Amy Green 2: Summer Secrets and The Loving Kind (adult novel – about plastic surgery and ghost-writing pretty much) are both out next week and I’m bricking it.
Most writers worry terribly that their books will:
a/ not be on the shelves at all – lost in transit or stuck in a box at the back of the shop (happens I’m afraid)
b/ be badly reviewed – we are sensitive souls – saying that I’ve only ever had one stinky review in 15 odd years so I’m doing well. And dozens of nice ones – isn’t it terrible the way we remember the bad ones?
Amy Green 1: Boy Trouble got some smashing reviews, my best yet – so that was very heartening.
We also worry that our regular readers, our life blood, won’t enjoy the new book as much as the last one. And yes, some of them are very honest and will tell you exactly what they think of it!
But most of all, we worry that our new book will be largely ignored – no reviews, no reader letters, no sales.
Yet still we write . . . we can’t help but write!
I’ve just sent Amy …
Writers’ routines – from Patricia to Isabel, and even Jack Kerouac
Interesting piece in the Irish Times the other day by Frank McNally about writers and how they start their writing day.
Here’s Isabel Allende on the subject: ‘I light some candles for the spirits and the muses. I meditate for a while. I always have fresh flowers and incense. And I open myself completely to the experience that begins in that moment . . . And slowly the story seems to unfold itself, in spite of me.’
Patricia Scanlan also lights candles before she starts writing, and says a little writing prayer.
Jack Kerouac went about things a little differently. ‘You think about what actually happened, you tell friends long stories about it, you mull it over in your mind, you connect it together at leisure, then when the time comes to pay the rent again, you force yourself to sit at the typewrite, or at the writing notebook and get it over with as fast as you can.’
And Patrick Dennis (no, me neither. Apparently he was a big writer in the 1950’s.) said ‘I always start writing with a clean piece of paper and a dirty mind.’…
The Best Books on Writing I’ve Ever Read
I’ve been rubbish at writing decent blogs recently, so I thought I’d knuckle down and do a useful one for all you keen writers out there. So here’s a list of some of my favourite books on writing and why I like them.
Now and again most writers need a bit of a kick up the bum, some ‘just-get-on-with-it’ encouragement, and a good writing book does just that. It can also inspire or simply give you time out and make you think.
Currently I’m bang smack in the middle of a big rewrite of Amy Green book 3. I know where I’m going – which is brilliant – but it’s taking a little while to get there! I am enjoying it, but it’s bloody hard work at the moment and I need to get it finished by the end of Jan, so I can write Amy 4.
Writing to deadlines is tricky but I guess after 10 years or so I’m used to it. And if you really need more time, editors are usually pretty nice about it. I’ve had to delay books before – mainly due to the birth of Amy …
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