On this week’s Write Smarter Blog, I am delighted to introduce you all to my guest Alex Dunne. Alex has been a published author for nearly four years but has been writing for much longer than that and, according to Alex herself, ‘in my time I’ve made a truly impressive number of mistakes‘.
Alex’s first children’s novel, The Book of Secrets won the Eilís Dillon Award for a First Book at the 2023 KPMG Children’s Book Ireland Awards and was also nominated for the 2023 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing. Her most recent book for young people, Small Magics, was published in March 2026 by The O’Brien Press.
When she is not dreaming up fantastical tales and drinking far too much tea, you will find Alex on Instagram @alexdunnewrites or on her website https://www.alexdunnewrites.com/
The biggest lessons I’ve learned so far:
1. Develop a filing system before your laptop and/or notebooks become a crime scene
Early on, I treated the documents folder on my laptop as a chaotic dumping ground for all of my various story drafts with little regard for the fact that I may want to actually find some of these stories again one day. Files were named things like “draft_final2” or “storyUSETHISONE.docx” and with everything thrown into one folder, my sense of organisation was nonexistent.
This wasn’t necessarily a problem when I was starting out and didn’t have all that many stories or novel drafts written down, but as time went on my laissez-faire approach to filing became a form of psychological warfare. I tell you, there’s nothing quite as frustrating as knowing you’ve written a brilliant paragraph or a perfect sentence and being completely unable to find it again.
So I beg you, save yourself. Come up with a naming system that makes sense to Future You, not Present You (who is, frankly, overconfident and short-sighted). Folders, dates, version numbers…whatever works for you. Just be sure to pick a system and stick with it. Think of it as an act of kindness to your later self, who will otherwise spend hours crying and rage-searching through endless documents simply called “Chapter 14” (true story – I have one novel draft with no less than six documents called “Chapter 14”, none of which are dated).
2. Don’t write for an audience (at least not at the start)
For years, I wrote entirely for myself. No expectations, no pressure and no imaginary readers peering over my shoulder. And honestly? It was fun. Then my first book, The Book of Secrets, was published, and suddenly I had what I had always thought I wanted: an audience. Unfortunately, I also acquired a new and exciting habit of second-guessing every sentence I wrote.
I started thinking about what people would expect of me and (mostly) what things they would find to criticise. Thinking this way completely stalled me and I soon lost all joy in writing.
This is the part where I say something cliché like: the first draft is just you telling yourself the story. And the thing is, while it is a cliché, and also true. You can’t shape something until it exists, and it won’t exist if you’re paralysed by trying to please an imaginary room of people.
So write the messy version first. The version that’s filled with mistakes and plotholes and large chunks of text that simply says FILL IN DETAILS LATER. No one will ever have to see this draft if you don’t want them to and it’s in this early, messy version where you find the real heart of your story. You can invite the audience in later once there’s actually something to show them.
3. Don’t stop (even when you’re convinced you’re terrible)
From the ages of 19 to 24, I more or less stopped writing altogether. I had decided, with great authority, that I wasn’t very good and probably never would be so why bother trying?
This was, in hindsight, really silly of me. Writing was something I found such joy and freedom in but I allowed myself to give up on something I loved because I wasn’t perfect at it.
Thankfully, I found my way back to writing in my mid-twenties when I decided that I missed daydreaming up other worlds enough to put pen to paper again. And wouldn’t you know, once I started writing again, I improved! It turns out that practice works. I know. Shocking.
If you take anything from this, let it be that stopping entirely is the only guaranteed way not to improve. Everything else, every bad draft, every awkward sentence, every abandoned idea, all of it is progress. Keep going.
4. Rules are helpful (until they’re not)
At some point, you will encounter The Rules™: “No adverbs,” “show, don’t tell,” “never start a sentence with a conjunction” (which is one I break ALL THE TIME)… the list goes on.
As my friend Gráinne said in her piece, you should absolutely learn from the greats. Read widely, pay attention, and notice what works (and what doesn’t). But the rules are there to guide you, not to trap you. Take what serves your writing and quietly ignore the rest. Otherwise, you’ll spend more time worrying about whether you’re “allowed” to do something than actually doing it, which, trust me, is not conducive to finishing anything.
5. Not every idea is meant to become something
This was a painful lesson to learn. For the longest time, I used to think every idea I had needed to turn into a story, and if it didn’t, that was a failure. Thankfully, I’ve since learned that abandoning something doesn’t mean you’ve wasted time. You’ve still written something and you’ve practiced your craft. Which leads me nicely onto…
6. Don’t throw anything away!
I’ve spoken before about how my newest children’s novel, Small Magics, originally started out as a completely different book for adults which I let fester on my laptop for over a decade. The original idea didn’t work for many reasons, but the kernel of the story still had potential and from that, I was able to rebuild it from scratch into something I’m enormously proud of. So even if you think you’ve “failed”, don’t delete your work! File it away (appropriately – refer back to my first lesson) because you never know when a character, a setting, or even a sentence can be recycled into something better further down the line.
***
I still make lots of mistakes in my writing journey and likely always will. But hopefully you can learn from a few of my early ones and skip straight onto making some new and delightful mistakes of your own. And if there’s a theme running through this piece, it’s probably that writing is much less about talent than it is about persistence, tolerance for imperfection, and, for the love of God, learning to name your documents something sensible!
[ About Small Magics ]
‘Magic isn’t only found in old ancient forests or dusty old castles … it’s everywhere, all the time …’
Molly Flynn never had a place to call home until she was sent to live above a mysterious antique shop with Pat, Priya and their foster kids, Wren and Lorcan. Her new family are anything but ordinary, though, and Molly is soon swept into their world of small magics.
But things start to turn frightening: someone is attacking magical creatures. No one is safe …
Can Molly and her newfound family defeat the dark magic before it’s too late?
Another fab post! xx
Thanks so much Nicki. I’m delighted to hear that xx