January 20, 2017 @ 5:01 AM

 

Seven sensible steps to success as a writer

Step 1 (continued): Inspiration….

 

I’ve published eighteen books in my career – but only twice has the Muse whispered and a book leapt fully formed into my mind.

 

The first was The Grandfather Clock. A thought struck in the bathroom one day: ‘What about a girl who gets trapped inside a grandfather clock, and the only way out is to climb the chain and through the clockwork until she falls into the picture on the dial?’

 

I have such a clock at home. The idea must have worked itself out in my unconscious before surfacing. But it became so compelling that I could only start to write it down.

 

It was like taking dictation. .........

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January 13, 2017 @ 4:25 AM

Seven sensible steps to success as a writer.

 

Step 1: Have something worthwhile to say...

 

It might seem an odd way to start by posing the question, ‘Do I really need to write this book? Does the world want it?’

But unless you’re motivated as a writer by something other than vanity and a desire to see your name on a book cover (in which case a mock up of the phone directory would do), it’s a fair question to ask.

After all, so many thousands of new books are published in print and electronically every year, it’s quite a healthy exercise to ask yourself if you need to add another to the stack?

And if the idea has really gripped you so strongly that it’s like an obsession .........

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January 9, 2017 @ 7:07 AM

 

Next steps...

I've mentioned the first seven steps towards success as a writer. But of course there is an eighth step … and a ninth, a tenth and many more.

In large part they concern the business of writing: the myriad questions of design, illustration, cover art, marketing, promotion, and networking that are ever more important for a writer to understand in these days.

There was a time, not so very long ago, when an author generally left these matters to other professionals.
But with the extraordinary growth of the Internet and self-publishing in recent years, not any more.

These are things that authors increasingly  have to understand and master for ourselves.

But insofar as this series of posts is ...
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