Before we get to walks long or short, I have news:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Coming to the Festival of Writing in London on 13\/14 June? Then remember we are now open for Friday Night Live submissions. That competition can be career-altering for the winner, and has been so ever since we first launched it fifteen years ago. We also have two bursary opportunities for All Access Passes, so if you\u2019re interested in exploring those, please go for it. And if you\u2019ve not yet booked your ticket \u2013 well, you dullard, you dolt, you clown, you clot, what do you think you\u2019re waiting for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n SCAM ALERT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, just be aware that I’ve had this message from Al Campbell, a web-savvy self-publisher. He tells me that there has been a “rise of scammers sending self-published authors very well constructed (AI) based emails with very positive reviews of their books, offering paid-for promotion. In the past 3 weeks I have had offers for coverage on two major radio stations in the UK (including Classic FM), a proposal from a named and actual editorial director at a well-respected US platform called Shelf Awareness, and sundry other offers. Having checked these out directly with the stations, and spoken via email to the editorial director of Shelf Awareness, \u00a0they have all been scams.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those scams may be extremely plausible with accurate scans of the signatures of real decision-makers. So, please, always check these things out with care. If it looks too good to be true, it almost certainly is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n OK, walks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sinclair Lewis (the American novelist, who went on to collect a Nobel Prize), was advised, at an early point in his career, that \u2018The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is: the only walk you ought to be doing each day is from your kitchen to your office, mug in hand, ready to bash at that keyboard for as many hours as your real work \/ annoying spouse \/ yet-more-irritating kids \/ broken cars \/ needy mothers \/ unmown lawns allow you to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s truth in all that, yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Novels don\u2019t write themselves. They also don\u2019t edit themselves, title themselves, or market themselves to agents. I\u2019ve never actually counted how long it takes to write a novel, but we\u2019re well into hundreds of hours. Perhaps if you count all the editing \/ submitting \/ marketing \/ working with agents and publishing work, then the average novel clocks in at well over a thousand hours of hard graft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So: seat of pants \/ seat of chair \u2013 a good basic rule to apply often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But often, even very often, isn\u2019t quite the same as always.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my last email, I spoke about the disaster that happens when a writer applying the \u2018seat of pants \/ seat of chair\u2019 rule too obediently charges off into chapter two, before properly finding the voice that will sustain the book and make it stand out from the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s one version of the risk \u2013 but really, you can create huge issues for yourself whenever you prioritise building word-count<\/em> over checking for problems<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so on. There are a million questions like this which might arise as you work, and which can\u2019t best be answered while staring at a computer screen<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So that\u2019s when it\u2019s time for your long walk. Ideally, you do that properly. You book a little retreat cottage somewhere. You turn your phone off, or at least ignore it. You go on long walks with the wind on your face. And you allow your mind to drift widely and loosely over your story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you find yourself encountering a niggle \u2013 an awkwardness, a sense of something not fitting \u2013 you need to attend to that thought. Be open to other possibilities, to what seem like radical changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are too close to the novel \u2013 if it\u2019s literally open in front of you \u2013 those thoughts are always at the back of the queue for attention. If you\u2019re too obsessed by building word-count, you\u2019ll tend to neglect the little voices of caution or concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, yes, let the short walk from the kitchen to your laptop be your main walk. The one you do almost daily. The one that gets you to that thousand hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But give yourself space for the wind-on-you-face walk too. The \u2018what if I \u2026?\u2019 type thoughts. Open a door to possibility and see if inspiration happens to wander in, carrying flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And there endeth the lesson. Tis a (mercifully) short one today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n