97% of People Want to Write A Book? Do You?

Also - Writing Home Challengers: Show Me Your Writing!

That 97% statistic, thrown at me in cruelty towards the end of my first marriage, was the start of my career as a novelist. After at least three false starts (the first when I was nineteen), it made me angry enough to start writing another novel, and this time, I finished it.

A new subscriber (hello CJ!) kindly asked me the name of that novel so they could buy it. But that novel didn’t get published. Or the next one. Or the one after that.

I was a bit gutted after the rejection of Completed Novel 3, so I left it for a few years while I concentrated on poetry. There was arts funding in the UK at the time, and I completed several public arts projects alongside dead-end jobs and social security benefits to top up the shortfall.

But it pays to have grit.

In 2005, I asked the universe for a Big Idea. The universe complied. The fourth novel, completed in 2011 as part of a PhD (for which I was, miraculously, funded), finally booted the door down.

I signed every single one of these hardbacks. The EASIEST kind of writing!

Days before its release, the very first critical response was on BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Review. I was at a family reunion that weekend in Norfolk. Terrified at the prospect that my siblings, nieces and nephews might be present to witness my debut novel being torn apart by famous people on national radio, I decided not to tell them it was happening, but instead to escape so I could listen in the car. Someone found out, though, and the next minute I was there, listening to the panel absolutely slating someone’s play while I made a veil of hair over my face and both I and my entire family gulped wine.

And then they loved it. And so did other reviewers in the press. My publishers were also doing a marvellous job of getting it into bookshops.

Not photoshopped.

In 2013, it won the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award, and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize.

My second novel, Devotion, got a bunch of good reviews and was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award.

And then I got into a massive third novel that took over my life for a decade and… its story will be told, just as soon as I’m advised (by my agent) that it is time to open my mouth.

I am writing number four, a book that excites me so much I think I might actually be in love, much to the consternation of my long-suffering, fort-holding husband. My agent read the first chapter last week and emailed to say, “I have just finished reading it and my heart is pounding.” Two days later, a reader of last week’s post also said that my words had left their heart pounding. Pretty amazing to create a physical effect in another person’s body at a distance. I guess that is what becomes possible when you’ve written a few million words.

But maybe not surprising, given that writing is my calling and my obsession. I’ve learned by doing and by spending nearly 28 years teaching other people to write as my bread and butter.

The purpose of this (slightly uncomfortable) horn-tooting is only to say that if you want to write a book yourself, you could do worse than write a book with my guidance.

So…

Do you want to write a book? Do you want to write a book with a cohort of other people who are also writing books, over the course of a year? If so, maybe this is for you. I’m stealing the title of an in-person course I devised a decade ago, called:

Write the Damn Book!

If you don’t want to write a book, skip to the next section! But if you think you might, this is what I’ll be doing, so long as I get a minimum of 12 people in the cohort. It’s for anyone who wants to write a novel, a memoir, or another non-fiction book.

• 12 x 2-hour structured Monthly Zoom call on aspects of storytelling and craft, with the materials I have used to teach hundreds of creative writing students at undergraduate and masters level over nearly three decades.

• 24 x fortnightly posts on aspects of craft using the best examples from published writers

• Exercises to find the perfect opening, develop “living” characters, write dynamic, vivid dialogue, create real-feeling settings, revise and edit, and generally hook the reader and keep them reading to the last full-stop.

• A copy of the “progress” spreadsheet I use for all my writing projects to keep you on track and motivated

• Weekly accountability with your peers: log your word count to keep up momentum

• Support from other cohort members writing at the same time.

For the super-low price of £240 / $320 for 12 months of expert instruction and guidance, I count this a terrifically affordable way to get MA/MFA-level experience from an award-winning writer, a supportive community while you write, and that kick up the backside you possibly need :-)

Writers I’ve taught have gone on to get critical acclaim, win awards, and get six-figure book deals. I can’t promise the same for you, of course, but if you have the will, here is a way to get a finished book that pleases you and a supportive circle of people in the same boat.

If you’re interested, please fill in this form! Thanks :-)

Writing Home Challenge

This is the final week of the Writing Home Challenge for my paid subscribers. I hope that if you have taken part on any level, you have written something you’re pleased with and/or had some level of personal breakthrough. If you’d like a chance to share what you’ve written with the How to Evolve community, please send it to me by email or DM, or (if you prefer) link it in the comments.

Our next Writing Challenge will begin in June, and if you listened to my chat with Chris Stanton, you will already know what the theme is!

But Ros, where is the personal essay?

Half-written. It’s been quite a week (see below). I figured I’d be kind to myself, give myself this week off instead of killing myself on your behalf (do you really want that?) and do a proper job of it. And also, yes, post a couple of days late. We all have to cut ourselves some slack at times. Also, it’s Easter Weekend. Happy Easter!

Normal service will be resumed next week (all being well). If you are missing the weekly essay, do grab any of these that might have passed you by (or just scroll down and chat to me!):

Misogyny Made Me Sick

My Viral Note Brings All the Butthurt Boys to the Yard

The Road that Sheltered Me Twice

The Home and No-Home of Strong Women

Sensitive People and "the Coming Collapse"

Post-It Notes

This week, I:

• Surpassed 4,000 subscribers to How to Evolve. Whoop! Truly, a very happy milestone. I love anything with a bunch of zeros on it, so long as it has a number at the front (and no minus sign). Thank you for this highlight of the week!

• Completed and filed my US Tax Return. (Tuesday deadline) I am going to the US Embassy in 9 days to renounce my citizenship in a bid to end this administrative burden that I never asked for. (I am a dual citizen because I was born there; my Dad was helping America get to the moon.)

• With help from my friend/theatre buddy Nicky, I adapted my solo version of The Marlowe Papers to a 4-hander for a possible performance later this year in London (fingers crossed)

• Wednesday morning: attended a 3-hour autism assessment for/with one of my adult offspring, which had rather serious knock-on effects for me, and wiped out the rest of the day!

• Submitted a pitch to a newspaper that only needed an extra hour’s work, but which I have procrastinated on for three months.

• Completed a peer review for a Routledge academic book in my area of special interest (Friday deadline)

So, yes, that is why the personal essay didn’t get finished this week, and I couldn’t even get this to you before Sunday (Saturday is horsebox conversion day).

Over to You

1. Have you ever written a book?

2. If yes, is it for sale? Tell us something about it and link to it in the comments so we can check it out.

3. If you could write any book at all, what would it be about?

4. If you are an American citizen, do you think those tax forms are insanely complicated on purpose?

5. Are you doing anything special for Easter?