) then I'd recommend some serious planning.
• If the story stems from one image, unpack it slowly. Sometimes ideas come from nowhere almost fully formed, but I often imagine a single image or scene, which is my starting point. With Courage to Live, the image of a teenage girl and a girl of about five meeting in a hospital was what I based everything on when, in the end, I didn't use that scene. The main thing was to figure out who these characters were, why they were linked, and how they ended up in the hospital.
• Know how long the story will be. You don't have to decide that your story will be 80,000 words before you start, of course. It is, however, a good idea to know whether you want to write a short story, a novella, a novel, a trilogy, etc. I usually define a short story as less than 7,500 words, a novella as 7,500-50,000 words, and a novel as over 50,000. I've been told that a debut novel should not exceed 100,000 words, but it does depend on the genre. 

The course asks you to think about where you write best (a room in your house, the library, a cafe?)  and when (in the morning, during a free twenty minutes, or at night?). A small section of the first block focuses on the importance of names, which I'll write another blog post about.