How to write a novel on holiday

Follow these 10 steps to the letter and you'll have your novel written faster than you can say "passport control":

Seriously. When it comes to writing, distraction is not your ally. Pick a country cottage or villa with absolutely no tempting local sights or bright lights in proximity.

If possible, don’t even take a car to best limit your escape options. 

Boring doesn’t have to mean horrible. Rural scenes can inspire, stirring your writerly senses.

On breaks, a country stroll or sleepy village circuit is preferable to laps of housing estates.

This is crucial. The two chief criteria are comfort—a healthy chair and desk set-up for your back—and visual encouragement.

A lovely, light-filled view can make words flow more easily.

You’ll likely need the internet for fact-checking, or even musical purposes. But consider putting a strict boundary around it: five minutes surfing per hour, say, or mealtime-only usage. 

And whatever you do—please—don’t check your email.

Oceans of time can be problematic. As Doctor Who radio scribe William Gallagher sagely says, “When you think you have the whole day, you probably won’t do anything.”

The trick is to be disciplined and to schedule. When will you start? What time is lunch? How long for breaks?

It’s so tempting to just plough straight in, make a start, get going. So tempting, but so unwise. A much better idea is to first plan out your novel.

Premises are great, but how will the plot resolve itself? Decide on tone, style of narration, chapter set-up and your characters’ backstory.

Regular breaks will benefit your work. It’s so easy to procrastinate though, to fix a tenth cup of tea and avoid facing that tricky next chapter.

Author Chris Guillebeau recommends motivational break-taking: “Tie your fun to your goals. Provide a reward at the end of the chapter.”

Sometimes it’ll flow, but sometimes it won’t. Every writer has been there: the nagging sense of producing utter bilge, or 10 minutes’ toiling over a five-word sentence.

Find a means of releasing these frustrations. The candidates include exercise, meditation or phoning a chum and simply voicing your woes.

Are you writing a novel or a novella? There’s no hard-and-fast rule, but the former typically have circa 70,000 words.

You’ll do well to achieve that in a one-week holiday, but you can certainly do the bulk. Able to spare a fortnight? Then consider your goal set.

Bad news: you’re probably not the next Ian McEwan. But that isn’t the point. Yes, you want your work to be brilliant; but the real accomplishment is in simply finishing it, and being able to say that you have. Focus on that.

Good luck!