Onward

How are you all? New Year's resolutions holding up? It's great to get 2016 underway by sharing this beautiful new cover for 'The House of Dreams', which is being published in the US in a couple of months. You can read more about it here. This is a book close to my heart, and I was thrilled to hear this week that Booklist has given it a starred review.

Sharing is a huge part of the global online book world. It's a small place, and the water cooler conversations on Facebook and Twitter connect everyone in a way that was unthinkable ten, fifteen years ago. There is an unwritten code of 'never complain, never explain' when it comes to work - so we hear all the good stuff: who has great new deals, hot new agents, brilliant new books out. We hear about the reviews, and launches, and lunches, and R&J, and book tours, and film deals, and miniseries, and ... it can all get a bit 'where are my croissants' as a writer said the other day if you are working away in your pyjamas with your cat for company and feeling at all fragile and uncertain.  

If the online world is getting noisy and putting you off your stride creatively - if it is taking up too much mental space, turn it off for a while. Enjoy the silence. There's an expectation that writers will help promote their work, but being authentic is vital, (otherwise it all comes across shouty and *BUY MY BOOK*). You are 100% in control of your online presence. 

Be yourself. 

It is the most supportive industry I've worked in, and the camaraderie among writers is strong. We support one another, cheer one anothers' successes and commiserate when it's needed. This article was shared again and again this week, and it's obviously hit a chord with a lot of writers, (warning: NSFW, swearing). It echoed something I did over the holidays - taking stock and setting serious goals, all of which begin with:

Move onward.

Do your best work. 

Turn up at the blank page every day.

Enjoy your story, the writing process. If it's to be published, it won't remain your own perfect world for long. There's an enormous amount of things you have very little control over as a writer once the book is out of your hands. You might like to copy this out and pin it over the desk:

The things beyond your control include: will people like your book or not? How big is the marketing budget? How effective is the publicity? Which genre is 'hot' (how many new 'Gone Girl On The Train' do we need ...). All these things which act as the boosters to your rocket/book, let alone the miraculous unquantifiable things which turn a book into a phenomenon - will drive you nuts if you think too much about them. It's not enough to write a great book, but all we can do is our best. As Chuck Wendig concluded: "You control what you can control, which is the work." 

Here is what you can do:

Write.

Read.

Rewrite.

Repeat.

And persevere.

So - what are your goals? For me, I'm just starting my sixth novel in six years, and I'm head over heels in love with my new characters, and the world is all fresh and shimmering.  It's the honeymoon period. Looking forward, I've mapped out the next three adult books, three young adult novels and a novel series which will probably need a pseudonym, along with a TV series. If you're going to make goals they may as well be big ones. Will they all be great? Who knows - I hope each will be better than the last. I hope I keep learning. Will they get written? Yes.

Losing two creative heroes too young and within a few days of one another this month brings home how important it is not to waste time. Regular readers of WKDN will have seen Alan Rickman and David Bowie appearing often over the years - love them both. (Full disclosure, when we took the children on the Harry Potter studio tour, they may have had to stop me hugging the costumed Snape dummy - yes there are photos and no they won't be posted). What a loss, but what a body of work both men leave behind. We can learn from two creative lives well lived.

So, I'm going to tune out the online noise and things beyond my control (at least try to), and concentrate on this new book until it's written. But in March I'll be appearing at the Emirates Literary Festival. I'm teaching a couple of workshops, and appearing on a panel being interviewed by Richard Madeley about hist fic - tickets are online now, and if you are around it would be great to see you there.

Meanwhile, wishing you good writing, and here's a favourite, beautiful live Bowie performance for you to work along to - enjoy x