Pushing doors. Aiming high. Dreaming big!

  After working tirelessly away on my first novel: Meet Me in the Treehouse, I am pleased to say that it is two thirds finished. However, ‘finished’ is a strange concept when writing a novel, something I now know only too well. Even when you have a ‘finished manuscript’ (if we are speaking technically), there are many revisions and tweaks required before it is ready to send to anyone in the professional realm. I have just spent the past few weeks polishing my first three chapters, because as some of you may be aware, I am entering the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller 2016 competition. Not only have I been polishing my first three chapters for the competition submission, rearranging words, moving comma’s, taking out nonsense, or as my cousin Jayne pointed out: the millionth reference to a cup of tea in 9 paragraphs! (Come on, I live in Derbyshire! They drink a lot of tea here!) I also had to write a one page synopsis of the plot, and the main characters, which had to reveal the ending (*Spoiler alert*). Don’t worry, I won’t be sharing that on here, you will all have to wait for the book to be published. The synopsis, along with the first three chapters, will be how the judges decide if they want to shortlist my novel and read the ‘finished manuscript’.  

In order to write the dreaded synopsis, where I was to condense my 80,000 words into an A4 sheet of paper, I locked myself away in my house for an entire weekend, where I tore up numerous sheets of paper, and threw them around the room creating an almost wintery landscape on my living room carpet. I decided on more than one occasion that I couldn’t do it, and that I would rather write another novel than my synopsis, almost giving up entirely. Eventually at around midnight, I typed for an hour and forty minutes and suddenly had one page of words that I was happy with.

My second task was to write an author bio…this was turning into the highest staked job application process of my life. I think we’ve all been there, our dream job within grasp, where we’ve needed to write that killer CV or supporting statement on an application. The synopsis, author bio, and my first three chapters are my killer CV/supporting statement, and I need to make them all stand out. What can an unpublished writer possibly say? It’s the age old issue of how to get a job with no experience. Do I babble on about my favourite authors, who I aspire to be like? Do I say that I love writing? Well I don’t think anyone writes an 80,000 word novel that doesn’t love to write. After a few Google searches, I concluded that I would rather write another synopsis than try and write a bio about myself (and that's saying something!). Having said that, I do now have a bio to add to my synopsis that I am also happy with (*big sigh of relief!).

All I have left to do is polish chapter three and I am ready to submit (Insert grimacing faced emoji, alongside weary cat faced emoji here). Then it will be the agonising wait to hear if I have been shortlisted on June 30^th, where successful authors will have until December to send in their completed novel for judging. The winner is announced in Jan 2017.

I know that thousands entered last time, and only seven people were shortlisted, so it’s a long shot, but I am proud of myself for entering. I am proud that I believe in my writing, and my story enough to put it out there and have it judged. Something that started as a hobby has now turned into a passion for writing that makes me want more. I’m daring to dream that one day I may be able to write part time, or full time, who knows? I started the novel with the hope of being able to check off an item on my ‘life’s to do list’:

·         Write a novel (Check!)

Now I have added to the list: 

·         ‘Get my novel published’

·         ‘Make a career out of writing’

I didn’t expect writing to mean so much to me. I didn’t expect I would be any good at it. I certainly didn’t expect people to react as positively to it as they have. I’ve found something that I love to do, something that gives me an excited feeling in the pit of my stomach for what the future may hold. So I’m aiming high. I’m pushing doors, and I’m daring to dream big, because I love the story I’ve written, and I hope that one day it will be published, and that you will all love reading it as much as I have loved writing it.    

I will keep you all updated.
Please keep your fingers and toes crossed for me.

KT x