The Yeovil Literary Prize

I am very proud and excited to report that the results of the Yeovil competition are up. It is so exciting to see your name in print! That's hugely validating for someone like me, who hasn't yet had the big rubber stamp called Publication, that suggests you are on the right path.  Here's the results page, and congratulations to all the writers mentioned on it! Especially the winner, of course, Susan Luddem, whose book looks intriguing.

Meanwhile, the news from the the other book - The Secrets of Life and Death - is still waiting, but despite the long time involved, editors are still considering the book, and one has also requested a synopsis of the sequel. My agent sounds cautiously optimistic that we will get an offer, but I've got to adrenaline burn out at the moment, and am happy just to see what happens. Meanwhile, my MA dissertation goes in next week and then I will get on with my next project and editing A Baby's Bones. I've had some great feedback and am ready to put them into the next draft. 

Making a series

I've had some really useful feedback on A Baby's Bones, now finished in second draft. It made me wonder whether the books are about one central character, who needs to be used more consistently. In Baby's Bones, he's a small but important part of the book; in The Secrets of Life and Death, he is a POV character and a major player. 

Meanwhile, I'm waiting to hear back from my agent to see if anyone is interested in Secrets while I power on (for fun) with a book I wrote years ago and I have completely re-imagined with just the central characters. One of them is so charming and funny and so dangerous, he is delightful to write. The main character is damaged and lost, but clinging to her sense of self and what's left of her sanity. The two of them make an interesting story which is really about survival of self against terrible odds. I'm just writing a page, but as I don't have a title I'll call it Caitlin's book until I come up with something (anything!) better.

I've also written a rationale for my MA dissertation. I've been conflicted about how much use the MA was to me as a writer. Honestly, on the one hand it was helpful because I did finish a book to 'markable' standard and it did do well in a competition. It's made me a lot more aware of what I'm doing as a writer, and it made me read a lot of books which informed my writing. It forced me to pull my poetry up considerably. It also (brilliantly) introduced me to people working in the industry, and how it works, which has perhaps made me a bit more patient with the long wait to find out how my novel fared in the hands of the editors. 

What it also did was make me read a lot of theory which is only peripherally helpful, and some wasn't useful for my work at all.  There was no help in novel writing specifically.

I miss the challenges and opportunities of classes. I mostly miss the feedback, though I was lucky enough to meet two writers who have helped enormously by beta reading my novels. I wish there was something locally where I could get that level of feedback. 

Eight Drafts

Some years ago, I thought all I had to do to write a book was...well, write it. There would be a few typos to correct, of course, and a few awkward sentences to improve on but basically, that was it. Apparently, thousands of other people had the same idea, and wrote their books.

Learning about creative writing suggested there would have to be a bit more rewriting than I had supposed. Clichés to root out, every sentence has to make sense and be clear to the reader, who sadly, wasn't psychic. Then there was grammar, spelling, formatting, pace, descriptions, dialogue, hooks, scenes and chapters to think about. 

So I took my first draft of Borrowed Time, and I substantially redrafted it. I changed the ending, changed the relationship between the characters, worried about point of view and tense and perspective and pace.

Realising I was relying on a  lot of back-story for the research, I wrote a historical strand and threaded it into the third draft. I realised at this point that that was what I was doing, writing a new draft. 

Pace was still a problem, and when an agent came into the process, she suggested changes that would help that. The fourth draft was rewritten to be more for an adult audience, more tense, more at stake for the protagonists, more secrets to be revealed.

Draft five, six, seven and eight were less work each time, but still substantially changed the book. Just before it was sent to editors, it was still having chapters moved about, and had had a thousand word or punctuation edits. One thousand. Many were adverbs being ruthlessly trimmed. Many were debates about hyphenated words, consistency of capitalising words or spelling of names. 

Many people self-publish, and I don't have a problem with it. But please, please, give your book the same care and effort you would for a mainstream publisher. If I pay for a self-published book, I expect no less. Indeed, I may be paying a similar amount. I recently bought an e-book by another blogger. I couldn't read it. The first time you hit something that jars, you lose the thread. By the third one - on page one - I knew I couldn't read it for pleasure. Edit until you can't see the problems, then hand it to someone who will.

Novels aren't written, they are redrafted, rewritten, polished and edited. And so they should be - our characters and stories deserve nothing less.

New book coming on well

A Baby's Bones is already looking much more slick than Secrets. I've learned so much from writing that book, it seems to have streamlined the process. I entered a first sample (about 11k words) and a full synopsis to the Yeovil literary prize, and was informed some months later that I came second! Even more exciting was the feedback I received:

'An excellently, richly imagined and deftly plotted story that keeps revealing new layers as it progresses. The weaving of present and past is expertly done, and the authorial voice is confident and sophisticated. All the different elements are woven together perfectly here: story, character development, setting and atmosphere.' Wow. *blush* And £250 on its way.

The judge was Sophie Hannah, whose work I admire and enjoy. It did kick start the last push to complete the book, and I'm now doing one big rewrite to catch the loose ends, odd story wrinkles and make sure I put descriptions in. It should be ready mid-September for a structural edit, anyway.

My poetry managed the shortlist in the Mslexia poetry prize, which was encouraging, as I don't have much time for poetry at the moment. Nor, sadly, do I have much time for the kids' book, Marley and the Crow, but I'm enjoying the novel writing too much to be diverted.

Sadly, I haven't heard about The Secrets of Life and Death and its weeks at various editors. It's still there, and a lot of people are taking their summer breaks, so it's taking its own time. Frustrating, but the stress just makes me write more, so it's not unproductive time. More news when I have it! 

The joys of research

The sequel to The Secrets of Life and Death will finish up the Kelley story. I've followed him into Venice, off to Bohemia and into trouble with Dee's wife. Research, like the Tudor manor reading I did for Vincent, the 1580s narrator in A Baby's Bones, just draws me in with potential stories. The commonsensical part of me says if I haven't been able to find a publisher for book 1, is it worth writing book 2? But the other part of me has to know what happens next. This is the most satisfying part of writing for me - telling myself the story.

If someone had asked me five years ago what I'd end up writing, I probably would have said crime. Four years ago, historical fiction, three years ago, women's fiction. I've tried them, but somehow, I'm back where I started, in love with the fantastical element of magic, or ghosts, or possession. And it does make the research so fascinating. For Elizabeth Bathory, for example, I joined a fan website which refers to her as 'Our Lady', which is strange but kind of endearing. They did glorify her, which is a bit harder to take, given that she certainly was responsible for the deaths of a number of children. Sometimes the truth is really weirder than fiction, and that's where good research takes you.

I've also found myself sketching a brief history, just to show a reader where the known facts, as much as they can be verified, end and the storytelling and imagination take over.

Rebecca Alexander. Writer.

I was hugely honoured to be invited to a networking event run by New Writing North. Having been to Newcastle for an all day session of practicing my pitch, I was at least informed a) that I cannot pitch a book for toffee and b) The Secrets of Life and Death is hard to pitch anyway. I spent some time the day before in Waterstones in Durham, and realised the book would be hard to place on the shelf. Alongside the Gothic books, maybe, like Kelly Armstrong. Or, just with the 'A's in the fiction walls.

The networking event allowed us Full Nine Yarners to finally meet in person, and in a room full of editors, agents and other publishing notables. A lovely evening, and especially lovely to meet the other writers. Many were from New Writing North, though I didn't have much time to chat to any of them because they were busy - networking and pitching.

That's not to say it hasn't been pitched, though, but by someone with a lot more experience, my agent. She sent it off to sixteen editors, and after a time, two more asked to see it. Now, most of this people have passed on the book, which was expected, but a few would like more time to consider it. The deadline has been set for the 16th of August, so I'll know one way or the other by then.

I should also have finished the second draft of A Baby's Bones, at least the contemporary strand by then. I was thrilled to receive a letter saying it had been shortlisted from over 1000 entries and is through to the next round in the Yeovil literary competition. It's a helpful affirmation that the book is working, although I have made it darker in the transition between first and second draft. I'm hoping to have a coherent, finished draft including the historical strand, by the end of August, ready to finish my MA dissertation and hopefully, put a children's novel I wrote last year in to the Mslexia children's novel competition. I don't think writing children's fiction is my forte, I don't read enough any more to be current with what is a fast moving market. But I really love the characters!

But for me, at the moment, having wandered around in a room full of writers and publishy people, a huge satisfaction was wearing a little badge with "Rebecca Alexander. Writer."

Enjoying writing again

The process of writing five novels in five years has been a great lesson. I've discovered my way of writing, inefficient though it seems even to me. A Baby's Bones is coming along nicely. It hit 40k with lots of loose ends, a rather banal main character and very uncertain tone. Is is a scary thriller, or a bit of a historical romance? So, three days of analysing it, summarising the scenes and creating a new structure has brought the story forward, added a subplot, strengthened the scary elements and evened the pace up a bit. I have now a list of scenes divided into chapters of a contemporary strand that mirrors or hints at events in 1580. I'm looking forward to filling in the words. 


The book (The Secrets of Life and Death) is out to editors, and my job is to stay serenely calm and rise above the waiting. Well, it's a nice thought, but to be honest, I've just distracted myself with the book (good), the kids that are returning from college and university like swallows, and planning my first holiday away with my husband in several years. One week in the Lake District followed by a 'How to Pitch your Book' workshop in Nottingham. Hopefully by then, I'll have heard something.


Meanwhile, if Secrets actually finds a publisher I can get on with the book I'm dying to write, part two of Kelley and Dee's adventures, and what happened next to Jack and Sadie! I've had loads of ideas, and have been sketching out scenes and ideas. I always write two books at a time, so it won't be difficult to write Bones alongside it.