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My Writing Process Stephen Deutsch

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Stephen Deutsch, author, writerI was born in New York, but have been living in Britain for fifty years! The first part of my career was spent as a pianist, composer and conductor.  Many of my works have been broadcast on the BBC, especially as scores for their Classic Serial, but that was some time ago. I live in Dorset with my wife and her garden.

What you have written, past and present.

A late arrival to novels, I had previously written TV plays, some of which were broadcast on the BBC. My first novel, Zweck, a historical comedy about music, was published four years ago. It concerns a fictitious nonagenarian composer who knew everyone and hated most of them. In this novel, the main characters are fictitious but everyone else is real. It is set in the 1970s.

What you are promoting now. 

My most recent novel, Champion, is a true story, a novel of persecution and heroism during the Second World War. It is based on the stories of two men from different worlds, both struggling in the febrile atmosphere of Nazi Dominated Europe. 

The first is Herschel Grynszpan, dark haired, slight, with deep-set eyes. He is an undocumented Jewish adolescent living in Paris. He receives a postcard from his parents – recently bundled from their Hanover flat, put on a train and dumped, with 12,000 others, on the Polish border. Enraged, Herschel buys a gun and murders a minor official in the German Embassy.  The repercussions trigger Kristalnacht, the nationwide pogrom against the Jews in Germany and Austria, a calamity which some have called ‘the opening act of the Holocaust’.

Intertwined is the parallel life of the German boxer, Max Schmeling, who as a result of his victory over the ‘invincible’ Joe Louis in 1936, became a poster boy of the Nazis. He and his movie-star wife, Anny Ondra, were feted by the regime – tea with Hitler, a passage on the Hindenburg – until his brutal two-minute beating in the rematch with Louis less than two years later. His story reaches a climax during Kristalnacht, where the champion performs an act of quiet heroism.

A bit about your process of writing. 

I try to write every day. Usually I write in the morning and revise in the afternoon (often something I had written some days before – one chapter might be revised several times, even in the first draft).  I try to read every word out loud, to get the sense of the rhythm of the words. This is especially true for dialogue, which I really enjoy writing. You can tell so much about a character by the slight variations in their speech patterns, not the ums and ahs, but the choice and order of the words they use. I like to feel that when the book is finished, I had written, read and weighed every word.

Do you plan or just write?

Both.  I normally have a plan, but once that scaffolding is in place, I let the characters do the writing themselves. It depends on the story.  In Champion, the events unfold as they actually happened, so I didn’t need to work out a plot structure. In the historical novel I am now writing, Dallas, fictional characters set in a real historical time and place, The structure is fluid, but to some extent needs to fit into the chronology of actual events. It isn’t set at the time of Kennedy’s assassination – I was at the parade, but didn’t witness the shooting. A story for another time.

What about word count?

Horses for courses, really. Zweck  was a heavyweight, coming it at 120,000 words. Champion is leaner and meaner, only 80,000 words.

What do you find hard about writing?

Starting.  It is a new problem every day. It’s easier to encourage myself to edit a previous chapter than to begin a new one. There are various subterfuges and helpers I can use to get started.  Dictating some random thoughts onto a recorder can grease the wheels. A blank page is less terrifying if it contains even the smallest thought, the shortest sentence.  Then you feel like going on. I also use a software package called ‘Scrivener’. This allows me to enter text, import web pages, and most importantly, to see and change the shape of the entire book as it develops.

What do you love about writing? 

Almost everything.  Each book, each situation teaches me new things. And of course the internet makes researching both pleasurable and far less tedious than it used to be – especially as I don’t live in a large urban area with libraries, etc., at my disposal. Sometimes, when researching a particular item, I accidentally find something else, which can liven up what I am writing. And the act of writing itself, passing the time with my characters, is immensely pleasurable.

Advice for other writers. 

Whatever your style or genre, literary fiction or mass market romances, my advice is always to write as well as you can. Write every word. Spot clichés and either remove them, or turn them on their heads. For example, ‘You make a happy man very old’ is a great twist on a sclerotic saying. The best advice I can give is to enjoy what you are doing, do it every day, and while doing it forget everything else.

 

My Writing Process Caroline Walker

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caroline walker, authorI came to writing through teaching. After graduating in Geology, I couldn’t find a job (in the 1970s it was virtually impossible for a woman to be employed in what was still considered a man’s world), so I changed direction and trained to teach English as a Foreign Language. It was a decision I’ve never regretted. I’ve taught teenagers, overseas graduates and business professionals both in the UK and abroad and a big part of my job was improving their writing skills for letters, reports and dissertations. It was good preparation for the writing I began at the end of 2006.

 What you have written, past and present?

I’d become fascinated by my great-uncle MacDonald ‘Max’ Gill (1884-1947), artist brother of the controversial sculptor Eric Gill. Max was best known for the beautiful maps he painted for places like Lindisfarne Castle and the humorous posters he designed for the London Underground. I was astonished to find that his story had never been told so I decided to write it myself. Over the years I’ve curated several exhibitions of his work and written text for these as well as articles for magazines such as Country Life. This year – fourteen years after I started – my biography MacDonald Gill: Charting a Life has finally been published, receiving a five-star rating in its first national review.

What are you promoting now?

Recently I’ve been busy writing articles for various publications to promote the biography. I don’t have any plans for another book at the moment – this one has taken so long, I think I deserve a break!

A bit about the process of writing

The key to writing a good biography is meticulous research. This has been one of the greatest pleasures too – days spent delving in libraries and archives, the excitement of finding pieces of key information and long-lost artworks, and the joy of meeting hundreds of people eager to share their own connections to Max. A pivotal moment was the discovery of a major private collection of Max’s work and memorabilia. Thankfully, I was permitted to photograph all the letters, diaries and work documents, so I could pore over these at home. I made copious notes, highlighting important events and quotes that I might want to use later. I also kept separate lists of names, artworks and key dates. Setting aside good chunks of quiet time for writing was essential, as was having a table and space of my own.

Do you plan or just write?

I don’t write a plan although I do think it’s vital to have a basic structure in mind. With a biography, it’s quite easy as it’s a chronological narrative. Writing articles is different – I always think hard about the audience so that the angle, text and images are relevant.

What about word count?

As my publisher’s submission deadline for the biography came ever closer, it was clear the manuscript was far too long so I had to make some major cuts and revisions. It still ended up at just over 300,000 words! 

What do you find hard about writing?

I was unsure how to begin until a writer friend suggested: ‘Why don’t you start by setting down why you want to write this book?’ So that’s what I did. The words then flowed easily and I often found it hard to stop. I do sometimes agonise over sentences and even single words – I may change a passage umpteen times but end up with the original. 

What do you love about writing?

It’s an absorbing, creative process that – for me – has been the way to achieve recognition for a neglected artist and relative. And I now realise that I can actually write quite well!

Advice for other writers

Don’t be afraid of the blank page – just get something down – you can always change it. Use your own ‘voice’ – don’t be tempted to copy others. Remember to save when you’re writing (I once lost several pages when my laptop crashed). Avoid cliché and don’t be afraid of using tools such as a thesaurus if you can’t find the right word. And finally, have faith in yourself and enjoy the experience!

MacDonald Gill: Charting a Life is available here. 

My Writing Process David Gilman

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  • David Gilman, writerWhat you have written, past and present.

I wrote my first story when I was about six years old. It was The Runaway Sixpence,  written in the first person, and the sixpence got swallowed by a cow. I remember the teacher berating me in front of the class, saying how could I write from beyond the grave. Stupid woman. Obviously, she had never seen Sunset Boulevard.  That put an end to my writing career there and then. But a storyteller is not someone you can keep down. My verbal storytelling skills got me out of plenty of jams and allowed me to talk my way into jobs I would never have had otherwise. I left school at 15 to support my mother and siblings. When I was a teenager, I wrote a few Battle Picture Library comic books. It was wonderful. All those ‘movies’ in my head, the visual images being described to the artist in the script, and then writing the dialogue, tight and expressive with a narrative description. Economy of scale and a lot of fun. That was abandoned when I travelled around the world and took any job I could to pay my way.

After a few adventures over the years, I ended up in South Africa working as a sales rep for an international publisher. I had hundreds of books to read – and sell – and I was good at it. So much so I ended up going to night school to study marketing and management and became a regional marketing manager for Penguin SA. But the urge to tell stories nagged away. Visual imagery was my strong suit. I had once worked as a professional photographer, so I decided that radio drama was my milieu. It is the perfect visual medium for the listener. Dialogue and sound effects creating every listener’s unique picture in their mind.

In those days there were no writing schools, no one extended a helping hand, and you could not get your hands on a script to see the layout and how to present it for love or money. It was a lockdown business. The broadcaster owned the scripts, and they had no intention of letting you see one.  I stumbled on an old BBC publication, long out of date but gave a couple of pages from an example radio script. I copied the format, was forgiven a lot of sins by a producer, rewrote, learnt – and ended up writing hundreds of radio dramas and a daily soap that ran for 18 months. I did all of this late at night and every weekend while working full time. The payments were abysmal. Barely enough to buy typing paper. 

But that’s where I learnt to write.

I felt confident enough to hand back the company car, quit the well-paying job and have a crack at television. I wrote several 13×60 minutes of multi-stranded drama series and 4×60 minutes mini-series.

I returned to the UK in 1995 and started from the bottom again at 48 years old. And that’s a late time to start from scratch once more. I came to realize that the stiff competition here meant producers of existing series preferred to work with writers they knew. It was all a bit of a club. I found a tv agent and wrote outlines for tv producers and a couple of television movies for the German market that did very well, but I still could get none of my scripts for tv series being picked up here. Some years previously I had met the producer for A Touch of Frost when he filmed a movie in South Africa. So six years after my arrival here The producer asked me to submit a script, (you had to be invited onto the series) it was accepted and I ended up writing A Touch of Frost for several years until Sir David Jason retired from the series.

I then had a choice. Stay in television or have a crack at writing novels. Once again I threw caution to the wind and wrote a Young Adult series called Danger Zone: The Devil’s Breath, Ice Claw, Blood Sun. The three books were published by Puffin, won a French literary award, was short and long-listed for the Carnegie Medal. I spent a lot of time travelling to schools, giving talks and attending all the major literary festivals. I decided to have a crack at adult fiction. What was it going to be? Crime fiction, which is so popular, or something fresh and challenging. I had seen a painting of an English adventurer who fought for Italy in the 14th century and not knowing anything about the period plunged in to research the period. That was how the Master of War series began. I have just finished writing the seventh book in the series, and I’m pleased to say that because of the various established characters – especially the main protagonist Thomas Blackstone – and the breadth of the storylines and the strong women characters in the books, I have a diverse readership with many women readers who are fans.

The long, hard slog of writing a series means time is at a premium. But I also wanted to write other books, and that meant writing longer hours to achieve this. A favourite is my children’s book Monkey and Me, and then I squeezed in an evocative story set in Southern Africa, The Last Horseman which was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Award. And last year my standalone novel,  Night Flight to Paris, set in France during WW11 was well received.

Now I have created a new character for a new contemporary thriller series. The first book is called The Englishman. Dan Raglan is a former Foreign Legion soldier who works quietly behind the scenes and who is a modern Paladin – a knight errant who rights the wrongs – and gets hurt along the way. Perilous journeys undertaken to help those in danger.

I write this lengthy explanation in the hope of encouraging writers starting out, and others who look at the blank page and think the journey might be too difficult. It can be a natural and daunting experience but if an uneducated, wandering storyteller like me can make it then so can others. Never give up. Let the passion and determination drive you on. 

  • What you are promoting now. 

The Englishman. The first book in a new series.

  • A bit about your process of writing.

I start in the morning and write my day’s worth – but it’s a mixed full day at my desk because of the breadth of research I do. The added hours come in when I want to write a standalone novel in between my ongoing series. That means I have to go back to my desk late at night for a few more hours.

  • Do you plan or just write?

When I wrote A Touch of Frost, for example, the producers needed a synopsis or an outline so they could see where the storylines were going (there was always more than one in every episode). This was a broad brush stroke and often became embellished or diminished as the writing went on. There are writers meticulous in their planning and when it comes to the actual writing, they tend to breeze through it. I have tried that approach with my novels but abandon it. I get bored. So I just write.

  • What about word count?

I have a year planner next to me and every day I mark my word count. It’s a ‘kick up the pants’ aid. I can see when I have to finish a book – I have never yet missed a deadline – and what it is going to take to finish it in time. I plan for 1500 words a day. They have to be good words. Considered and rewritten every day.

  • How do you do your structure?

For books  – there isn’t one. A general idea, an incident or a place that attracts me. Something that pops into my head. I write the first line and see where it takes me. If I can be entertained and surprised by the journey, then so too will my reader. There is, though, an understanding in the writing that the rhythm has to feel right. It’s a composition. And as the story builds and often changes, then the structure emerges. Plant the seeds and watch them blossom. It’s a wonder.

  • What do you find hard about writing?

Everything. The long hours. The misery of self-doubt. The grappling with the jigsaw puzzle of a story without being able to see the picture on the box.

  • What do you love about writing?

Everything.

 

 

Easy Ways To Cook Vegetables. How to Get Your 5-a-Day.

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Getting our 5-a-day is hard. Or at least, I have often found it so. It is easy to grab a piece of fruit but eating vegetables requires more effort. At least that is what it feels like sometimes. Since lockdown it has been harder to get some foods. We have had a weekly delivery of fruit and veg. There are a number of companies that do this.

It has set a challenge to use everything up as I refuse to have food waste. This has always been the case but even more so now. I will be sharing tips on the coming weeks but here is what I am doing at the moment.

Every few days I make a a huge salad or a traybake of roasted vegetables. This does as a lunch for a few days and also a side for supper. It is very easy to do. Sure there is a lot of chopping, and my children are usually trying to get my attention, but because you only have to do it every three days it is not that bad.

Salad potatoes can be boiled for 15 minutes. I add rosemary or parsley to them.
potatoes with herbs, cooking vegetables, how to cook potatoes,

Cauliflower can be boiled in 15 minutes. Carrots take 5 minutes. I add as many herbs and spices to the various vegetables as possible. A lot of  fruit and veg boxes come with a bag of fresh herbs. You might also have some in your cupboard. Five spice anyone?

Aubergine can be roasted for 20 minutes in the oven. I tend to add olive oil and salt and pepper. It tastes delicious. You can also pan fry it. Beetroot is great baked in the oven for 45 minutes. You can even bake it whole. Add olive oil and wrap in foil. I tend to cook things at 180. The roast vegetables can be added to the salad and vice versa. I love adding fruit to veg. Oranges go great with aubergine. It is a lot of work cooking and, lets be honest, tedious, but when you make a lot you only have to do it every three days. That is for a family of four.

Eating raw food is great and retains nutrients. I find raw cabbage tastes amazing and has a satisfying texture. I have a large Mason Cash baking bowl which I make a huge salad in. There was one week where we did not get a fruit and veg box and my husband and I really noticed the difference to our health. A plant based diet is the easiest way to great health.

In the evenings and weekends I write in the kitchen while my husband looks after the kids. I am right near the fridge which is not good, but instead of snacking on unhealthy foods I just dip into my huge bowl of salad. Try it, put all of your favourite fruit and veg in a big bowl and pick at it when you are hungry. It will change your life and your health.

Please share any cooking tips or recipes with me. Lots of love and stay safe, Catherine xx.

 

 

My Writing Process – Roger Bray

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I was raised in Blackburn, Lancashire and served for ten years in the Royal Navy before coming to Australia in 1983, after I returned from the Falklands. Writing is something I have always enjoyed and fiction was a favourite.  I loved being able to write anything within the bounds of the particular subject and not be restrained by anything except my imagination.  One restraint I did learn at school was other people’s perceptions of what is age appropriate for a juvenile to be writing.  Apparently graphic death scenes weren’t. 

My writing stayed in the background for many years until I was invited to write short stories for a couple of magazines which were well-received.  I then dabbled with a novel for a couple of years before getting into my stride and writing my first publication The Picture.

At the moment I am halfway through my fourth novel, currently untitled.  It is a story set in the UK and across Europe and deals with sex trafficking and organised crime from the perspective of an investigative journalist who is fighting his own battle with past tragedy while trying, against his better judgement to report what he has found.

As with all my novels I come up with a very broad idea of where I can see the story going.  I write and rewrite parts and scenes in my mind until I see a path then I commence.  That is how far I plan, maybe I’ll do some research at the start to get me on the right track but broadly speaking, once I start I write linearly.  I stop and research as I go and edit sections before moving on.  My word count is whatever I manage for the day but overall I aim for 90 – 100,00 words for a novel +/- as the editing progresses from me to beta readers and to my editor.

My basic day of writing would be re-read what I had last written, editing as I go.  I find this gets me back into the moment.  I then continue and write until I run out of steam or find myself veering off or woffling to pad out the chapter.  Either way that is the end for the day be it 3 or 8 hours later.  Rinse and repeat the next day until finished.

The hardest part of writing isn’t any sort of blockage, though they happen but I tend to get over them by just writing — sitting down and writing, getting words onto the page is, I have found the best solution.  Even if what you have written isn’t great it gets the process moving along and gives you something to edit.  It is difficult to edit a blank page.  The hardest part for me is staying within the storyline.  I have some great ideas which, unfortunately, don’t fit the arc, but I can waste hours trying to make them fit because I think they are so good — usually mistakenly.

In my current novel I have edited the first 2/3 of the novel to delete some of these great ideas I had but have turned into a bit of a millstone later on, something I have to be firm about.

I find the least enjoyable part is the whole process from writing The End onward.  There are lots of moments of doubt once I release my latest to a broader audience (broader than me and my wife’s cat).  Is it great or is it rubbish?  Typos – the bane of my life, plot holes or bits that grate when read?  All these things need identifying and fixing.  Nothing wrong with having any of them, that’s life as a writer but the process of sorting it out is no longer writing, no longer imagination and art.  It’s a drudge.

Any advice I can give? Keep going — you don’t fail until you stop trying.  Writer’s block?  No such thing — keep writing through, it, you can edit rubbish, you cannot edit a blank, tear stained page.

Website https://rogerbraybooks.com/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/rogerbraybooks/ 

Twitter https://twitter.com/rogerbray22 

My Writing Process – Georgia Hill

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Huge thanks to Jane Cable for inviting me! I write romance – romcoms and historical. I live on the Dorset coast with my two beloved dogs (a sprocker and a delinquent cockapoo puppy) my husband (also beloved but not at all delinquent) and a ghost called Zoe. I love Jane Austen, elephants and Strictly Come Dancing. I’m also a complete museum geek and find inspiration for my writing from the folklore and history of the many places in which I’ve lived.

I’ve worked in the theatre, for a charity and as a teacher and educational consultant before finally acknowledging that making up things was what I really wanted to do. I’ve been very happily living in a fictional world ever since.

My writing

I began writing professionally in 2009, have had 6 novels published, a volume of short stories and have also written short stories for magazines. 

My writing process

I used to walk the dogs, then write throughout the day. Nowadays I find being glued to a screen for too long makes my eyes gritty and my shoulders stiff. I’m far more likely to write for an hour, put some washing in, write some more, make a cup of tea – you get the picture. I’m always thinking about the work in progress, so even when I’m not at the keyboard, I’m wondering about my characters. They become very real. There’s a certain amount of promo on social media to fit in too. Luckily I enjoy that.

Planner or ‘pantser’?

I’m a convert to planning – reluctantly! Using Post-its, I brainstorm the story, working backwards from the end listing the main plot points. Those are written up into bullet points as a crib sheet. This guides me through the story and avoids the ‘what was going to happen next?’ issue. However, characters often take on a life of their own and the crib sheet has to be rewritten as it’s scribbled over so much. If I’m writing one of my dual narratives, I have to plan out more carefully and often end up writing a chapter by chapter synopsis to help me keep track. Helps with the edits too.

Word count?

I keep a tally on the crib sheet when writing the very ‘dirty’ first draft. I tend to write that quickly and usually add about 20,000 words during the second draft so I usually know where I’m going.

Structure?

I have the three act structure in mind and occasionally have even been known to apply it! Instinct guides me more.

What’s hard about writing?

I love writing the first draft. It’s very rough and, as I’m not a skilled typist, has lots of strange typos and very little punctuation. I’m strong on dialogue so the first draft is often little more than that – with ADD DETAIL written in lots of places for the second! I love telling myself the story, which is why I’m a reluctant planner – I like to see where the characters are going to take me. Once their story is told, I lose interest and have to force myself to do the next round of edits – that’s when, for me, the hard work begins.

My advice to other writers

Keep abreast of social media, especially Twitter; you can pick up current trends, tips and useful features. Develop a writing community but choose your writing pals wisely and build up trust; they can be your most valued supporters. Read widely and often. Take a notebook absolutely everywhere. Do your research. And develop a very thick skin!

Links

www.georgiahill.co.uk

Facebook georgiahillauthor

Twitter @georgiawrites

Instagram @georgiahill5681

 

My Writing Process – Sue Kittow

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I’m Sue Kittow, a Cornish author, freelance journalist, researcher and copywriter, been living in Falmouth for 25 years.

I have written five books on Cornish walks – Discover Cornwall, Walks in the Footsteps of Cornish Writers, Walks in the Footsteps of Poldark, Walks in the Footsteps of Daphne du Maurier and Walks in the Footsteps of Rosamunde Pilcher. I am also writing a novel set in Cornwall but don’t have an agent or publisher for that – yet!

As a freelance journalist I have interviewed many authors including Bill Bryson, Ian Rankin, Lionel Shriver and Rosamunde Pilcher. I have also written for Daily Mail, Cornwall Today, Writers’ Forum, Woman’s Weekly, Classic Boat and many other magazines.

I am currently promoting Walks in the Footsteps of Rosamunde Pilcher, published by Sigma Press August 2019.

Walks books need a lot of research and planning so my writing is quite structured – I write lots of notes for research then incorporate that into the walks as I transcribe them. It’s lovely playing the tape back and listening to the conversations we had, the birds and sea and whatever else going on. When I’m writing fiction it’s very different – I plot a lot and make notes on that but the writing itself is very free – I love the excitement of a first draft. Editing I find much harder.

As these are books on walks, a lot of planning and research goes into each one. My publishers like a geographical spread of walks around Cornwall, so I have to start off with ideas and make sure the walks are all over the county, not just focused on a few areas. Then research them, walk them, take photographs, transcribe them – it’s a lot of work!

My contract stipulates 35-45,000 words but that’s quite a loose guide.

The structure for each chapter is roughly the same so I’m used to it now – Introduction (about author, character, location), The Walk, incorporating more research as relevant, Factbox, Content, Photographs, Summing up.

The hard bit is always the editing, then the proofing and checking the maps. And self belief.

I love the physical part of writing – actually putting the words on the page and then transmitting the idea of the place – capturing the sounds, the sea, the birds, the trees etc, so that the reader can come on this walk with me while they read it.

Advice for other writers – find your voice. Read lots. Be realistic. Study agents and publishers carefully, see what’s happening online but don’t compare yourself to others – social media is full of people sharing their Amazon rankings, reviews etc. For every good review there is a not so good one (don’t read reviews!). Make sure your work is as good as it can be before you send it out – get advice from people you trust and listen to what they say. Good criticism can only improve your work. Persevere. This is a lonely business, so network with other writers. And write because you love it.

 

My Writing Process – Caryl Hart

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I’m a children’s author and, over the past ten years, have published over 45 picture books and young fiction titles with seven major publishers. Several have been shortlisted for awards and I’ve won a few too. I run creative literacy workshops for schools, libraries and festivals and run teacher training and mentoring services.

Find out more here: www.carylhart.com

What have you written?

I have 45 published titles to date and around 15 books in production.

Next year celebrates the tenth anniversary of my Albie series, illustrated by Ed Eaves (Simon & Schuster), which includes the best-selling How to Grow a Dinosaur and Supermarket Zoo. We are currently working on book 11!

I also have a series of five feisty princess books, the most recent is The Princess and the Shoe – a book about following your dreams and believing in yourself, illustrated by Sarah Warburton and published by Nosy Crow.

Then there’s the Knock Knock series of crazy counting book capers, illustrated by Nick East and published by Hodder. The fourth book, Knock Knock Superhero is out in August. 

And Let’s Go.. a preschool series of first experiences, illustrated by Laruen Tobia and published by Walker books.  

My book Big Box Little Box, illustrated by Edward Underwood was shortlisted for the Klaus Flugge design award and is the first in a new series with Bloomsbury.

These are just a few of my titles. You can see them all here: www.carylhart.com/books

I’m very excited about the publication of Together We Can, a book about friendship, illustrated by Ali Pye and published by Scholastic. It’s a rhyming picture book that talks about what a friend is, how to make friends and, most importantly, how to be a friend. It is also a book about diversity as it features over 150 characters including children with different skin tones, hair styles, clothing, interests, mobility and other aids, prosthetics and cognitive and other physical difference.

It follows on from the success of Girls Can Do Anything and has already received a lot of interest on social media.

A bit about your process of writing. 

Do you plan or just write?

Every book is different. Sometimes I create a proposal in which I outline my idea and write sample spreads, which I then submit to publishers.

Other times, I just start to write.  Sometimes I sketch out ideas too, it just depends on how my brain is working on a particular day!

What about word count?

This also depends on the book. The shortest book I have written is 50 words and the longest around 60,000. On the whole, picture books are around 600 -1000 words and titles aimed at preschoolers or babies are shorter.  I guess, as I’ve gained experience, I have developed a feel for how many words work on a double page spread.  

There’s always a lot of editing, both for the first draft and at various other stages during production.  For example, once the illustrator has created rough drawings, my editor and myself will work together to cut out unnecessary words, or re-write lines, so a text will often get sparer with each iteration until the final book is produced.

What about structure?

Once I’m ready to being writing, I lay my text out in spreads. A typical picture book has 12 -14 spreads so I just put the spread number as a subheading on my page and write the text to fit.  I find this helps me to evaluate word count and also to make sure that every page turn gives the reader something new and exciting to experience. 

What do you find hard about writing?

Getting the time to actually sit down and put words on a page can be hard. Working from home and being a mother and wife have their own distractions, but I also do a lot of school visits and workshops, so spend quite a lot of time planning timetables and creating activities to go with my books.  You can see some of these here: www.carylhart.com/about/book-activities

As a freelancer, I’m happiest when I’m busy and have several new projects on the horizon. There are times when I do worry that the next contract might never come, but have learned to push those worries to the back of my mind and trust that either I’ll come up with something, or a publisher will commission a new project. In reality I’ve never had a period when I’ve been without work, perhaps because I’m quite well disciplined and very self-motivated.

What do you love about writing? 

I love losing myself in a story and the discipline of writing, especially writing in rhyme. It’s very challenging creating a multi-layered story with appealing characters, a satisfying arc and clear meaning and also making the rhythm consistent and the rhyme solid.  It can take a day or more to write a four line verse so it can be very slow-going, but I get great satisfaction when I finally crack it. 

I also love getting the rough illustrations through as this is the point at which my stories really start coming to life. I’m so lucky to be working with lots of super-talented super-lovely illustrators who really do an amazing job, so it’s great seeing the books going from lines of text in a word document to bright, colourful, engaging  books that are just gorgeous to look at and handle.   You can meet all the illustrators I work with here: www.carylhart.com/about/illustrators

Advice for other writers. 

Writing for pleasure is a wonderful thing to do. It helps you, and others, work out how you feel and what your views and opinions, hopes and dreams are.  Writing can help you manage stress and take you to places you never thought you could go. Sharing your writing with friends, family or people online is a great way to feel validated, loved and appreciated.  There are now so many platforms out there where writers can share their work – social media, performance, blogs to name but a few. So if you love to write, WRITE!

If you’re hoping to get your work formally published as a printed book, set your bar high.  Remember that your work is competing for contracts with authors who already have a track record and relationship with their publisher, so your work really does need to shine.  

Publishers have to make money to survive and the industry is very competitive so your work needs to be commercial. That means that you have to take on board what editors and designers ask in terms of developing your texts. Publishing books is a team effort and if you are unable to stomach criticism then consider other platforms where you have total control over what gets published.

If you are writing in rhyme, make sure your rhythm is tight and your rhymes feel natural. Half rhymes work okay in song lyrics but aren’t ideal for children’s books.

If you are hoping to publish a picture book, go it alone. If you illustrate too, then by all means send some sample illustrations but don’t do the whole book unless you’re very experienced. Publishers will have their own ideas on how they want your text to be illustrated by, and rarely sign books that are submitted by a ready-made duo.

The more you write, the better you will become, especially if you are able to take on feedback from professionals in the industry.  Just because your mum or your children like your book idea, it doesn’t mean its commercially viable.  So if you get the chance to speak to someone with experience in publishing, do try to act on their advice – it’ll save you a lot of time and effort in the long run.

Above all else, write. Just write. And then write some more. You never know where it might take you!