The quiet joys of first publication

This week saw a little milestone for me as a writer - my first published piece of work. To be more accurate, my first published piece of fiction (I wrote a non-fiction book for work a couple of years ago).

My short story 'The Same Old Song of Plenty' was published in a new online literary journal The Bohemyth on Wednesday. I learned two simple lessons as a result.

Lesson #1 Social media is a good thing for new authors

I first heard about Bohemyth via Twitter - MJ Hyland tweeted a link saying a new literary journal was looking for submissions so I checked it out and emailed my story off to them. A couple of days later I got a response saying they were going to publish it in their second issue. I'd never have heard about it in the first place if I wasn't using Twitter. Tweeting links round after the story was published was also a great way to get the word out - as a result Bohemyth had it's highest traffic day since launching.

You don't need to have bucketloads to say to make the most of Twitter - in fact, at first it's probably best if you don't. Just get on there, follow some people who like the things you like and start participating in a few conversations. I spend most of my time on Twitter involving myself in whatever conversations I have an interest in. My followers (and the people I follow) include prize-winning authors, friends, librarians and people who just like books.

The point is this - Twitter breaks down the lines between speaker and audience and makes everyone a mixture of both. It's your tin can and string to an almost endless community of people who love the same things you do. Use it.

#2 Having your story published makes people read it differently

This is an interesting one. In theory I could have emailed the story to everyone I know and they'd probably have read it. Having someone else select your story as worthwhile and make it available on a platform that has nothing to do with you, however, alters perceptions.

Once your story has a barrier between author and reader behind it (in this case publication by a third party), it allows people to read it in a different way. Someone has chosen your work and said 'this is worth reading'. The word 'barrier' may sound negative in this context but that detachment makes all the difference.

Feedback on the story started coming in (from people I know as well as people I don't) and the nicest surprise was their responses. People told me they like the story (which was wonderful) but they also told me which lines or phrases they particularly loved. Several chose different bits and one person highlighted a line I almost left out of the final draft. My favourite bit of feedback came from someone on Twitter who said she'd like to sit quietly on a park bench with the main character.

I guess what I'm saying is that having your work read by friends and other writers is great. Friends tell you they like it because they like you; other writers tell you what's wrong with it as they're reading with a critical eye. Having the story published, however, allows people to read it free of either of these roles. It also allows more people to read it.


Wednesday was a great day for me as a writer in the early stages of his career. It was, of course, great to be told people liked the story but, more importantly, it gave me the confidence to think this is something I can do. Something that, with plenty more hard work, I can be good at.

So, a good day, a couple of useful lessons and now time to move on to the next story.

If you'd like to read 'The Same Old Song of Plenty' it's here - http://thebohemyth.com/2012/11/04/what-might-have-been-lost/

My first published story

So, they day has finally arrived - a story of mine has been published for the first time.

It's called 'The Same Old Song of Plenty' and is in the second issue of The Bohemyth.

This is the first piece of fiction of mine that's been published anywhere so is a little landmark for me.

A good day all round.

Matt

I Watch the Line

A short poem about tennis (by me) for the start of Wimbledon...

I Watch the Line

I watch the line.
The thin strip of white
Between green and green,
In and out,
Champion and forgotten.

Not for my eyes the exquisite lob,
The soft-handed drop shot,
The searing ace.
My eyes seek only mistakes,
The wide and the long.
Everything else is merely 'in'.

Break point, match point,
Championship point -
All hold equal merit.
I don't take sides,
Or fear the rain.

While spectators, cameras
and the world watch the game,
I watch the line.





Matt Hutchinson - June 2012

My first review

A couple of days ago I emailed Scott Pack, author of the excellent Me and My Short Stories blog (which involves him reading and reviewing a short story every day). I asked if he'd take a punt on an unpublished stroy by a new writer and he said yes, but to expect an honest review. Fair enough.

So, today I had my first ever review (of my story Honesty Rules, the first short story I wrote)

Starting a novel with a mission statement

I've realised something rather odd - I have a tendency to start my novels with a mission statement (for want of a better description). Now, I'm only on my second novel as we speak but it's happened both times so a pattern seems to be forming.

In both instances I've written a page or two that sort of sets out the themes and content in a slightly overwritten way that sounds reminiscent of a voice-over from the opening of a film. The mission statement disappeared from the first novel in the third draft, when I became comfortable with the opening. I'm starting to work towards ditching the one from the new book too.

It's an odd little habit that possibly says something about how little I know of what's going to happen in the book before I start writing.

Anyone else ever done this?
Cheers,

Matt

Why I'm not sending my novel to any more agents

I finished my first novel Not Falling Off in October and began the submission process. I drew up a shortlist of agents who represented authors whose work I love, read the Writers and Artists Yearbook carefully so I knew how best to approach the process (and what I needed in terms of synopsis, covering letter etc) and waited to be snapped up.

Now, seven months later, I can tell you there has been no snapping. I managed to get a few agents to read the first three chapters and got standard rejections from most. A couple came within 24 hours of me following up on the original submission so I'm sure they hadn't read it. Most, however, I think had. You can't blame agents for using standard templated letters with the amount of stuff they have to read.

Four asked for and read the whole thing. The response was pretty good overall. Words used included: interesting, authentic, well-crafted, evocative, engaging, touching - yet nobody wanted to take it on. I even bumped into one of the agents a month or two later and, unprompted, she introduced herself and spent 15 minutes telling me (in detail) all the things she loved about the book. I was a bit baffled. Still, onwards and upwards. Luckily I had an idea already bubbling away for book 2 so threw myself into that in the meantime while I waited for the last agent to get back to me.

The final 'no thanks' came early this week and, oddly, I was rather pleased. Let me explain why. A month ago I was lucky enough to do a three day Intensive Fiction Workshop course at the Faber Academy. By the end of the first day my head was spinning with all the insight we'd been given and I immediately knew my book was weak in places. That came as a bit of a shock. On the second day I explained this to one of the course tutors (Trevor Byrne) who said, if he was in my position, he'd just crack on with the book I was now writing. He was right. I already know this book will be better based on what I've learned since I finished the first and I'm actually glad nobody took me on.

Even better, a couple of the agents who read Not Falling Off and liked it have said they're happy to read book 2 when it's finished.

I will go back and look at Not Falling Off once I'm finished with this book but not before.

So, patience is the key. If you want a sustained career in writing (and we all do, right?) it might just pay to wait til your writing catches up with your ambitions. Maybe not, you might write a splendid first book - I hope so.

I've also listened to a couple of podcast interviews with other writers recently whose first novel (or novels) didn't get published and are, with hindsight, rather pleased. These include Chris Cleave and David Mitchell (not that I'm in any way comparing myself to two such amazing writers).

Lesson learned. I'm now 15,000 words into the new book so we'll see where that takes me.

Thanks for reading

Matt

The pen is not mightier than the words

I just filled the first notebook of scribblings for my second novel so have started another - the notebooks in question cost £3.99 each from Ryman. I mention this because when I started writing I was convinced I needed a posh notebook - you know the sort, the type of notebook that lets people 15 feet away know you're writing something IMPORTANT when you're sitting in a coffee shop. Moleskine is the bare minimum acceptable.

I also spent hours in WH Smith looking at pens. Now, don't get me wrong, it's important to have a good pen, especially if (like me) you write your first draft longhand. I did realise, fairly quickly thank goodness, that the time I was spending lurking in shops, fingering the spines of expensively decorated notebooks, would be better spent writing or reading.

The pen I use costs £1.99, the notebook twice as much and I do have a favourite pencil. If you like fancy notebooks then buy one - if you want an expensive fountain pen, go ahead. Don't spend too long on these things though as they soon become displacement activities. Get some paper, get a pen, get writing.

The pen is not mightier than the words.

Calling all opera singers...

Having finished my first novel and sent it out to agents I've been keeping myself busy by starting work on a second. The main character of this book will be an opera singer (lyric soprano with a tendency towards Mozart & Strauss in case you're wondering).

I know quite a bit about opera and am busy reading up on singers and singing technique but could really do with some input from people who either sing themselves or work with singers (repetiteurs, coaches, conductors etc). I'm interested in hearing from people at all points of their career - whether just starting out, auditioning for jobs, establishing a career, bringing the house down at the Met or whatever - anything can and will prove useful!

So, if you're an opera singer or work with singers and would be prepared to spend 10-15 mins answering a few questions then email me and I'll send you a short list. Let me know who you are and what you do when you get in touch so I can send you relevant questions.

Apologies for using a graphic version of my email address (making it tricky to cut and paste) - it saves me from getting loads of spam from bots trawling the web and picking up email addresses

Cheers in advance

Matt

What to do when you've finished your first novel

Write another (that's the bullet point for those of you who like to skip to the end of reviews and read the star rating rather than the review - everyone else read on).

I'm assuming that, having taken the time to research, plan and write a book you've also done your homework in terms of approaching agents and publishers, and that your manuscript (or at least enquiry letter) is out there in roughly the right hands. If not you shouldn't be reading this (yet) you should be reading From Pitch to Publication:Everything You Need to Know to Get Your Novel Published

There are several reasons why I think the logical next step after finishing your first book is to start another immediately. First up is your sanity; if you just sit round waiting for responses you're going to be waiting a while (with no guarantees of any takers) and your blood pressure will be going up all the time you wait. Your manuscript is like your child - you prepare it as best you can for the world and send it out to find its path. If it needs you it'll get in touch.

Secondly no agent or publisher will want to take you on if you don't look like a long-term prospect. Most first novels aren't massive hits so a career that can build over time stands the best chance of earning you (and therefore your publisher and agent) some money.

Next up is practice - if you want to be a decent writer then keep writing. The phrase 'writing is a muscle' is massively over-used but only because it's bang on the money. If you don't write you won't improve. If you're lucky enough to get published and your editor wants a few re-writes then keeping your hand in in the meantime is essential. Also, you don't write a book and magically become a writer, you're only a writer if you write.

Don't have an idea for a second novel? Just keep reading, writing and playing around with ideas. Keep asking those 'what if...' questions and an idea will come to you.

The fact that I've written one book is largely thanks to three people very close to me: one told me I could write, one told me I should and one told me just to keep going. The second book will be entirely down to the fact that I have loved the process and can't wait to do it all again.


Good luck and keep going.

Stepping out of the city in zone 3

I love living in London. There's so much to do - for a start I have 2 opera houses (not to mention the Wigmore Hall, Barbican, South Bank and even a new pub opera house). There are also countless cool shops, bars, cafes and restaurants. It's an amazing place to be - I sometimes wish I didn't live here so I could see it for the first time again (although the view of St Paul's or the Houses of Parliament lit up at night from one of the bridges over the Thames always manages to give me a tiny bit of that feeling).

Sometimes though I want to feel like I'm not in a city at all. That's fine at weekends as I can always go away or just drive out on a Sunday and go for a walk somewhere. What if I want to go for a walk in the woods in the morning before I go to work though? Living in zone 3 in south east London you wouldn't expect too many options would you? I certainly didn't when I moved here.

Then I found this...



Literally a 5 minute walk from my house is a stretch of woodland big enough to walk through for at least 40 minutes without seeing a road! When I first moved here I worked from home so used to walk in the woods quite a bit at lunchtime. When I started my first novel I used to spend hours in there listening to podcast interviews with writers, desperately looking for any clues as to how on earth you're supposed to write a novel. Now I'm on book 2 I've found that getting up and walking before work in the mornings and doing the same really helps get my head back into the ideas stage of the process.

The wood is apparently tiny compared to the area it covered in the 19th century, but it's still a little pocket of the English countryside by my door and that is a blessing.

6 writing questions

After reading a post on The Awl where writers answer six basic questions about their writing habits, I thought it might be a useful exercise for me to answer the questions myself.

If you're a writer why not do the same and tweet a link to your answers to @matthwrites

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1) How long have you been working on your novel and roughly how much longer do you expect to go?

I've just finished my first novel - it took roughly 18 months in all and I've now started number two.

2) How do you “pay the bills”?

I work for flatshare site SpareRoom.co.uk - being asked to write a book for work was the main thing that got me into writing in the first place. The book I wrote for work is The Essential Guide to Flatsharing

3) How do you balance work/friends/family with your writing?

I've discovered that the easiest way of doing this is just to make my day longer! When I'm in the writing or editing stage of the process I get up at 6.15 and write before I go to work. I can usually manage at least 1,000 words if I'm writing. The reading and researching phase is a bit easier as I can do that pretty much anywhere and for short bursts if needs be. I can read on trains or listen to relevant podcasts on the move. As half the research stage seems to involve generally mulling things over that part tends to go on all day anyway in the background.

4) Do you have a routine and if so do you reward yourself for sticking to it (and does it involve cupcakes)?

The morning routine is the only one I've got and I tend to punish for failure rather than reward for success!

5) Do you write longhand, on the typewriter, or on a computer (and is said computer online)?

The first draft of the book was written longhand as I find it hard not to edit as I go when I write on a computer. I think it's important for writing and editing to be different stages of the process. That said, by the time you get a few drafts in you end up doing a bit of both for most of the time it seems. When I write I tend to keep email and browser apps closed to avoid temptation (although I will use the internet to check the odd fact as I go).

6) Is there anything else about writing a novel that you've found to be particularly difficult/enlightening from a time-management perspective?

I think it's been good for me to just keep chipping away at something continuously like this. I tend to have a bit of a binary approach to stuff and be harsh on myself (I either can or can't do things and there's no middle ground). Writing a novel has helped me see the long game and realise that it's not even about what I'm writing now so much as simply getting better every day for as long as I want to write.

Has my book already been written?

When I started my first novel 18 months ago it didn't really occur to me that someone else might already have written it. To be honest it didn't really occur to me that I was actually going to finish it.

Now it's done (and lounging in a drawer awaiting one final check before going out to a list of agents) I'm starting research and planning for a second. Almost the first thought I had was 'is this an original idea?'. Almost immediately I discovered at least one book that has alarming parallels (judging from the blurb anyway - my copy should arrive from Amazon later today). Luckily the panic only lasted an hour or so - during which time the author of the book in question tweeted me to say 'feel the fear and do it anyway' after I'd told her I was worried she'd already written my book (she was the one who recommended hers, amongst many others, as being along similar lines).

Luckily the fear only lasted for an hour or so. I'm sure that whatever other people have written there will be more differences than similarities between our books.

What the past few days has highlighted though is just how fragile an idea is and what a nebulous thing a novel is in its early (and even middle) stages.

A finished novel and an empty notebook

So, a few days ago I finished the novel I've been writing for the past 18 months. This is brilliant and scary in equal measures as now I have to send it off into the world and find out whether it's crap, brilliant or (more likely) any one of a million things in between. That's partly what it's about though, how we generally live in the between, so it makes sense.

On the very good advice of a mate (Phil Earle, whose brilliant debut novel Being Billyis published in January by Puffin) I'm sticking the manuscript of book #1 in a drawer for a couple of weeks and giving it a final read before it goes out. Seeing as the Frankfurt Book Fair is almost upon us there's a fair chance nobody would read it til the end of October anyway.

In the meantime I've bought a new notebook (just a cheap Ryman's thing, I think the quality of my writing would be likely to be inversely proportional to the fanciness of any notebook I was to buy) and am cracking on with the research and note taking for book #2.

I'll fill you in on any feedback I get once it's out there.