All this time \u2013 and after more than a hundred emails \u2013 I\u2019ve been writing to you under false pretences. I\u2019ve spoken as though I\u2019m an active professional author sharing thoughts with you \u2026 but in practice, I\u2019ve been so busy with all things Jericho that it\u2019s been years since I published a work of fiction.<\/p>\n
And yes, my spell of inactivity wasn\u2019t all that inactive. I did major rewrites of How To Write A Novel<\/em> and Getting Published<\/em>. I put together 52 Letters: A Year of Advice on Writing<\/em>. I inched forwards with Fiona Griffiths #7 (The House At The End Of The World<\/em>.) And I re-committed to my crazy-but-fun The Lamentable True Historie of the Sailor, Gregorius<\/em>.<\/p>\n So by the standards of people who don\u2019t write, my spare time was still very full with writing. But Jericho (and four kids and a disabled wife) didn\u2019t leave me with a lot of free time. I felt a bit jammed creatively. I just didn\u2019t have the spare time and clarity of thought to unjam.<\/p>\n But, as the business grew, it approached the happy place where every job that needed to be done could be better done by someone other than me. In weekly meetings, I sat listening with interest \u2013 but contributing nothing very much. I wasn\u2019t the one doing the work.<\/p>\n So, quietly, and little by little, I returned to work \u2013 my writing work, my real work.<\/p>\n I came back to find a Fiona Griffiths adventure stuck at 40,000 words. For a long time, I picked away at the text. Revising. Adding a bit. Tinkering away.<\/p>\n I felt committed to the book, but knew it hadn\u2019t yet found its mojo. I tried different lines of attack, but wasn\u2019t satisfied.<\/p>\n Then \u2013 ta-daa \u2013 I really committed. I had more time to spend on it. I spent the time. I just pushed forwards through that ugly and difficult middle section. And I had a breakthrough. Two actually.<\/p>\n They were:<\/p>\n I\u2019m now bombing my way through the text, loving every minute I get to spend on it, and hoping that blooming Christmas isn\u2019t going to get in the way of my hours at the laptop.<\/p>\n And \u2013 very closely connected with that sense of joy \u2013 is the belief that what I\u2019m writing has value. That readers will enjoy it. That it\u2019ll enhance the series. That the book and the series has some artistic depth, some enduring worth.<\/p>\n And, because it\u2019s a time of year for sharing tidings of comfort and joy, let me offer you these three thoughts from my own recent rebirth into the land of writing:<\/p>\n One<\/strong>: If you feel stuck on a project, push on with it. Break through. Abseil down that wet and dripping cliff. Just add word count. You will probably solve your problem, but you will certainly release yourself from the current pickle. Editing is easier than writing. Just make progress. This was the theme of my abseiling email a few weeks back. I didn’t mention it then, but that email was born of raw and recent personal experience.<\/p>\n Two<\/strong>: It\u2019s bewilderingly common, in my experience, for the thing that a book needs to be kind of obvious. In my present case, Fiona finds herself conducting an investigation in a secure psychiatric hospital. She has had severe psychiatric problems herself. Clearly, she needs to undergo a collapse of some kind, a major one. That\u2019s obvious.<\/p>\n And so often, the solution IS the obvious one. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s just me, or if we sometimes resist the obvious. Or we block ourselves with objections that don\u2019t actually stand up in practice. Or if an over-crowded life just manifests as difficulty in doing the obvious thing.<\/p>\n In any case, my advice to you is simply this: if you find yourself stuck, then ask yourself, \u201cWhat is the obvious solution to this problem?\u201d Or alternatively, \u201cWhat is my elevator pitch? What does my elevator pitch tell me about this particular block?\u201d<\/p>\n In most cases, the answers to those questions will be the right ones. And if the answer comes straight from your elevator pitch, the book is that much more likely to be commercially appealing \u2013 and memorable to read.<\/p>\n And three<\/strong>: Write with joy. Relish the joy.<\/p>\n You and I and this whole Jericho community is a happy place because we have a reliable source of joy that isn\u2019t open to everyone. Make space for it. Share it. Enjoy it. Be grateful.<\/p>\n I am \u2013 this year as much as ever before.<\/p>\n Go well, my old buddies, and see you in the New Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" All this time \u2013 and after more than a hundred emails \u2013 I\u2019ve been writing to you under false pretences. I\u2019ve spoken as though I\u2019m an active professional author sharing thoughts with you \u2026 but in practice, I\u2019ve been so busy with all things Jericho that it\u2019s been years since I published a work of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":6407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harrys-friday-email"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n