Electric Reads Young Writers' Anthology 2015

Back in August, I came across a post on Facebook advertising a short story competition run by a company called Electric Reads. They were looking for British writers under the age of 25 to write a 3,000-word or less piece in any genre to be published in an anthology to showcase new talent. So I wrote a short fantasy story, which isn't something I often do (world-building gets a little difficult when you only have a limited amount of words to tell the story in). I was pretty pleased with the result, however, so I sent it to a friend for editing purposes. They basically told me they'd eat their hat if my piece wasn't chosen.

So I made the changes they suggested (and a few of my own) and submitted it. I was hopeful, but I wasn't really expected much.

Then, in early November, I got this email.

On the 11th of December, after several weeks of edits and preparations, the anthology was released worldwide! My story is one of only 25 to be selected and I am incredibly proud of this achievement. I haven't yet read the other stories (my copy only arrived yesterday!) but judging by the dedicated hard work the team at Electric Reads has put into this anthology, I know they'll have chosen some absolutely fantastic stories.

The Electric Reads Young Writers' Anthology 2015 is available from Amazon in eBook, hardback and paperback here, from Barnes & Noble in eBook here, and from Waterstones in hardback here. As young, uestablished writers, this is a huge opportunity for us to get our names out there so it would be amazing if you could support us by reading our stories and - even better - posting a review on any of the aforementioned sellers' sites, or on our Goodreads page. :)

Writer's Block

Recently I started sending chapters of my novel to a group of people I call my Guinea Pigs. In actuality, these are just my closest friends – the people I trust the most and feel most comfortable sharing my work with at this stage. However, it’s not easy, and for me, this editing seems to have brought on what many people refer to as writer’s block.

But before I get into that, let’s see where I’m at with this novel of mine. I did, miraculously, manage to complete Camp NaNoWriMo this past July (see my stats here), but in doing so I did not get anywhere near finishing the first draft of my sequel. I got so stuck with it that I decided it would be both easier and more beneficial for my writing if I were to instead write the second draft of my first draft (also my laptop spent six days out of my reach having a virus removed, so by the time I got it back, I had to write FAST, which I really couldn’t do with the amount of inspiration I was getting for the sequel). So, at the end of July’s Camp NaNoWriMo, I had a complete mess of a beginning of a sequel, and the first four chapters of the second draft of the first book.

Since then, I have edited the prologue plus one of those first four chapters and sent both off to my Guinea Pigs. After editing Chapter One about a week ago, however, I got writer’s block.

I say that like it struck me like lightning and I had to spend the week in bed with flu-like symptoms because of it. Of course, that is not the case. Writer’s block is not a disease; it affects different writers in different ways and for different reasons, and it won’t even be the same for each writer every time they get it. See this tumblr post for more on this.

In the past, I’ve had writer’s block from simply being uninspired. This time, though, it was decidedly anxiety-induced.

After sending Chapter One out to my Guinea Pigs, I started editing Chapter Two, but I couldn’t finish for the feeling of impending doom lying heavy on my shoulders. It suddenly struck me just how long a project this was, and how serious it was getting: I was writing draft two, and sending it out for other people to read! It is very rare for me to ever have finished a writing project, and I’ve certainly never gone back and completely rewritten one before, so this is the closest I’ve ever been to having a manuscript that is ready to send out to agents. This thought brought on even more fear: if I can’t deal with having my closest friends reading my writing, how will I ever be able to cope with getting anything published? What if I can’t achieve my lifelong dream?

It didn’t really help that I can be a bit of a perfectionist, and was worrying over whether any of this was worth my time anyway if it would never be perfect. Just thinking of continuing writing makes me want to hide from the world and all my responsibilities.

I decided the best way to overcome this was to take a break for a few days, and not force myself to write when I felt unable to do so. I've ended up consciously taking over a week off from writing my novel (I say "consciously" because often I just won't find time to write for this length of time or longer). On one hand, I could say that it has worked: when I do think about it (no use thinking about something that makes you feel like crap, right?), I feel a little better about it, and I have started writing again. On the other hand, what I have been writing is not my novel, and even if it was, this would definitely not be a permanent solution. The anxiety only comes back and then I'd have to take another break lasting a week or two. It could take years to get this novel done in this way, never mind its sequels.

Another potential solution is outlined in this tumblr post. I don't think the problem described by the anonymous user who sent in the question is quite the same as mine, but it's similar enough that it's worth a try. The advice suggests asking yourself a few questions about your writing whose answers are meant to encourage you and rekindle a bit of self-belief. I think my answers to these questions are certainly something I need to remember whenever I feel discouraged about my writing: yes, I enjoy writing, therefore no, I do not think it's a waste of time. That reminder that I'm writing this more for my own pleasure than for a future career might be just what I need to get me out of my writer's block.

July Camp NaNoWriMo 2015: Mid-Month Update

This month, I'm working on the sequel to my novel, which is actually proving rather difficult due to some rather big plot changes at the end of the first book that I've planned but haven't written yet. What that means is that I don't know where this story is going: I can't work out what's going to happen to the characters when I haven't fully worked out what happened to them previously. Luckily, this book introduces some new characters who originated from stories that I first imagined a few years ago. But in including them in this book, I haven't abandoned their stories; instead, I've simply integrated them as subplots. Because I know where these subplots are going, I have been favouring writing these rather than my main plotline. Unfortunately, that does not mean I am keeping up with my word count: as shown by the graph above, I am nine thousand words behind schedule. That's pretty normal for me during NaNoWriMo, though, so the fact that I haven't given up yet is a good sign that I may well still finish on time.

Things People Say When I Tell Them I’m Writing A Novel

Being a writer is part of who I am, and I don’t want to hide it, so if someone asks me what I’m doing tonight, I’m not going to tell them that I’m watching TV all night when actually I’ll be working on my novel. This generally leads to the other person asking two questions: what's it about, and can I read it? You’d think I’d enjoy hearing these two questions - hearing that people are interested in my book - (I know, me too) so here's why I don't.

What is it about?

So many things about this question make me nervous about answering. Firstly, I never know where to start. My head has been filled with the characters, settings and various plot points of this story for almost three years now. It has gone through many changes and will go through many more. This makes it kind of difficult to step back from all the tiny details of the project that I’m currently dealing with to summarise the book’s exposition for you. I always struggle with working out which bits are important and which bits you will understand without me explaining the entire history of my fictional world. As a result, my answer will either be short and vague and therefore rather disappointing (usually I just say “oh, it’s a fantasy”, and only elaborate with something like “it’s about a girl searching for her family” after a little more prompting, though that doesn't do it justice), or you’ll have to hope you don’t have anything to do in the next few hours because I’m telling you everything. Secondly, as already mentioned, I hate oversimplifying it. It gives the wrong impression (I once told someone my book is about a revolution, which it is, but it lead him to think it's a political book, which it isn't) or makes it sound dull, or like I don't want to talk about it (I do, I just don't know how to without sounding silly - a pocket watch that gives you the ability to talk to ghosts, are you serious?). On the other hand, I also don't want to end up boring the other person with all the inconsequential details, or messing up my explanation and just confusing them (which is very likely). I feel like this question puts pressure on the writer to have a good grasp of their book, which you would think they have, but in reality, (at least for me) it's just a huge mess of ideas.

Can I read it (before it's published)?

I hate this question, usually because I have to try and find a nice way to say no ("not yet" is my go-to reply). Before you ask it me, I want you to ask yourself a few questions first.

1. Why do you want to read my work? 

If it’s for a ‘claim to fame’, then please don’t ask me if you can read my book. My neighbour is apparently convinced I’ll be the next JK Rowling and wants to be able to say he read my book before it was famous. This makes me uncomfortable partly because it’s highly doubtful I’ll be as successful as JK Rowling and he really shouldn’t expect me to be famous one day just because I’m writing a book, but mostly because it implies to me that he’s actually only interested in my book so that he can have something to boast about in a few years’ time. It also disregards the fact that right now, my novel is a hobby, and getting it published - never mind it being a bestseller - a far-off dream.

2. Are we good friends? 

My book is incredibly personal to me. It isn’t just a story, it’s my imagination laid bare on the page for you to see. So I’m very self conscious about my work. If we’re not really good friends, then I’m not going to want you to read my novel. I’m also not going to want to disappoint you and tell you that I’ll only let you read it when the entire rest of the world can read it too, which puts me in a slightly awkward position. Basically, if I’m not comfortable enough to be myself around you in person, then I won’t be comfortable enough to let you read my book. If it was ready for you to read it, I'd have started querying literary agents already. So if we don't know each other that well, don’t even ask.

3. Will you be able to give me hugely detailed feedback? 

If you think that writing a book is easy, or that the books you see on the Waterstones bookshelves are word-for-word the same books that their authors wrote when they first sat down at their desks with a vague idea in their heads, you would be wrong. So lower your expectations of however good you think my novel is going to be, and then lower them some more. This is a work in progress and in need of a lot of improvements.    

As the writer, I see my story from a completely unique angle. My position is all-seeing. I know everything that is, could be and could have been in my story. To me, it all makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, my readers will not have this viewpoint, so I have to make sure everything that is important is visible from their angle too, but I can’t see from their viewpoint either. This is where I need help. At this stage, I need readers willing to give me a huge amount of feedback to help me get across what I want to get across and not miss out anything important. If you’re not willing to tell me all of your opinions of my book - what you thought of every character in every scene, your theories on their plans, how much of their backstory you’ve worked out, what confused you, what bored you, what you thought was unnecessary, what you thought was supposed to be funny but really wasn’t and needs to be removed, and, of course, what you enjoyed - then you telling me that you want to read my book is just someone else waiting over my shoulder for me to finish writing, counting on me to come up with a spectacular bestseller all on my own (not going to happen, guys). Your answer to question 2 is also pretty vital here - if I'm not certain that I can trust your judgement and you'll tell me nothing but the truth, it doesn't matter if you're willing to give me all the constructive criticism in the world.

The likelihood is, if your answers to these questions are the ones I'm looking for, you won't even have to ask to read my book, because I'll ask you - I wasn't kidding when I said I will need help with writing my book. And if I'm happy with your answers to questions 2 and 3, I might even completely disregard your answer to 1, but not the other way around.

I'd like to add that these are only my views on this subject. I'm sure there are many writers who are very private about their writing and feel rather awkward when asked about it, like me, but I'm also sure there are many writers who are perfectly happy to talk about whatever project they're currently working on, who don't worry about mis-explaining their plot or sounding ridiculous, or who will let anyone who asks read their writing. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them.

The Secrets The Writer Keeps

Several months and a sneaky blog-title change later, I'm finally posting an update! It's currently one week until my last exam, and therefore one week until my summer begins (I don't understand how quickly first year went!). I haven't managed to write much recently (whether it's true or not, I blame studying), but I'm looking forward to writing more over summer. I also hope to start posting on here again, so here are a few updates!

• I set myself a few writing goals and put them up on my wardrobe:

• Therefore I will be spending June writing my second draft, July taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo to get the first draft of Book 2 started, and August finishing Book 2.
• Over the past few weeks and months, I've mostly been fleshing out the world in which my story is set, planning my second draft (from big plot changes to tiny details) and attempting to write a new beginning. Since I decided to write a new prologue and move the old one into the first chapter, "writing" for me has pretty much become synonymous with "writing and rewriting the new prologue".
• I have received detailed feedback from one of the two people who has read the first draft of Book 1, and hope to receive more feedback from the second. Already I've found that even getting just one outside opinion is incredibly helpful: it helps me to see things from my reader's point of view, to see what works and what doesn't, which details need to be toned down and which need to be made more obvious, and see problems and characterisation flaws that I wouldn't have noticed (for example, I tried to make my main character grumpy-but-lovable, and instead it just resulted in her being slightly unlikable and difficult to relate to).

I plan on posting mostly progress reports on my writing here, perhaps along with a few other things, however I'm not currently sure what. Nevertheless, I shall endeavour to at least post something in the near future.