Author Carol Birch shares some of the secrets of her craft

Get some space
Distance from everyday life is a good thing for writers. We all have so many distractions in our lives, it's important to take the opportunity to leave all that behind and just concentrate on writing.

Make your own rules
I tutor authors on a writing retreat, but none of the techniques I teach are set in stone. What an author does is entirely up to them - in many ways, authorship is a very solitary, peculiar profession. 

Think 3D
The most common problem budding authors tend to face is concerned with plot.  Generally writers know what they want to do but not how to structure the story. I encourage people to think of their story not just as a linear narrative but as a 3D object to be explored from many different angles. Structure is crucially important, even in loose stream of consciousness narratives. I also often find that new writers use too many adjectives and need to work on honing their writing more.

Bring a notebook
I never go anywhere without my notebook - even if you're experiencing terrible writers' block, you can always spend some time noting down ideas, little character sketches, and snatches of dialogue.

Step back
I'm quite self-disciplined and if you write for a living you don't always have the luxury of being able to just stop whenever you like. Having said that, you can't force it if it's not ready to be written. Sometimes, your ideas just need time to brew, like a good cup of tea!

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