Fran Macilvey's Blog, page 46
August 24, 2016
Reading while writing books
Reading While Writing Books
For many years, I have typically read five books at once, which is not so much a sign of my compulsion to read, but of a tendency to start a book and then not finish it. No more! Now I read one book at a time, and try my best to finish it. Perhaps I owe my new, more disciplined style of reading – and my more organised bedside table – to the advent of writing my own books.
When penning my memoir over several years, especially latterly, I decided I did not read books...
August 22, 2016
How to finish a book
How to finish a book
Reading a book – well, that’s one thing, and I don’t subscribe to the view that you should finish a book you have started reading, no matter how dire it might turn out. There are times when finishing reading a bad book simply isn’t worth the candle.
Finishing writing a book, however, is a whole different challenge, well worthwhile. If only because, once a book is finished – the plot outlined, the characters happily settled in their roles, the author breathing a sigh of re...
August 18, 2016
Creative Strategies
Creative Strategies
If you are anything like me, writing will be one of these obsessions that we put off repeatedly until, finally, having done everything else, we set down with a huff of determination and start…when everyone else is thinking about heading to bed, or after all the other jobs are sorted.
Are you a Create When I Feel Moved type? Or do you prefer routine, a set time, a method that each day aims to ensure you prioritise your word count, ring fencing that commitment against all co...
August 16, 2016
Chasing Rainbows
Chasing Rainbows
For almost ten years, now, I have been chasing rainbows. Working away, hoping, praying, waiting and being resolutely determined. And it has worked. I have worked, written three, almost four books, a radio play. I also have plans for a stage play and more books – many more books, no shortage of ideas, characters demanding a hearing, plots, sub-plots, themes…
The work takes on its own momentum. It is a relief now, to be in a situation where the work more or less leads me, and I...
August 5, 2016
Why I write
Why I Write
Here are a few reasons why I write. Each of us has our own particular reasons for spending time at the keyboard or with a pen and paper, but these themes recur. I’m sure we all recognise them.
– To turn my mistakes into opportunities to laugh.
– To refute the supposition that we all have better things to be getting on with, more sociable and productive things to do.
– to honour my life’s purpose.
– to become absorbed so that I can go off and explore new worlds.
– to have somethin...
July 28, 2016
Deciding what I need to know
Deciding what I need to know
Living within my limitations has been one of the hardest, if not the hardest lesson to learn. Some days, my limitations, which are in fact relatively slight in the scheme of things, feel heavy. And I learn to see that my belief in limitations is more of a mental pattern than a physical reality – we all have limitations, the Earth has limitations – after all, what is gravity, except a limitation placed on floating? – and these are sometimes necessary. Without gravi...
July 22, 2016
What we learn from our mistakes
What we learn from our mistakes
More and more, it is an author’s responsibility to deal with promotion, publicity, public engagement and networking. Which means lots of time spent on mailing lists, virtual surfing, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat…. these forums can become as familiar to us as our breakfast cereal, and we can have lots of fun with them.
But inside every author who networks is a creative who wants to write, freed from the distraction of an increasingly hectic schedule....
July 7, 2016
Bridging the Expectation Gap
Bridging the Expectation Gap
What assumptions do we make, about how the publishing process works for us?
We find an agent? Great! We assume they will find us a publisher. We then assume that the publisher will sell loads of copies. That is what they do, right? So we sit back, while they work their magic. We let them get on with it, because they are the experts, of course.
That is a bunch of expectations, and there are going to be gaps between what we expect, and what actually happens. Compare...
July 4, 2016
Managing Expectations
Managing Expectations
The first thing I have to acknowledge is that if I am to be successful in any endeavor, I have to learn to accept gracefully what I receive, from those who offer their skills, life experiences and talents, or who open up opportunities in business.
We all seek and meet people for the personal and professional satisfaction of being acquainted, and for what we can build with and for each other. I do believe that altruism can be found in business. Yet, it helps no-one if we...
June 30, 2016
Going it alone
Going it alone
If we enjoy working hard, thrive on internet communication, have a good grasp of language or a track record which includes prior publication, and if we have more ideas than we know what to do with, we may find ourselves going it alone, and contemplating self-publishing. This is an entirely feasible alternative to the mainstream options most of us dream of reaching one day.
More and more people are happy to download books direct from the internet and pay a fraction of the cover...
