Back in January I decided to write a series of posts on here which focused on what my writing life has been like over the years. I wanted to share specific aspects that I thought might be helpful for writers just starting out, and also for seasoned writers who maybe just needed a reminder that we all experience very similar highs and lows, and to offer some encouragement to keep going during times you question your sanity, or ask yourself if it’s all worth it.
Over the past couple of months I’ve found it particularly difficult to focus on my writing. I’ve been struggling with tiredness and brain fog, a combination which isn’t great when you’re trying to plot and write a new book. But I’ve been determined to keep getting words down on paper/screen, and keep telling myself the first draft does not need to be perfect.
Embarking on a new book has reminded me of two important things:
It’s important to keep showing up
Each book takes shape in a different way
For my new project I’m trying to get words down not every day, but every week. That’s a win for me just now, and keeps the momentum going. Even although I was knackered yesterday I made myself sit down at my laptop and continue with my next chapter. I’m also doing my usual; scribbling notes in various notebooks and on the notes page on my phone. These pages are filled with plot ideas, characters and locations, that don’t yet have a place on the page, but I know they might eventually fit in somewhere, and it keeps the story ‘alive’ in my head. For me this is all part of the process.
I’d say so far my ‘work in progress’ is a bit messier than usual and as the book will require a lot of detailed description (to world build), I’m finding this is slowing down my natural writing style (which is usually a bit more dialogue heavy). I’m allowing myself to skirt over parts of the descriptions and will go back to fill it in later on. I know I’ll then enjoy it more because by then I’ll be able to see the whole plot laid out in front of me, and see what I need to do to enrich the world and bring it alive (hopefully) for the reader.
I usually like to edit and perfect my story as I go along, so I’m finding it challenging to allow myself to leave messy pages sitting in amongst the more polished ones. I’m used to writing contemporary stories, and this one has a magical element sitting alongside the everyday, so it’s teaching me that it’s okay to deviate from my usual way of working, as its a completely different style of story I am writing.
So as I draw this particular series to an end, if you have been embarking on a new creative project this year, or find yourself at the start of a new writing journey, my parting advice to you is simple:
Keep showing up.
No matter how messy your project might be looking right now, write through it, and come back and tidy up later on.
Watch this space for some insights into other writers’ journeys. I’ve not quite decided what this might look like, but after capturing some of my own experiences over the years, it’s made me curious to hear from other writers, and see what words of wisdom they might have to offer too.
Happy writing!
Here are links to all of the previous posts of the series for easy access:
This time last year I released my Young Adult crossover thriller Young Blood out into the world so I thought I’d do a post to mark the milestone.
This week I am also running a give-away alongside Ornate Alchemy on Instagram, where you can win one of their beautiful custom-made Bloodstone pendants , and a signed copy of Young Blood. If you live in the UK head over to our Instagram pages to enter: @victoriagemmellauthor@ornatealchemy You have until 5pm Friday!
It always feels strange once a book reaches publication. You spend years perfecting the story, (I’ve not yet mastered a quick turn-around), pouring a lot of heart and soul into the pages, spending hours with the characters in their world, and then suddenly it’s not just in your head anymore; it’s out there on paper for anyone to read. And then you go through a mix of emotions when you realise people are buying the book and actually reading it. What will they think? Will they enjoy it? Will they get past chapter one? Will they like that character as much as you enjoyed writing them? Will they get angry and emotional in the right places? It always delights me (and fills me with relief), when someone tells me they finished my book and loved it. This happened actually at the weekend when a friend’s mother-in-law told me how much she enjoyed Young Blood and was interested enough about the story to ask me about the inspiration behind it.
She said something along the lines of, ‘You write in a lovely way.’ These kinds of comments are so appreciated; I don’t think people realise how much writers need to hear this sometimes. Not to feed our egos, but to motivate us to keep going. I’m at the early stages of writing a new book just now and it always feels like a tricky stage, when nothing is fully formed and you are constantly questioning if this is any good or if it’s the most boring trite that you’ve ever attempted. The characters haven’t all appeared yet, and the ones who have, are still not showing you their true motivations; the setting is still taking shape, the plot has lots of holes and you’re not quite sure what’s next, but you are hoping if you keep writing all will be revealed.
In Scotland, where I live, we’re not very good at celebrating our achievements, often downplaying ourselves in self deprecating ways. Oh you enjoyed my 100,000 word novel, och that was nothing really. Just a little thing I did. Actually it was a big thing, and I locked myself away in a room by myself for hours on end to get the words just right and showed up, and didn’t give up, and saw it all the way through to the final end of being able to hold the finished copy in my hands…
Here’s some extracts from some favourite feedback and reviews I’ve received about Young Blood since it’s release. One of them was written by my Dad; you might think that’s embarrassing and a total faux pas to even mention, a bit like the bad example pitch emails to agents ‘My Mum told me this is the best thing she’s ever read in her life so I know this is going to be a best-seller.’ But actually my Dad hasn’t read much of my work over the years (no slight to him; he doesn’t read much teen fiction, believe it or not! And now he is retired he also has more time on his hands). I think he was maybe a wee bit surprised by how much he actually enjoyed Young Blood, and I was delighted that he did.
The standard of writing is superb, with excellent descriptions of characters and locations without becoming boring. As the mystery progresses you desperately want to find out what is going to happen. This thriller is a compelling read for the YA market and adults alike and I’m not just saying this because I’m Victoria’s Dad! Great Christmas Gift! (hey people get your Christmas shopping in early! – that’s me adding in this comment)
Wow!
Only 19% in and I was on tenterhooks and by half way through I was desperate to know what happened and took it to bed with me. Definitely not conducive for sleep but I just couldn’t put it down. I loved the twists and turns that had me gasping. Credit for the author. I definitely recommend. A brilliant read!
Thrilling and involving, this is one not to miss.
Young Blood, the latest YA novel by author Victoria Gemmell is not a story for the faint-hearted….These characters are not cardboard cut-outs. They are richly developed, with flaws as well as virtues. Faced with almost impossible choices, a group of teenagers find the courage to challenge the powerful figures behind the conspiracy even though they know that their chances of winning are almost zero.
I was gripped by the story from the start- was a real page turner and was desperate to read on and discover how the plot developed! Can’t wait to read more from this author!
Captivating. This book is made for the big screen.
Great read! Really gripping and loved the character of Hope. Would make a fab film. (Hi, Netflix, are you reading?)
Loved it. Every bit as accomplished as a Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
Have I tempted you yet to take a chance on Young Blood?
If so here’s the links to Amazon to buy: and wider digital channels here: Order into bookshops here and here Abbey Books in Paisley might also still have a copy kicking about
(P.s It’s only £1.99 on kindle just now which is way cheaper than a nice coffee, and it will get your heart racing just as much as caffeine, and the buzz will last longer…)
In my day job I talk about skills and strengths all the time when supporting clients to understand how to make good career decisions and set actions to move forward. Recently whilst speaking to a very intelligent client, (this is not breaching any confidentiality as there will no other identifying features other than saying they were very wise!), they said when reflecting on their own life and career paths they have realised what is the most important thing by far over anything (learning, setting goals, having ambition), is fostering resilience. He said you can set goals but inevitably life serves you a lot of curve balls, often forcing you to recalibrate your goals, or abandon them altogether. He said learning to adapt and understanding how to reframe helped him stay resilient and adapt throughout his career.
It was refreshing to hear him say this as it’s a massive part of what I try to help young people I work with in particular understand. I would add self-confidence (and belief), as another very important ingredient to allow you to have the energy to reframe.
If you want to be a writer in the sense of having ambition to be published, (by whatever means), and put your work out into the world to be consumed, two of the most important qualities to develop (alongside your craft!), is resilience and confidence.
In an online writing workshop I delivered back in 2020 (which I had to completely re-write due to the conference being transformed online during a certain pandemic!), I compared the writing journey to a rollercoaster. I am sure many writers have said the same. There are so many highs and lows, often on the same day hand in hand, that it takes a lot of resolve to keep focused on the most important thing:
Your words on the paper; not others
I just came up with that phrase today as a way of reframing my own focus. It seems obvious, when you are writing, to keep focus on your words, but it’s also easy to get pre-occupied by the words of others; reviews, or lack of reviews, rejections, sales reports mocking you with low numbers or zeros…
I’ve written in blog posts before about writers achieving goals, and then feeling they’re still not enough, because we’re always looking ahead to achieve the next one, or make a bigger success of the first one, and all the time dismissing the little wins that a year ago might have felt like a massive win. That can feel like a rollercoaster of reaching the top with one achievement and plummeting if we perceive things don’t go quite as well as planned.
In Aime McNee’s book We Need Your Art, (which I referenced a couple of months ago), in her chapter titled ‘On Failure’, she acknowledges what some of us might label disappointments, but she would rather label failures because she thinks we should embrace failure, as it can make us stronger artists, and encourage us to ‘get better’. I agree with a lot of what she says, as it ties in with one of my first posts on this series where I said I view my writing journey as an apprenticeship, where I am always learning, and as part of that I always want to improve.
She references Carol Dweck’s book Mindset. I’m familiar with Carol Dweck’s work as I attended a full day workshop years ago in my job which focused on her encouragement to foster a ‘Growth Mindset’ and how this should be applied to the school setting, in order to move more towards the attitude that it is okay to fail at things, and actually what is important is the effort you put into trying and learning.
On a recent break a couple of weeks ago I went to see the most spectacular stage show, Moulin Rouge, with my Mum, which was performed at the Edinburgh Playhouse. The whole production was electrifying; the set design, music, singing, dancing and acting. At one point I thought about the hours and sweat and pain that must have gone in to all aspects of the creation of the show, and how gratifying it must have felt for the cast (and hopefully everyone behind the scenes), to see the live reaction from the audience: the full house, the standing ovations, clapping and dancing and signing along at the end, the rapturous applause.
As a writer it is rare you get to have that kind of live reaction with your audience. Unless you do a lot of well-received readings (and I don’t think I’ve ever seen an author during a reading receiving a standing ovation lol). So we’re left to spend hours and hours labouring over our work, releasing it out into the world, and then we have no idea what impact (if any) our work has, unless someone happens to mention to us, or we read a public review. That’s hard! This is something Aimee again mentions in her On Failure chapter, saying ‘Silence is a very specific type of failure.’ (pg 205). When we put our ‘art’ out there and get zero recognition, or engagement.
I see creators on social media talking about this all the time; how they are struggling to get any audience engagement and want to just give up. Just last night I saw a comic strip post by a graphic novelist I follow on Instagram @christinmaricomics, who explores how demoralised she is feeling after the release of her graphic novel (Halfway There) feeling sales are slow, and not getting much recognition (that she perceives anyway) Part of the strip she posted said: ‘…While I don’t think most people make art for wealth or public recognition… those things help us keep making art because it gives our work credit.’ C. Mari I ordered her graphic novel after reading her post, and I’m looking forward to reading it!
When I was sitting in the audience at Moulin Rouge I thought imagine if no one had shown up to see this amazing production, how the creators would have felt, and how sad it would have been for such amazing work never to have reached a wide audience, or been appreciated.
How many creatives must feel this every day: back in the day before streaming the films which ‘released straight to DVD’ instead of the cinema, (but often became massive ‘sleeper hits’ many years later); the bookshop signings where no one shows, or the big retailers choosing to stock already established ‘celebrity’ authors, instead of stocking local authors who are the ones making real connections in local schools but will never reach bigger audiences without commercial outlets promoting them; the musicians who play to empty venues…When Snow Patrol first started to play gigs in Glasgow I was sometimes one of five in the audience at King Tuts and the lead singer Gary would often make a deflated joke about it, but still go on to pour a lot of heart and soul into his performance. Years later they now play to sell-out large stadium gigs so I’m sure he is glad he persisted, and didn’t give up.
According to multiple resources F. Scott Fizgerald’s The Great Gatsby didn’t sell well during his lifetime, and I’m sure we all know the tragic story of Vincent Van Gogh who only sold one painting during his lifetime (The Red Vineyard). How many talented artists never sell one piece of their work, or have it on display?
So many articles or posts about writing focus on surviving the submission process, and the multiple rejections, to get work out there. When I first put ‘my work out there’ I would have really appreciated a post like this, which acknowledges that feeling of rejection you will often experience when the work IS out there, which often hits a lot harder, and that is okay.
Often on social media we present all the highs of our experiences. There are many lows I never talked about when my debut came out: when my books didn’t show up at two big events I was part of (meaning I had no way of selling them to the attending audience); some of the first feedback I ever received was about the typo on the back cover (not my mistake which made it even more deflating!); or that my first ever public published review was quite a dismissive three star one (which wasn’t the issue, I tried to explain to a friend at the time. Three star reviews are part of the deal, and actually could be so much worse, but it was my FIRST one, and the only one showing against my book at the time). Even although I went on to receive many amazing reviews, I never forgot this was my first one, and that the person thought I could basically do a lot better. Agreed, but actually I am so proud of my debut, and there’s a rawness and sense of magic to my writing during that era that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to replicate.
Don’t try to be perfect or live up to others expectations. As a writer it’s your job to provoke many emotions, one of which will be disbelief from others that your work even made its way out into the world in the first place.
‘In the Mind of Gaudi’ Anadol immersive experience at Casa Batllo
One of the biggest challenges you may encounter when trying to write, is finding the head space to write and feel creative. This post is to reassure you that it’s okay to have this frustration. I’ve definitely been feeling this way lately, but I’m trying to just let myself do the things I need to do just now, and know I’ll get back on track soon.
I used to think free time was the problem, but often my free time needs to consist of decompressing and switching off and this will take priority over sitting at a laptop (or notebook) for hours, carving out a story. When I’ve been sitting at a laptop all day in work, filling my head with other peoples’ words and problems, reading through what can be an average of thirty emails a day, making constant calls, taking calls, typing notes…I often need to just take a step back and give my brain some silence. Over the past few weeks we’ve had a bit of a mini heatwave in Scotland, and I feel like this is so rare I would also be silly not to take advantage of being outdoors as much as possible.
This isn’t to say I’ve not been thinking about ideas. I have, and continue to research a new project I’m working on, often scribbling or typing up notes. But I just haven’t formed anything into a coherent order or structured story in a way I’m happy with.
A weeks ago I downloaded a great book onto my kindle called ‘WeNeedYourArt’ (see here to buy) by a writer I follow on Instagram called Aime McNee. Reading this on my commute to work helped me feel like I was carving out some time to acknowledge the need to keep connected to my creativity. At the heart of Aime’s book is giving importance to your art, and an encouragement to share your work. The book has echoes of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron and Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, (and in fact references both), but I loved the honest and accessible way this one is written. Throughout the pages there is a continuous mantra to be confident, stay motivated, and don’t give up, no matter what obstacles you might face along the way. I wanted to read the whole book through before going back to try the re-set exercises. I’m going to set aside one of my lovely new notebooks to try the re-set challenge soon.
Another non-fiction book I’ve been enjoying delving into on my commute is a gift from a creative friend. It’s called Daily Rituals: Women at Work by Mason Currey, and documents the daily routines of well-known female ‘creatives’~ writers, painters, composers, singers, filmmakers. I’m half-way through the book and the majority of the artists mentioned dedicated most of their day to their creative practice – sometimes a solid 12 hour plus day of being immersed in a world of art. I don’t think I would want that either. So how do you find the balance?
When my husband asked me the other day, what helps you get into a writing state of mind? I had a proper think about this. When I write my best work it’s when I have switched into what I call an unconscious kind of flow state; I don’t think about writing or what I’m trying to achieve, I just let the words flow. A bit like what he was doing when he was driving. A bit like what happens if you’re playing the piano and don’t need to look at the notes or concentrate – you let the music take over. Listening to music can also help me get into this state of mind; particularly if an album starts to become the ‘soundtrack’ of the book I’m writing as it’s then a helpful way to allow my mind to shift into that world again, and enter a certain ‘mood’ I am trying to evoke within the story.
At the moment I feel like I am in my conscious state of needing to feed my creativity, and what Cameron refers to in The Artist’s Way as ‘filling the creative well’. I’ve had weekends surrounding myself with beautiful scenery, walking beside the water, eating good food, buying little trinkets and art from gorgeous independent shops. I’ve been on an amazing trip to Barcelona soaking up the artistic genius of Gaudi, admiring his spectacular architecture, visiting the Moco Museum and viewing a range of inspiring exhibitions (one of my favourites was standing inside Studio Irma’s Diamond Matrix – an installation of hundreds of light-up diamonds); taking photographs of beautiful street art and buildings, and buying pottery and prints from local artists to take home to decorate my writing room.
One of my favourite parts on a visit to Gaudi’s Casa Batllo was a sensory immersive art experience called ‘In the Mind of Gaudi’ where I stood inside a 6 sided LED cube room, inaugurated by the artist Refik Anadol. This is one example where AI can be used positively to enhance a creative structure, as it enabled Casa Batllo to collect millions of Gaudi’s photos, videos, drawings, 3D models and so on, in order to create a large digital library of his patterns and design logic, which Anadol then used to project visual images. It truly was like we were standing inside Gaudi’s mind, with a succession of images flowing around the ceilings, floors and walls, accompanied by dreamy music akin to Sigur Ross. It gave me goosebumps, and reminded me that a world without art would be a very dull place. In the Moco Museum this quote from the founders, Kim & Lionel Logchies, can be found at various points: “We use the power of art to challenge the norm, champion the truth, open up minds, and question the world around us.”
I believe one of the biggest ways you can feed your own creativity, is to immerse yourself in the creativity of others. So if you’re feeling a little unproductive in your own work, and your brain is tired, then try and seek out some art in your local area- visit an art gallery or museum, go to the cinema, visit some quirky independent shops selling inspiring products, people watch at a café, read good books, watch a thought-provoking documentary, spend time with other creatives…
Take a break from the screen, and go and fill your head with daydreams
This post is about the Journey of Book 2: Promise Me. You can buy my books here.
I’ve tried to strike a balance in this post, of being completely transparent, but not too negative, as ultimately I’m writing these posts to encourage anyone reading to keep going, and to not give up, whichever direction you decide to go with your writing.
When my debut Follow Me was released in 2015 I knew my publisher was interested in reading my next stand-alone, Promise Me. I was now doing talks and creative workshops in schools and the community, chatting to librarians and slowly building ‘an audience’. Reviews were also starting to come in for Follow Me, and teenagers talked to me about the book at events. (I also got interviewed for Teen Titles magazine at one school).
For the first time in my writing life I was suddenly acutely aware of who might read my new book when it was released, and what their expectations might be. This put a low-level pressure on my creativity; something I had never really experienced before.
I was also trying to juggle the events, (always feeling I was never doing enough compared to other writers I was connected to on social media), whilst working full time. I stupidly went for a promotion at my day job (and got it), all before Promise Me was done and dusted. But it was a time in my life where I felt super-motivated and had more energy (I was younger!!), and the excitement of having a ‘book out’ always spurred me on.
When I had nearly finished my first draft of Promise Me I entered it into the SAW Pitlochry and won second place. The crime writer who adjudicated told me she could imagine her teenage daughter really enjoying having a teen sleuth at the centre of trying to solve the mystery of a crime that had already occurred. I felt this was a good selling point too, and it kept me motivated to get the book finished. I signed the contract for publication in 2017.
Fast-forward two years, copy edits done, release dates promised, then passed, with no response, and so began a repeat cycle. In amongst this a lovely librarian offered to launch Promise Me in her community library in a local area where I had done several events; another librarian wanted to book me for her new festival which would tie in to local schools to promote the release of the book. My publisher knew all of this, and still silence.
I never feel comfortable going into detail about this in a public forum, but needless to say, this was a not a great time for my creative confidence (especially when I genuinely did not know how to explain to the librarians, or to anyone, what was happening, as I had no idea what was happening!).
Every time I heard the question, ‘When’s your next book coming out?’, deep down I felt like a failure.
I realise now that the people who persistently asked this question hadn’t even read my first book, and had no intention of buying my next one, but the amount of pressure and frustration I felt at the time was immense.
My advice: ignore the external pressures, unless it’s from someone who is involved in bringing your next book to life, and they’re actually nudging out of necessity, or to give you encouragement
The thought of going back out on submission filled me with dread (as the average time of your book seeing the light of day after acceptance, never mind how long it takes to get there, can usually be around 2 years) But I knew I had hit a brick wall with the current situation.
So, at the end of 2019 I took the rights back for Promise Me. I was also in the middle of writing my new YA thriller (Young Blood).
I started to send out Promise Me again to select agents (I was being fussy), but mostly got rejections, or no response. Then I noticed a new publisher was running an open submissions competition for Young Adult novels. I scoured the rules and realised it was open for published writers, as long as you didn’t have an Agent. (Most big competitions like Chicken House and Bath Novel etc. are only open for unpublished writers– see the end of the post for links to these).
The publisher was professional and dynamic, and making waves, so I excitedly sent off my work.
Fast forward a few months later I received an email to let me know I’d made the long list. The day I moved into my new house in 2020 I received an email from the editor saying I had made the final seven. It was a massive boost. I didn’t win, but the editor had a chat with me and said the book sellers and librarians on the judging panel were very positive about my book. She also offered me some really helpful editorial feedback.
At this point some writers in my network were taking control back, and independently publishing their work. I had watched my Mum do this to a high standard, and she kept saying it was another option I could try.
Not long after this, I entered a call-out for a Zoom pitch event with a big agency. I was selected by the agent to have a chat.
Weirdly she recognised my name as she had been copied in to one of the emails relating to the acquisitions meeting for Follow Me at ‘the big publisher’ I mentioned in my last post. (She was an editor with them at the time).
The agent was really enthusiastic about Promise Me, said she loved the first few chapters and premise, and asked me to send through the full manuscript.
A few months went by with no emails, so I sent a polite ‘nudge’. I received an apology, saying she was behind in reading. I appreciated the update.
Then another six months went by, so I sent another polite email. And never received a response.
To this day, I never did get a response.
I totally understand that agents are busy people. Plenty of agents have ignored me during ‘cold submissions’ which is fine, because most will clearly state on their website, if you have not heard from us in X amount of weeks, we’re not interested.
But when you’ve had a full manuscript request, and a face-to-face chat (it was on Zoom because we were still in semi-lockdown), I think it’s rude to leave someone hanging.
At the time I wish I had used this website called Query Tracker see here You can sign up for free and it provides information on pitching to agents, but also people leave feedback on response times and reply rates from agents they’ve subbed to. The aforementioned agent now runs her own agency, and interestingly lots of people have posted on this site with the exact same experience as me; ghosted after full requests following on from personal contact during pitch events.
During lockdown when life slowed down, it gave me proper time to reflect on what I actually wanted from my writing career. I asked one of my career guidance friends to give me a coaching interview, and this helped me unpick my motivations and priorities.
She asked me an important question: What was stopping me from taking control myself, and independently publishing?
I realised the biggest thing stopping me was fear of perceived external judgement. Who does she think she is….Clearly she’s not good enough if she has to do this herself…We’re not interested in self-published books at this bookshop. But when I unpicked this further I realised none of my worries related to my actual readers. These thoughts related to other writers I knew, random people in my life…mostly ones who had never even read my first book, or cared about it enough to support any attempts at promotion, and gatekeepers (like bookshops *I’ll focus a bit more on the gatekeeper aspect in my next post*).
Returning to the point that the folk who usually ask the most demanding and nosey questions about my writing life (and probably yours), …How many books have you sold? Why’s your next one not out yet? Are you not quitting your day job yet? Why aren’t you in a window display or the Buy one Get one free in Waterstones? Are you not speaking at X book festival?
..are usually the ones who haven’t even read my work, and are never going to buy my books, even if I get a 5 figure book deal and it’s optioned for film...
In fact those people would probably be the first to ask: How much did you get for your film deal?
I want to point out here that I don’t mind being asked questions about my writing at all, if the intention is good. And I 100% don’t expect everyone in my life to champion my work! It just made me realise, I shouldn’t care so much about what people think about me and my work, definitely not to the point of stopping me exploring new ways of getting my book out there.
A few months later, I bit the bullet and started the process of Independently publishing Promise Me. It had already gone through many professional copy-edits, I’d received further editorial feedback after the open submissions competition, and I was very fortunate that my Mum is great at editing, and is a genius when it comes to all of the technical support needed to format and publish.
I had already dabbled in releasing a short story collection, and my designer friend Dainty Dora (see site here) aka Rebecca, supported with a great cover design for this, so I enlisted Rebecca’s support again for the cover of Promise Me.
Promise Me was released into the world in October 2021 and I went with wider distribution, meaning it’s fully available everywhere. I hosted an online launch on release day through Facebook which generated enough sales to put my sales ranking on Amazon alongside big sellers like Holly Jackson. (If you like A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder you might like my books, just sayin’) Those kind of figures are fleeting, but it gave me a huge boost on the day to know people were interested enough to buy my new book.
A screenshot of Promise Me in the Top Ten – glad I captured this moment
A librarian friend also invited me to take part in an online group workshop for a teen writing group, and last Spring I was part of the Paisley book festival schools programme, with Promise Me promoted and bought into libraries. During another school event not long after publication, a highlight was seeing teachers sitting reading my book when I arrived to the class for the session, telling me how much they were enjoying it. Last year an English teacher in a school I’m connected to in my day job said that Promise Me is never on the school library shelves and she often sees pupils reading it. After such a long up-and-down road with this book, every single moment like that means so much to me.
Next time I’ll post a bit more about my experiences of Independent Publishing.
In the meantime, I hope this post hasn’t put you off trying the traditional route, as it’s something I know I will attempt again (due to some of the cons that come with Independent Publishing).
If you’re unpublished and have a novel ready to send I recommend trying one of these big competitions which are closing soon
In these posts I’m moving more into a personal ‘behind the scenes look’ at my submission experiences for my three Young Adult books. I’ll do a post for each book. I’m doing these posts because I love to read about other author’s journeys. I find it motivates me and makes me feel less alone in what is quite a mad creative world. Also for all three books I’ve had very different experiences, which resulted in me taking more personal control.
Prior to ‘Book 1’ there were other books, but I refer to them as my practice novels. I completed my first typed ‘novel’ (as opposed to the many, let’s call them ‘novellas’, I had written in jotters) when I was about thirteen, and received my first rejection from a major publisher. I wrote a magic realism contemporary novel in my early twenties and sent this out to a few publishers and one agent. I randomly met the agent’s assistant at an event and he said he pulled my book out of the slush pile and enjoyed it. (The agent making the decisions, didn’t). Years later I bumped into him at another event and he asked what happened to it. I am sure you are thinking I should have persisted with this one. But I felt I could write better, and by that point I had started to focus more on writing Young Adult, because most of the ideas that were forming in my head seemed to lend themselves better to having teen protagonists. So here’s some highlights of my submission journey with my debut Young Adult novel, which eventually did reach publication back in 2015.
Book 1 – Follow Me
When I first started writing Follow Me something took over. It was the first time a book seemed to take on a life of its own and perhaps because I was living alone at the time, once I had established a basic plot, characters, and written my prologue (which set the tone and gave my protagonist a ‘voice’), every time I sat down I was able to immerse myself fully in the world.
A couple of people who read Follow Me talked about the ‘hypnotic’ characters and feeling like the writing contained some kind of undefinable ‘magic’. I mention this, not to ‘big up’ my book (though I will always have a soft spot for this story), but because it aligns to how I felt early on when ideas and chapters unfolded. I could feel the magic driving this one, and I knew deep down this was going to be ‘the one’; the book I was going to get published, because it was the first time I properly felt like I knew what I was doing structurally, and was excited by the story and characters. Also, something in my mindset had changed. I had started to send out short stories, and was reaching publication, and being placed in competitions. I was starting to believe I could be a ‘serious writer’.
When I had nearly finished my first draft I submitted the book to the TC Farries competition at the Scottish Association of Writer’s conference and won first place.
A well-established children’s author was the adjudicator, and said it contained the ‘magic’ needed to captivate a YA audience. This gave me the confidence to finish it, fine tune my manuscript and start subbing to agents. Colleagues at the time discovered print-outs of my first few chapters and their excitement at reading, and wanting to continue reading (along with my Mum’s encouragement, and another writing friend) all kept me going…
And then when I started to sub to agents I got emails from about three asking very quickly to read the full manuscript. I was on tenterhooks waiting for replies as you can imagine. But then the rejections started coming in.
Here’s a snapshot of some rejections.
Unfortunately,thepremise involving twins is too similar to another title on our list. We wish youthebest of luck with placing your work.
Many thanks for sending me your submission, which I read with interest. I’m afraid, however, that I didn’t feel passionately enough about it to offer you representation. You write well, but I’ve just taken on a book which deals with teen suicide so this feels too close to it for me. Our business is subjective by nature and another agent may well feel differently. I wish you the best of luck with that.
I realise now how lucky I was to get some personalised feedback. The landscape of publishing has changed a lot and it can be rare now to get any response.
The most disappointing knock-back was a rejection from an agent I met face to face at a York Writing Festival who was so excited when she read my first three chapters, and was so lovely in person. The type of agent I would have been happy to work with! Interestingly I really didn’t gel with a different agent at my other 1:1 and she suggested quite a graphic, dramatic change to part of my opening which made me feel uncomfortable. This experience showed me the importance of finding the right agent or publisher. Someone you connect with, and who understands your story.
This was the rejection email from the excited agent (I had to wait over 6 months for this, and it felt like a loooong wait):
As you know, I was really excited by your novel when we met in York, and I very much enjoyed reading the complete manuscript. It’s stayed with me and I’ve been ruminating on it since. The premise to the novel is really interesting and I think you write very well for this market. I love sister/twin stories too! I do think there is a lot of potential here, but I’m afraid I don’t think, at the moment, this stands out in what is a crowded market. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but do bear in mind that another agent may feel differently.
I was gutted to get such a positive rejection.
I kept going.
A BIG publisher were doing a call-out for a new teen digital-only imprint, and wanted the full manuscript emailed.
I received this exciting response from one of their editors: Thank you for sending Follow Me to xx for our consideration. I enjoyed reading it and think that your accessible voice matched with the dark and emotional subject matter makes it well suited to the list. ….. (The email then contained some editorial suggestions)…Of course we would discuss all of this later should we decide to acquire Follow Me but I just wanted to check with you before I share the script with the rest of the team whether Follow Me is still available for publication and if you would be open to editorial suggestions such as those I’ve mentioned.
I responded positively. A month later I got this response:
I just wanted to let you know that because it’s been so hectic here, I haven’t taken Follow Me to our acquisitions meeting yet, but I hope to do so next Wednesday and so I should have a decision for your shortly after that.
Then… SILENCE. Six months later, still nothing.
Around this time I met a different publisher, who ended up taking FollowMe, at a networking event. I nearly didn’t speak to him, because I had already submitted Follow Me to them via their website submission process, but he said he didn’t remember reading it, they’d had server issues, so to email through the whole manuscript.
I emailed the big publishing house to let them know a Scottish publisher had shown interest, and another editor got back to me apologising saying the first editor had gone on maternity leave. She asked me to keep her posted on what happened, and she would read my submission again. Because I was offered print publication (and because the big house had just kept me hanging) I accepted the offer from the Scottish publisher. I had received an email from the Scottish publisher one night saying they had finished reading Follow Me and asked to meet me. Because of the ‘nearly there moments I’d had already’, I still wouldn’t let myself believe it was going to be positive news. But it was at the face to face meeting I received an offer for publication.
It was fast-moving from there. The meeting took place at the start of April, with a publication date set for October the same year (this is very rare). It was a whirlwind which led to lots of doors opening for me in terms of opportunities to do talks and workshops in schools and in the community. I’ll talk more about those another time. The rollercoaster of ups AND downs continued, something I don’t think many people prepare you for, when you reach the goal of publication.
And sadly, with my second book I found myself back out on submission. I’ll focus on parts of that story in post 2.
I’ll leave you with some things I learned along the way from the first part of this journey:
My tips:
Spend time preparing your submission. Perfect your synopsis and intro email, along with the sample chapters. Follow the submission rules (you’re doing yourself and your book a disservice if you can’t take the time to read these properly and get them right).
If an agent, editor, or publisher takes the time to give you feedback, know that this means they really do see potential in your work and if the feedback contains constructive criticism, take time to reflect and take on board what they say
If you’re pitching to agents and you have the opportunity to pitch to them in person (to allow a face to face conversation) take it! A five minute conversation can tell you so much about the other person, and a two-way conversation allows you to see if they are on the same wavelength about your book
If you’ve spent time perfecting your craft, your book is well-written and enticing, your success now is going to rely a lot on being in the right place at the right time, connecting with the right agent/publisher, and persistence
Related to this: make the most of any writing related networking events you are invited to. Sometimes introductions to the right people means you are noticed and remembered when submitting/pitching
Don’t send your book out to one agent at a time. Any agent who says they want an exclusive read is worth avoiding (unless you’ve made some sort of personal connection with them, but even then I would say no- you’ll find out why in my next blog post). They can take six months, or more, to get back to you (IF AT ALL – the ghosting is real). A lot of very successful authors have had their manuscripts rejected 20 + times, so do your maths on that one. if they were sending them out one at a time, waiting months for responses
Forge friendships with creatives who understand the pain of the ups and downs of this journey. If you detect jealousy and negativity try to spend more time with people who lift you up. Trust me, at ALL times in this weird creative world, even when folk think you are doing well, you need to surround yourself with positive people
And to help us all keep the faith, some famous rejections:
Lisa Genova, Still Alice: about 100 rejections (or non-replies) from agents (info from Lithub.com)
After getting very little positive feedback, Genova opted to self-publish her book. Eventually, it was acquired and re-issued by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, and proceeded to spend 40 weeks on the New York Times best seller list, and was made into a film.
Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife:25 rejections from agents.
After getting rejected by 25 agents, Niffenegger sent the book directly to a small San Francisco publisher, where an editor discovered and loved it. It became a best seller and was also made into a film.
One of my favourite books of recent years was Lessons in Chemistry. Here’s an interview with author BonnieGarmus at Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper (you can read the full interview here https://www.mariashriversundaypaper.com/bonnie-garmus-lessons-in-chemistry/) – Did you indeed receive 98 rejections before Lessons in Chemistry?
“Yes! And they were all from agents. What happened was I had written a novel that was approximately 700 pages…Finally, agent number 98 said that she would read part of it…She wrote back the next day and said, ‘You write well, but you don’t understand this industry…’ The email was pretty nasty, but it was also a very big help. She said, ‘No one’s going to look at a debut author’s 700-page novel—ever. Do yourself a favor and write a novel of appropriate length, and you can send me that when you finish’—which I never did. But that all turned into Lessons in Chemistry. I started completely new. “
Reading these stats makes me realise I’ve never been this persistent. Talent, persistence and resilience. These are the magic ingredients.
This weekend I attended the Scottish Association of Writers’ Conference, where writing groups from all across Scotland congregated at the Westerwood Hotel. The weekend was jam-packed full of workshops, talks from Industry experts and adjudications. I was delighted to win Second and Third prize for the humorous short story competition. One of my stories The Opposite of Cake was an extended version of a short flash I wrote a couple of years ago during my blog challenge, so a great example of how creative tasks you set yourself can lead onto bigger things.
I attended a brilliant workshop run by the talented Catherine Ogston, where she taught us about Hermit Crab Flash Fiction. This is where you borrow from an existing form or structure, such as writing a story in list form, or as an instruction. I had no idea this type of structure was given this name. The exercises in the class inspired a new idea for me. I also attended another brilliant workshop delivered by writer Colette Coen where she showed us how to use memory to inspire ideas. I came away with two new story ideas from the exercises, and enjoyed using different techniques to kick-start my creativity.
Writing competitions played a massive role in building my initial confidence when starting out as a writer, and have continued to give me much needed boosts along the way to encourage me to keep going.
I first attended the Scottish Association of Writers’ conference when I was seventeen. I didn’t pluck up the courage to start entering their competitions until my twenties and I nearly fell off my chair when I heard my name being called out as a second place winner in the SAW General Short Story competition during the early years. I was secretly relieved I hadn’t won first place as that would have meant standing up in front of hundreds of attendees to read out my work, which I wasn’t quite ready for (They no longer expect winners to read live!) It ignited a much needed belief that I could do this, I could actually write stories that people enjoyed reading.
Fast forward a few years later, I started to get short pieces published in literary journals. Then I won the SAW TC Farries trophy for my first proper attempt at writing a Young Adult novel. This gave me the courage to start submitting my book to agents and publishers, and winning this competition also gave me something significant to mention in my pitch letter.
Winning the TC Farries Trophy SAW 2011
When my first book was out on submission, (which I’m sure any writer realises can be a brutal time of highs and lows), I continued writing shorter fiction. When I received Highly Commended in the WordswithJAM short story competition it gave me a lift. The best part was attending the launch night for the competition print anthology at Foyles Bookshop in London with my Mum. I asked her to come with me as I worried it might be my one and only ‘book launch’, and I wanted to celebrate properly. As it turned out, it wasn’t long after I had my own launch for my first Young Adult novel at Waterstones. I think the night in Foyles gave me that extra needed self-belief at the time.
An Earthless Melting Pot Launch – winners at Foyles Bookshop London 2013
This is why I continue to enter competitions. There are so many moments during the rollercoaster of writing and releasing work out into the world that challenge our self-belief. It’s nice to receive some concrete validation from time to time. It’s also a bit of an adrenaline rush receiving emails or announcements where an editor or judge tells you they have selected you as their winner, or placed you on a short list. When I won The Writing Magazine school-themed short story competition a couple of years ago it was published in the magazine and on their website (see here). It was exciting to win, and even better when readers of the magazine looked me up on social media to tell me how much they enjoyed my story. Knowing my writing connected with others and made them feel something is what makes it all worthwhile. A big motivation to write is to feel connected to something bigger, and make sense of the world.
Being surrounded by writers at the SAW conference this weekend also reminded me the importance of this community. One of the speakers highlighted that when you are part of a like-minded tribe and you share your real-life stories (never mind fictional) with all of the ups and downs this creative life throws your way, they will understand in ways no-one else can really comprehend.
If you feel brave enough to send your work out into the world, here are some competitions/sites I have come across recently. Thanks to Catherine in her workshop for highlighting some of these. Happy writing!
Continuing with the theme of sharing where I find inspiration for stories, today’s post is about the inspiration behind my Young Adult books. I’m cheating a bit with this post and extracting a section from a blog post I wrote back in 2022, where I went into quite a bit of depth already about the inspiration behind my debut YA mystery, Follow Me, and my second YA mystery, Promise Me. You can read the full post ‘Stranger than Fiction’ here
My latest YA Thriller, Young Blood, was also inspired by an article I read in the press, so it fits nicely with the theme of paying attention to what you read in the news. Just like I talked about in last week’s ‘inspiration’ post, the best stories can be formed from things that catch your attention in ‘real- life’, if you add in the ‘What if’ question, and let your imagination run wild…
News headlines often catch my eye and act as a catalyst. When my imagination takes over, and characters start to form, a story of fiction then unfolds, where I imagine what would happen if fictional teenagers were placed in these situations I read about.
Numerous reports of the unexplained Bridgend suicides stayed with me for years .There were twenty-six known suicides in the town between 2007-2008, and most of those who lost their life were young adults. I remembered opening newspapers at the time, wondering what on earth was going on in that town.
In my book Follow Me my 17-year-old protagonist, Kat, begins a desperate search for answers and explanations, after her twin, Abby, is the sixth in their small Scottish town to die by apparent suicide.
A big theme of my YA mystery, Promise Me, is the way in which press coverage and social media has the power to portray a certain narrative during high profile, emotional murder cases. One of the inspirations of the story was my memory of the sensationalist press coverage of convicted Scottish teen Luke Mitchell from many years ago. From 2003-2005 there was lots of press coverage around his case. Demonising language and character assassination was often used in reporters’ narratives (With headlines like ‘Devils Spawn’ appearing on front page reports).
The headline ‘Boyfriend, 15, charged (with murder of schoolgirl Jodi Jones)’, was published in the Edinburgh Evening News, (2004) before said boyfriend (Luke) even went to trial. Everyone in their small-knit town knew he was ‘the boyfriend’.
The paper took things a stop further and named him. The Press and Journal, Aberdeen, also ran a similar story. They faced contempt charges but were cleared of breaching the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act, that states “no newspaper report of any proceeding in court should identify anyone under the age of 16.” (In Scotland this is now 18). They were cleared of charges because judges ruled that the story was not a report of court proceedings. This is just one troubling example of how a fifteen-year-old boy, (and throughout his trial when he was sixteen), dominated headlines. Numerous false ‘facts’ were published about the case, and tabloids delighted in running sensationalist reports about Mitchell’s apparent obsession with knives, drug-taking, lack of discipline in a single parent household, even linking his music tastes to the murder.
I read a lot about the case and it made me realise how easy it could be for a small community to spread rumours relying heavily on hearsay and perceptions of a local outcast boy’s ‘reputation’, and how this could influence local prosecution investigations, and a jury. Conversations I’ve had with legal people where I questioned how anyone could truly be impartial in such a high profile case said a judge would have ensured jurors had no local connections to the case. The trial took place in Edinburgh, less than half an hour away from where the murder took place. I was reading newspaper stories an hour away from where it all unfolded and still felt emotional reactions to the reports, even if I didn’t personally know anyone.
My book Promise Me is a work of fiction, set in an affluent fictionalised Scottish village, and not about the Mitchell case, but I hope it makes people think about how damaging media and indeed, court narratives can be, and the distorted perceptions that communities can sometimes have of young people who don’t quite ‘fit’. In my job I’ve undergone unconscious bias training and I really believe the police involved in this case let a lot of their own unconscious bias (and media pressure to get a conviction), influence their decision-making. If you have an interest in finding out more about this case I recommend the brilliant podcast Through the Wall by Naomi Channell.
My latest YA thriller, Young Blood, is a story about young people in the care system who are kidnapped and taken to a secret house to become exclusive plasma donors for an elite group of wealthy adults who want to stay youthful and healthy. It’s told from the perspective of two teenagers – Ana who is outside the house and dealing with the realisation her mum may have early onset dementia; and Hope who is captured and taken to the house.
Young Blood was inspired by an article I read about an American start-up company ‘Ambrosia’, founded by a medical school graduate in 2016 which sold ‘young blood transfusions’ (from young people into older people). Charging a large sum of money for these transfusions, they claimed a range of health benefits such as treatment for Alzheimer’s. In a pitch about Ambrosia at a self-enhancement conference in 2017 Karmazin said, “We’re a company interested in making you young again.” In my day job I work with vulnerable teenagers. I see how much instability and uncertainty young people in the care system in particular can face. This sparked off the idea of having a powerful doctor set up a premium club who can access pure plasma transfusions from a select group of young people who are easy to make ‘disappear’, whilst maintaining a super-controlled environment within ‘the house.’
I often take along strange news headlines to creative writing workshops I deliver in schools and get the class to choose one as inspiration for a story. A popular headline lots of pupils chose last year was, ‘Girl discovers criminal living in her attic.’ I love hearing the ideas form, and characters that start to develop. It also shows that we can all start with a similar idea, but when you create your own unique characters a truly unique story also starts to take shape…
Why not spend the week looking up interesting headlines, and see if it sparks off any great story ideas!
Today’s post is a continuation from last week where I shared some creative exercises that have helped me understand that when it comes to writing, and creating, you can find inspiration in the everyday ~ if you pay enough attention, stay curious, and let your imagination run wild!
When I deliver creative writing workshops I encourage participants to think of fun ways they can experiment with their writing. Often writers can put a lot of pressure on themselves, especially if working to deadlines, or expectations. It can also be daunting if you think a story should contain ‘complicated’ words or be a certain length.
I find a good way to take the pressure off, and to stop over-thinking, is to engage in writing tasks which don’t require a lot of words, and in fact make you start to look at words in a completely different way.
A challenge I took part in years ago, (just for fun, with friends), was to try and write stories composed of only three letter words (which then extended out to write stories with four letter words, five letter words – you get the idea!).
I amazed myself with being able to write not one, but quite a few, very short stories composed of three letter words. I’m sharing one of them below, which turned into a bit of a philosophical story.
3 Letter Word Story Example
Pat Woo and the Sun
One day Pat Woo saw the sun dip and tip out the sky. ”Wow! See the sun!”
Pat Woo saw the sun run and Pat ran too. The sun set off for the day. One sun ray hit the ill cow. Pat saw the cow fly – set out for the sky.
“Moo! Pat Woo! The cow can fly!”
Pat Woo saw the sun run and dip. Its ray hit the old rat. The old rat was lit. The rat got fit – saw the sky; his old eye now new. The rat saw the sun; saw Pat Woo.
“Pat Woo! The rat can see!”
One ray hit the cod. Pat Woo saw its fin dip; saw the cod nod and the cod got out the sea net.
“Pat Woo! The cod will not die!” ”Hot sun you are ace.” Pat Woo had joy for the sun.
The sun had fun. Pat Woo did too – the day Pat Woo saw the sun dip and tip out the sky.
Why don’t you give this a go yourself? If you’re part of a creative writing group, it might a fun warm-up task to try to wake up the creative side of your brain.
As an extension of last week’s ‘Small Stones’ exercise, I’m going to challenge you to keep a more general ‘observation diary’. This can take the form of visual notes such as photographs, or scribbles (or notes in your phone), of interesting things you notice during your day-to-day. The Small Stones were quite creative paragraphs or lines, but in an observation diary you might want to capture musings and reflections on things in the news, things you overhear etc, anything really which you think one day could form part of a story.
Take a Photograph a Day
Was this a real girl?
Why is there a shoe in the cage with the skeleton?
I’m a very visual writer and I love taking photographs. You can start to build a ‘photographic’ observation diary by taking at least one interesting photograph every day. This could be anything which catches your attention; an abandoned shoe lying at the side of the road, an interesting sculpture you walk past every day, a strange doll in the window of a shop… You can start thinking about the story behind the image there and then, but often it might take a while for a proper idea to form. And that’s fine. Because now you’ve stored the photograph somewhere on your phone, you can return to this later. You might even want to combine the small stones tasks (see the post here for examples), with your photographs.
I’ve shared some photographs above I took when on various trips across the years, which I then later turned into short stories.
The heart photograph was a print which hung in the staircase of a Paris hotel I stayed in during my first solo trip abroad. I spent three nights in Paris and enjoyed wandering the streets alone, and it was during this time, passing by this print every day, I started to form the idea for a short story ‘Only You’ where a jilted bride spends her honeymoon alone in Paris. The story was runner-up in a competition, and broadcast on Hospital Radio. They sent me a CD recording of an actor reading it aloud, which was quite special. I loved hearing my words come to life.
If you enjoy finding inspiration from photographs check out the Scottish Book Trust 50 word story competition here They provide monthly photographic prompts
Listen to conversations
When I say listen to conversations, I mean within reason, as obviously it’s a bit rude to invade others’ privacy. But if you’re on a train or bus where your fellow passengers insist on talking loudly to one another (or on their phone), then naturally you will probably pick up interesting snippets of conversations throughout your day.
In an old ‘observation diary’ (where I used to write down thoughts that randomly popped into my head, interesting facts or stories I came across on social media or in the news, as well as overheard conversations) I found these snippets:
A man and a woman in conversation: “Tommy, you’re being really unfair. You’re stopping me from going to Hollywood. You’re being really bad to me with the brain transplant thing. I know I’ve had at least four brain transplants behind my back.” On the surface, most passengers would dismiss this woman as talking nonsense. But what if the man she is with is a mad scientist, and she’s the subject of numerous experiments, and is starting to rebel?
A teenage girl was sitting behind me on one train journey, talking loudly into her phone, “She fell out with me when I was camping because she said I never texted, but I couldn’t text because seriously I didn’t have reception… and then I ended up sitting with her all night on a night out so she never felt left out… I hate falling out with people, the thought of someone hating me, or having a problem with me…” At this point a boy nearby asks me if I’ve got a pen. He then returns to his seat to scribble something on a bit of paper and when he gets up at his stop he chucks a note at the girl before walking off.
The girl then shrieks into her phone, telling the person on the other end, “Oh my f-ing God. A guy just threw a note at me on the way off his train. Wait, wait. His name is Ryan. I swear… wait… he must have been listening to my conversation. How rude, haha.” (Newsflash girl, I think we’re all now listening)… “He’s said, You are too beautiful to have friends who are mean to you. Add me to facebook and let me make you smile.”
Now depending how your writer brain works, this could either be the start of a romantic novel or a true-crime type stalker thriller….
Next time I’ll be writing more about the inspiration behind my books.
Booklet made by Rebecca Johnstone (aka Dainty Dora)
I’ve been out of action the past week with a horrible flu, hence the bigger gap between posts. This is the first day I’ve felt like attempting to get any words down on the page. I hope you’ve all had a more productive February.
The past couple of blog posts were about learning your craft, and today I’m moving on to talk about Inspiration. I’m going to focus on this theme across a number of posts as I’ve got lots of tips and tasks I want to share with you.
Where do writers get their inspiration?It’s an interesting question, as often ideas will pop in to my head and I’m not exactly sure where they’ve come from. More often than not, something I have heard, seen, or read about, in real life will spark off ideas.
In the past I have enjoyed delivering creative writing workshops around the concept that ‘Inspiration is Everywhere’. Everyday observations have definitely fuelled my creativity and provided lots of inspiration for short stories and flash fiction.
I’ll do a separate post focusing on what inspired ideas in my books as they all connect to real-life stories in the news, and headlines. (Another great task I have used in workshops – picking random bizarre headlines and allowing pupils to then come up with their own story that aligns to them).
Today I’m going to focus on a couple of tasks you can engage in every day that can hopefully help you feel creative.
Task 1 ~ Small Stones
Many years ago I was made aware of the ‘Small Stones challenge’ which showed me how much detail you can see in every day observations if you look closely enough. The idea behind the Small Stones challenge is to:
Notice one thing each day
Give your whole awareness to it
Write it down
My creative friend Rebecca, aka Dainty Dora, (see her substack here), made me a lovely little Small Stones booklet for me to capture notes in which you can see at the top of this post. It’s been a while since I’ve done this exercise, but I dug out some past examples of my ‘small stones’ so I could share them below. I think it’s a great way of generating ideas and starting to form characters.
Some of my Small Stones examples:
Red Glove: child sized, waving hello from a puddle on a dark January morning. The puddles pulled her under and this is a sign -Help, come and find me…
Girl in stilettos, walking comfortably in new shoes, head held high. Her friends are running alongside still trying to catch up with who they are.
Wooden heart laced with fake red berries, tied to a fence. A cheap remembrance of a love so rich.
Pink hair, pink trainers, black nails and fierce eyes. Sweet and sour: Do not underestimate my power.
A teenage boy, vulnerable face, dark shadows under nervous eyes, a sigh of relief flooding his body as he walks into the comfort of a group who understand: with no questions, no judgement. They speak his language of technological puzzles, navigating night monsters into oblivion, so he can live another victorious day.
When I lived in Paisley, I always noticed interesting characters and one old man stuck in my head in particular. I used to see him wheeling an empty wheelchair down the high street, walking past the market stalls. A foreign accordion player, who often sat outside the M&S, provided a haunting melody to accompany his steps, which echoed down the street. Around this time I took a regular note of small stones observations, one of which was a tangerine peel on the ground shaped like a heart: Heart shaped tangerine peel abandoned on the top step. Layers peeled back, the best bit consumed, now the rest…left to rot.
A combination of all of these observations formed a flash fiction story titled ‘Ghosts’, which was first published in the Grind Journal back in 2014. You can read Ghosts here, on my new short story page on the site.
I always say to young people in my workshops, if they notice something interesting, add in the ‘What if?’question. This is where your writers’ curiosity and imagination clicks in. After spotting the old man a few times, always pushing the empty wheelchair, I started to ask myself the question; What if he lost his wife, and isn’t quite ready to let go? As soon as I asked myself this question, Ghosts took shape.
Task 2 ~ Participate in Creative Projects or Challenges
Many years ago I engaged in a couple of fun tasks through an American arthouse company called Art House Co-op. I took part in their Sketchbook Project where I filled a blank book with writing, photographs and drawings and posted it back to the Brooklyn Art Library to go on a ‘travelling library tour’ across America. When I was on a trip to New York in 2013 I visited the original art library and viewed lots of other participants’ sketchbooks. Unfortunately after a fire struck in their new location, lots of sketchbooks were lost, then the project shut down. It was a fun task to participate in and I enjoyed illustrating some of my Flash Fiction stories and even wrote some poetry for the first time in years (see one below, with my illustration).
That year the Art House Co-op launched a ‘Sunday swap’ project, asking for participants to compose a list of 50 tasks for a stranger to complete. I posted my list to the company and they then mailed it out to someone, somewhere, and I then received my 50 things from a stranger, in return. I’ve put a photograph of some of my tasks above.
One particular task that really sparked off some creative ideas was the instruction to, ‘Research Natural Phenomenons.’ A natural phenomenon is basically something which occurs in nature, which is not man made. This led to lots of interesting research around things such as Tree Spiders, The Taos Hum, and the Migration of the Monarch Butterfly. Monarch Butterflies are unable to survive the colder winters in North America, so migrate to warmer climates in Central Mexico. Millions of the butterflies cluster together on trees. I enjoyed watching Youtube videos of the butterflies together in the forest and it inspired me to write a poem titled ‘Flight of the Butterfly’, which won third place in the Scottish Association of Writers poetry competition back in 2014. Years later I transformed my poem into a Flash Fiction story, using the same title and theme. This was published in the Glittery Literary Anthology in 2017. You can read ‘Flight of the Butterfly’ here
Why don’t you use some of the tasks from my photo, or do a ’50 Things’ swap with a friend? It’s a great way of getting out of your comfort zone, and doing new things, both of which are really important to keep your creative juices flowing.
A task I took part in during November 2023 was to write a blog post every day, using 30 creative prompts. See my first post here. It was an alternative to NaNoWrimo (National Novel Writing Month), where writers commit to getting a certain number of words down per day, with the aim to accumulate 50,000 words of a novel by the end of the month. I don’t think I quite achieved 50,000 words through my blog posts, but it did spark off a good few short story ideas, with one complete flash fiction piece. Feel free to use the 30 prompts from my original post as a creative challenge.
Next time I’ll continue on the theme of Inspiration, sharing some more tasks and challenges to help kickstart your creativity
VICTORIA GEMMELL 