How I Got Here (part one)

a portion of my noticeboard 

As requested by some of you lovely readers, here's an account of my writing journey up to this point. It's long and rambling so I have divided it into parts!


Sometime in the Spring of 2007 I got an idea for a series of books. I couldn't stop thinking about this idea. I was interested to see how the story would turn out. I did love books, but I hadn't written any sort of fiction since primary school. My fourth class teacher Ms King* had encouraged my writing and said that she would be looking out for my book on the shelves in the years to come, so at age 20 when I got this idea, my nine-year-old self was saying go for it girl! I wrote the majority of the first draft of my book Angel Kiss in the summer of 2007. I turned down cinema outings and road trips and a high paying library summer job so that I could finish it.  There is something wonderful about being so naive about the writing process.  In that summer I knew nothing of submissions and rewrites and edits. I knew only of the excitement that comes with writing your very first first draft. During this time I went to a workshop on women's fiction run by Inkwell Writers. Sarah Webb was one of the writers speaking at it. I remember thinking I want to be her. (Not in a creepy way Sarah, just in case you happen to read this!). She was so pretty and talented and organised and cool and had awesome notebooks. So when I finished my first draft at the end of the summer I sent her an email thanking her for inspiring me and included the first few pages of my book. Her reply was so encouraging and she advised me to talk to Vanessa, founder of Inkwell, who would be able to advise me on how to get it ready for submission. Vanessa was also really encouraging and suggested I do some rewriting before I started submitting. I wrote a second and third draft, and posted my first submission in February 2008. 

'Submitting' involves sending the first 3 chapters (hence my blogs title!) to agents and publishers.  Along with the chapters you also send a cover letter telling them a little bit about yourself and your book. Each publisher/agent has their own submission requirements (which can usually be found on their website or in the trusty Writers' and Artists' Yearbook). A lot of publishers do not accept unsolicited manuscripts but some of them still do. My first rejection letter was a form letter which began with 'Dear Author'.  My second rejection letter was actually addressed to me and was much more encouraging. And then the third letter was from an agent asking  to see my full manuscript. I sent the full manuscript and they replied saying they loved it but would like me to make some changes to it and send it again. 'Some changes' actually meant a hell of a lot of rewriting. I had four months to make the changes. September went well, but by October I was back in college and struggling to find enough time. I decided to take time out from college and give 100 % attention to the book. (I was in second year of Drama and Film at Trinity College.) Some people might think this was crazy, but I am a terrible multi-tasker and impossible perfectionist (this does not mean I'm perfect at anything, this simply means I obsess over things an unhealthy amount!) I want to give 100 % to everything I do, and I knew I couldn't devote myself totally to writing if I was also trying to excel at college. Besides, writing was my dream and I had a chance to turn it into a career.  I am not a genius, I had to work really hard to get my writing up to the standard that it is now and for that I needed time. Lots and lots of time. 
So I devoted all my time to my book (occasionally taking little breaks to prevent madness) and did the required rewriting. I left college at the start of November and sent the completed manuscript to the agent in mid December.  I heard back in January 2009. The agent had decided not to take me on. Needless to say, I was completely devastated. But after much curling up in a ball crying, I decided to look at the bright side.  A major London agent had been interested enough to give me extensive edits notes and my book was now 10 times better than it had been before. I try to live by the 'everything happens for a reason' philosophy and I decided that particular agent just wasn't the right one for me. I was back to writing cover letters and sending out the first three chapters, but I wasn't going to give up...


Part 2 coming soon. 

*My main character Jacki King is named after her!