On Writing

The gentlemen lodgers have been away for Easter. Even the cost centres were missing for most of it. Hence, there’s been a spurt of effort with publication ideas. I discovered one pretty amazing thing with my Kindle which I’ll share because I bet many of you won’t know this. You can email a document to it and read it like a book, so I emailed my own book to my Kindle and it’s a much better read than on a big A4 sheet or the computer screen, it feels like reading someone else, and that’s a relief as you can get a bit tired of the same story, ten times. Each owner has a special Kindle email address, on the second page of your settings.

My Writing Den

Then my publishing guru, Her Vanessaness, very helpfully told me to enter a competition for new writers, only my book is already 12,000 words too long, so now, here I go with another edit. Her Vanessaness has been my steadfast guide when I’ve almost given up, and found me the sternest editor, takes no prisoners, a woman groomed at The Guardian and now ensconced in our wild west. It was one scary trip driving over there to workshop the novel after she’d read it. But I came away having seen a part of Mayo never before visited and a major novel re-structure and renewed motivation. All these people along the way are essential for breaking the isolation that is necessarily enforced if you are going to get anything finished.

I visited a college friend this afternoon in her newly restored Victorian house; she is planning to write a design blog. She has buckets of material and inspiration, all her own. It is such a stunning restoration it should be published, having been divided into eighteen bedsits it is now one truly stylish home. But then, she and her husband are both architects, the perfect clients. And quite possibly, the perfect union; imagine being married to someone who agreed with all your design ideas, in fact encouraged you to buy the must-have statement piece or quirky auction lot, who, in fact has their own excellent ideas and taste in art, in sync with yours, and also handy with garden design. What would be left to argue about? Oh, and her pantry looks better than Nigella’s. We talked about similar projects we'd worked on for respective clients, bed-sits restored to single occupancy and the obstacles (and time delays) we encounter with local authorities, it puts people off buying these houses, and yet that's what we're there for - to smooth the path and get a stunning finish, so there's the plug for conservation specialists, get one in early.

Just as I started my novel without having done a creative writing course, I dived into blog writing too. If I’d done a course I might not have done so many re-writes, but first things first, you have to be passionate about your subject. And totally committed to finishing to the exclusion of all else, including losing contact with society from time to time. The best book I read, after I'd finished, was On Writing by Stephen King, I recommend, ideally once you've started your own.

One thing I won’t repeat in another book is tying myself down to specific dates. Mine starts on 15 September 2008 and everything has to be super-accurate because of that. One change I was advised to make at the beginning impacted on the seasonal growth for the rest of the book, things that happened in spring had to happen in winter, all my landscapes and climate had to change. A ‘mare. I’m sure there are easier ways…. But life isn’t like that, is it?