Short Story Successes (and Other Updates)

 Last week, I received an exciting package in the post: three copies of a book in which my winning story ‘From the Ashes’ has been anthologised. It’s the first time I’ve ever been paid to feature in print media (rather than published online) and it feels amazing to have my words in a physical form. I can clear a shelf on one of my bookcases and hope that one day I will fill it with a range of published stories.

Another success came through via email a few minutes ago. My story ‘Observation’ has been selected as first prize in another competition and has been published. You can read it online for free here. 

When the small prize comes through (£100), it'll be my first fiction earning for the current financial year. I’ll still be a long way from matching my living costs, but I’m hopeful that writing for Fiction Express this year will help with that. My first story will feature there in September, a novella called Blood of the Giants, which is loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. It's starting to feel ‘real’ (after a very long wait) since they have sent me a proof of the digital cover!

In other news, I’ve sent the openings of both novel projects to my agent. We’re meeting up in London on Friday to chat about them, and hopefully then I’ll have the clarity I need to develop a full draft before the end of the year.

Small steps, but each one is a hopeful sign!

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...

Death of a Novel

Remember when I wrote that Garth Nix once compared sending a novel out to publishing houses as being like a merchant sending out a ship, where it could either return with great fortunes or founder?

Well, from my experience, it’s more like this…

 

Imagine you’re stranded on an island. You’re the only person there. All you have with you is a packet of cedar seeds. You know that if you can cross the strip of water, you’ll reach the mainland, where the people are. So, you plant a seed. Days turn into weeks. You toil every day to survive yourself while you create conditions for your little tree to grow. You desalinate salt water to nourish it, you check on it each day, you carefully measure its progress. All the while, you look out over the sea, dreaming of the day your little tree will carry you over the water to the people on the mainland.

Years pass and the tree grows. You sharpen a blade of rock and cut it down. You split the trunk into planks and carefully shape and plane and bow the wood into a dinghy. It’s a labour-intensive process, and you often hurt yourself in the process, but one day, finally, the little boat is ready. Its sails snap in the winds and for the first time you feel something like hope. You climb into your dinghy and the wind is strong, true, carrying you directly to the mainland. You imagine what it will be like, to connect with people after so long.

But you realise as you approach that jutting rocks bar your way. The wind of expectation is too strong and when the boat strikes, the impact severe. As your precious dinghy splinters around you, you sink into salty water. The tide carries you back to the island. Everything is as it was before. But one seed is gone from your pack, and you’re not quite as agile as you were once, when you were first stranded on the island.

 

That’s the story of Spirit Bound, a novel I’ve been working on for over a decade. I’m grateful that it broke against vast rocks like Bloomsbury, HarperCollins, and Scholastic – over twenty big publishing houses in total. I never really expected it to sail so far, even after I convinced an agent to take me on. To have feedback that shows that these editors read my work is far more than I’ve ever achieved before. But the sting of salt is real.

There are a few possibilities at this stage. I could choose to self-publish the novel. It’s not part of my current plan, but it remains a long-term possibility. Short-term, the novel will be shelved. There’s a slim possibility that in years to come, editors may be more likely to take on the risk – if I establish my name in some other way, for example. So, the short-term plan is to develop a new novel and begin the process again. I have an agent, which will save a lot of time when I have a polished novel ready.

If there’s a lesson to be learned in all this, I suppose it’s that there’s no point spending over a decade working on a single novel. I didn’t really have a choice, or I didn’t think I did. But I could have chosen a job that wasn’t so demanding (of both creativity and time) than teaching to pay the way. I could have created better conditions, day-to-day, to draft a novel over a shorter span of time.

So, the interesting thing will be how long it takes me to draft a new novel. If it takes longer than a year for me to let it set sail, I will know that I’m doing something wrong.

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!

2023 Roundup

As the year draws to a close, I can safely safe that 2023 has been my most successful year as a writer. Not only have I signed with an agent, but I’ve proven that I can earn some money from publication. I’m still far from earning enough to cover my living expenses, but this year has given me plenty of hope for next year.

Here’s a roundup of every tangible success from the year:

 

Free to Access Online Publications:

‘The Slumbering Dragon’ (first prize)

‘Enduring Love’ (first prize)

‘Lost Property’ (short list)

 

Anthologised and Available to Purchase:

‘Baby on Board’ (short list)

 

Other Competition Successes (but not published):

‘From the Ashes’ (first prize) – and will hopefully be anthologised at some point!

‘Another Man’s Treasure’ (long list)

 

To anyone who has read and engaged with any of my stories, I can only say a huge thank you. Writing is a solitary process, and it’s been an entirely new (and humbling) process to connect with readers. You are the community who really makes this occupation meaningful.

In 2023, I entered 29 competitions (which translates to a success rate of 20 per cent). I’d like to increase this number in 2024 with the hope of similar fortunes.

While I can’t control what happens with the novel, I can edit the sequel (now drafted) to make it more effective. I’m in the process of sharing it with readers to help me gauge where I need to make improvements. I hope that process will be complete by the middle of the year.

If I can’t find a publisher for my first novel (even with an agent), one thing I can try is to appeal to a very different reading market. I have a concept for a new novel (adult fiction) that I hope to write before the end of 2024.

Another exciting thing which I mentioned in the last blog for next year is the possibility of writing for Fiction Express. If I complete three or four projects with them, that should give me enough money to cover my living costs for the year. That’s all I’ve ever wanted, to earn enough to live and keep writing. Anything beyond that is a huge bonus. It seems like the destination is in sight.

Whatever you hope for 2024, I wish you a successful and fulfilling year ahead!

 

Doors Opening

My agent contacted me today with some potentially exciting news: an organisation had contacted her to see if I was interested in being involved in their writing projects. The organisation is called Fiction Express, and it aims to encourage young people to develop a love of reading. Over a half term, they release a chapter of a new book each week, and the young people involved have the chance to read and vote on where the story will go next. 

From the writer’s perspective, it sounds like an intense experience, but I have been involved in short story competitions this year that have also required very tight turnarounds, so I’m up for the challenge. I also believe, at this stage in my career, that it’s important to say ‘yes’ to any opportunity that comes my way. This is the first thing that I’ve seen in addition to my own personal novel projects where I believe I could earn enough to cover my living costs for the year. 

It’s great that my agent has passed this on to me, and I feel again so incredibly grateful that she decided to offer me representation. I’m officially on the DKW website’s list of authors, which is a big confidence boost as well. I think that the organisation may have approached my agent because of that profile, so it’s excellent that even though the novel may not yet have interest from publishing house editors (only three rejections so far), having an agent is opening doors in other ways. There have been times when I’ve weighed up the advantages and disadvantages of going for traditional publication versus self-publication, and this is one of those moments of definite ‘advantage’ for the traditional route, something I didn’t know about until now. 

 Anyway, I’ll finish by taking the opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Always Check Your Junk Mail

The title says it all... I happened to check my junk inbox today and discovered that I'd come in first place in a story competition. For eight whole days, my work has been published online, and I've been none the wiser! Anyway, you can check out the story ‘The Slumbering Dragon’ here.

According to my records, there should be a £300 prize for first place in this competition. Hopefully, this should come my way now that I’ve responded to the email from the competition organisers. If it does, it will be a dream come true, as I will be in profit from my ventures into short story competitions.

Reaching a longlist was incredible, but perhaps a fluke. Reaching a shortlist and being published was amazing, but perhaps just a one-off. To win a competition and be published a second time suggests that people do actually want to read what I have to write.

It’s still early days, but I’d love to make a career from my writing. My agent is currently approaching editors at publishing houses for my YA Fantasy novel. It will be at least six weeks before we hear anything about it. Garth Nix (a fellow writer!) wrote a post comparing this stage to 16^th-century merchants setting out in their ships across the sea, uncertain whether their venture would lead to profit or shipwreck. To keep busy, I’m at work with the sequel. But if nothing comes from the novel series, I have plenty of other projects to consider in future years.