Simple Ways to Write, Publish, Market a Debut Novel: Intimate Letters from Published Authors — Book

Hello, dear readers!

A 'short' while ago (summer of 2018) I started a non-fiction project titled Simple Ways to Write, Publish, Market a Debut Novel (+ Intimate Testimonials from Published Authors).

Because of various things going on in my life (working on several fiction books, turning my newest release —Whispers and Other Strange Stories — in audio book format, and some health issues) this particular book is taking me longer to publish.

I have, therefore, decided to release extracts from my project here, on my website. These extracts are from Part 4 of the Simple Ways book, titled Intimate Love Letters: From Published Authors to Aspiring Authors. They contain, as the name suggests, letters I have gathered from authors about their journey to, through, and after publication. These are the questions I have asked them to specifically write to me (and you) about:

How was the experience of writing your first / debut novel? What is some (brief) advice you would give to aspiring novelists now?

What are the essential things to do, and others to avoid, to make a good start as a writer and aspiring author?

How has writing the first novel influenced writing your second one, and/or your writing career in general?

What did you learn the most from this author journey you’ve been on so far?

What lessons have you learned about life from reading?

What book changed your life that you would also give to a friend’s child on their 18th birthday?

What would you tell your 16-year-old self if you could go back in time ‘disguised’ as a stranger?

What is one thing that always makes you smile?

‘The thing’ of your choice can be tangible or intangible and doesn’t have to be writing related. Can also be a pet, person, book, movie, poem, memory, etc. If you’d like to mention more than one ‘thing’, please do.

I will be releasing their 'letters' one by one, every week or so, in the order they got back to me.

I hope you enjoy them and find them useful. I love reading them and think are most enlightening, especially to aspiring authors, but also to seasoned ones. It is always great to learn from others.

This fourth letter is from Peggy Riley. Peggy Riley is a writer and playwright living on the North Kent coast. Her first novel, Amity & Sorrow was published by Little, Brown (USA/Canada), Headline/Tinder Press (UK/Commonwealth/Ireland, and was translated for publication in France, Italy and the Netherlands. Her short fiction has been published in MsLexia and the Sunday Express and was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize in 2011 and the Costa Short Story Award 2015. As a playwright, she was a Writer-on-attachment at Soho Theatre; her work has been commissioned and produced off-West End, on the fringe, on tour and for radio. Recently, she completed a fellowship at Yaddo and was a recipient of a Grant for the Arts from Arts Council England. She has worked as a bookseller, a festival producer, and writer-in-residence at a young offender prison.

You can find and follow her here:

Peggy Riley

—

Dear Writer:

And you are a writer, if you’re writing. If you are writing, you are a writer. There is no distinction between “levels”. Of course, once you are published you are also an author, but it is the writing that is important. To be a writer, you must write and keep writing, even when it’s hard. Especially once it’s hard.

Writing my first novel, Amity & Sorrow, feels like a long time ago now, because so much has changed for me. I had been a writer for a long time, but not a novelist. I trained as a playwright, so writing my first novel meant grappling with prose as a means of communication, of trying to learn to deliver story not solely through dialogue. I spent a lot of time grappling with the form. It felt freer than drama — there were fewer conventions and constraints. There is more room on the page and more words allowed to tell the story. There were joy and fear in this freedom. I took my time in writing my first novel, seeking to understand how I wanted to write and the kinds of stories I wanted to tell. Try to enjoy the process of your first novel, savouring the freedom you have for exploration. After your first novel, everything will feel a bit more pointed. You’ll be a little more self-conscious, a little more aware of what comes after the writing — when it is only the writing that matters, as you begin.

It is essential to read, as a writer. More than likely, you loved to read as a child. You probably read everything you could get your hands on, filling yourself with words and stories until they began to spill out of you. It was only natural that you would begin to want to tell them. We are storytelling animals — we make sense of our world through stories. Stories give us empathy, perspective, and guidance, the ability to understand cause and effect. The more you write, try to keep the love of reading, though sometimes this won’t be easy. I struggle with this, anyway. My head is so busy, so full of my own book, that I often struggle to finish other people’s. Writing, I’m looking for confirmation of what I’m trying to write, hoping to find it in other books. But, of course, this book doesn’t exist, because I’m trying to write it. Still, persevere. We must keep putting words back in, the more we spill them out. Read fiction and non-fiction, read poetry and plays. Read science and history and anything else that turns you on and makes you want to read more. Read books on writing, but in short doses. These books, like these letters, will only tell you how someone else writes. You are learning how you write. (I have 2 shelves of how-to books. I use them more for planning workshops now than for my own craft, but I do use them. My favourite is Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life.) Get a good foundation in the world’s oldest stories, so that you’ll understand references in your reading, from fairy tales to ancient myths and legends from all cultures, works of faith and history from the Bible to the Mabinogion. As a young reader, I read voraciously, devouring the children’s section as well as trying to read books that I knew were “too old” for me. Continue to challenge yourself as a reader.

As a young writer, I read more plays than anything, unsurprising, as I was studying to be a playwright. This reading shaped how I understood conflict, setting and characters. Had I been a young novelist, I would have had a different frame of reference. What books stay with me from my late teens and early 20s? Classics: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice. Feminist poetry and novels: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, early work by Margaret Atwood and Angela Carter, as well as feminist histories such as Riane Eisler’s The Chalice and the Blade. These books helped me to find myself and my own emotional community. Were I to offer a young writer a gift for an 18th birthday, why not Ariel, Sylvia Plath’s last collection, her brutal masterpiece?

Aside from reading, you must write. How often? When? Where? Those things are up to you. You might set a specific time of day aside – or you might write in the cracks of your life, between your other obligations. Both methods work. You might write in a library, at a fancy desk, or in your car. You might write at dawn or midnight, or during your lunch breaks, or only on the weekends. Many writers will advise to write every day. I do, in the form of morning pages. Julia Cameron made this idea popular in “The Artist’s Way”, but it is an idea from Dorothea Brande’s “Becoming a Writer”, published in 1934. Both writers advocate writing first thing in the morning, 3 sheets of A4 before you are properly awake. But this is only advice. I write my morning pages in the morning, but you can do them any time you like. I write them on my laptop, at a site called 750words.com. (As with any advice you’re given, take what works for you and discard what doesn’t.) Morning pages trains practice, to keep your fingers moving. There is a freedom in writing faster than you can doubt yourself. Avoid self-doubt. That is what morning pages continues to train in me.

Writing Amity & Sorrow changed how I write, but having it published changed my life. I was fortunate to work with excellent editors, designers, publicists and booksellers; I received tremendous support from book bloggers, festivals, reviewers and readers. The process confirmed that I was on the right track, as a writer, and that there were readers for my dark little tales. I had several careers before I began to write novels, so my process hasn’t been straightforward, to say the least: I’ve produced festivals, designed and managed shows and tours, worked in literature development, run workshops in all manner of places, and was writer-in-residence at a prison. Now, I write and I teach writing — and my first novel brought about that change. If I were to bump into my 16-year-old self, I think I would have tremendous empathy. I would be meeting a young, hopeful dreamer, trying to make sense of a bewildering world, a young girl trying to do her best and be her best, all while dealing with catastrophic loss and change. I would want to tell her something to ease her journey, something like — not him, not that, not there — but I am a culmination of all my adventures, good and ill, my attempts, successes and miscalculations. If I were to change anything, who knows where I would end up? I guess I would just say — keep going. And I’ll say that to you now.

Keep going — Peggy Riley