Lammi, are you in ths summer special W&H?

- I think I was in the November 2006 issue, and the story later appeared in a W&H Breast Cancer Care anthology. But as I said, the style was different from the kind of piece a woman's weekly would take (and I know because I've also had stories in Woman). It was a good deal longer, for a start.

And why do you feel you can't still submit to comps. Loads of well established authors I know submit to Bridport and National Short Story Prize. Any comp which doesn't exclude published novelists is fair game, isn't it?

- Well, my personal feeling is that comps are there to help unagented writers/writers who don't have a published novel on the shelves find recognition, to make a mark, to establish useful connections. If, when I was starting out, I'd lost in a comp to a bestselling novelist, I'd have been cheesed off to say the least. I'd have said to myself, 'What does he/she need to enter a comp like this for? It's not fair.'

Tha National Short Story Prize and W&H are two specific markets for agented writers/published novelists so I have submitted stories there.

I know that one sign that it's going badly (for internal reasons to do with the book, or external reasons to do with the rest of life) is when I find those little things aren't occurring to me: it's gone dead on me, I don't think about it constantly when I'm not writing, and when I am I'm just plodding on with the main plot. It's almost as if those little ideas are the bellweathers of the whole project: they betray how my creative brain is (or isn't) sparking almost more than what appears to be more major work.

Sorry - don't know how to do those highlighted boxes yet.
Emma, I recognise that feeling. The spontaneous sparks are what keeps it alive. Is there anything specific you do, when they're not around, to rekindle them?

Jem - thanks for vote of confidence. I'm onto the next one.
Cherys

If it's internal it's usually because I'm subconsciously ignoring the book trying to go in another direction that would mean more research, or scrapping lots of writing, or digging into a bit of my own feelings that I'd rather not touch and/or reveal, for whatever reason.

Or it's simply because I need a break from it: I've been driving myself too hard, and I need refuelling with exercise and other art - music, galleries, non-fiction, theatre, dance...

If it's external there's not always a lot I can do about it, except stop hiding in the book and get out there and tackle whatever crap it is. Sometimes its just a hangover, or not feeling well, in which case sometimes I can write through it, and sometimes I just give up and go to bed.

Emma

Kate, I'd love to read your story. Can you put it up on WF?

Done: it's up in my profile. (I didn't know how to load it to a specific group!)

Kate - will read it in two days. Off to Leeds to my son's graduation and we're all stressing to get ready.

I had real problems with the first novel I tried writing, mainly because I had very little plot. I wrote ch. 1, stared at the screen for ages and thought 'what the hell can happen next? how do i get all the philosophical things i want to say onto the page? how do i find enough stuff to fill a whole bloody book?!'

I joyous ditched the book when I had the idea for the first novel i actually finished, Ways To Live Forever, which is written in lots of short, scrapbooky scenes. I had a very vague overarching storyline and I used to sit down and think 'there should be a scene about snow and it should go somewhere near the end' or 'there should be a scene with a ouija board and it should go somewhere in the middle'. I found it wonderfully liberating because i didn't have to worry about how it all fitted together until the end.

This also helped with getting the tone etc right. Someone would say, 'it needs to be more hopeful' and i'd write a short scene in which my mc was hopeful. Or 'he needs to be angrier', and I'd write a scene where he fought with his mum and, wonderfully, would find a perfect place plot-wise to put it.

Similarly, with sub-plots, I'd have an idea for a sub-plot and the scenes could be inserted (or deleated) as necessary.

I think it's important to recognise that everyone writes in different ways. It's also important to remember that writing a novel is BLOODY HARD. No one tells you so when you start, but it IS. It takes AGES and it doesn't always gel and there are days when you just stare at it and think WHY DID I EVER THINK I COULD BE AN AUTHOR? I'M GOING TO RUN OFF AND BE A PLUMBER! You hear all these stories about people floating around on a cloud of inspiration, but actually a lot of the time it's just hard slog. And this is PERFECTLY NORMAL and doesn't mean you have no talent.

Sally xxx

PS And WTLF is coming out in January! so I didn't have to do the plumbing course after all ...

Thanks Sally, and congratulations on the book. I'm sure I've heard something good about WTLF recently and don't think it was on here...is it already being marketed? Great premise for a story.

Cherys

Um ... you might have done. I think proofs have started to go out to reviewers etc.

Where did you hear about it? I'm really curious now ...

Sally

Sally I think there's been a review somewhere because I said to my husband that it sounded interesting. That's why it stuck in my mind. Check with your publishers...If it helps, we usually read the Guardian and Observer, sometimes the Independent and Times on Sunday or the Sunday Telegraph. Could have been online. I'll try and remember.
Cherys

I was mentioned very briefly in the Times Educational Suppliment as part of a review of my course anthology 'Out of the Box'. I've been in the Bath Chronicle, The Bookseller and Publisher's Weekly, but more in a sort of 'Scholastic buys book by 23-year-old' type way than going into much detail about the book.

There is another YA book which has just come out about a child with leukaemia - 'Before I Die' by Jenny Downham. Maybe you read a review of that one?

I'd be surprised if there was a full-length review of mine already, as it's not coming out til January.

Sally