L.E. Truscott's Blog, page 26

November 8, 2016

Why writers should support other writers when they do good work

This might be the most obvious statement ever expressed on this blog but there are a lot of writers out there. From those who’ve achieved enormous wealth and fame and those who manage to eke out a mid-list career to those who publish their own work and earn virtually nothing and those who secretly tinker away on novels without telling a soul, there are many of us including those who fall somewhere between the four descriptions above and those who fall somewhere outside of them but still consider themselves writers.


With so much competition in such a small pond, so many competing voices in which writers shout over each other and still struggle to be heard, it’s never been more important for writers to support other writers. Readers are all well and good – in fact, they’re very good – but when a writer is struggling for readers, the one thing that can keep their self-esteem in positive territory is support from other writers who know all too well what they’re going through.


I once told my cousin Zac – and tweeted it to the world (or at least everyone who follows me on Twitter) – as he made the decision to head into the uncertain world of writing that he had the makings of a top-notch short story writer and that as someone who hadn’t always appreciated the short story medium, he was giving me plenty of reasons to reconsider with his unique style and perspective. He thanked me later, saying that at the time, the whole writing process was nearly doing his head in and that my words of support gave him the impetus he needed to keep going.


I’ve had plenty of similar experiences myself. From my manager at my current writing job telling me I’m doing good work to Tara Moss liking my lengthy 5 star review of her book, The Fictional Woman, to the handfuls of 4 and 5 star reviews I received from total strangers when I published my first novel, Enemies Closer, the power of positive reinforcement is undeniable.


It’s even more important to me when I consider that most of my family, immediate and extended, and my network of friends, co-workers and acquaintances have never read either of my two books or this blog. So many of us rely on people we know to provide a crutch when we struggle for readers but this hasn’t happened for me and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Both of my books and much of the content of my blog have very specific niche audiences and, particularly in the case my second book, Project December: A Book about Writing, and my blog, which is also almost always about writing in some form, since none of my family (Zac has since tragically died), friends and co-workers and very few of my acquaintances are writers, there’s no real incentive for them to read my work. My sister, who writes a sewing blog, suffers the same problem. Nobody else in the family sews and most of the people who read her blog are other sewing practitioners, usually complete strangers.


There are plenty of ways we writers can support other writers. We can read their content. Whether it’s freely available blog posts or books available for sale, being read is a great compliment. When Tracy Cembor asked me to review her novella, Gaslight Carnival, saying she would provide a free copy for the purpose, I said I would happily buy a copy of the book. At 99 cents, it was hardly going to break the bank.


We can also promote the content of other writers. From liking their Facebook pages and blog posts to writing book reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and any other platform on which their work appears and simply employing some good old word of mouth promotion, a personal endorsement still retains some clout.


We can offer to be beta readers or editors or proofreaders. We can provide industry advice. We can introduce them to people we know in the writing and publishing industry. We can give copies of their books as gifts.


It’s all good karma. Keep paying it forward and eventually it will come back around to you. Not just in your writing but in life itself. Because being a good writer is about more than just writing well. And you can be just a good writer or you can be a good person who’s a good writer, too.


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Published on November 08, 2016 16:00

November 6, 2016

Book Review: Wicker (AKA Cast of Shadows) by Kevin Guilfoile

Wicker is the story of a closely connected group of people all impacted by the rape and murder of seventeen-year-old Anna Kat Moore. It’s set in a not-too-distant future where the possibilities of DNA seem limitless. The cloning of dead people is considered just another fertility treatment, usually for couples unable to conceive at all or with hereditary diseases they don’t want to pass on to natural children.


A couple of years after Anna Kat’s murder, it still remains unsolved and Dr Davis Moore, her father and a cloning specialist, asks the police to return Anna Kat’s personal belongings. When they arrive, they mistakenly include a vial of the killer’s DNA. He thinks about it for a while and then uses the DNA to create a clone, hoping to one day look into the eyes of his daughter’s killer.


Martha Finn is the woman who is unwittingly drawn into Davis Moore’s plans. She has a family history of Huntington’s disease and so has a cloned embryo implanted. She thinks her child is the clone of a beloved son who died in a skiing accident. All clones are supposed to be replicas of dead people only.


And so we watch as Justin Finn is born and grows up. He’s intelligent and unusual and skips several grades. Even as a child, he reads philosophical texts in his spare time. Davis has a private detective take photographs of him and uses a computer program to age him, to come up with a sketch of what Anna Kat’s murderer might look like all grown up. And then he tries to track him down.


By the time Justin is fifteen, he’s obsessed with a local serial killer called the Wicker Man. And Davis starts to worry about who exactly he has recreated. Is it all in the genes? Or will Martha’s nurturing of Justin overcome the nature of his origins? There are going to be unintended consequences of this experiment. Does the end justify the means?


This isn’t a typical crime novel. The blurb describes it as a thriller, which it is in some respects. However, the thrills are a long time coming; it’s a slow burn but it manages to build an awful sense of dread as the story unfolds. The politics of cloning are eerily similar to the politics of abortion in the US with religious extremist groups perpetrating bombings and shootings. Davis Moore himself is shot at the very beginning of the book but recovers and refuses to give up his career.


The writing is wonderful, the multitudes of characters are complex, flawed and interesting, and the story certainly makes the reader stop and think. There isn’t a single person in this book who is wholly good or wholly bad but they are all wholly fascinating to read about.


Perhaps the biggest problem I had with the plot was why Davis Moore didn’t just clone his own daughter. Choosing instead to clone her killer, with the fraught possibilities that could bring, seemed strange. Yes, he was overcome with grief but still… But once you get past the ridiculousness of that plot point, once you accept it, everything that follows afterwards is intriguing. And while the ending isn’t Hollywood, it’s certainly poetic.


I know this book won’t be for everyone. There will almost certainly be people who complain about the ludicrousness of the plot (aren’t there always?). There will almost certainly be people who complain about the ending (because it isn’t perfectly, neatly tied up). But it’s certainly a few rungs above the paint-by-numbers crime stories, thrillers and mysteries that are written in their thousands each year.


This book, his first, was published in 2005 and Kevin Guilfoile has published a couple of other books since which, based on this effort, I would certainly be interested to read.


3 stars


*First published on Goodreads 27 May 2016


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Published on November 06, 2016 16:00

November 3, 2016

What I Learned from Keeping a Writing Journal

After I wrote a blog post on the value of keeping a writing journal, I decided to keep one while I undertook a month of intensive novel writing. In addition to the 30,000 plus words I wrote for my novel, I also wrote 10,000 plus words for the writing journal. Although I posted the journal in its entirety on my blog during October (and although I think it’s a pretty interesting read, especially considering what happened to me in the final days of the month I was keeping it), I thought I would take pity on those readers who don’t have the time to read it all and distil a few things I learned along the way.


Jobs get in the way of writing.

“So why am I being Deputy Downer before I’ve even started? I suppose because I spent all day yesterday meeting with recruiters, then most of today revising my CV and doing a writing task for a potential employer, and I have to call the recruiter tomorrow morning to listen to his feedback on my revised CV and writing task. Fun. Yes, I’m looking for full-time work again and I can already tell that going back to work is going to interfere horribly with the amount of writing I’m able to do. I’m resenting a job I don’t even have yet. That bodes well.” From Day -1 (the day before I started the intensive writing month)


Writing goals need to be realistic.

“I’m aiming for between 500 and 1,000 words per day over the course of the month. Sometimes having a range feels like an escape clause for working harder but I know there are going to be days when I might not even get to write because there are a lot of family events going on this month including one tomorrow and another the next day. But if I can dash off 500 words before I have to dash off to birthdays and weddings, it will feel like I’ve achieved something instead of nothing.” From Day -1


Just keep writing, just keep writing…

“I think the best idea is simply to push through, get words – any words – down on paper and then move on to the next chapter. It’s only a first draft. I know when I started writing Trine that I decided I wasn’t going to rush the writing, I was going to do it in a leisurely fashion and edit as I went, not moving on until I was happy with each chapter. Sometimes if I move on when I’m not happy with a chapter, I head off in completely the wrong direction. But if I’m not going anywhere, then what’s the point of doing Project October?” From Day 1


Writing doesn’t always need preparation.

“So much of this book has been written through simply sitting down and writing without much idea of what was going to come out on the page. It’s such a pleasant way to create. It feels less like hard work. Even though I love to research and learn new things, sometimes when I do research for a book, it makes me feel like there are jigsaw puzzle pieces all on the floor and I have to figure out how they fit together. When I just write without researching anything, often the puzzle pieces just slide into place without any effort and it’s only afterwards I realise how perfectly it all works together even though I wasn’t really trying.” From Day 3


There’s a difference between writing your own projects and writing for someone else’s.

“I did a writing exercise last week for a potential employer to assess my writing skills and the recruiter who arranged it asked me, “Did you have fun doing it?” I suppose what that recruiter didn’t understand is that any writing that isn’t my writing (my novels, my blog posts, my articles) generally isn’t fun. That’s why I’m aiming to be paid for the writing I want to do. In the meantime, I still have to earn an income. I don’t have to find it fun to be able to do it well.” From Day 4


Exercising the writing muscles can be a great warm up for a writing session.

“Every day before I start writing (on the days I do write), I open up this writing journal and type out a few words, words that I don’t have to think about all that much. It’s like warming up the muscles before exercise. Sometimes when I try to write cold, I just sit there like my fingers won’t work. But I’m finding that one of the benefits of this writing journal exercise is that I’m releasing all the blah, blah, blah that can sometimes work its way into my novels and then I’m ready to get down to business with words of quality when I move onto the novel. Just goes to show I shouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss the usefulness of a writing journal.” From Day 6


Write early, write often.

“I wrote nearly 1,200 words this afternoon and then went to make dinner, thinking I might have another day like yesterday and come back to write well into the evening. I don’t know where the evening went but it’s nearly ten o’clock now. I suppose the lesson is to write early and write often and if I can’t write often, then writing early might get me to the target before I lose focus or motivation or whatever it is that went haywire tonight.” From Day 7


Store up all your life experiences so you can use them in your writing.

“I heard a church advertisement on the radio which I had on while I was working. I normally can’t write with the radio on. But for some reason I can listen to the football without being distracted. Anyway, the advertisement was talking about Captain Sullenberger, the Miracle on the Hudson pilot. Apparently he said that he thought of all his education and experience as deposits and when the plane went down, he was able to make a big withdrawal from his life bank to get that good result. Writing can be thought of in the same way, I think. We learn and write and observe and write and work and write and play and write and then one day, everything comes together and we’ve written something worthwhile.” From Day 10


Writing doesn’t need to be perfect in the first draft – that’s what rewrites are for.

“I’m really happy with how much writing I’m getting done and I think the bones are good but I know I’m going to need to add some flesh during the rewrite. In part two, anyway. I’m pretty confident that part one is of a pretty good standard because I wrote most of it outside of a Project October intensive writing month, meaning I was less concerned about word count and more interested in getting it right then and there.” From Day 11


“I recognise now that the quality of part three isn’t anywhere close to parts one and two. It is going to require a lot more reworking and rewriting than the others. I don’t think I mind though. Even the wrong words are so much easier to deal with than no words at all. The blank page is daunting in an all-consuming way, although less so than it used to be. Once a writer realises that it doesn’t have to be perfect the first time, as long as the writer is prepared to go over it again and again and again, then writing can be easier, less stressful, less painful.” From Day 27


Writing different characters requires different mindsets.

“Yesterday I finished writing part two and today I started writing part three. I already had the first paragraph because I wrote it ages ago, at least a year ago I think. But I’m not sure I’m ready to move into the mindset of this other character yet. I haven’t given him enough thought – or actually any thought at all. So now when I sit down to write him, I don’t know what to write. I also need to be very careful writing part three because the character from whose viewpoint this section is told interacts with only one other character and often he is stalking her, watching her from a distance, not talking at all. If I’m not careful, this section could end up being very prose heavy and thus very difficult to both read and write.” From Day 13


“I am really struggling with the transition to the new character’s perspective. I didn’t think I would. But he’s been completely one dimensional in his appearances in the novel up until now and I don’t know him as well as I thought I did. At least, I thought his focus was so narrow that he only had one dimension but nobody is like that. Or if they are, they’re not very good characters.” From Day 14


“I’ve scrapped everything I wrote on Day 13 but luckily it was only 198 words so I don’t resent it as much as I would if I had written the full daily target. I think I’m finally in this new character’s mindset so the words are coming again. It’s not perfect but that’s not the point of Project October. I just have to keep thinking first draft, first draft, first draft. And that the second draft will be closer to perfect. And the third draft will be closer to perfect again. But I can’t get to the second and third drafts if I never finish the first. So write, dammit, write! And write I did.” From Day 15


Figure out the best writing environment for you.

“I’m a person of routines but my routines change frequently. My latest one is to write while listening to the football on the radio. I used to write in complete silence. Then I wrote with classical music playing in the background. Even though I fall into habits, those habits change because I get bored easily so I need to change it up. The key is that I can’t be distracted. I can’t write with the television on. I’m an observer so watching, or even just having the option of watching, something would mean little writing gets done. I also can’t write if there is music on that I want to sing along to. Way too distracting.” From Day 16


Thinking about writing can be just as important as doing it.

“I didn’t write today. Instead I had some thinking time (often just as important as the writing itself but not all conducive to Project October). I wrote the first chapter of the third part over the last few days and although I’m happy with the plot and the writing, I think I’ve revealed too much in that first chapter. I’m going to go back through it and take some parts out. But I’m not going to discard them, I’m just going to find a place in later chapters to put them.” From Day 18


Writers need to be able to write all sorts of things.

“I’ve written half of the second chapter of the third part now and it’s starting to work. The narrator is recapping how he stalks my main character while she goes to church, so I’ve written the priest delivering a homily in order to have some dialogue. It’s the second homily I’ve written into this book and I’m actually not too bad at them. A lot more interesting than the homilies I’ve listened to in churches over the years.” From Day 19


Characters can’t just be fictional versions of the writer – they need their own, individual personalities.

“Even though I’m well into the third part now, I know I need to work harder at developing a unique voice for this new narrator. Prudence, the narrator of the first part, has a very innocent, naïve and literal perspective and voice. Jock, the narrator of the second part, has a kind of weariness and frustration at the same time as he is content in his little part of the world. Daniel, the narrator in the third part, is much younger than both of them and I want him to be not quite as smart or sophisticated, a product of his broken home and life in neglectful foster care. I need to work very hard at achieving this because I’ve been accused before of using ‘Louise’ words when my characters wouldn’t and I know he isn’t sounding like himself yet. He’s sounding too much like me. I almost need to dumb it down. He isn’t dumb but he doesn’t have a love of language like I do, so it doesn’t make any sense for him to be narrating in a flowery or descriptive way.” From Day 21


Writing has the potential to be the solution to a mid-life work crisis.

“I am starting to understand why the age I am at is when people think about starting their own businesses. There is only so much people can take of being told what to do, what to wear, how to speak, how to think, where to stand, when to speak, when to stay quiet. I am an educated woman and I know more about writing, editing and crafting a message than anyone who is interviewing me for a job ever will.” From Day 22


Celebrate every writing achievement – they don’t come around all that often.

“Because I’m ahead of where I intended to be in the word count, it made me lazy today. I knew I could get away with not writing, I didn’t really want to write and so I didn’t (not until half past nine at night). I ended up writing a little because where I left off yesterday I was very close to finishing the last chapter of part two and tonight I finished it. It’s a massive accomplishment, I think, because I’ve been stuck in part two of this novel for nearly a year.” From Day 12


“Today something unusual happened. My phone began ringing and I didn’t recognise the number. It was a woman named Ally, who told me she worked at Text Publishing. She was calling to let me know that Black Spot, which I’d entered in the 2016 Text Prize – a competition for unpublished young adult manuscripts – had been shortlisted. And to invite me to the announcement of the winner in just under two weeks’ time. Wowsers! I wasn’t expecting that. Sometimes writing can feel like a lot of work for nothing. Yes, there’s the immense pride and satisfaction I get from the actual pieces of writing themselves. But when it doesn’t go any further than that, I wonder if maybe I’m wasting my time. But days like today make it all worthwhile. Especially because it feels like another step in a very long process. Last year I caught the attention of an Ampersand Prize judge but didn’t make it onto the shortlist. So I’m one step ahead of where I was then. I’m not even thinking about winning, first because it’s unlikely and second because I want to enjoy this moment in and of itself. This is an achievement. This is amazing. This is bliss.” From Day 28


Sometimes life is more important than writing.

“Today would have been my grandmother’s ninetieth birthday if she had lived to see it but she passed away nearly two months ago now. The family all headed to my grandfather’s house anyway to mark the occasion. I went early and then stayed for dinner so my grandfather wasn’t alone… When I finally left, it was nearly midnight and the window for any writing today had gone.” From Day 2


“Watching my sister get married is a pretty good excuse for not getting any writing done today. In fact, I’d call it a reason, not an excuse. How often do you get to watch your sister getting married? Well, since I have five of them, it feels like I’ve done it a few times now (and there will be another next year, I’ve just been informed) but it’s still special.” From Day 23


There’s only so much writing a writer can do.

“I’m at that point where I’m so close to the end that I’m desperate to get there and not close enough to actually taste it, particularly because I know that even if I meet the daily target every day for the rest of this Project October, I still won’t finish the novel. I’m thinking I might extend this Project October in order to complete the first draft. It’s an extra two weeks of writing but it might be worth it if I can keep going. That would be six weeks of intensive writing though. Might be just a little more than I can handle. And I’d worry about whether the quality was suffering in my haste to get to the end. Hmmm. Something to consider anyway.” From Day 20


“All I really want to do is read. Someone else’s books, not my own. I said previously that I’m a creature of habit but that my habits change frequently. It’s time for that change. Writing out, reading in, at least for a little while.” From Day 30


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Published on November 03, 2016 17:00

November 1, 2016

More Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Take It To Heart When You Don’t Win Writing Competitions

I previously wrote about not winning writing competitions after submitting my unpublished novel, Black Spot, to the Hardie Grant Egmont Ampersand Project in 2015, being contacted by one of the judges who seemed interested but ultimately failing to go any further than that. The three reasons I gave not to be too dejected were:


*There are a lot of people submitting to writing competitions, so it’s not small fish in a big pond, it’s a lot of fish in a small pond.

*A lot of competitions have very specific requirements, your writing might not quite fit the criteria and trying to force a square peg into a round hole is a futile exercise.

*There are so many differences of opinion on pieces of writing that getting all the judges of one writing competition to agree is a bit like getting cats to walk in formation. Or it might simply be that it isn’t your year (just ask Kimberley Starr who entered the Text Prize in 2013 with no joy and won it in 2015 with a reworked version of the same piece).


Here are a few more things that might make you feel a little better.


You Might Not Win, but You Might Get Shortlisted

Most competitions don’t just announce an outright winner; they announce a shortlist and make a big deal of several people before finally revealing who won at a gathering of industry types. As I mentioned in the final post of my Project October Writing Journal on Monday, I was lucky enough to be one of the shortlisted final five (out of a field of 297 entries) for the 2016 Text Prize for Unpublished Children’s and Young Adult Writing, a competition run by Text Publishing in Melbourne, Australia.


Although I didn’t win, I was invited to the announcement party, where I got to meet and speak with a number of other emerging writers, published writers, editors, publishers and reviewers. This event was a goldmine of networking opportunities and as I’m sure everyone knows in this (and most other) industries, it’s not usually what you know, it’s who you know.


Networking Is Hard for the Socially Awkward

And as I learned from speaking to a lot of authors at that Text Party, I’m not the only socially awkward one. Most of them confided to me that they don’t enjoy and are quite bad at the networking part of being a writer (although not as bad as they thought they were since they managed to talk to me just fine – but I did feel like a stuttering, uninteresting moron on more than one occasion).


So not winning generally means writers can avoid terrifying networking situations or at least avoid them until they feel a bit more confident. And I must admit that the older I get and the more experience I have, the better I get at it, although it’s a much slower process than I would like.


But just being a good writer isn’t enough to be a professional writer these days. You need a whole arsenal of tools at your disposal and if you don’t have them, it might be for the best if you don’t win a competition just yet.


You Might Get Some Free, Professional Feedback on Your Writing

When I was contacted by that Ampersand Project judge in 2015, she gave me some feedback on the manuscript I had submitted about ways she thought it could be improved. I considered what she said and did a rewrite (my fourth) before submitting to the Text Prize.


At the Text Prize announcement party, it became clear (although I really should have figured this out long before) that quite a few people in the room had read my book. And that they were willing to give me more feedback about things that might improve the book even further. Specifically, I was told that that there were concerns about such a big age gap between the two main characters who become romantically involved (really, really good point, especially in a book written for the young adult market) and that there was a sense that the book was setting up for a sequel (which it is but it also needs to be able to stand on its own, to be a satisfying read in its own right).


Considering that I am at a point where I’m not sure how much further I can get in refining Black Spot without the assistance of a professional editor, snippets of advice like this might be just the thing I need to get it refined enough to attract the attention of the publisher who will ultimately publish it and provide me with access to that professional editor.


A Publishing Contract Isn’t Always What It’s Cracked Up To Be

The prize on offer for the winner of the Text Prize was a publishing contract, which is what we writers think we want. But I spoke to two people at the announcement party who made me wonder if I should be careful what I’m wishing for.


The first was a writer who has been quite successful and has published a lot. But that writer also seemed very tired, almost on the verge of a burn out, because of contracts with short deadlines that had to be met no matter what. Writers without contracts can sit at home and tinker with our books for years trying to get them right without any such pressure. We bemoan the time as it ticks by without any seeming progress, but now I’m wondering if this is the simpler time we will later fondly look back on and dream of returning to.


The second person I spoke to worked at a publishing company – there were quite a few different companies represented at the party – and I mentioned that I had enjoyed a book the company had published but hadn’t liked the sequel. “Neither did we,” that person responded. “Even the author wasn’t happy with it.”


“Then why,” I asked, “was it published at all? Why wasn’t it held back until the author was happy with the final result?” I was told that there were international contracts in place with specific deadlines and that these other publishers didn’t care so much about whether it was any good, just that they could capitalise on the success of the first book by rushing out the second.


I suppose we have to remember that publishing houses are businesses, much like any other, and their main interest is in making money. For most writers, that isn’t the primary concern. We want to tell stories and we want them to be good. Making money is also nice but we’d rather have it all than have to choose between them.


*****


Maybe sometime in the future I’ll be able to write a blog post about how it’s great to win a writing competition and the many reasons why. In the meantime, with making that shortlist, ’ve taken another step towards what I think I want. Hopefully these insights will take you closer to where you want to be as well, whether that’s a publishing contract or a different frame of mind about it all.


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Published on November 01, 2016 17:00

October 30, 2016

Project October Writing Journal – Part 13

Day 28


Today something unusual happened. I had no family commitments or job interviews, a day to myself, and I was planning to do housework and writing. I’d just started the dishwasher when my phone began ringing. I thought – hoped – that it might be about one of the jobs I’d interviewed for. But I didn’t recognise the number. Then I thought it might be about another job I’d applied for; I’ve applied for a lot. So I answered.


It wasn’t about any of those things. Even though this Project October has felt more about my efforts at jobseeking than about my efforts at writing, it wasn’t anything to do with potential jobs. It was a woman named Ally, who told me she worked at Text Publishing. She was calling to let me know that Black Spot, which I’d entered in the 2016 Text Prize – a competition for unpublished young adult manuscripts – had been shortlisted. And to invite me to the announcement of the winner in just under two weeks’ time.


Wowsers! I wasn’t expecting that. In fact, the Text Prize people had sent an email out only a couple of days earlier saying that the shortlisted authors would be contacted individually. And since I hadn’t heard anything, I assumed I wasn’t one of them. I had mentally already started preparing to self-publish Black Spot later on in the year.


Even though I was told to keep it confidential, I immediately called my mum and my honorary manager to let them in on the news. “How many books are on the shortlist?” they both asked. I didn’t know. I hadn’t asked. I’d been in a little bit of shock. So I Googled the previous two years’ shortlists – four in one year and five in the other. Wowsers again!


Sometimes writing can feel like a lot of work for nothing. Yes, there’s the immense pride and satisfaction I get from the actual pieces of writing themselves. But when it doesn’t go any further than that, I wonder if maybe I’m wasting my time. But days like today make it all worthwhile. Especially because it feels like another step in a very long process. Last year I caught the attention of an Ampersand Prize judge but didn’t make it onto the shortlist. So I’m one step ahead of where I was then.


I’m not even thinking about winning, first because it’s unlikely and second because I want to enjoy this moment in and of itself. This is an achievement. This is amazing. This is bliss.


When I finally got down to doing some actual writing, I decided to skip ahead a couple of chapters to one where I would be reinterpreting something that had previously been shown. I said yesterday that I felt like a lot of what I was writing was total garbage and when I tried to continue on from where I left off in the last writing session, I wanted to scrap it and start over. But I just wasn’t sure what I wanted to happen in that chapter or even the next one, so I moved onto one I was confident about.


It was absolutely the right thing to do. It’s the best writing I’ve done for this whole Project October. I’m closer to finding the voice of this new narrator. And the style… well, there was some. And it was lacking yesterday, so it’s a relief to know it hasn’t disappeared altogether.


So close to the end now. So happy about so many things. I have to embrace it when I feel like this because life doesn’t always come together like we hope it will. Happy now. That’s a big achievement in itself.


Today’s Word Count: 1,622


Ongoing Tally: 27,024


 


Day 29


I sent a short bio and a picture through to the people at Text Publishing so they can use them for publicity when they announce the Text Prize shortlist. I’m in a little bit of disbelief. I keep waiting to wake up. Or to receive a call telling me they made a mistake and it isn’t my book that’s been shortlisted. Except, no, this appears to be happening for real. Sometimes writers have so many rejections that anything else can be strange and difficult to understand and accept.


I also had a call from the place where I had the job interview on Day 27. No go. Not enough marketing experience. Except again, the job advertisement didn’t specify lots of marketing experience. I have some marketing experience as well as being a great writer, editor, researcher, administrator and organiser. It’s their loss. I have to keep thinking about it that way. And at least it was quick and relatively painless. I’m still waiting to hear about that other job and the process has been going on for more than three weeks now.


I picked up where I left off in yesterday’s writing, which is two chapters ahead of where I should be, and finished that chapter. I’m not going to go back and fix or finish the other chapters during this Project October. There’s only one more day left and the chapter I’m about to move onto is the murder from the murderer’s view. I’m kind of excited to write it. And I don’t feel that way about those other chapters that are simply setting everything up. So I’ll put them off for now.


I’ve written nearly a thousand words and I have to go get ready for a fundraising dinner that I agreed to attend. I hope I won’t be home too late and I can do another 500 or so to get that total up to 1,500. Even so, 28,000 words is an awesome achievement considering how sure I was at the start of this month that I wasn’t going to get anywhere close to the intended target. Yay! Another successful Project October. And probably the last for a while once I start my new job, which I’m sure can’t be too far away.


Even if I was able to continue writing full time, I would probably have to revert back to working on Black Spot and White Wash, especially now that I’ve been shortlisted for the Text Prize. One way or another, Black Spot is going to be published within the next twelve months. I have to finalise it in order to do that. Oh, well. Tomorrow I will farewell you again, Trine, through no fault of your own. And we’ll get there in time. This is just going to be my ten year book, I suspect. I hope to God the end product justifies that sort of length of time.


Today’s Word Count: 1,808


Ongoing Tally: 28,832


 


Day 30


Final day of this Project October. I’ve made it to the target of 30,000 words but I went back and counted the number of days that I didn’t get any writing done. Nine! Nine days of no writing. Imagine how much more I could have achieved if I’d written 1,000 words on each of those nine days. I’d be over 40,000 instead of over 30,000 if I had. I knew there would be days I wouldn’t have a chance to write but nine days!


It just goes to show that life can really get in the way of writing if you let it. I’m not the “true artist” as described by George Bernard Shaw because I think there has to be some balance. Maybe my writing is better because I get out there and live life a little. I don’t live it as much as others who don’t write but enough not to become tunnel-visioned. Maybe that means it takes me longer to finish my novels but maybe they are fuller and richer for the experiences I have away from the keyboard. Who knows?


I have seven chapters of roughly 2,500 words each left to write, plus the two that I skipped, so still at least another 20,000 words to go to finish Trine. I’m not going to add extra weeks of this Project October. I think I need to step back again, take a break, give it some thought. Plus with the unexpected shortlisting of Black Spot in the 2016 Text Prize, I’m not sure I’d be able to give it my all.


All I really want to do is read. Someone else’s books, not my own. I said previously that I’m a creature of habit but that my habits change frequently. It’s time for that change. Writing out, reading in, at least for a little while.


I’ll keep you updated on what happens with the Text Prize but you’ll know the result long before you read this writing journal because the announcement will happen in May but this journal won’t be on my blog until October (although I wrote it in April). Maybe by then my whole life will have changed. Maybe nothing will have. Maybe just enough will have changed for me to feel like I’m at least on the right path, one I actually want to be on. Towards the future. And in the general direction of my next book.


Happy reading and happy writing!


Today’s Word Count: 1,320


Final Tally: 31,072


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Published on October 30, 2016 17:00

October 27, 2016

Project October Writing Journal – Part 12

Day 26


I didn’t write today and after not writing yesterday that really has put me behind schedule with the word count. I slept late (exhaustion still not dealt with), washed my hair, dried my hair, fell asleep again (when I am tired, I am really tired), then woke up to have some dinner and go to a branch meeting of the political party I am a member of. Sometimes, it just isn’t going to happen no matter how good your intentions are.


Today’s Word Count: 0


Ongoing Tally: 23,826


 


Day 27


I’m back on track today. I had another job interview this morning, but for a different job, and I’m back home now. It’s only early afternoon so I have plenty of writing time. I’ve upped my daily target for the last four days of Project October to 1,500 words per day, which should mean I get to 30,000 words by the time it’s over. And what’s an extra 500 words a day? Nothing. If I look back at some days during this month, I’ve been doing that and more anyway.


The recruiter from the job interview I did last week called this morning to let me know he would be doing reference checks and to allow me to give my referees a heads up, which I duly did. My referees all reported back that they’d said nice things about me and wishing me good luck. But the recruiter made it clear that it was a pre-decision reference check, saying he wanted to do it beforehand as part of the process. The people at the job interview I went to today said that I’d know by Friday what was what, so a much shorter process. I’m doing that thing that I always do, which is get ahead of myself, but I’m wondering if maybe I’m going to have two job offers and a choice. Or will it be no job offers and continued waiting? I don’t like the not knowing. I don’t like not really being in control of my own future, which is how job searching feels.


I said on Day 24 that I was reinterpreting an already written conversation and that made the writing easier but today I was doing writing from scratch and I seemed to be whizzing through that, too. I recognise now that the quality of part three isn’t anywhere close to parts one and two. It is going to require a lot more reworking and rewriting than the others. I don’t think I mind though. Even the wrong words are so much easier to deal with than no words at all. The blank page is daunting in an all-consuming way, although less so than it used to be. Once a writer realises that it doesn’t have to be perfect the first time, as long as the writer is prepared to go over it again and again and again, then writing can be easier, less stressful, less painful.


As predicted during my last writing session, I have hit the 80,000 word mark. Yippee! These nice, round achievements are arbitrary but they are good anyway. But I’m writing total garbage, the “wrong words” as I called them above. I’m feeling a little bipolar. How I feel can be the complete opposite from one moment to the next.


Today’s Word Count: 1,576


Ongoing Tally: 25,402


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Published on October 27, 2016 17:00

October 25, 2016

Project October Writing Journal – Part 11

Day 24


Agony today. High heels yesterday partly responsible. Dancing at the wedding partly responsible. Nursing eight-month old twin nieces partly responsible. Taking public transport to the wedding and home again also partly responsible. I didn’t even wake up until half past one in the afternoon, which I suppose is the sign of a good wedding, right? It’s also a sign of the complete exhaustion that seems to befall me after every social event I attend. I am starting to feel older than my age. Not just the aches and pains. Every time I interact with young people, people in their teens and early twenties, they just make me shake my head in frustration and ask, “Was I ever that stupid and self-involved?” I don’t think I was but isn’t that what all older people think?


Today was another day of reinterpreting an already written conversation and considering how terrible I was feeling, it was excellent timing. I doubt I would have written anywhere near 1,500 words if I’d had to write it all from scratch.


I have another full day of family events tomorrow so I don’t think I’ll be able to write but I’m still happy with my progress. I’m close enough to the daily target and the eventual monthly goal to be able to say I’ve taken a huge stride towards where I want to be. In my next writing session, I will be passing the 80,000 word mark in this novel and that feels like an enormous achievement. There are six days left of this Project October and I would love to make it to 90,000 words but even if I don’t, I’m already judging the whole month a success.


Today’s Word Count: 1,550


Ongoing Tally: 23,826


 


Day 25


Lunch with my grandfather, football (fantastic win, so fantastic we’re in disbelief that it was the same team we watched in the previous weeks), then dinner with my father. Got home at half past eleven at night so no writing.


Today’s Word Count: 0


Ongoing Tally: 23,826


 


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Published on October 25, 2016 17:00

October 23, 2016

Project October Writing Journal – Part 10

Day 21


I’m just back from my job interview in the city. I was less nervous this time (not nervous at all, in fact) and I hope that was evident because the interviewer mentioned it to the recruiter last time like it might be some sort of deal breaker for this job. Who isn’t nervous in a job interview? Show me that person and I’ll show you a one in a billion personality type.


I put on the outfit I was planning to wear and it just wasn’t working. I realised that I haven’t worn dress pants to work for nearly three years because I’ve been writing at home and my previous short-term job was over the spring and summer months. My entire collection of work pants is horribly out of date and it shows. Anyway, after a quick change, I think I looked okay but it’s seriously time for a shopping spree.


The interviewers (there were two this time) ended the meeting by asking what I was doing for the rest of the day and I explained that I was in the middle of an intensive writing month. They also asked me about how I would cope writing all day long at work and then going home to do my writing in my spare time. Obviously, I would scale back the writing at home. I’m not a masochist. But in the meantime, while I’m still looking for my next full-time job, I’m going to do as much writing as possible. I hope they understood that. Job interviews are like arguments – you always think of the perfect response long after it is over.


I’m going to try to have a really big writing day tomorrow. My sister’s wedding is the day after tomorrow so I’d like to get ahead in the word count before the event rather than trying to catch up after. It’s so much harder. Still I feel like I’m doing well. I’ve hit the 20,000 word mark for this Project October, even though when I started I felt so sure it wasn’t going to go well. Even if I didn’t write another word all month, that’s still 20,000 words!


Even though I’m well into the third part now, I know I need to work harder at developing a unique voice for this new narrator. Prudence, the narrator of the first part, has a very innocent, naïve and literal perspective and voice. Jock, the narrator of the second part, has a kind of weariness and frustration at the same time as he is content in his little part of the world. Daniel, the narrator in the third part, is much younger than both of them and I want him to be not quite as smart or sophisticated, a product of his broken home and life in neglectful foster care. I need to work very hard at achieving this because I’ve been accused before of using “Louise” words when my characters wouldn’t and I know he isn’t sounding like himself yet. He’s sounding too much like me. I almost need to dumb it down. He isn’t dumb but he doesn’t have a love of language like I do, so it doesn’t make any sense for him to be narrating in a flowery or descriptive way.


I think that might be a task for Project November. Words now, voice later. We’ll see.


Today’s Word Count: 1,051


Ongoing Tally: 20,745


 


Day 22


I’m relaxing today in preparation for my sister’s wedding tomorrow. That includes painting my nails and washing my hair. It’s hard to stay relaxed, though, when I receive a phone call from the recruiter about yesterday’s job interview. The interviewer agreed that I wasn’t nervous at all, that they were extremely happy with the work I did on the brochure and that I did and said everything they were hoping I would… except that I didn’t ask any questions at the end of the interview.


I’ve spent more than three hours talking about this role and the company and I feel like I have a pretty good handle on what it entails and I asked plenty of questions throughout the interviews. But the fact that I didn’t want to ask anything further at the very end of the interview when the set of questions drafted by HR determined I should be asking questions gave the interviewer concern. He thought it meant I wasn’t engaged and not passionate enough. It’s an electricity company! Clearly he hasn’t read my LinkedIn article about how I don’t need to be passionate in order to do a job well. In fact, if everyone needed passion, then we wouldn’t have any garbage collectors, sewerage workers, public toilet cleaners or parking officers.


It might be a sign about what working for him might be like and it might be a working environment I don’t want to be in. They say that death, divorce and moving house are the three big stressors in life but I’m adding looking for a new job to that list. It certainly isn’t improving my self-esteem to listen to recruiters and interviewers tell me everything that is wrong with me. I feel like I am handing over power to people who should by rights have no power over me whatsoever.


And my recruiter’s advice was to ask questions anyway, even about things that have nothing to do with the role. “Ask about their share price,” he said.


I am starting to understand why the age I am at is when people think about starting their own businesses. There is only so much people can take of being told what to do, what to wear, how to speak, how to think, where to stand, when to speak, when to stay quiet. I am an educated woman and I know more about writing, editing and crafting a message than anyone who is interviewing me ever will. Where’s the respect?


Okay, rant over. Except I’m so angry and sad at the same time, I don’t want to write. I just want to curl in a ball and binge watch DVD boxsets. I’ve written 204 words this afternoon and will try to write some more later.


This is supposed to be a writing journal but it’s turning into a jobseeker’s journal. I guess life is what happens when you’re busy trying to do Project October.


Last minute wedding stuff – informed at half past nine at night that I have to print and bring the reading I am doing (which is fine but I was told previously I had to do that, then told not to worry as another sister would bring it for me). And more grief about the speech. My other sister, one of the ones who isn’t getting married, is worried that something will go wrong and she doesn’t want the sister who is getting married to be stressed on the day with any little things (like missing high chairs at the reception – not really my area). But I managed to do some writing and that’s the point, fitting it in around everything else that is going on in my life.


Today’s Word Count: 1,534


Ongoing Tally: 22,279


 


Day 23


I didn’t quite make it to where I had hoped I would be with the word count yesterday – about 750 words short – but watching my sister get married today is a pretty good excuse for not getting any writing done today. In fact, I’d call it a reason, not an excuse. How often do you get to watch your sister getting married? Well, since I have five of them, it feels like I’ve done it a few times now (and there will be another next year, I’ve just been informed) but it’s still special.


I was asked to do a reading. My sister said that she wanted it done by someone she had confidence in and would do it well. I don’t know how I’ve suddenly developed a reputation as the family’s public speaker but it appears I have. The hand holding the piece of paper shook the whole time but everybody said they didn’t notice and that I spoke well. Fake it until you make it, I guess. I’m still faking it.


I had a realisation at the reception while my sister and her husband were saying a few thank yous. I am the last of the Truscott women. All my sisters have given up the name now, all my female Truscott cousins have been married and long since changed their last names. Only me and my one male Truscott cousin’s daughter are left and she is still a little girl so not a Truscott woman yet. It made me a bit emotional. It’s funny because I have always been much closer to the extended family on my mother’s side but I am so attached to my name, to being a Truscott.


We can trace the Truscott side of the family back to the 1600s in Cornwall, England and if we went to Cornwall, we could probably trace it a long way further back than that. Being a Truscott is an important part of my identity. Even if I got married, I wouldn’t change my name. It’s partly a feminism thing, partly a professional thing but I am me, not just someone’s daughter or sister or friend or wife, and my name is a crucial part of that.


Today’s Word Count: 0


Ongoing Tally: 22,276


 


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Published on October 23, 2016 17:00

October 20, 2016

Project October Writing Journal – Part 9

Day 19


I went to have my licence renewed today. It’s ten years since I first got my licence and that meant I needed a new photograph. Can’t wait for the horrific results. Couldn’t be much worse than my passport though.


I wrote 250 words this afternoon and literally had my fingers poised over the keyboard to continue when I got a phone call from the recruiter who got me the job interview last week. I have a second interview the day after tomorrow but before then the interviewer wants to send me a brochure and get my take on it, what’s good, what’s bad, how I would change it. I swear, sometimes looking for work is worse than actually having a job in terms of how much time it eats up. And I’m not getting paid for it. Anyway, I’m not going to look at it until tomorrow. A writer’s got to have priorities, right?


I’ve written half of the second chapter of the third part now and it’s starting to work. The narrator is recapping how he stalks my main character while she goes to church, so I’ve written the priest delivering a homily in order to have some dialogue. It’s the second homily I’ve written into this book and I’m actually not too bad at them. A lot more interesting than the homilies I’ve listened to in churches over the years.


The more experience I have as a writer, the more astonished I am that people think they can get away with not hiring professionals to create content. I was talking with my mum on the weekend about the speech she has to deliver at my sister’s wedding in four days’ time. She doesn’t know what she is going to say and I told her that my sister wants her to talk about her recollections of the happy couple. My mum still didn’t know what she was going to say. I said, “Well, when was the first time you met Tim (my soon-to-be brother-in-law)?”


“At the airport,” she replied. My sister and her fiancé had gone on a group holiday together as friends and returned as boyfriend and girlfriend, revealing their new relationship when they were picked up from the plane.


“Stuff like that,” I said to Mum. “That’s what she wants the speech to be about. She wants you to add to the story of their relationship.” Then I added, “I can work with you on the speech if you like.” My offer was refused, which I’m fine about, but with one question I was able to elicit something that would be perfect as an opening to the speech. Imagine what we could have achieved if I’d asked a few more and helped write it down.


I’m sure whatever my mum says will be fine and I’m sure most business content is fine, but wouldn’t businesses rather have something dynamic and memorable? I guess it’s up to us as writers to get that message through. It’s not good enough to complain about all the bad or just okay content out there. We have to be able to demonstrate how it all eventually links back to reputation and sales and the bottom line.


Today’s Word Count: 1,438


Ongoing Tally: 18,231


 


Day 20


Busy day today, meaning I didn’t settle down and write until nearly half past eight in the evening. Spent a couple of hours doing the writing task from the potential employer, took a call about an entirely different job interview next week, went to pick up specialty diet cat food, got stuck in after school traffic, came home, made soup, ate soup, then spoke to my grandfather, mother and father on the phone. I’m finally writing now.


I’m up to a point where I’m showing something the reader has already seen from a different perspective and I find I am whizzing through these parts. It’s usually conversations between two people and the second time, of course, the dialogue doesn’t change so I can copy and paste it. I just have to reinterpret the context and feelings about the conversations from the other person’s point of view.


Which is all good. But I’ve finished chapter two of the third part and chapter three doesn’t contain any previously written material so the next few days of writing might necessarily be slower and take longer to emerge.


But I’m at that point where I’m so close to the end that I’m desperate to get there and not close enough to actually taste it, particularly because I know that even if I meet the daily target every day for the rest of this Project October, I still won’t finish the novel. I’m thinking I might extend this Project October in order to complete the first draft. It’s an extra two weeks of writing but it might be worth it if I can keep going. That would be six weeks of intensive writing though. Might be just a little more than I can handle. And I’d worry about whether the quality was suffering in my haste to get to the end. Hmmm. Something to consider anyway.


Today’s Word Count: 1,463


Ongoing Tally: 19,694


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Published on October 20, 2016 17:00

October 18, 2016

Project October Writing Journal – Part 8

Day 17


I spent the morning doing job applications, then watched the football with my grandfather in the afternoon and stayed at his house for dinner. He gave me a bangle and a necklace that belonged to my grandmother and that she specified in her will she wanted me to have. I was so touched when I found out. I knew my grandmother had a lot of jewellery but I assumed she would divide it up amongst her daughters and daughter-in-law on the assumption they would do the same when their time came.


This is going to sound stupid but when I’m not there, I assume people don’t think about me. I live a reasonably solitary life now, as much as someone with an enormous family can, and although I think about my sisters and nieces and nephews and parents and grandparents when I’m not with them, I always thought they would be so busy living their lives that they wouldn’t have time to think about me. But I lived with my grandparents for eleven years and as much as they have touched my life, I suppose I must have touched theirs, too. I must have been important to my grandmother. To have such tangible evidence of it now is heart-warming and heart-breaking at the same time.


I didn’t have a chance to write. I’m only 207 words behind so I’m sure I will make it up tomorrow.


Today’s Word Count: 0


Ongoing Tally: 16,793


 


Day 18


I didn’t write today. Instead I had some thinking time (often just as important as the writing itself but not all conducive to Project October). I wrote the first chapter of the third part over the last few days and although I’m happy with the plot and the writing, I think I’ve revealed too much in that first chapter. I’m going to go back through it and take some parts out. But I’m not going to discard them, I’m just going to find a place in later chapters to put them.


Even though I know this thinking time was necessary, it has again put me behind schedule on the word count. The pressure of that word count when I’m not meeting it is sometimes overwhelming. I guess tomorrow will need to be a big writing day because I have to write over 2,000 words to be on target (and over 3,000 to catch up with the daily target of 1,000 words a day seeing as I started a day early). I will be able to give it my full attention because I did lots of housework today so not as much to do tomorrow. God, I hate housework!


Today’s Word Count: 0


Ongoing Tally: 16,793


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Published on October 18, 2016 17:00