Walking up fells...

Happy New Year, everyone!

It's still January, so I feel like I can still wish everyone a Happy new Year. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas break - it feels like forever ago now.

This post is long overdue, but it's just going to be a short one today. I did say I would be taking a break from social media, but I never meant to include my blog in that too - it feels like lately my life has been sucked up by work, but now that the mornings are starting to get (slightly) lighter, I've decided to make more of an effort to pick up my life outside of work again. I've noticed for the past few years that January/February are the worst months for me - I crave the sunlight and lighter mornings/nights, and I can't seem to work up the motivation to do anything. But I decided to start small and write this blog post, and then hopefully do some writing later on in the week.

However, this post isn't just about metaphorical fells in my mind - it's about real fells too! (For those of you not from the north of England, a fell is essentially a small mountain :)).

I have some exciting news - the Engineer and I have decided to set up our own YouTube channel! We have our own art company (http://yetibean.com/) and this is kind of a branch out from that. At the moment, we're documenting our weight loss, but we have some very exciting ideas about what to film next in the pipeline, so stay tuned!

You can watch the first episode on our YouTube channel below:



Don't forget to visit our channel page to like, comment and subscribe :)!

Have a lovely day, folks!

What did you think of our video? Do you have a YouTube channel? How's your writing been going lately?

Writer's Academy Webinar

I don't think I've ever been so low on Christmas cheer as I am this year. Am I the only one who's just not feeling it? I think personal circumstances, being sick, coupled with an argument with my parents over my birthday (which will be on Monday) means I'd rather not be forced to be happy and cheerful right now.

Anyway, a few updates since I've been AWOL for a while:

First things first - I didn't 'win' NaNoWriMo. But I did write 30,000 words, and to me, that's a win in itself - there's no way I would've written that much in a normal month, so I'm happy. And although my book is still all over the place, I do have more of an idea of where I'm going with it. So that's a plus.

I also attended a Higher Education marketing conference last week - I enjoyed my journey down to Manchester, and although I wish the conference had been writing related (the joys of my day job!), it was actually very useful, and I learnt a couple of things that I think might be applicable to how writers can market themselves as well. I'll try and write a post next week on it in more detail.

But for now, my most recent news is that I attended a webinar run by The Writers' Academy on Monday night. It was called 'Behind the Bestseller' and it featured Jocasta Hamilton, Publishing Director at Hutchinson. There were some really good questions begin asked - and two of mine got chosen! I'm going to share them both with you below, as I found her tips really helpful and they inspired me to start writing again.

The first question I asked was, 'is it essential for authors to have their own website/social media pages before they have been published?'

A: Not really. Think about how you're trying to represent yourself and your book online, and the angle you are going for. If you enjoy it, or you have some kind of experience related to your book and it could be useful to market your work, such as you've been travelling and you're a travel writer, then yes, it could give your publicist something to say/give them them an angle to work with. But it's not essential. If it comes naturally to you and you can, do it, but if not, it doesn't matter.

My second question (and the one they saved for last!) was, 'what advice would you give to a writer who's been writing for years but keeps getting rejected?'

A: It depends on the feedback you're getting. Listen to the feedback you're receiving and keep going. Do it because you get something out of it. Are you sending it to the right people? Check your first pages are really great, and make sure your book is telling a story. Can you sum it up in one line? Can you sum it up in four? Publishing is a matchmaking game, and eventually, you'll find the perfect fit for your work. So if you love it, keep doing it, and remember to listen to the feedback you're getting.

I really enjoyed attending the webinar, and it was so useful to hear an editor saying what they're looking for in a book/author. Plus, I feel less guilty now about not updating my blog/Twitter as often as I should!

Anyway, that's it from me for now - I might try and write one more post before Christmas, but with birthday celebrations happening this weekend, I might not, we'll see!

Did anyone else attend the webinar? Would you attend a similar webinar in future?

My book is a beast

I have a confession to make. My book is a beast.

There, I said it.

My book: destroying everything in it's path...

It's this huge, lumbering, unwieldy thing with bright blue fur, three heads, six inch talons, fangs, four wings, a long spiky tail and ten eyes. It won't do what I tell it to do. It won't listen to me - it's own creator! How rude - it just keeps lumbering along, occasionally gaining momentum but then slowing down to a halt to graze on green leaves and possibly the souls of small children (just joking - or am I...?) before running away from me again. I'm constantly running after it, panting and shouting at it to stop, but it simply takes no notice. It makes no sense - it shouldn't exist and it goes against everything I've ever believed as a writer, and yet - I love it.

I love it despite the fact it has a fat middle, a non-coherent beginning and a fairly decent, if somewhat abrupt, ending (well, the last scene anyway - let's not talk about the chapters before it). I love the fact that by writing absolute nonsense, I'm learning more and more about my main character every day - some days I love him, other days I wonder why on earth I ever bothered to write him in the first place and sometimes, just sometimes, he terrifies me and takes my breath away. I love learning more about my supporting characters and where they fit and why. I love writing scenes, knowing they will never make it into the final book, or they will have to be so heavily edited they won't be recognisable anymore; but it's only through writing what I don't want in the book, that I can start to discover what I do want in it. I especially love discovering more about the world they all inhabit, and how I can bring that world to life on the page.

I chose to do NaNoWriMo because I wanted to challenge myself as a writer. I wanted to try something new, something completely different to what I've done before. And I'm so glad I took the plunge.

Come December, I'll hopefully have 80,000+ words to work with on this WIP. It's a daunting task, but you know what? I'm so looking forward to taming this beast. I'm looking forward to wrestling with it, shaving off all that fur, clipping back the talons and untangling all those knots, to see what beauty lies beneath. Maybe there won't be any. Maybe I'll do all that work and discover it wasn't the book I thought it was, or the book I wanted it to be. But that's ok. This is what writers do - we write, we rewrite and, if we have to, we scrap it and start the whole process over again.

A few months ago, the thought of ditching a project, or coming to the end of a book and discovering it might not be publishable didn't make any sense to me. Why go through all that frustration and pain and heartbreak? But now, I'm slowly starting to realise that no matter how long it takes, or how many times you have to start over, some things are worth fighting for. I firmly believe that this book is worth fighting for - I will do whatever it takes, however long it takes - until it's done. It might take me a couple of months - most likely it will take me years. But that's ok. I'm going to keep chipping away at the beast, word by word, chapter by chapter, until one day, I can stand back and be proud of what I've achieved.

My book is a beast - but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Calcifier: a much more manageable demon

Is your book a beast? How do you 'tame' your novel? How's your NaNoWriMo going? What's your favourite Studio Ghibli film?

Inspirational weekend words...

Where on earth does the time go? One minute you're relaxing in front of the new season of Luke Cage on Netflix on a Saturday night, and the next you're staring blearily at your computer screen, gulping down your coffee and wondering how Monday rolled around so fast.

But I have some inspirational words to share with you today to help you through the Monday blues!

First up, I saw this thread on Twitter over the weekend:

This is my favourite thing I've read in a long time. It made me smile so much, and I just had to share it with you all. It's so so true - there are bloggers that I've known since I first started my blog, and recently, I've seen a few of them winning awards, being shortlisted and getting published, and you know what? I'm so so proud of each and every one of them. They might not know it, but to me, they are all rising stars, and I hope they all know how much I look up to them, and how much I'm cheering for them. Seriously - if you ever feel like throwing in the towel, just read the above and know that to someone, somewhere, you are their star.

Secondly, I also found this article from The Guardian on Sunday morning:

Paula Hawkins: an unexpected ending to writer’s dark journey

If you have a minute, or if you're looking for something to read at work at lunchtime, make sure you read the whole thing. The Girl on the Train was Hawkins' fourth novel - she wrote it when she was short of cash and wanted to write something different from her normal romcoms. And look what happened - it just goes to show what might happen if you don't give up on you dreams. I'm not saying everyone will become the next Hawkins (as nice as that would be!) but if you write what you want to write, you never know what might come along. 

The other reason I love this article is because Hawkins didn't give up when things were going badly - she rebooted herself, got rid of her pseudonym, wrote under her real name and wrote what she wanted to write. Even if you think you don't have another chance, even if you think you've 'blown your only chance of getting published' somehow or that you're writing the wrong things - don't give up. It's never the end of the journey - so long as you're alive and you can still write, your writing career can be whatever you want it to be.

Although I didn't get to work on my WIP over the weekend (it was finally time to write out our wedding thank you cards), these two things really cheered me up, and resolved my determination to keep writing no matter what. I hope they've inspired you, as much as they inspired me, but just in case you need some more writing inspiration, here's some photos from our Sunday morning walk:

And here's some from the sunrise this morning - it was worth getting up at 6.30am on a Monday morning just to see this:

Have a great week! See you all on Wednesday for IWSG!

What do you think of the tweets/article? Have you come across any articles or tweets that have ever inspired you to write, or not give up on your dreams? How was your weekend?

Creating social media content

I went to work this morning with my hair still wet. Mainly because I wanted to see what it looks like if a hairdryer doesn't touch it, but also because I was super excited to write this blog post and I had to write it before work because I won't have time tonight.

On Tuesday, I got to attend a 'Creating social media content' course for work. I wanted to go, not just because it would be useful for my day job, but also because I was secretly hoping it would be useful for my author life as well. And wow, am I glad I went!

Some of the stuff the woman was talking about I had kinda already figured out, or had a sneaking suspicion I should be doing but wasn't, but it was so helpful to have someone consolidate all this information and tell me in straight terms what social media is all about.

I went home, excited to get cracking and start creating my own social media content calendar. I immediately put some of the stuff she taught us into practice, and I think it's making a difference, but obviously I'm going to have to wait a while before I draw any definite conclusions.

Today, I'll be writing up my notes from the course for work so I can share it with my team, but I'm also going to be writing it up and posting it on my blog as a series to share with all of you. Hopefully you'll all find it useful too - I'd love to share the knowledge I gained and help out as people as I can. You might find it helpful, you might not, but we'll give it a go and see what happens. If there's anything in particular you'd like to know about, drop me a line in the comments below and I'll see if I have any information on it.

Have a great day!

Have you ever attended a social media course? Did you find it useful? Do you think you're using social media effectively?

Shooting for the stars...

I heard something that struck a chord with me at work today.

A student had gone to an advisor for help about finding work/advice about where to go in life. Now, I didn't hear the whole conversation, I only heard one sentence of what the advisor said before I walked out of the door, but she said:

"All those people out there are shooting for the stars straight away..."

I'm going to assume (which I know is a very bad thing to do, but bear with me) that she was trying to tell the student to work her way up to whatever she wants to be.

It's a running theme throughout our college - we always try to convey to students that college is a stepping stone to wherever they want to go. We can't immediately get to where it is we want to be - we have to work our way up to it.

 I don't know why, but I've been thinking about that one sentence all day. Lately, I've been putting off doing things; telling myself I don't have enough time, or enough energy, or I have to focus on something else first. But really, it's all excuses.

How can I expect to get to where I want to be, if I don't start putting the effort in? How am I any different to the students around me, who want the world on a plate and expect to get something for nothing, if I somehow just expect success to come to me? (Note: not all students are like that - with some of them, I can't believe how much they achieve in one day!)

I'm trying not to be negative when I see people's successes on social media - I don't want to be that person anymore - but lately, I have caught the green-eyed monster rearing it's ugly head once again. But the thing is, the people's whose posts I'm seeing (going on amazing holidays, have their articles featured in magazines, getting promotions etc) - they've all put the hard work in first. They haven't sat around wishing for something in their life to change, and dreaming of the day they could do X,Y Z - they've actually gone out there and done something about it.

It's time to stop expecting my life to happen, while not consciously doing anything about it. It's time to stop dreaming and to start living the life I want to lead.

Everyone has the potential to be whatever they want to be - we just have to take that first step, and then keep going. We might not land among the stars first time, but we'll be a damn sight closer to them.

Do you think hard work leads to success? Do you have any stories of your road to success, or the steps you've taken to start your own journey?

N is for...Normality

Welcome back to the A to Z blogging challenge! Apologies for my silence over the past couple of days - I've been trying to get back into the swing of work, while juggling getting the renovations sorted on the house. We're getting there - slowly!

So today's post is all about the letter N!

As I've just mentioned, I've been kept busy this week with work, and with trying to get quotes off builders/decorators for the house. I did try to keep up with the Challenge earlier in the week, but something had to give - and it ended up being my writing.

Since deciding to take my writing seriously, I've gradually learnt that there's no such thing as a 'normal' day. Sure, a routine does massively help me to organise my thoughts and shows me what I 'should' be doing - but here's the thing, a little something called life quite often gets in the way. My to-do list (wether writing related or not) quite often gets longer rather than shorter.

As someone who likes being organised and often shows up 10 minutes early to appointments so there's no way I'll miss it, I don't often cope very well if my writing schedule, or normal everyday routine, is interrupted. But that's just something that we've all got to deal with sometimes.

It's okay if you don't get everything done that you wanted to in a day. Don't stress or beat yourself up over it if you can't find the time to write during the week. Just do what you can, but remember - there's no such thing as a 'normal' time to write - when you write, and how much you can fit in, is up to you. And don't forget, we all need to time to relax as well - so make sure you make time for yourself. Don't make writing a chore or something that needs to be done. You'll have far more fun that way :).

How about you? Do you have a 'normal' routine for writing? What do you do if you can't find the time to write?

J is for...Jackknifed

Today's post is on the letter J - my, aren't we just speeding through the alphabet!

I've already talked about celebrating your writing, and that it's okay to think your writing is - dare I say it - actually good, but what about those days when you feel like you've jackknifed? You're driving your articulated lorry of a novel quite nicely down an empty motorway, when BAM! You hit a snag in the plot, or a character suddenly won't do whatever it is you're asking of them, or you crash head-on into that nasty vehicle known as 'writer's block'; and suddenly you're going round in circles, doubling back on yourself and twisting yourself up into a nasty metal knot.

What do you do??

I'll tell you.

Stop.

Breathe.

It's okay. Every writer goes through this - constantly. It's part of the job description. I'd be very suspicious of any writer who didn't go through some kind of emotional turmoil at some point or other while writing their novel. It's just part of the creative process and it's a good thing. It shows that you care enough about your novel to have these kinds of doubts and fears. What's not so good is when you allow these problems to overwhelm you, and maybe ultimately abandon a perfectly good piece of writing.

What's important is that you take a step back and breathe for a moment. Go and make some tea. Or bake/eat cake. Go for a walk and clear your head. Take a bath and/or a hot shower. And when you feel ready, come back and observe your 'car crash' with a new, critical eye. Chances are, it's nowhere near as bad as you feared.

Look - what's this? Under that car door? That scene that that was causing you so much grief could be moved towards the end of the novel, so it flows better with the overall plot. What if you removed that chapter that was having you in fits of despair? Or what if you simply edited it and removed the pretty, but ultimately pointless, bits of prose? With a couple of licks of paint and tweaking some dialogue, that character that was misbehaving might now be ready to do the job you put them there for. Or maybe you're having issues with the actual engine of your novel? Try looking over your notes or (if you're a planner like me) your detailed synopsis and seeing if there are any nuts and bolts that can be tightened, or any characters/scenes that might need an extra bit of grease and oil to get them going again.

Okay, so this post is a tad lighthearted, but you get the picture. No novel is beyond saving. If you're well and truly stuck, there are countless books and blogs and websites out there (the IWSG website for one!) that can help you overcome writer's block, or teach you how to jazz up your characters. My point is - don't give up. If you still have that passion and fire for your novel, keep going - it gets easier, I promise.

A is for...Algorithm

Welcome to the A - Z Blogging Challenge 2015!

The idea of this blogging challenge is that you post every day (except Sundays) throughout April, with each day's post being linked to the corresponding letter of the alphabet. So today's letter is A, tomorrow's will be B, Friday's will be C and so on.

Just a fair word of warning - my blog posts are primarily going to be on writing/self publishing/cake.

So let's get down to it!

A is for...Algorithm

Algorithm: a set of rules for solving a problem in a finite number of steps, as for finding the greatest common divisor.

Since I'm a YA sci-fi writer, I thought I'd geek out a little with this post ;) - originally I was going to do a blog centred around my book's main character, Anais, but then I decided this would be more fun (after all, who doesn't like the word 'algorithm'...?). 

When I first started writing, I thought that there was a magic formula that would miraculously make me write my book in a day (or, even better, one that would write it for me). I thought that if I followed certain steps, or used certain themes in my writing, I'd been sure to bang out the bestsellers in no time at all.

Except, it turns out that there is no magic algorithm or potion that will help you write better, or write more books. At the end of the day, the only person who can do that is...well, you.

Writing a book takes time, hard work and dedication. I know, I know - not exactly the three most inspiring words ever, but it's true. My book, Synthetica, was only born out of my determination to actually finish a book I was writing, and having a burning desire to write Anais' story. 

I will admit, however, that there is one crucial different between me writing this book, and my countless other failed attempts - I bought a book on how to write. It's called 'How to Nail Your Novel' by Roz Morris, and I can honestly say that it turned my process of writing upside down. I probably wouldn't have even finished Synthetica, if I hadn't read that book.

BUT...even with all it's hints and tips, I still didn't end up following the book to the letter. I had to figure out which parts worked for me and which didn't. I adapted some of the processes, and completely threw out others. And some bits of advice I followed to the letter. I still had to figure out what worked best for me and my book.

There is no magical formula to help you write a book (though I find tea x cake x music = a Rachel who's more inclined to write). At the end of the day, it's up to YOU to figure out for your own algorithm to help you write. Whether it's a combination of tea and silence, or writing in a group, or writing at certain times of the day, or only using a certain notebook/pen - it's completely up to you! So go forth, and discover your own writing 'algorithms'!*

So what about you? Do you have any rituals or habits that make it easier for you to write, or keep writing?

Let me know :)!

*Okay okay, fine, I'll stop saying it now....ALGORITHMS!...okay, now I'm done.

'Thyme' to get busy...

...oh come on, it wasn't that bad was it? I'm actually quite proud I thought of that all by myself!(...this is what happens when you're left on your own for the day in the summer heat...)

Bad puns aside, please bear with me as it does have a point!

So I went back up t'north last week to visit my parents, and it was great to get away from everything and just relax and enjoy looking after the cows/calves/other farm animals for a while (in case you're wondering, yes, my parents do actually live on a farm - I'm not crazy, honest...)

Anyway, while I was there I couldn't help noticing my dad's vegetable patch. The last time I saw it at Easter, he'd just begun to put the seeds in...now, well, it looks amazing! There's rows of green beans, peas, carrots, lettuce, beetroot, tomatoes....we had the honour of eating some of the beans (in a soup) and the lettuce (actually, most of the lettuce) and everything tasted fantastic!

This got me thinking. I have 5 weeks left of my summer holidays and I am the worst person to just sit around doing nothing (in all seriousness, having nothing to do does have a negative impact on my mental health - it takes me back to when I wasn't in such a good place, and well, I won't bore you now, but it is healthier for me if my mind is kept occupied) - so I thought, hey, why don't I do that! Unfortunately, I know exactly what kind of person I am, and I'm the kind of person who gets all excited about an idea (much like my writing), starts it, then loses interest (exactly like my writing).

So I came up with a compromise. My project for this summer is going to be starting my own herb garden. Smaller, easier to manage and you still get some delicious home grown produce out of it! At this point I'm going to chose to ignore the fact that every plant I've tried to grow up to now has died....not through neglect, just through me not having the green fingers necessary to keep them alive.

Luckily for me, the Other Half tends to go along with my whims (not that he has much choice, bless him), so yesterday we went out and bought a planter and some compost (I'd already bought my seeds for 30p from Wilkos the previous day).

And today, this is what they look like!

On the left I've planted some parsley, in the middle is garlic chives and on the right is basil! Okay, so I know it's not much to look at right now (not that that has stopped me from obsessively checking them every half an hour...) - but I'll keep you updated on it's progress :)

Oh, and here's another little something we picked up yesterday too - pretty cool, huh?

So now that that distraction is out of the way...back to writing it is!

Happy holidays!