Having given myself an early retirement, my private practise counselling cabin was transformed into my writing cave. It is heated in winter and cool in summer. All my needs, particularly coffee, are to hand. So a few steps away from the house where I can leave behind ironing, cleaning, etc. has become my creative hive. It's a 'she-shed' and rare visitors get to step inside, even OH (other half).
It has taken two years to complete the 98,000 words. The sense of achievement and self-satisfaction in that alone is a great feeling. It has been read by OH, a dear friend and now out to someone I don't know who worked in education. Constructive criticism, notable mistakes or obvious boobs that are not always noticed by the writer is always welcome. Having read it through several times I was beginning to loose heart but my beta readers, book loving friends and Twitter pals keep me going.
I sent it to a publisher that I admired, had followed for three years on social media and felt excited about it leaving my computer. Alas, I had my first rejection, with no feedback, no reason and no answers to my enquiring questions afterwards. I was gutted, but nevertheless determined not to have that stop me now. I have got this far and it is not going to be consigned to a drawer! Besides which I have a sequel and a third book going on in my head. Am I mad? I ask myself.
I have always been told I am good at writing - people loved receiving letters from me (in the days before emails!!) and I had self-published a children's book 30+ years ago. More recently, well in the last decade, I have had articles published in professional and commercial magazines that have encouraged me to keep hopeful of living the dream - of one day having a paperback book in my hand with my name on it.
Having that first rejection actually made me add three more chapters at the beginning of the novel, change the title and use a pseudonym. So if this second publisher takes me on my own name will not be on the cover! How dreams can change in the reality of the world.
To keep me going in the latter stages of writing I made a short video with Photo Story 3 for Windows. It contains a few pictures like the one above that I would like as a cover for my book (it will probably be something very different), some photos of people and places along my journey that have inspired me, and some uplifting music to play as I watch the 2 or 3 minutes of pictures playing on my laptop screen.
I also downloaded Natural Reader to have my words read back to me. I could 'hear' mistakes that I otherwise I missed when reading. It was very useful. It can be set to any language, gender of voice, pace of voice etc. and can be paused and saved at any stage.
I share these two ideas to any other budding writer. I learnt many lessons along the way - I changed from third person to first person half way through so that was a nightmare to correct the first 50,000 words! I plotted the theme from the beginning using a pin board and an A3 sheet of paper. I cut out of magazines people who I could look at and picture as my characters and they became very 'real' in my head and 'came alive' in the written word. They took on a life of their own and I was surprised at where my writing went from time to time. The middle chapters were not planned but developed.
My second choice of publisher wanted a covering letter and synopsis as well as the whole novel (I appreciate publishers taking the whole novel rather than the first three chapters) but found that the letter and synopsis where quite hard to 'get right'. In the end, as with the novel writing, I got to the stage of "well that's the best I can do for now," and pressed the send button.
I am now about to start typing the sequel from notes I have been making in preparation. Further progress can be followed on Sue Flint, Author page of Facebook and @tweetsue13 on Twitter. Any encouragement is welcome in the comments box below or on social media. Thank you for reading this blog.
Hitchin Town
