Hello,
I'm back. Well, sort of. I've been really busy lately and the reason is that I'm trying to come up with a cracking idea for a fourth book. I thought my struggles would make a good blog and so here I am. Hello. It's nice to see you again, you look fantastic.
Readers only ever get to see the finished product. We see a writer knocking out a book a year and most readers probably assume that it's been a year of sitting around in coffee shops, the words flowing effortlessly onto the page exactly as they're reading them. This couldn't be farther from the truth...and especially at the moment for me. Let me explain.
My third novel was always going to be the sequel to the first. So when I sat down to start writing THIS FAMILY LIFE, I already knew what I was doing. Yes I had to think up a great, gripping plot, make it hilarious and write the bloody thing, but it wasn't the most difficult book to write. I actually for the first time in my life, finished it within a year. Although before I get all carried away, it's currently with my publisher and they might come back with hundreds of changes and it might take another year to get into print. Just to put everything in perspective, I've had two books out in 2013, THIS THIRTYSOMETHING LIFE and HAPPY ENDINGS and so next year I'll probably only have out THIS FAMILY LIFE and I'm hoping to do a Christmas novella. This means my fourth book,the one I'm just getting started on, won't see the light of day until 2015. 2015! That's literally years away. So why is Rance getting all worried about it?
A lot of people ask me about the difference between being self-published and working with an agent and publisher. To be honest, I'm fairly new at this and it's still less than a year since I got the call from Hodder and Stoughton and got my first book deal. So this book, this fourth novel, is in many ways my first book that I'm really working on from scratch with my agent. She knew I was going to write THIS FAMILY LIFE a while ago, so it was always in our plan. But now I have to come up with a new idea. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, I thought. I already had loads of ideas knocking about on my computer. Surely she would love one of them. I quickly put together a few of them for her and one by one she has rejected them all. All of them. And they're good ideas. But here's the thing. She thinks I can do better. I could easily have already started work on a number of books, but she's stopping me because she wants me to do something better. She wants something unique, original and fresh.
So what is the difference between working alone or with an agent or publisher? If I was alone, I would have taken the easy option and started writing one of the books I already had planned. However, because I have an agent who is pushing me to do better, who wants me to succeed, who wants us to come up with something brilliant, I'm still working through ideas. So what can I tell you? If you're currently self-published or without an agent or publisher, let me tell you this. You're going to have lots of ideas and 99% of them are going to be blah. They're going to be formulaic, unoriginal and probably pretty boring. Don't stop at the first idea that comes along. Push yourself until you're convinced that the idea you have is brilliant and unique. It isn't easy. I'm working in an idea at the moment that I think is pretty cool, definitely original and fresh and hopefully brilliant. I hope my agent agrees with me. We're in no rush though. I could easily put out two books every year. I have twenty books mapped out on my computer, but writing isn't about volume, it's about quality. Be 100% proud of each book you write and know it's the very best book you can write. If it takes two years or five years, that's fine (my agent wouldn't agree with this), but one brilliant book is worth more than ten average ones.
If you ask any agent what they're looking for, they always say the same thing. Something original. So, if like you, you're trying to write a romantic comedy, you have to really think about it. It's easy to think up the usual plot, boy meets girl, trouble ensues, they're kept apart, she's a bit neurotic and he's a bit of a loser, someone dies and then everyone ends up happy. But what they want is something new. Take this formula and turn it on it's head. Find a new way of telling an old story. Look at it from a new angle. Like I said, it isn't easy, but it isn't supposed to be. I have to get back to my new idea now. It's taking shape and I'm working on a synopsis at the moment, but I probably won't start writing it for another month at least. This is a new record for me, but I hope it will pay dividends. This book is going to be brilliant. My agent will make sure of it.
Until next time.
Hugs,
Jon X
