I\u2019ve always wanted to write a novel, but didn\u2019t do it until I was 44 when a friend bullied me into it. She told me to write a chapter a week and send it to her. Clocking in with her was a great incentive, although I realise a lot of authors like to write the whole thing before they let anyone see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About 30,000 words in, I panicked: I DON\u2019T KNOW HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL<\/a><\/em>, I thought (constantly) and \u2013 realising I needed help \u2013 I bought Harry Bingham\u2019s book: How to Write<\/em>. I read it cover to cover and quickly discovered I wasn\u2019t alone in any of my thoughts<\/a> \u2013 neither the negative ones (I CAN\u2019T do it) nor the positive (I CAN do it). As well as practical support, that book provided the emotional support I needed. I read it and went back to my novel, and \u2013 with steam coming out of my ears, and springs coming out of my head \u2013 I finished it. I commissioned a really useful editorial report via Jericho Writers<\/a>, and submitted it to a few agents. But ultimately I shelved it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A year later I wrote my second novel,\u00a0Spacehopper<\/em>, the one that\u2019s going to be published. I was in a better place to do it, because this time I had some tools in my belt before I started: the ones I didn\u2019t have until I was 30,000 words in the first time round: I\u2019d read\u00a0How to Write<\/em>, been to a JW\u00a0Getting Published Day<\/em>\u00a0and used the resources I found on the JW website.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n I learnt a lot from reading books about how to write. Not just Harry Bingham\u2019s book, but the famous On Writing<\/em>, by Stephen King, and other books like that. Reading about writing inspired me and made me believe I could do it; I needed that. Mind you, the feeling would wear off quickly, it wasn\u2019t long before I\u2019d start thinking I can\u2019t do this,<\/em> again. It was like a drug I had to keep topping up to get the same effect, so I kept reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reading novels also helped. I found I was reading more attentively now, really looking at what I loved best in novels, so I could more knowingly make an impact on readers through my own writing. I took out a month\u2019s membership at Jericho Writers as a birthday present to myself, it was a luxury I found hard to afford \u2013 it is<\/em> fantastic value, but I was skint \u2013 so I made the most of it: joined up when I knew I could make best use of the online videos. I immersed myself in the information, made notes, and soon felt like I had a bag full of stuff to help me get through the writing process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, at that stage, it did feel as though I was simply trying to get to the finish line, rather than enjoying the process. I\u2019m an impatient person, and novel-writing isn\u2019t ideal for the impatient. Now, I\u2019m getting there: learning to enjoy the process. With my new novel, Gabriel\u2019s Cat<\/em>, my agent asked for a synopsis early on, something I\u2019d never done until the book was finished. Being clearer about where the story was going has helped. I feel less frightened about what will happen next when I sit down to write. I have never enjoyed writing more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I learned a lot at a Jericho Writers Getting Published Day<\/em>. There were lots of really interesting and practical sessions during the day. I left with more inspiration, and was buzzing because I\u2019d spent a blissful succession of hours with people who could talk all day long about writing novels, without glazing over once!<\/p>\n\n\n\n It took me four months to write the first draft of Spacehopper<\/em> and I gave it to four friends to read in chunks. These were the same friends who read the novel I cut my teeth on the previous year, and this time was different. They didn\u2019t really have any criticism, just wanted me to get on with it, so they could find out what happened next. This boost to my ego was essential: much as I wanted honest<\/em> feedback, I think I would have crumbled, possibly stopped, if the feedback had been bad. I wanted them to be honest, but I wanted them to honestly love it<\/em>. Spacehopper<\/em> has a big twist; I didn\u2019t think of it until I was more than halfway through writing the novel, and as soon as I decided on the ending, I couldn\u2019t write fast enough. I wanted to hear what my readers felt about the ending. When I made them cry, I punched the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the first draft was done, I did the same as last time, and commissioned a full editorial report<\/a> through Jericho Writers, from the same editor as last time. It was a stretch on my finances, and I knew I would only be able to afford one round of feedback. The report I got back was worth every penny, not only in its practical suggestions, but because the editor said she was certain it was a novel that would be published. Hearing that from a professional, gave me the confidence to keep going, make a few adjustments and start to get ready to submit to agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think I would have enjoyed writing Spacehopper<\/em> more if I\u2019d planned out the story in more depth before starting, and followed more of the plot structures that make stories work. Not just because there is something nice about knowing where you\u2019re going with a story, from beginning to end \u2013 indeed I truly believe you can know too much about what\u2019s going to happen in the novel you\u2019re writing: things that you don\u2019t plan will be some of the best bits. But when you understand the plot structures that make stories work \u2013 even if you don\u2019t follow them strictly \u2013 you will surely have more confidence that your story is going to be better told. Understanding what makes stories work, makes us better storytellers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The editor who conducted a full editorial report, via Jericho Writers, suggested I make some changes. I\u2019ve looked back in my notebook and I see I made 39 changes to Spacehopper<\/em> based on her recommendations. It might sound like a lot, but the majority were fairly straightforward. Essentially the novel remained unchanged (in comparison, when I made changes to my previous novel, it was a huge task and I felt I had a different book by the time I\u2019d edited it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n I worked for a couple of weeks tweaking Spacehopper<\/em>, and after that, without the finances to put it through another round of editorial revision, I started getting ready to submit to agents. I didn\u2019t give it to anyone else to read at this stage. As I mentioned, patience is not my strength, and I had to get it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In September 2018, I put together my submission pack to agents. I trawled resources online and in books, to make sure my letter was just right and I used Jericho Writer\u2019s AgentMatch to look up agents that might like my type of novel. A problem for me was that my novel includes time travel, but it\u2019s not science fiction, or fantasy, it\u2019s about love and grief and what we would say to those we loved and lost, given the chance. But it\u2019s hard for people to see beyond the time travel element.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I put my synopsis together and finally decided that I needed to get a submission pack assessment done: I didn\u2019t want to mess up my first impression with agents before I\u2019d left the starting blocks. Again I commissioned this via JW, and after that I began submitting with confidence that my submission pack, at least, was as good as it could be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d read enough to know I needed to brace myself for rejection. It was a rite of passage, everyone said so, and even if I was to get an agent one day, I knew I would have to taste rejection first. But knowing you\u2019ll get your heart broken, doesn\u2019t make it any easier when it happens. The first time I saw the name of an agent in my email inbox, I held my breath. I was at work, and I stopped everything: the email wouldn\u2019t open. I trotted to another part of the college trying to get a connection, all the time thinking what if they want me??<\/em> When the email opened and I saw it was a rejection, I realised I wasn\u2019t really prepared for the disappointment; the way it stuck in my throat and made it hard to swallow, the way I teared up because this email had been the difference between my dreams coming true and my dreams basically, not<\/em> coming true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then I got another rejection<\/a>, and another, and another, each one feeling like a shovel full of dirt being thrown over me, until I felt buried. Fourteen rejections between October and Christmas brought me to an all-time low, which I managed to hide from most family and friends. I remember thinking that if I couldn\u2019t write, then I couldn\u2019t do anything I really wanted to do. Plus I\u2019d made the mistake of telling everyone that I was submitting to agents. One of my friends who\u2019d read my book and loved it said he would help me self-publish, and I said I\u2019d think about it. But first I needed to get myself into a better place. I\u2019m usually a happy person and I was so down. I needed to get back up. Over Christmas and January 2019, when I\u2019d put Spacehopper<\/em> in a drawer and locked it, I convinced myself that I\u2019d been happy before I wrote this novel, and therefore I could be happy again. Eventually I started to come to terms with the idea of not getting published, even though I still believed so strongly in this novel that I\u2019d locked away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then a little bit of fate stepped in. Last year \u2013 before I started submitting to agents \u2013 my ex-husband\u2019s fianc\u00e9 asked in passing if she could read my novel, and after some deliberation, I agreed. Then in February this year, I got a message from her saying I just read a book that makes me feel a bit like your book did.<\/em> That\u2019s nice, I thought. The next day I happened to be in Waterstone\u2019s and picked that book up, wondered if the agent was mentioned in credits. She was. Maybe \u2013 I thought \u2013 maybe I\u2019ll try just one more agent<\/em> \u2013 Judith Murray, at Greene and Heaton. And I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I submitted my letter, synopsis and manuscript to her in the middle of February. When I got an email saying that Judith was loving Spacehopper <\/em>and could I send the rest of the manuscript, I wasn\u2019t prepared: by now I was only prepared for rejection. I sent the manuscript, and held my breath for three days. She rang me, and on March the 1st<\/sup> I found myself meeting Judith in a restaurant in Borough Market in London. At last I felt I had opened the wardrobe door and stepped into another world. Meeting Judith was one of the most delightful experiences of my life, hearing her thoughts on my novel, getting to know her and that feeling that I\u2019d met my fairy godmother and she was going to do everything she could to get me to the ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After we met, Judith and I talked about making changes to my novel that she thought would give it its best shot at being an attractive prospect for publishers, and she gave me a set of notes to work from. Everything she said struck a chord, and I enjoyed working on the edit. Where the changes were trickier to come to terms with, Judith explained why they would work, and by Jove, she was right! By the beginning of April, Judith was ready to submit to publishers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She told me that waiting to hear back from editors\/publishers could be nerve-wracking (why does everything about this business have to be so bloody nerve-wracking!) and Judith clearly knows that some authors need more support than others during this stressful process. She was always there at the end of the phone or email and did what she needed to do to help me not lose heart. I always felt she was there for me, even though I knew how busy she must be with other authors and all those submissions. She kept in touch regularly during those early days of submissions and we talked on the phone weekly, or more if necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even though we now have a deal and things are calm at the moment, we still talk and email. She is an utter joy to work with, and I feel incredibly lucky that I found her, and that fate led me directly to her door. I trust her completely, she is wise, and kind and life is better for knowing her. And if that sounds over the top, don\u2019t forget she\u2019s negotiating on my behalf to make my dreams come true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have two pieces of advice I would give to anyone who wants to get published (I have more, but am sticking to two, as I\u2019m well over my word-count limit!). The first is to listen to anyone who says your novel needs changes. If they are professionals, in particular, I think that for the most part you should trust that they\u2019re right. You might not want to change things in the way they suggest \u2013 no problem \u2013 make changes in your own way, but certainly, listen to their advice and act on it. Similarly if your friends or family feel that something doesn\u2019t work, even if they\u2019re not professional writers or readers, they are<\/em> still readers, and if they feel something\u2019s not working, then they\u2019re probably right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secondly, targeting the right agent is key<\/a>. You know that, I knew that, I\u2019d read it a million times. But while the information available on agents\u2019 likes and dislikes is useful, in the end, for me, it was finding a novel that felt something<\/em> like mine that led me to the right one. If you can read a lot of books and find out which agents are likely to go for a story like yours, then hopefully, you will hit a bullseye. For more information, try our article How to Get Your Book Published<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Did I Always Want To Be A Writer? I\u2019ve always wanted to write a novel, but didn\u2019t do it until I was 44 when a friend bullied me into it. She told me to write a chapter a week and send it to her. Clocking in with her was a great incentive, although I realise<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,24],"tags":[27486],"class_list":["post-507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agents","category-success-stories","tag-get-published"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat I Learnt And How I Learnt It<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
My First Draft<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
From First Draft To Final Version<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How I Got My Agent<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
My Author-Agent Relationship<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Last Piece Of Advice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"