Wednesday 8 February 2012

Never Trust a Misfit!

It’s confession time here at Mummy Misfit corner this morning.  Remember that promise I made to myself about not writing until Easter?  Well I broke it …

I’ve kept the part where I said I’d be doing lots of promoting - I’ve done guest blog spots and author interviews, sent my sequel out to be reviewed and sales have been encouraging.  So that makes me a good girl.

But promoting is BORING!  I know I have to do it to get the books out there and talked about, but it’s just such a constant slog - often with little reward.

So, when a tiny little seed of a book grew into something with roots, I found I couldn’t ignore it any more.  I told myself I’d just write Chapter One and see if I liked it.  The trouble was, 4,000 words in, I liked it quite a bit and the characters were determined to keep me going.

I made it to the end of January without writing but now I think I’m on a path where there’s no going back.  This has got me thinking about what I’ve learned about myself as a writer in the past few years:

THE MISFIT WRITER

  1. I’m fickle.  I make promises to myself I can’t keep.  I am never to be trusted again!
2.      When I need to write, I need to write.  No point trying to stop me.
3.      When I don’t want to write, I can sometimes push myself - not always, sometimes.
4.      I’m amazed by how a germ of an idea can turn into a fully rounded story if you have the right characters.  Three plot-lines have literally popped into my head from nowhere for this new book, just because they were the right things for the characters as they developed.
5.      I don’t argue with my editor (husband) anymore.  I’ve told him nothing about the plot of this book so he’s discovering it as a reader would.  If something isn’t clear or doesn’t ring true, I need to listen to my ‘reader’ and address it.
6.      I know (I hope) when a book is ready to be written.  I’ve cast aside a 35,000 word work in progress to write this new novel because it just wasn’t the right book for me at the time.
7.      I now know, for sure, that I can’t over-plan.  If I already know the whole story I get bored and I don’t want to write it.  I like to be surprised as a writer as well as a reader.  I listen to my characters really carefully now and see what it is that they’re trying to tell me.
8.      I’ve stopped looking at writing a book as a mammoth task.  It’s a journey from A to B which involves getting a certain amount of words down on paper every day.  Simples!
9.      Teenage sons are incredibly useful when you need to know slang words used by their generation.  There are 19-year-old twin boys in this new book and my son’s input has been invaluable.
10.  I’m terrified of breaking out of the Mummy Misfit mould.  I know that my readers have enjoyed Libby and her adventures.  What if they don’t want me to leave the diaries and write a novel with new characters and plot?  Also I’d got the seal of approval from an agent and major publishing houses with Mummy Misfit - I knew I was on to something that could possibly pass muster.  This ‘Book Three’, as it’s called, won’t be afforded that luxury.  It will go out into the big, wide world, virgin-like and exposed.

So there you go.  Heart on sleeve time.  Watch this space and I’ll keep you posted on the exciting and terrifying birth of a new book.

BOOK THREE!

My first two novels, Diary of a Mummy Misfit and The Darker Side of Mummy Misfit, are NOT my mad musings - they are novels with characters and plots!  Give them a whirl!  On Kindle at Amazon and in paperback at Lulu.

3 comments:

  1. Just finished the two Misfit Mum books and thoroughly enjoyed them. Now, as the mother of a teen lad (15 today!), I can look forward to new adventures that will include twin adolescent boys in the cast list. Keep writing!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm glad you've given in to writing. Like you say, when it comes, it's something you NEED to do! I was beginning to worry about your abstaining - you're depriving us all of your brill words of wisdom. Will really look forward to this one as well. It's in you girl - go give it to us! It's your job.X

    ReplyDelete
  3. Best of luck with the journey, Amanda. It's interesting to follow your 'pain' on your blog along the way.

    ReplyDelete