A book's journey- from idea to launch

I find that writing a book is a mixture of delight and despair, depending on which part of the process I'm at when you ask me.

I find delight in the initial idea, which is greeted with a quiet bubbling excitement that grows as I begin to see it take shape in my head. The cast of characters emerge, warts and all, as if coming out of the mist and gradually taking shape. Showing me their true nature as I slowly learn more about them.

The dismay usually comes in about half or three quarters of the way through the book when I become convinced that it is terrible and should be consigned to the bin.  Thankfully it is usually soon after that when I begin to see the end and the delight creeps back. I get all excited about the story again because I can see how it is all going to come together.
 It is a real emotional rollercoaster.

Writers approach their books in different ways and I don't think there is a right or wrong way to write a book, there is just the way that works for you.  Some plan and some don't.
I don't really plan, at least not much. I prefer to see where the book takes me.
 I knew what I wanted to do with Don't Judge Me. I wanted to look at the way we all make judgements about people around us, our friends, our family, even people we meet in the street.
I wanted to look at how these judgements can affect the way we react to people. How even family or friends will underestimate each other, or have preconceived ideas about what someone is capable of - good or bad.
These ideas people have about us might be so different to the way we feel inside; who we feel we are or could be, given the chance. It is a 'whodunnit', but for a long time while I was writing it I could not decide exactly who had done it.   I kept changing my mind.
So the book took a bit longer than I had expected, that is when you need a patient publisher.  My thanks to Keith at Strident for believing in it, and me!

Once I did get to the end the next thing was to make sure I didn't give away too much too soon- that the suspense is kept up, and basically that the book works!  That is when you need a good editor who understands what you are trying to do and keeps a clear and calm head when you are losing the plot, figuratively as well as literally!
So, my thanks to Alison, whose voice is always smiling, as she is here, standing at the back of this photo!
 
I often need to do research for the books I write and I always enjoy that part of it. When I discover just how much I don't know about the subject I am writing about, that is when I start to ask people. I go out and about, and try to find experts. 

Members of the Fire Service checking up on me!

 
 I have to say at this point no one is responsible for the way I use the information they give me, because it is after all a work of fiction! And sometimes writers have to use a bit of creative licence in interpreting reality to make it fit the plot.
The hope is that if I do my job well enough most people- aside from the aforementioned experts - will not notice or realise where I have been economical with the facts.
  
Also I hope that where I have cut corners it is not something that will misinform my young readers in any to any great extent.
 I feel there is a responsibility to give them a reasonably accurate view of the world, but most of all I hope to give them a great story that they will not want to put down, one that they will want to read, and tell their friends about.

The book is finally ready and the cover design has to be finalised.  Despite the fact that I have had some great book covers over the years, I still get nervous until I see the finished version.

With Don't Judge Me I loved the cover images the designer came up with and then it was only the choice between two or three that were similar but had slight differences.
 I was absolutely delighted with the finished cover. It is really dramatic!

The lovely thing about having a book launch is that you can have a party and CAKE and you can share the excitement of launching a new book into the world with friends and readers.
 I was especially delighted that we had so many young readers at the book launch from library and school reading groups, along with their teachers and librarians. Some had travelled quite a distance to be there.  These are the readers the book was written for and hopefully they will find something in it to interest, intrigue and engage them.



 Thank you to all the lovely readers, writers, teachers, librarians, members of the fire Service, also family, friends and neighbours, who came along to share this great evening with me - it would not have been as much fun without you!

The youngest person at the launch

Thanks also to Caroline and the great staff at Waterstones who helped to make sure everything went so smoothly.


Holding the finished book in my hand it always seems as if it is a familiar stranger.  The ideas that began this journey tossing about in the seas of my imagination have finally reached land and in doing so transformed themselves from intangibles to the physical, tactile thing that is a book.

Now you can hold it in your hand, turn the pages and read the words, hopefully turning it back into those intangible emotions and ideas.



Dip into the book and you will find out about Suzie, Jack, Jenna and Malky and the people in their lives.   But they would each ask of you - DON'T JUDGE ME!

From the casket of insecurity..... A writer.... or a fraud?

This morning I made my way across the grass to Tuscany (yes, I have been attempting to keep my New Year's Resolution). 

But in my head, I have been in a strange place today.





Recently, I have spent most of my working day writing, enjoying the start of a new book, fresh new characters.  Not entirely sure where it is going yet, but for me that is part of the experience and joy.  So, you may ask, what is the problem?

As I made my way across the grass ....
 
( OK, so this isn't actually me  it's Loki - my daughter's cat - on her way to visit Tuscany)

.......a thought occurred to me - well, to be honest a series of thoughts, none of them conducive to continuing with my WIP or in fact writing anything at all. 

'Was it any good? Why was I writing it? Would anyone in the entire world be interested in what I was writing?  What were the chances of anyone wanting to publish it and if not why was I bothering at all, should I be writing something else instead?

I'm not sure what exactly sparked off this miserable journey of thought but it continued with the inevitability of a train crash - one that you can see is about to happen and you can do nothing to stop.  So follow it I did, to its logical end....  

'Here I am about to spend the next few hours of my day pretending to the world that I am a WRITER - that I write things people want to read.  Perhaps that's not true and maybe I am a FRAUD!  Should I just stop kidding myself, pack up my things and go and look for a real job instead?'

Now I'm not usually inclined to moments of such blistering insecurity. Like lots of other writers I have times, in almost every book, when I feel like throwing it all away and giving up, but not usually at the beginning.  I had been looking forward to being able to spend time writing this story; it had been in my head for a while, so why -  now that I had time - was I being so negative about it?

 

I soldiered on and arrived (a few steps later- it's not a huge garden ) at the door and fumbling with the handle managed to avoid spilling my glass of water over my laptop as I went in.

In the winter I put the heater on for a while before I go in, so it was pleasantly comfortable inside, the chair and desk awaiting my presence.  

Once settled there the automaton-me opened the file ready to start.  

'Should I stick with it or give in to the whispers in my head?'

With a sudden determination to slam shut the casket of insecurity I scrolled down to where I had left the characters, in mid conversation (always easier to start up again that way), and found I was among friends.  I could hear their voices and they were telling me their story once more.  

I want to find out what happens next and although there are no guarantees, I am back on the road again.

So what did I learn today? 

1.       To ignore the whispers from the casket of insecurity, they are MEAN and deserve no audience. 
2.        I write - therefore I am a writer, not a fraud.. for now at least!

 

Questions about writing 1#

I often get queries sent through my website about areas of writing and sometimes the reply I send bounces.  I am never sure if this is because they are some kind of inventive spam or just one of these weird things that sometimes happen out there in the ether.

So, not wanting to upset anyone who has taken the time to write to me and not got a reply and also not being very technically adept, I thought it would be an interesting idea to write the occasional post on writing, sparked off by these questions.  I would welcome the thoughts of other writers, editors and agents out there - because when it comes to specifics about writing a lot of it is a huge grey area with all sorts of different points of view.
After all if it was that simple there would be a list of rules and anyone who followed them would be an instant success. 

So this week  - two quite different questions from Kirsty and Tasnim.

Q1- from Tasnim  -  who I assume doesn't live in the UK - and wants to write for children between the ages of 8-13 and asks what are the stipulated word limits in the UK

Tasnim - This is one of those questions that sounds like it should be very easy to answer but its not quite that simple.  Children who are in this age range might want to read very different books.  You may have a very competent reader who will be able to read long fairly complex storylines examples of this are Philp Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (Northern Lights(or known as The Golden Compass in the US), The Subtle Knife and The Anber Spyglass) or the Harry Potter series.

 

                 Other children may be put off by the thought of tackling something as long as those and be happier with much shorter books.
                 When I was reseaching for my book Writing for Children I spoke to a number of editors at some of the larger publishers and the consesus was that they were reluctant to suggest word length at all.  They said that books were more 'author led'.
                I think that what they mean is that it is the story, and the way the author tells it, will dictate the length that works for that particular story. As always the story must be as long or as short as it needs to be btu I know how confusing that can be if you are starting out.  I suppose it can also depend on whether you are writing for the top or lower end of that age group, and even then books vary so much.  You can have some that are as short as 15-20,000 words and others that are as long as 60,000+ words.
                  My advice would be write your book and see how long it is and then go to a good bookshop and look at books similar to the one you are writing. See the variations in length and which publishers are publishing that kind of story.  If it looks like your story is far too long you may want to have a second look and see if your story is really as well written as you can make it. It needs to interest the reader from start to finish, and make sure you haven't made it longer than it needs to be.  Don't waffle to make it longer. Kids hate that.

  
Q2- from Kirsty  - Who says she is good at writing stories but wanted to know how to make her writing more interesting.
Kirsty -  If you want to make your stories more interesting there are a few things you need to think about.   The beginning of your story should make the person reading it desperate to keep reading.  You know, the kind of story that makes you beg for a few more minutes before you have to turn off the light and go to sleep.
                 Start your story with something happening and don't have a long drawn out beginning.   Your characters could be running away from something, or having an argument or a fight.  If you begin with your main character being worried about something that's going to happen, or something that they have done; that can make you want to read on.  But don't tell everything at once. Give little clues so that the person reading it wants to discover what is wrong, or what it is they did.

                  When I am writing I like to think of it like a film running in my head as I write. If I can imagine it happening, and if I know my characters well enough, I get so wrapped up in the story that I don't want to stop until it is finished.
                   Sometimes when I start to write I don't know how the story will end but that doesn't matter too much.  Although I do like to stop after a bit and think about what the end of the story might be.  Even then I often don't quite know how I am going to get my characters to the end I have planned.
                   But for me, that is the fun of writing.
               

What they don't tell you- about being an author

I know there are so many people out there who dream of getting published but sometimes I think it might be a little like getting married.

All that time, money and effort that goes into planning the wedding day and it seems that a lot of young brides don't seem to think past the big day- to all the days weeks and years beyond that. They are more important than a single day, if it is going to last.

The reality is probably not exactly what anyone expects and there will be times when it lives up to and even exceeds expectations. But as our expectations are often the result of dreams, where everything is so perfect, perhaps it is not surprising that the reality is not always quite so perfect- sometimes better and sometimes not.

I am not saying that being a published author isn't wonderful at times and I wouldn't wish to be anything else, but no one tells you about all the other things.
Those things that don't really involve living in the wonderful world you created, populated by characters you have dreamed up, where you have some control.

Granted, your characters, if you have given them enough complexity to live and breathe like real people, will not always do exactly what you had planned. Sometimes they are horrible and they will act true to themselves - which is where the writer is not totally in control, but that can be quite exciting, too.



So what are these other things no one told you about?
Some of them are things like...

• answering requests to go and speak or present in schools
• working out how to cost these out and finalising details
• working out how to get to places where you have been invited to speak
• All the background paperwork associated with being self employed such as keeping accounts, tax etc.
• reading over contracts with publishers, agents etc etc Even if you have an agent you should never sign anything without reading it first and asking questions, everyone makes mistakes
• finding out about PLR (Public Lending Right) and ALCS
• joining societies and writing associations (These can a good idea for advice and so that you can keep in touch with the writing world)

And then you need to think about publicity. Do you have a website? Can you keep it up to date? What about a blog, facebook, Twitter? Some of the above are essential parts of the job and others are necessary for your sanity - because writing is basically a solitary task.

In the end all these things can keep you from that one thing you got into this to do - and that is WRITE!

At the moment I am trying to avoid getting my head about the complexity of the Google Settlement and whether to opt in or opt out. But I am concerned that this will be just another displacement activity....

If you are published I wonder what keeps you from writing? What did you not expect?

If you are not published is any of this even on your radar?