Holly Smale is the best-selling author of Geek Girl and The Valentines… so she knows a thing or two about how to write a good book. She took some time to share her top tips for how you can brush up on your novel writing skills. Here’s some inspiration for producing your own masterpiece in honour of World Book Day!
If you’ve always fancied trying your hand at writing but had no idea where to start, don’t worry, Holly has broken it down for you. Check out her advice below - it could take your writing to exciting places in 2026!
Hi guys, this is the author Holly Smale and I'm here to share 7 tips on how to get you moving on your very first story.
Tip 1: It's really important to remember that your story is going to be unique, because you are unique. I think that's really, really important to remember, before you even start writing. It's a good thing that you're different to everybody else. Take all your uniqueness and all your differences and pour them into that story, 'cause that's what's going to make it completely special and unlike any other story on the planet.
Tip 2: Making decisions is the biggest part of storytelling. 'What kind of story do we want to write?' is actually one of the biggest decisions. Are we going to write a funny book? Are we going to write a crime or a thriller or an adventure? Think really carefully about the books that you really love and the kind of books that you would enjoy writing, because that's the first decisions you're going to make when it comes to writing a story.
The second really big decision that I want you to make is 'when is this book going to be set?’ Is it going to set in the past or in the present or in the future? And that's only 3 options but it actually covers everything. And once you've worked out when the story is set, then you're going want to start thinking about ‘what does the world look like at that point?’ Now, if a point in history, then you can obviously do research. You can read books. You can go to, you know, the internet and find out what it looked like - look up images - so that you've got it in your head what this world looked like. If it's now, then you know, you could try and look around you. If it's in the future, then you know, the world is your oyster - basically you can do whatever you want. And once you've got that world, you're going want to start putting people in it and that can be one of the really, really fun bits. So, think about how many protagonists do you want? How many heroes or heroines do you want - one, two, three? Start to create characters that feel real to you and exciting and interesting and that you want to write about. And another really big decision that you really want to make is ‘how are you going to tell this story?’ And it sounds really simple, but maybe you might want to do it in diary form. Maybe it might be an illustrated book. Maybe you might want to tell it in first person or, you know, second person. You might want to tell it from the perspective of a dog. There are so many different options for telling a story but it's a really good chance at the beginning, before you start writing a story, to work out 'how do you want to get the story across your reader?'
Tip 3: When you're writing a story it's really important to be as selfish as you can be and that might sound really weird, but basically this is your story. So you should be putting into it everything that you love, everything you're interested, all of your passions, anything that excites you - don't worry if it doesn't excite other people. The main thing is that if it interests you and excites you, first of all it's going to keep your imagination going, it's going to fuel you with ideas. It's also going to keep you going if it takes longer than, you know, you might otherwise think, 'cause books can take months, years to write. So, if you choose things that you love, that makes it so much easier to stick to. For me, I love elephants. So I put two or three chapters of elephant in one of my books, just 'cause I really wanted to write and elephant.
Tip 4: Really quick tip. If you get to a point in your book and you’re writing it and you get stuck and you realise it's because you're bored, as in you're bored of your own story - changed it. Just switch it up, do something that you'll really, that you think is free fun and exciting because that is often the best way to push yourself out of writers block.
Tip 5: Using your own life to inspire you is a really great jumping off point for books. I think it's really, really, really exciting to go through your own life and use your own memories to inspire and motivate your stories. For me, when I was 15, I was spotted by a modelling agency and that became the inspiration for Geek Girl. Um, so it can be something quite big, but it can also be something quite small. What's really great is to go back into your memories and to use your emotions. But, if your character is really angry, then go for your memories and try and find a time in the past when you were furious. Try and use the emotions that you actually felt to work out how your character would react and what they would say and how they would feel, so that you can express that in your story.
Tips 6: So once you've gone through your memories and the life around you and picked out things that you find really interesting, start asking the question 'What if?’ Because once you ask that question, what you're doing is pushing your memories from fact into fiction and you can make the world as exciting as you want to. So you can say 'What if something else happened? What if I had felt differently? What if I had made a different decision or just chosen a different path?' And by asking 'What if?' You're opening the world up and your story up into something that's completely imagination and that's a really,really fun part of creating a story.
Tip 7: Now that you've got all of these kind of building blocks it's a really great idea to get a big piece of paper and just jot all of these things you're interested in, excited in, passionate about, emotions, all of these things onto a piece of paper. And you'll find that as they grow and as you start developing, things will start to link together. You think 'Ah, OK. That could go with that and that would make a really interesting character, or that could go with this and it would be a brilliant scene. And maybe that scene could join to this scene'. And you'll find that it starts to grow and once you've got that piece of paper go back and do it all again. So carry on asking 'What if?’ Carry on using your emotional memories. Carry on thinking about things that you've experienced and keep building the story out and out and out, until you've basically got this map that you can turn into a full, full story.
So hopefully that has given you at least a little bit of inspiration or motivation to get writing, because writing stories is one of the most enjoyable things that you could possibly do. And you can do it, I promise you. And the most important thing is have fun. Just enjoy it. Explore your own individuality and create a story that's as unique and special as you are.
What else could I do? What else could I do?
I literally don't know what I'm doing.
Here is a summary of what Holly says:
Holly's 7 top tips to write a novel
1. Telling a unique story
Every story is unique, because you are unique. No other person on the planet is going to combine the same thoughts and the same passions in the same way as you, so the best thing you can do is lean in to who you are. Enjoy being a complete original, because the less you worry about other people, the better your writing is going to be.
2. Making decisions
Writing a story is like living a life: it’s just a series of decisions that you make. Some of them are massive and change the entire plot, and some of them are small and just alter a tiny detail. Some of them seem small but actually turn out to have HUGE impact. So you can treat a book in the same way. Break it down into a series of decisions that you control.
3. Choosing what you love
If you want to stick at a story for days, months, even years, you have to be selfish. What this means is – choose things that make you happy. It doesn’t matter what they are. If you like comedy, write books that contain jokes. If horror is more your thing, stick a vampire in your book! It’s your novel, and the most powerful thing you can do is be as selfish as possible – include the things you love most, and you will find that it becomes a project of love – one that you enjoy and can keep going with.
4. Switch it up
If you get to a point in your story where you find that you get stuck, and you realise that it's because you are bored of your own story… change it! Do something that is really fun and exciting and takes the story in a different direction. That's often the best way to push yourself out of a writer's block.
5. Use your own life to inspire
You don’t have to write an autobiography, but every writer takes inspiration from their own life and changes it, fictionalises it, uses it as a spring board to take them somewhere else. So look at your own life and think about things that may have happened. It can be massive – a whole plot idea – or it can be tiny; the way someone walks or does their hair. Don’t be frightened to change it or combine it – that’s what fiction is – but your own life is always a great starting point for fiction.
No matter what it is you’re writing, no matter how crazy it seems or how unreal, one thing remains true for all writing: you will need to harness your own real emotions to write it. Tap into memories of when you felt that emotion, and use it to write your characters. It’s the best way to make your book feel true, even though it isn’t.
6. Asking 'what if?'
Once you’ve searched your own life, it’s a great idea to ask ‘what if….?’ so take something that happened, and then push it a bit further – what would have happened if… it can be tiny or huge, just let your imagination take a step away from reality and then, let it take another step… and another step. Your story can go wherever you want it to, there are no limits!
7. Building a map
Once you’ve got all these ideas and decisions made, write them all down on a big piece of paper – or a wall – and stare at them for a while. They’re going to start doing a magical thing – they’ll start expanding, making new ideas, linking together. Maybe one scene leads to another scene, maybe one character matches with another. Just let your imagination have as much fun as possible!
By using Holly's tips and a few good ideas of your own, before you know it, you’ll end up with a story as unique, fun and real as you are.
This article was last updated on 25 February 2026.
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