Liane Moriarty’s 3 tips for writers

Our top-rating podcast So you want to be a writer features a regular ‘Writer in Residence’ segment – where an author, editor or other industry professional has a chat with either one of our awesome presenters, Allison Tait and Valerie Khoo.

In episode 25, Allison spoke to Liane Moriarty, whose fifth novel, The Husband’s Secret, sold more than one million copies in the US and was a number one bestseller in the UK; named as one of the top 10 books of the year in 2013 by People magazine.

Liane shared her three tip tops for writers:

Number 1: Trick yourself
“I think writing your first novel is like being on a diet. That’s why programs like Weight Watchers are so successful, you’ve got to have something that keeps you going. Anybody can write their first chapter, but it’s a really long task to finish it. Either join a writers’ group or get a friend to become a writing partner, set up a contract with somebody, say, ‘I promise I’ll get you a chapter by such and such a date.’ That sort of thing. You’ve got to trick yourself into writing the first novel.”

Number 2: Focus on the writing
“Just focus on the writing. Don’t focus too much on the world of writing. Don’t focus on all the little rules and whether it should be double-spaced or single-spaced or all of that sort of thing — none of that actually matters, it’s the writing.

“I find it interesting how often writers, aspiring writers, are not actually writing. They’re spending a lot of time just going to events and reading websites about that sort of thing. First of all you’ve got to write your book.”

Number 3: Dealing with reviews
“The third tip would be once you have your book written don’t read your reviews.”

In 2014, Liane published her sixth novel, Big Little Lies. You can find the full podcast or read the transcript over on our podcasts page.