AUTHOR'S CORNER;

WRITE ME A NOVEL....

The decision has been made, you've told all your family and friends and you've even contemplated resigning from that bloody 9-5 humdrum of a job!  You've purchased the top of the range laptop (though all you really needed was the word processor) and you've even designed the front cover of your book....your very own first novel!  You're partner is unconvinced of your new found 'hobby' and is smiling at you in Cheshire cat fashion and is waiting for your enthusiasm to dwindle so that normal life can resume.  Your friends think that you have reached and unfortunately crashed into a mid-life crises and they treat you kindly, lest you have a nervous breakdown altogether!  Your parents tell you 'Well done, dear' like they used to when you were a child and delusionally presented them with a crayon drawing of a purple cat and a blue dog, in the hope to entice a feeling of self worth into your infantile little mind.  And every time you talk to someone about your pending book, you notice a flicker of a smile of contempt on their face, or an icy stare from behind smiling eyes, or a quick change of subject and a quick exit away from your company!  The only people who believe you will do it and have utmost faith in your abilities to write a novel are your children!

So, half defeated, half charged, you reluctantly stagger to your computer; all sense of enthusiasm has almost left your body and the only thing that is now driving you is sheer pride; you must not lose face!  You sit down, you switch your computer on and stare bewilderedly at the screen as you try to construct an opening sentence in your mind.  And once the noise of the family has died down and the cluttering in the kitchen has subsided and everyone is bored of hovering around you waiting for your failure, you find yourself surprisingly able to write a first chapter which amazingly is quite readable!  You sigh with great relief, the hurdle has been overcome; you have proven to them and yourself that you can actually write!   But wait....wait....wait a moment.....

Three months down the line, you are tapping your fingers on the desk because you have writer's block!  Five months down the line, you are not quite sure how on earth you are going to end the story, or worse, when to end it!  Seven months down the line you suddenly realise that you don't know how to go about  submitting the book! Eight months down the line you are writing very badly written letters begging (yes begging) publishers to take you on!  Ten months down the line you read your work again and realise with a cringe that some of the sentences and some of the spelling have been written in your sleep.  Twelve months down the line you are wanting to call it a day, but pride won't let you!  And by month fourteen the rejection letters start coming in hard and fast!!!  And all the while your partner smiles slyly at you and there is a strange look of mirth in their eyes!  

DON'T GIVE UP; REMEMBER ALL THE GREATEST WRITERS HAVE GONE THROUGH THIS BEFORE YOU!  HERE ARE SOME USEFUL QUOTES TO HELP YOU GET THINGS IN PROSPECTIVE!

To be successful you must expect failure, because one does not come without the other! If you have never failed, there is nothing to succeed and if you have never succeeded there is nothing to fail!  If you stop at the first sign of failure, how will you know if you can succeed?

 

Success is not the end  result of simply publishing the novel; success is the culmination of day in, day out of writing and persisting and refining your work! Success is the commitment you show to something you really want to do; publishing is a very small factor in the matter!

If you get ready mentally and expect that you do face a long road ahead of you, then that road will be endured.  You must prepare for the writer's block, for the rejection letters and for the difficulties you will face just to get noticed!  And you must do your homework and research your field!

That's right; please no one, just do what comes naturally, don't copycat other writers and don't worry about what others think!

If you are a real writer, then writing is on your blood and it doesn't matter who believes you can write or who doesn't, all that should matter is what you believe about yourself!

That's right, who cares if you are published or not?  Is the publisher going to really validate what you know you are?  You are the writing, you are the pen, you are that because that is what you are!

And if other's think your writing is a bit dark, a bit moody, a little outrageous!  Well then, you're doing your job right!

Don't worry, your imaginary friends are a little tired, they've gone on a vacation, they'll soon be back!

If you want to thrill the audience you have to first scare yourself!

Yes indeed, it is as simple as that, all you really have to do is sit at your typewriter and bleed!  Bleed out all those weird, warped, pent-up emotions that have made you a writer in the first place!

And finally always remember....there are three massive hurdles for any writer to get over, but once over them.... 

THIS IS WHAT EVENTUALLY HAPPENS!