Why I Don’t Give Up

Since the last blog was a bit bleak, I thought I’d counteract it with some truths this time.

How many times it took me to pass my driving test: 4

I cried in the car after every failed test. The woman who failed me on my second test went on to pass me on the fourth.

How many Cambridge colleges interviewed me before I was accepted: 2

After the first one, I entered what was called the ‘pool’. They liked me but not quite enough to offer me a place, and another college fished me out to give me a second chance.

How many attempts it took me to pass my PGCE (teaching qualification): 2

I took a year out to work as a teaching assistant before I finished the course successfully.

How many times I applied for a teaching job at the school where I eventually worked: 3

I first applied early in my PGCE and was (understandably) passed over. I applied again later, after my year as a teaching assistant, unsure whether they would give me a second chance. The third application turned my temporary contract into a permanent contract.

How many times I sent out a query to an agent before I finally got representation: 34

That’s if my records (which go back over two decades with three different novels) are accurate.

So, the fact that the main publishing houses in the UK looked and passed over the first novel I worked on with my agent is consistent with how my life has progressed so far. And hopefully there will be more success with the next novel.

I’m currently drafting proposals and opening chapters for two different novels. One is probably best described as a Young Adult Speculative Psychological Drama (same target age as the last novel, but a very different genre) and one is Adult Crime Fiction (if YA fails, the rationale is to try an entirely different market). I’m still in the early stages (4000 words with the Crime novel, 1000 with the YA novel), but hopefully I can finish a first draft of one of the two complete before the end of the year.

Drafting is always a pleasurable part of the process.

I also had a small piece of good news that I'm on another longlist this week. The judging process isn't finished, so perhaps the short story can go further...

Short Successes

January was a busy month as I was editing the sequel to my first novel (I'm still waiting to see if any publishers are interested in the first book). I’m currently receiving feedback on the sequel's second draft from members of my writing group, and my current plan is to work on more revisions in March.

As the sequel was taking up all my attention last month, I haven’t submitted to any short story competitions for a couple of months, but I need to get started again. In the last couple of days, I’ve received some news worth sharing: a story that I submitted in December reached second place in a competition. It’s called ‘A Book Report’ and is available to read for free (along with the other winners).

While I was researching competitions today, deciding what to enter next, I also discovered that I’ve been longlisted for another competition. It’s too early to know which story caught the judges’ attention (I entered two) or how far it might get in the competition, but it’s good to know that I’ve received some recognition. Fingers crossed!

In other news, I’ve written an opening chapter for Fiction Express. I’m going to get some feedback from my writing group this week, and then I’ll be sending that off to my agent next week. Hopefully, the organisation will like the concept. I’m not sure I’ll begin writing for them in February/March (given how soon their next batch of stories will go live), but hopefully they’ll slot me in for their April books.

Steady progress overall, but the shorter works have a much quicker turnaround!

The results are in...

 I have a small bit of news: I can now say I’m a longlisted writer.

A short story I wrote earlier this year called ‘Another Man’s Treasure’ made it onto the Frome Short Story Competition Long List 2023. You can click here to see the list, but it’s nothing exciting - it doesn't even say my name.

However, a longlist is a glimmer of hope. It means that a judge liked the story sufficiently to recognise it. It doesn’t mean that I’m published, though it does mean that I can try the story elsewhere to see whether a different judge in another competition would like it more.

It also means I can add this to my writing CV to hopefully make me stand out a little when querying agents for my novel. I don’t know whether I will have any success with the agent who is currently reading my full manuscript. I have to be prepared to be back in the usual position, with no agent, trying to reach out to others across the cybergulf. But if that’s where I am in a few months’ time, at least I’ll be able to tell agents that I am a longlisted writer.