Category: writing workshop

THE WRITING LIFE – a great big scary decision!

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So, major decision since my last post. After weeks of being stuck, hours upon hours upon hours of thinking so hard I thought my brain might explode, and more importantly, in-depth discussions with my agent, I have decided to put aside the novel I was working on (my fourth) and start something completely new. Arghhhhhhh!

I feel the need for a calming image here…

That’s better. Now, a few deep breaths…

Okay, so yes, that’s what I’ve decided. Altogether, I’d written about 70,000 words, 45,000 of which I really liked, although after chatting with my agent, I can see now that I’ve not quite shown my character on paper as she is in my head. That can be fixed. But what can’t be fixed without extensive rewriting and rethinking, is the story – or lack of it – which is why I’ve decided to put this one side, possibly for a couple of years.

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that What She Lost, my third novel which is out in January, caused me some serious problems and it too, required extensive rewriting – I think I rewrote around 75% to 80%, and it’s now much nearer to the novel I had in my head when I started writing it.

Iris Murdoch said, ‘every book is the wreck of the perfect idea’ and that pretty much sums up my experience lately. It’s so frustrating to have an idea that is close to your heart, to have something to say that you feel is important and not be able to say it in a truthful and engaging way. I’m now pleased with What She Lost, but it did require an enormous amount of work, which I was only able to embark on after my editor and agent read the first draft and we had a long, creative meeting to thrash out some of the difficulties.

This time, my agent has read a sizeable chunk of my draft and confirmed my biggest fear – there wasn’t really enough to keep the reader turning the page. There are other problems too, of course, but I know how to fix those. The bigger issue is that my story just isn’t strong enough at the moment. This is partly to do with the structure, the order in which events occur, but I think I’ve maybe come at the whole thing from the wrong angle.

If I’m honest, what I have is interesting characters and an interesting situation – but that ain’t a story! So I need to do a lot more thinking in order to find a new way of approaching this novel. I’ve created a folder on my desktop into which I’ve put all my existing notes and drafts for that novel, and to which I will add whenever thoughts occur to me. In a couple of years from now, I hope to return to this character I love so much – I’ve called her Eunice Shaw – and create a story around her that I’ll be proud of.

In the meantime, I’m in the very early stages of exploring a new idea. This time, on the advice of my agent, I’m going to attempt to write a detailed synopsis before I start writing. It’s something I’ve tried (and failed) to do before, but now, having had the experience of going so massively wrong with two novels, I’m going to do my level best to find a more efficient approach.

I will, as always, keep you posted on my progress (or otherwise…).

In other news:

  • Both my existing novels, The Things We Never Said, and The Secrets We Left Behind, Are on special e-book promotion for the rest of this month (June 2016). The Things We Never Said is less than a bus fare at 99p, and The Secrets We Left Behind is 1.99 – less than a decent coffee! (Click links to buy) 
  • Workshops: the last in the current series of our How to Write a Novel workshops is on 23rd of July and there are still places available. It’s just £40 for the whole day. This workshop will focus on how to get published – writing a synopsis, approaching agents, etc. We’ll also look at traditional versus self-publishing. These workshops have been so popular that we’ve decided to run the whole programme again starting in September. Full details  here

Also, as I say from time to time, it’s great when a reader takes the trouble to leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads – it helps authors enormously, and it really doesn’t have to be very long. In fact, I’ve just received one of the nicest short reviews I’ve ever had:

This book captured the modern day and the 60s beautifully. It captured everything perfectly. I don’t remember many authors names, I will remember Susan Elliot Wright.


Isn’t that lovely? Thank you, dear reader.

THE WRITING LIFE – I THINK WE HAVE A TITLE…

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The title is often the first thing the author writes – it goes at the top of the page, just before ‘Chapter One’. In my case, however, it’s almost the last thing, coming somewhere between ‘The End’ and ‘Aknowledgements’. I am so rubbish at titles, certainly where my own work is concerned, and I think that may be because I’m so focused on what happens in the story that I’m less able to look at it in terms of what’s going to make the reader pick the book up.

Anyway, after many lists of suggestions and emails back and forth between myself, my editor, and my agent, we are all pretty much agreed that WHAT SHE LOST is snappy, easy to remember, and alludes to the various losses (not necessarily deaths) experienced by the two central characters, Eleanor and Marjorie. The book is about a mother and daughter and how their relationship is affected by the misunderstandings and miscommunications that occur between them over the years.

The title isn’t absolutely, positively confirmed yet – my editor wants to run it by the rest of the team at Simon & Schuster, but I feel fairly confident that they’ll all agree. There’s now a blurb on all the bookselling sites, too, which is very exciting (although it needs a bit of a tweak).

So, that’s where I’m up to with book 3, or, as I now think of it, WHAT SHE LOST.

Book 4 is coming along. I’m at 45,000 words now, and I’m very happy with what I’ve written (which makes a nice change for me!) However, as expected, I have now hit a bit of a wall. I’m on the last few scenes of the 1960s thread, and now I have to think of a way to come into that story from the present. The original idea I had simply didn’t work once I started planning it out properly, so I’ll have to think of something else. I have a few ideas, but as fellow authors will know, you can’t really tell whether it will work or not until you actually start writing it. I’ll keep you posted!

Since my last post, my Writing Life has included co-tutoring an all-day character workshop with fellow Sheffield writer Russell Thomas. We had some lovely comments from all 12 participants on the feedback forms, and Russ and I thoroughly enjoyed it, too. We’re running a series of How to Write a Novel workshops, all of which can be taken separately. The next one is on 19 March, and at the time of writing, there are three places remaining. It’s only £40 for the whole day – grab a bargain! Details of all the workshops can be found here

If you saw my last blog post, you’ll know that a couple of health-related books I wrote a few years ago have recently been reissued in updated form. When Someone You Love Has Dementia and Overcoming Emotional Abuse are probably the ones I’m most proud of among my non-fiction work, and it was particularly lovely this week to receive an email from a reader of Overcoming Emotional Abuse telling me that the book had changed her life and helped her on the way to to recovery and healing following an abusive relationship. It’s always lovely to hear from a reader when your book has meant something to them, but it’s even more wonderful to know that it’s actually helped them!

If you’d like to know more about me and my work, or if you’d like to book on one of our courses, please visit my website. It would also be great if you could like my Facebook page and follow me on
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