Life Cycle of a Writer – Hopes and Fears

I have a post-it note on my laptop with a list of all the things I want to achieve with my writing career. I started making the list when I first began writing seriously, which would probably be when I joined the RNA New Writers’ Scheme.

The list initially started off small and, I won’t say simple because at the time, whatever was on the list was something I wanted to achieve and couldn’t be done without a considerable amount of effort on my part. The first thing was ‘Finish writing a whole novel’. Then it was ‘Meet NWS deadline’ and ‘Work on feedback’.

As my writing career progressed the list became more focused and this time last year I had added to it:-

‘Find an agent’

‘This book better than the last book’

‘Top 500 Amazon’ etc.

With my fourth HarperImpulse novel. The Girl Who Lied, I was fortunate enough to exceed my post-it note expectations. It became an Amazon UK #1 bestseller, a USA Today bestseller, sold over 200k e-copies and is going to paperback in November.  Wow! Some of these things may have been on my list, but I hadn’t in my wildest dreams thought they would be ticked off quite so quickly, if at all. I am, of course, eternally thankful to everyone who has been behind the book and the fantastic readers. It really has been mind-blowing.

So, although The Girl Who Lied is still going strong, in the meantime, I’ve had to work on my next contracted book, The Cuckoo. With a September deadline, it meant taking the laptop on holiday with me and spending most mornings hammering away at the keyboard. My husband has been super supportive and really helped with all the things that need doing, including keeping our 8-year-old daughter busy. Having said that, she did tell me that I wasn’t allowed to take the laptop on holiday with me again. Point taken.

I already had an idea for The Cuckoo so I found it relatively easy to get the words down, however, with the second book of my latest contract due in spring, I found myself in a bit of a creative black hole and the doubts started to creep in.

I convinced myself it was okay and I’d be able to come up with a thoroughly decent idea any time soon.  As each day drew to a close, I realized that I hadn’t moved any of the ideas forward.  Gradually, the mild panic began to settle and grow. What if I didn’t have any more ideas, full stop? What if that was it – no more ideas and no more books, yet I still had a contract to fulfill? I think I spent two days properly panicking.

I then gave myself a good talking to and made myself sit down and thrash out some plot ideas. Forcing myself to do it, rather than waiting for airy-fairy artistic inspiration to strike, I put together a brief synopsis and made some notes about the characters and how I saw things developing. It wasn’t perfect, but it was something tangible that I liked.  Fortunately, I met up with fellow Romaniac, Jan Brigden, at an event we both attended, and we started chatting about my book where I explained to Jan that although I liked what I had, I felt something was still missing.

 

It’s funny how someone on the outside can so easily put their finger on what might be missing. Jan patiently listening and chatted the plot over with me. She was able to pinpoint what was missing – the thing that would make it my own story, the sort of one I wanted to write and not the sort I thought I wanted to write.

Although I’m eager to get started on the new project, I’ve been thwarted by the first round of edits for The Cuckoo arriving yesterday. There’s a lot to take in and mull over, to discuss with my editor and agent to see how I can make it a much better story, so for now, I’ll have to put the next book on hold until these edits are sorted.

Not sure what I doodled during my phone conversation with my agent, but I did make some useful notes too!

Sue

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Life Cycle of a Writer – Creating Promo Posts

Ah, the dreaded word ‘promotion’. Love it or hate it, like any other business, writers have to do it. Not only do we have to promote our books, but we have to find interesting ways of doing so, ways that will catch the eye of someone scrolling through their social media timeline. But it’s not just the subtle ‘buy my book’ posts that have to be interesting, it’s good business sense to make our profile pictures, our Facebook banners and Twitter headers look appealing too. They need to say something about our books or us as they are our advertising board, either directly or indirectly.

We had a little chat about this at Romaniac HQ recently and the various different apps/software we use. We thought it might be handy to give a quick Romaniac Which Guide.

Canva used by Laura and Jan (www.canva.com)

Cost : Free unless using Canva’s paid for options.

Previous Knowledge : None – Easy to use.

Best thing about it : Is ideal for all types of social media, and can upload own images.

Any difficulties : I’ve found nothing difficult.

Overall : I can create smart, professional graphics in a matter of minutes.

 

Photogrid used by Catherine on her iPad

Cost : It’s a free download.

Previous Knowledge : None – very easy to use.

Best Thing : You just add the photos you want to use and can then add backgrounds, text, icons etc.

Any difficulties : I haven’t found it difficult to use with practice it’s fairly easy to use.

 

Photoshop used by Sue  (www.photoshop.com)

Cost : £17 approx per month

Previous Knowledge : Would need some knowledge to do the basics. Tutorials can be found on YouTube.

Best Thing : You can size things accurately and layer/blend/merge different images.

Any difficulties : Using and understanding the terminology, especially when trying to Google a question.

Overall : Probably overkill for promo ads but if designing your own book covers, then would highly recommend.

Vanessa uses various different software packages in her day job, such as, Photoshop, Indesign and Quark. In the past, I’ve used PowerPoint but it’s very difficult to not only get the sizing right but the quality and sharpness too – these are often lost when they are uploaded.

I’m sure there are lots of other apps and software out there. It would be interesting to hear what everyone else uses.

Sue

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Life Cycle of a Writer Round Up

Our last round-up of what we have all been up to was before Christmas, so as another cycle of this feature comes around, it’s time for us to summarise the last few months.

Sue: My major event has got to be becoming agented, when I signed with Kate Nash of the Kate Nash Literary Agency. I’ve also completed and submitted book 4 to my editor, completed structural edits and am currently awaiting the next round of edits. I have a publication date of 21 April but as yet, we haven’t agreed on a title. Hopefully, I’ll be able to share that soon. 

Laura: I attended my first festival as a published author, leading a panel on ‘The Small Publisher as an Option.’ This was at the Purbeck Literary Festival on Valentine’s Day. On Thursday 25th February, along with Sue and Catherine, I visited Chichester Library chairing our Romaniac Life Cycle of a Writer talk, which was great fun. I love getting out there and connecting with readers and writers in person. I’ve been working on my presentation for the next festival, the Weymouth Leviathan Maritime Literary Festival, where I’ll be giving a talk on The Coastguard Versus Pulpit Rock. This will take place on Sunday March 13th. And my third novel, What Doesn’t Kill You was released at the end of November 2015, and is the first title to be released under Choc Lit’s new imprint, Dark Choc Lit.

Celia: My latest book, Moondancing, came out digitally in January with Tirgearr and I was thrilled to be included in a paperback anthology of short-listed stories for the Exeter Story Prize with ‘Naked in the Rain’. I’m currently battling with the synopsis and doing a final revision of my new, darker romance and thinking about having another attempt at rewriting a children’s novel.

Jan: I’m proud to have featured on several fellow writers’ blogs since Christmas, which has been lovely and has given me the chance to chat about all sorts of subjects; my background, blogging with The Romaniacs, how my Libran personality traits affect my writing and, of course, about my debut novel As Weekends Go. I’ve also been getting involved with lots of research for Book 2, some of which has been a real eye-opener!  My mojo as far as actually cracking on with the writing of Book 2 still seems to be playing hide and seek with me a little bit, but I’m sure as we go into March, I’ll rediscover it. 

Vanessa: My main writing acheivement so far in 2016 is to have completed a major re-write of my work-in-progress! It’s now gone over to my lovely agent and I’m back to obsessively checking my email in-box as I wait for feedback! I have this week bought a new notebook so I’m now officially ready to start thinking about a new book and I’ve been enjoying writing some flash fiction and short stories.

Catherine: I absolutely CAN’T believe my debut novel is out next Thursday. I’ve been busy finishing the first draft of my second book and prepping for the launch of Waiting for You. It’s been a somewhat crazy period of time, but then that’s pretty standard these days.

 

Roving Romaniacs – Life Cycle of a Writer goes to Chichester

The Life Cycle of A Writer has been a popular feature here on the blog for over a year now where we all take it in turns to update what’s been going on in our writerly worlds. Last week saw the first live date, when The Life Cycle of a Writer went to Chichester library. It went really well and we are hoping to book some further dates at other libraries along the south coast. Here are a few photos and words from Catherine, Laura and Sue to sum up the evening.

Sue: It was a great evening and although I was nervous to start with, once we got chatting I felt much more relaxed. It was good to see some familiar faces in the audience and we received some really positive feedback. Thank you to Chichester Library who were fantastic hosts.

Laura: I agree with Sue. It was a great evening. The audience was attentive and engaged and asked interesting questions, the library was a superb venue with lovely staff, and going on tour with Sue and Catherine was fun. I was chairing the panel, although that involved little input from me as the discussion flowed naturally and all three Romaniacs kept the conversation moving forward. I was in my element. I was ‘on stage’, and chatting about writing and books. I’m very much looking forward to taking the talk to more venues, and would love to return to Chichester library. So pleased we were able to encourage and help new writers.

Catherine: I’m the one that talks with my hands. As I waved through my parts of our talk, it was great to have an audience to engage with (us writers normally have to chat to ourselves) and the Q&A session provided some excellent questions. Thanks to everyone who joined us and hopefully they’ll be another one soon. 

Life Cycle of a Writer – Exciting News!

Last year we started the Life Cycle of A Writer feature where we take it in turns to blog about our writing journey and share the highs and lows, give and receive encouragement and generally chat about how things are going. This has proved a very popular feature and we are delighted to announce that we now have our first live gig!

Laura, Catherine and Sue are taking The Life Cycle of a Writer to Chichester Library next month where they will talk about their paths to publication, what has happened since signing their contracts and also what inspires their novels.

If anyone is in the Chichester area and fancies coming along for a chat, Laura, Catherine and Sue would love to see you.

We are hoping to take The Life Cycle of a Writer to other parts of the country and will keep you posted with any future dates.

Life Cycle of a Writer – Sue Fortin

The past few months have been particularly busy for me, both writing wise and home wise. Sometimes it’s hard not to get bogged down by it all and feel under pressure from all directions, however, I’ve taken comfort and strength from all the positive things that have also happened in my writing world.

My novella The French Retreat has been out for just over a month and, I’m pleased to say, is holding its own amongst my other titles. The sales have been steady, although the reviews have been slow. The reviews I’ve had have been positive so no complaint there, even if one of them, on the face of it looks poor. However, once you read the additional comment, the reviewer makes it clear they got muddled up with another book and I appreciate they’ve made the effort to point this out.

Another positive was meeting up with my lovely Romaniac pals at last week’s RNA Winter Party in London. Not only that and the wonderful company of all the other members of the RNA but we won the Media award! Click HERE for our post on this.

More positive news, in that we are taking the Life Cycle of a Writer blog feature on tour, having secured our first booking with Chichester library in the new year. More news on that with our Sparkle Round-Up next week.

Carrying on the positive theme, I’ve started my next novella, The French Affair, which I’m hoping to publish by the end of February. The cover is coming together nicely and hopefully I’ll be able to share that in the not too distant future. Also, my full-length novel which has been out on submission has had some encouraging interest and I’m hoping to have news on that very soon.

And lastly, next weekend I shall  be meeting up with The Romaniac gang again as we have our Christmas Sparkle Weekend in Shropshire!

So, I’m ending my first year of Life Cycle of a Writer posts with a positive, which I hope to continue on into 2016.

Sue

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Life Cycle of a Writer – Sue Fortin

Since my last Life Cycle of a Writer post where I talked about how I plot my novels with Post-It Notes (click HERE for link), and how I was aiming to finish the first draft of my WIP, I’m delighted to say that I typed THE END! Yay! That novel had been put to one side for quite some time while I worked on other projects, so having finally completed it and sent it out, I’m now waiting for feedback.

In an effort to stop myself constantly refreshing my inbox for any news, I’ve been keeping myself busy by writing a novella. It’s a romance with a mystery set in France called The French Effect, which I’m aiming to publish around the end of October.

Breton flag

As a family, we have a great love for France and have a second home in Southern Brittany. I’ve wanted to use the location for a long time and finally had time to work on this project. I’ve enjoyed writing The French Effect so much, I plan to do a few more novellas based in the different areas of France we’ve visited over the years.

I’m self-publishing this time, under the Romaniac Press banner, and the list of things to do has been a bit longer than usual, including:-

Cover design

Formatting for Kindle and Smashwords

Uploading to Amazon

Arranging paperbacks

Of course, there’s still the usual editing, revising and proofreading to add to the list, together with organising the promo and reviews but I’ve enjoyed the whole process. It’s certainly kept me busy. I look forward to sharing the cover and blurb very soon but, in the meantime, will leave you with a picture of our cottage in France. The door and windows are usually a lovely deep Breton red but they are currently in the middle of a facelift.

À bientôt!

Sue

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Life Cycle of A Writer : Plotting with Post It Notes

Hello, it’s Sue’s turn on Life Cycle of A Writer, today she’s vlogging about how she plots with Post It notes.

 

 

 

Life Cycle of a Writer : Editorial Revisions

Hello!

Today I’m vlogging about receiving revision notes from my editor, Charlotte Ledger at HarperImpulse. If you have three and a half minutes to spare, please do take a look.

 

 

 

Sue

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Life Cycle of a Writer – Jan Brigden

My little update …

I’m excited to say that I’ve started submitting my first novel ‘As Weekends Go …’ to literary agents.

At last!

“Sound the *cheer & fear in equal measures* klaxon!”

It’s a multi POV tale – three interwoven stories – about two couples and the emotional havoc created during and beyond their eventful weekend clash of agendas, involving a ‘girls only’ trip to York, a Brighton sales conference and a Spanish stag do.

 

 

 

It took me ages to write, mainly due to my endless tweaking and re-tweaking, so I’m relieved and very proud to have reached this point. I just hope that someone believes in it as much as I do. I’ve had seven rejections so far, but all really nice ones, with some very positive and encouraging feedback.

I’m under no illusions about how hard it is to acquire agent representation, and would never rule out self-publishing, I simply want to try the traditional route first.

So … in the meantime, I’ve been studying publishers and writing competitions, and penning Book 2 – a standalone sequel to ‘As Weekends Go …’ which has involved plenty of eye-opening research. I’ve also been indulging and expanding my other literary passion – freelance proofreading.

I’m sure I’m not the only Romaniac who will express how invaluable the love, support and cheerleading from family and friends is. During the past five years (and then some …) my lovely husband Dave can certainly add to his CV: chief cuddler, co-editor, sounding board, morale booster, tantrum-dodger, counsellor extraordinaire … I could go on.

Believe me, every nugget of advice, encouragement and reassurance from everyone –  writerly or otherwise – has been very much appreciated.

Thank you.

Wish me luck, dear friends …

 

 Jan  x