How on earth did it get to be Friday again so quickly?? I swear someone keeps bewitching the clocks so they run extra-fast...
Just a quick update, for those of you who are interested :) (which is EVERYONE, obviously ;)....) - I've finished the last polish of Synthetica - hooray! I've sent the final version out to my beta readers, so fingers crossed! And I know, I know, I'm supposed to have things like this done months before the publishing date, but what can I say? I live on the edge ;).
That 'last polish' took me two whole days of writing. I actually haven't been out in the fresh air since Tuesday morning, which is a tad worrying...but I have officially declared today to be A Day Off. I've had a lovely lazy morning drinking tea and watching Pokemon (because I'm grown-up like that...) and now I'm off for a spa day with my future mother-in-law and my future sisters-in-law :). I'm looking forward to getting out of my own head and having the time to just relax!
So that's it really!I know I haven't emailed reviewers or anything like I was going to, but that's a task for the weekend I think ;).
Have a great Friday, and a lovely weekend everyone!
Xx
Friday, 20 February 2015
Monday, 16 February 2015
Hooray for half term!
For the last few weeks, I have been dragging myself to work and anxiously counting down the minutes to Friday the 13th. Why? Because this week, it's half term! Yippee!
However, I quickly realised that this week is not going to be the lounging around, reading a book a day, stuffing my face with chocolate/tea/cake week that I envisioned - if anything, I'm going to be working harder this week than I do normally.
Why? Because in just a few short weeks I'm hoping to self publish my first novel. And because I've only got this week to do everything, I can't afford to kick back and relax just yet. This week I've got to do the last tidy up on my rewrites, email reviewers to see if they'd be interested in reviewing my book, book a blog tour as well as starting to put together all my blog posts and topics for April's A to Z blogging challenge. I know it probably doesn't sound like a lot - but to me it is. This is the first time I've ever done anything like this, and I want it to go as smoothly (ha!) as possible.
I'm incredibly lucky that I have a whole week just to work on my writing. It's been so hard trying to fit it in around my normal job and I feel so grateful that - although I do have a lot to do - I've finally got the time and the breathing space to work on my novel. My only worry is that I'll waste my time somehow (I'm a huge procrastinator) and that I'll get to the end of this week without having done anything important. But let's not dwell on that. I'm going to power on with full steam ahead and see how far I get. Already this morning I've ticked off everything on my 'Monday to-do list' that I wrote last night - including coming up with the last of my A to Z blog topics and sketching the outline for a new novel idea - so that's something I guess.
And now - although I really REALLY don't feel like it - I have to go and work on my actual novel. Y'know, the one that people will actually be reading in a few weeks time?...Yeah, that probably should come top of my to-do list from now on ;).
Have a great Monday, folks!
However, I quickly realised that this week is not going to be the lounging around, reading a book a day, stuffing my face with chocolate/tea/cake week that I envisioned - if anything, I'm going to be working harder this week than I do normally.
Why? Because in just a few short weeks I'm hoping to self publish my first novel. And because I've only got this week to do everything, I can't afford to kick back and relax just yet. This week I've got to do the last tidy up on my rewrites, email reviewers to see if they'd be interested in reviewing my book, book a blog tour as well as starting to put together all my blog posts and topics for April's A to Z blogging challenge. I know it probably doesn't sound like a lot - but to me it is. This is the first time I've ever done anything like this, and I want it to go as smoothly (ha!) as possible.
I'm incredibly lucky that I have a whole week just to work on my writing. It's been so hard trying to fit it in around my normal job and I feel so grateful that - although I do have a lot to do - I've finally got the time and the breathing space to work on my novel. My only worry is that I'll waste my time somehow (I'm a huge procrastinator) and that I'll get to the end of this week without having done anything important. But let's not dwell on that. I'm going to power on with full steam ahead and see how far I get. Already this morning I've ticked off everything on my 'Monday to-do list' that I wrote last night - including coming up with the last of my A to Z blog topics and sketching the outline for a new novel idea - so that's something I guess.
And now - although I really REALLY don't feel like it - I have to go and work on my actual novel. Y'know, the one that people will actually be reading in a few weeks time?...Yeah, that probably should come top of my to-do list from now on ;).
Have a great Monday, folks!
Monday, 9 February 2015
Happy 100th post!
Yup, that's right, this post marks my 100th post on this blog!
I never thought I'd manage to keep this blog up for this long, but I'm finding that the more times goes on, the more I enjoy writing on my blog and connecting with other writers :). But its down to YOU, all my lovely readers, that have made it possible for me to continue for so long - thank you so much for believing in me, and coming back again and again to read my little posts :).
I just wanted to give you all a quick update and to say thank you so much to everyone who visited my blog and commented on my IWSG post :). I've been sick since Thursday and I couldn't even face my laptop until yesterday, so I haven't commented back yet - but I'm going to catch up now!
I was actually rather annoyed at myself for being sick - I thought that for the two days I was off work I could maybe cross one or two little things off my rapidly growing to-do list, given all the work I have left to do before April. But I genuinely wasn't up to the task. I literally slept all day Friday! But by yesterday, I was feeling almost back to normal and I managed to power through some more edits on my novel - I was actually quite proud of what I managed to do, considering I normally don't like writing in the afternoons, and I didn't get started until 1pm! So I'm happy I'm slightly more caught up now :).
Also, it's half term next week, which means I'll be starting to really up the pace - not only have I got to make sure my novel is ship-shape, I've also got to start contacting reviewers, book in my blog tour (if I decide to do one - still in two minds about that one), and start my posts for April's A-Z Challenge, because if I don't get started on it now, I know I'll run out of time! As well as catch up on normal everyday things, that are unrelated to writing. I know I've got a lot of hard work ahead of me, but you know what? I'm genuinely so excited :), I can't wait to get started!
After all....
Happy Monday, everyone!
I never thought I'd manage to keep this blog up for this long, but I'm finding that the more times goes on, the more I enjoy writing on my blog and connecting with other writers :). But its down to YOU, all my lovely readers, that have made it possible for me to continue for so long - thank you so much for believing in me, and coming back again and again to read my little posts :).
I just wanted to give you all a quick update and to say thank you so much to everyone who visited my blog and commented on my IWSG post :). I've been sick since Thursday and I couldn't even face my laptop until yesterday, so I haven't commented back yet - but I'm going to catch up now!
I was actually rather annoyed at myself for being sick - I thought that for the two days I was off work I could maybe cross one or two little things off my rapidly growing to-do list, given all the work I have left to do before April. But I genuinely wasn't up to the task. I literally slept all day Friday! But by yesterday, I was feeling almost back to normal and I managed to power through some more edits on my novel - I was actually quite proud of what I managed to do, considering I normally don't like writing in the afternoons, and I didn't get started until 1pm! So I'm happy I'm slightly more caught up now :).
Also, it's half term next week, which means I'll be starting to really up the pace - not only have I got to make sure my novel is ship-shape, I've also got to start contacting reviewers, book in my blog tour (if I decide to do one - still in two minds about that one), and start my posts for April's A-Z Challenge, because if I don't get started on it now, I know I'll run out of time! As well as catch up on normal everyday things, that are unrelated to writing. I know I've got a lot of hard work ahead of me, but you know what? I'm genuinely so excited :), I can't wait to get started!
After all....
Happy Monday, everyone!
Tuesday, 3 February 2015
IWSG February: Am I crazy...?
Welcome to February's IWSG post! You can check out the official IWSG website here!
This week I made an announcement about my novel Synthetica – I've decided to self-publish it. My proposed publication date is 1st April, which is less than 2 months away now. I am so so excited about the prospect of self-publishing. And yet I can't help asking myself: am I completely crazy??
There's a lot more leeway in
self-publishing that traditional publishing (found a major mistake in
your manuscript? Cover not working for you anymore? Simply take it
down and re-work it til you're happy!), but even so, I've always
been someone who strives to get it right first time. I'm so scared of
being a failure before I've even begun. I guess at the end of the day, if I let these doubts overwhelm me, I'll never have the
confidence to publish my novel.
This week I made an announcement about my novel Synthetica – I've decided to self-publish it. My proposed publication date is 1st April, which is less than 2 months away now. I am so so excited about the prospect of self-publishing. And yet I can't help asking myself: am I completely crazy??
There's a part of me that feels like a
huge fake. What on earth do I think I'm doing? There's no way I can
organise everything in two months! I've got to do the final tiny
edits to the book, I've got to finalise the cover design, I need to
email other bloggers to see if they'd be interested in reviewing it,
if I'm having a blog tour, I need to book it in ASAP for April. Don't
get me wrong, I do love being busy, but there are moments when the
panic descends and I completely freeze.
But there's also a bigger issue.
Whenever I read about other people self-publishing their novels, I
think, that's great, good for you! And yet, the idea of me
self-publishing a novel seems absurd. Who am I to think that my novel
is good enough for the world? This time last year I didn't even have
a novel to publish – what makes me think it's even any good to be
published now?? I feel like I'm missing out on some huge secret in
self-publishing, or that I'm missing a step and I don't know what it
is. Essentially, I think this comes down to the question I seem to
ask myself everyday, no matter what I'm doing: Am I doing this
right??
It's like anything in life - you don't know until you've tried. But it would be nice to know that I'm not just stumbling my way through everything for once ;).
Sunday, 1 February 2015
It's never too late (or early) to start writing...
As I was browsing Twitter today (for research reasons, obviously...), I came across these two articles from the Guardian Books website and I just wanted to share them with you all.
This first article tells the story of Tony Schumacher, who left school with a U in his English GCSE and published his first novel at the age of 46. But it was this second article is about a girl called Helena Coggan who published her first novel at the age of 15 that made me want to write this blog post.
Helena's story resonates with me more than Tony's does. Growing up, all I remember thinking in my teenage years was 'I'll have written a book by the time I'm 16.' When I turned 16 I thought to myself, 'okay, I'll definitely have finished writing a book by the time I'm 18.' 18 came and went and I began to get a little more desperate - 'I will DEFINITELY have finished my novel by the time I turn 21/by the time I've graduated' - and, yup, you guessed it, that elusive novel never fully materialised. Although, to be fair, I did actually give it a damn good go that time, but my graduation rolled around quicker than I anticipated.
I applaud Helena, not only finishing her novel, but for getting it published too. Writing a book is no easy thing. It takes time, dedication and perseverance and and incredible amount of self-belief (which, for someone who suffers from extreme anxiety like me, can be a little thin on the ground sometimes). But there's no greater feeling of satisfaction than writing those last few words with flourish and thinking, that's it. I'm done.
I have finally finished my first novel. It's taken me a few years longer than I originally anticipated, but when I look back over my journey as a writer, I wouldn't wish for it to be any different. Who knows, perhaps if I'd the determination to finish my novel when I was 15 instead of 24, I'd have sold it to a publisher and made my millions before I turned 20. But I seriously doubt it. There was no way any sane publisher would've wanted any of my earlier work, even if I had managed to flesh them out into 100,000 words.
But the thought that I'm going to take away from these two articles is this: it is never too late, or too early, to start writing.
Whether you're 15, 20, 35, 50 or 85, there is only one time to start writing, and that is right now. If you have a passion for reading and writing, and you want to share your own stories with the world, go on and do it. At the end of the day, the only thing that will ever hold you back from writing (or baking, or woodworking or whatever your dream may be) is you. You are the only one that can make your dreams come true. It doesn't matter whether you only want to write for you, or if you want to write Harry Potter fan fiction and share it with other HP fans, or if you want to write the definitive guide to flower arranging - write whatever YOU want to write, and start writing it NOW.
It's taken me a full ten years to realise this. But now that I know that the only person responsible for my writing is me, I'm going to keep chasing my dream of becoming an author. This time last year, I hadn't even written a novel. In eight weeks time, I'm going to self-publish my first book. Is it the way I thought I'd get published? No. But I don't care. Once I've published that book, I'll move onto my second one. And then I'll do another one after that. And then another. And then another. Until my crazy brain either finally runs out of steam, or I can't physically write any more. There's nothing to hold me back, there's nothing that can stop me...except me!
So, what are you waiting for?? Get writing!
This first article tells the story of Tony Schumacher, who left school with a U in his English GCSE and published his first novel at the age of 46. But it was this second article is about a girl called Helena Coggan who published her first novel at the age of 15 that made me want to write this blog post.
Helena's story resonates with me more than Tony's does. Growing up, all I remember thinking in my teenage years was 'I'll have written a book by the time I'm 16.' When I turned 16 I thought to myself, 'okay, I'll definitely have finished writing a book by the time I'm 18.' 18 came and went and I began to get a little more desperate - 'I will DEFINITELY have finished my novel by the time I turn 21/by the time I've graduated' - and, yup, you guessed it, that elusive novel never fully materialised. Although, to be fair, I did actually give it a damn good go that time, but my graduation rolled around quicker than I anticipated.
I applaud Helena, not only finishing her novel, but for getting it published too. Writing a book is no easy thing. It takes time, dedication and perseverance and and incredible amount of self-belief (which, for someone who suffers from extreme anxiety like me, can be a little thin on the ground sometimes). But there's no greater feeling of satisfaction than writing those last few words with flourish and thinking, that's it. I'm done.
I have finally finished my first novel. It's taken me a few years longer than I originally anticipated, but when I look back over my journey as a writer, I wouldn't wish for it to be any different. Who knows, perhaps if I'd the determination to finish my novel when I was 15 instead of 24, I'd have sold it to a publisher and made my millions before I turned 20. But I seriously doubt it. There was no way any sane publisher would've wanted any of my earlier work, even if I had managed to flesh them out into 100,000 words.
But the thought that I'm going to take away from these two articles is this: it is never too late, or too early, to start writing.
Whether you're 15, 20, 35, 50 or 85, there is only one time to start writing, and that is right now. If you have a passion for reading and writing, and you want to share your own stories with the world, go on and do it. At the end of the day, the only thing that will ever hold you back from writing (or baking, or woodworking or whatever your dream may be) is you. You are the only one that can make your dreams come true. It doesn't matter whether you only want to write for you, or if you want to write Harry Potter fan fiction and share it with other HP fans, or if you want to write the definitive guide to flower arranging - write whatever YOU want to write, and start writing it NOW.
It's taken me a full ten years to realise this. But now that I know that the only person responsible for my writing is me, I'm going to keep chasing my dream of becoming an author. This time last year, I hadn't even written a novel. In eight weeks time, I'm going to self-publish my first book. Is it the way I thought I'd get published? No. But I don't care. Once I've published that book, I'll move onto my second one. And then I'll do another one after that. And then another. And then another. Until my crazy brain either finally runs out of steam, or I can't physically write any more. There's nothing to hold me back, there's nothing that can stop me...except me!
So, what are you waiting for?? Get writing!
