Comparison is the thief of joy

This quote from Theodore Roosevelt is one that has resonated with me for a while and conversations over the weekend at the SCBWI annual conference made me think about it again. At every step on the writer’s journey there are opportunities to stop and take in the view, chat to other travellers and compare notes.…

What is Up Lit?

I recently had the pleasure of speaking on a panel about Up Lit at the Society of Young Publishers’ annual conference. With me on the panel were Lisa Highton from Two Roads, publisher of The Keeper of Lost Things and Martha Ashby, editorial director of Harper Fiction, but specifically in this case, editor of Eleanor…

New chapter, new challenges

I’m having a year of ‘No Regrets’. What this means in reality is saying yes to things I might regret saying no to later. And since signing my book deal, there is an increasing number of these and it all feels a bit… new. “Would you like to come on Radio Tamworth? I host a…

Never giving up

It wasn’t until I set out with the intention of being published that I discovered I possessed perseverance.  Perhaps I didn’t have it before, or perhaps I just hadn’t had call to use it.  Either way, perseverance, or sheer single-mindedness, has proved to be a most useful trait to have.  The more authors I speak…

Marking the moment

The announcement of my YA book deal with Firefly came pinging onto my phone as I attempted to navigate the school summer fair.  Picture me with four kids, three plant pots and a bag of assorted purchases, trying to make sense of the tweets that were streaming onto my phone. (Small pause while I let…

Why I blog

I’ve been asked to speak to a writers’ group about blogging.  Cue imposter syndrome telling me I’m not a proper blogger, let alone one who can tell other people how to do it.  But then I realised: they are wanting to know how I blog, not how anyone else does, and besides, I’ve been blogging…

Writing’s like marmite…

…it’s a divider of people.  I’ll explain.  When I say I’m a writer, I find people fall into three categories: The person who changes the topic of conversation in order to escape from a subject that either disinterests them or is so alien to their world they haven’t the vaguest idea how to even appear…

Write it wrong

Writer’s block is an opinion-divider.  Some writers say there’s no such thing.  Others are afflicted by it regularly but come to know that it’s part of their personal creative cycle.  For me, I’ve found that writer’s block is a bit of a coverall for the times when I’m unsure. My blocks fall into these reasons:…

Tips on writing a first draft

This week I have the possibility of finishing a first draft.  It’s tantalisingly close.  But I am aware this is when I have the potential to freak myself out – tell myself the story isn’t strong enough, that it won’t be what editors are looking for, that the story has been told before [enter self-doubt…

Fearless storytelling

Several writing workshops I’ve run recently with a fab group of year 6 kids have been enlightening.  Their ideas and what they’ve written have dazzled me. Last week’s workshop was to edit a deliberately pedestrian seven sentences: There was a full moon.  Tyra and Jason were sat under a tree.  They were in Jason’s garden.…