That’s It For Now

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This is probably the last one of these I’ll write for a while, as the truth is I’m not writing anything at the moment.

It’s become harder and harder to make any kind of mark as a mid list author. It’s certainly not possible to make a living. Major bookstores are now investing only on the big glossy hard back top of the list authors – and often those aren’t authors who worked their way up to the top, but celebrities who fancied having a go at writing and found themselves bestsellers – after a huge marketing campaign sometimes involving actually buying the top seller spot.

So at the moment I’m disillusioned with writing books and have no idea if I will even continue.

I’m going to take the winter to consume as much media as I can – books, TV, podcast and see if any of those feels like a good fit for me. If I can’t write to live I might as well have fun with it and try something different.

House at Baker Street by Michelle Birkby

The Women Of Baker Street

Sent from my iPad

Surprise yourself

Here’s something I enjoy doing – go to the library and chose a book at random. Don’t even read the blurb. Just choose it based on the title or the cover.

Go outside of your normal reading. If you are a fantasy fan, pick up a romance. If you like crime, go for a sci-fi. If you red exclusively fiction, pick up a non-fiction. If you read true crime, pick up a history.

I do this quite a bit, and it’s a great way to discover new books and new writers and new ideas. Of course sometimes I pick up something I don’t like – but if that happens it’s a library book and I can take it back. Sometimes I discover an entirely new writer or subject.

It’s good to surprise yourself sometimes.

House at Baker Street by Michelle Birkby

The Women Of Baker Street

Sent from my iPad

Changing Lanes

I’ve been thinking about changing tracks, to trying screenwriting.

One of my favourite authors is moving from one genre to another. Stephen King switches genres from book to book – and yet somehow links them all.

I’ve read some excellent books by authors who switched from non-fiction to fiction.

The point is – you don’t have to stay on your lane. If you feel like a change – do it. Perhaps you’ve achieved all you want to in your current style or genre and want to try a new challenge. Or perhaps you haven’t been as successful as you wished and think a change will be good.

You don’t have to stick with what you first tried. You can switch and move and explore and change all the time, from day to day if you want to.

House at Baker Street by Michelle Birkby

The Women Of Baker Street

Sent from my iPad

3am Writing

It’s very weird time in my country right now. It’s so unsettling I had strange, disturbing dreams and woke up at 3am, unable to sleep and unable to rest.

So I wrote. I got up and took my laptop and started to write a short story, purely for my own amusement. Well, perhaps less amusement than catharsis. Once I had written all I could write, I put the laptop down and went to sleep.

Times like these – and we are living through very turbulent times – are upsetting and disturbing. Sometimes that 3am writing sprint is the only way to get through it.

House at Baker Street by Michelle Birkby

The Women Of Baker Street

Sent from my iPad

A Palate Cleanser

I have a palate cleanser manuscript. Normally my books are very firmly set in late Victorian era, with a lot of focus on the injustices of the time. However, once in a while, I need a quick break, to reset my mind.

I don’t, however, want to stop writing. So I have another manuscript – never designed to be published – that’s sharp and cynical and very modern. It keeps the creativity flowing, but gives me a quick break from Victorians.

When I asked on Twitter about whether other writers do this, a lot of them replied that they write short stories to do the same thing – still writing, often still in their world, but a different angle or style or story.

Either way, come up with a palate cleanser – a way to have a break without stopping writing. It might help if you get stuck.

House at Baker Street by Michelle Birkby

The Women Of Baker Street

Sent from my iPad

When You’re Ready

I can feel the next book starting.

The scenes are beginning to play out in my head. Motivations are becoming clear. I’m reaching out for research books. I’m jotting down conversations.

There are some writers that say you should force yourself to write every day. I don’t agree with that. Forcing myself to write when I have a plot and and outline and I’m in the middle of the book is one thing. But if I force myself to begin the book before my head is ready then I’ll hair produce rubbish.

I read time and time again about authors who have started and then got so far and had to throw the whole thing away because it’s rubbish. That’s an awful thing to happen to a writer.

That’s why I’m a firm believer in only starting when I can feel it’s ready. You know when the story is ready to be told – when all you think about is the story, when the characters chatter in your head as you watch TV, when you find yourself standing in the queue at the shop, lost in the world of your story.

Then you’re ready.

House at Baker Street by Michelle Birkby

The Women Of Baker Street

Sent from my iPad

Scraps of Time

I’ve had Covid and then I had a hospital operation and writing has had to take a back seat for a few weeks.

When I first got published my friends thought I’d spend all day lounging on the sofa, writing occasionally. The truth is most writers work full time and have to grab scraps of time to write in between life.

So writing has to come behind the daily job, illness, housework, caring responsibilities, the general chores and once in while, an actual holiday.

It’s very easy to get burned out. And it becomes very easy to see writing as just another chore to be carried out whenever there’s a scrap of time.

I wish I had an answer for this. But I don’t. Until writers are paid a regular, better income, writing is just going to have to be something we squeeze into our life where ever we can find room. It’s lucky for all our publishers and publicists and bookshops that somehow, we do.

House at Baker Street by Michelle Birkby

The Women Of Baker Street

Sent from my iPad

A change is needed

One thing I learned during lockdown is that I need different environments and different experiences to stimulate my mind.

I thought I could do the same with books and TV shows and they helped a lot. But I needed to see different places, have a change in my life, get out and do something different.

Of course, that’s not always possible. But I am amazed at how even a walk in the park can get my mind running.

House at Baker Street by Michelle Birkby

The Women Of Baker Street

Sent from my iPad

Pre-script stage.

I’m at the stage where I’m almost ready to start writing the next book, but not quite. Instead I’m daydreaming little scenes and lines, gradually working through some possible plot details of the plot in my mind, working out what I need to research.

I often write these scraps down on bits of paper, which I try to gather together and invariably lose. This time I’m trying to put it all into a word document as I write, already formatted so I can just copy them straight into the manuscript when I write it.

But this bit is the most fun part. Just day dreaming away, imagining the best part, just letting my mind wander with no idea of where it is going to end up.

House at Baker Street by Michelle Birkby

The Women Of Baker Street

Sent from my iPad

You Can Recycle

I wrote a book during lockdown. It was rubbish and I sent it out during the second draft stage which was a mistake because it really needed a good rewrite before anyone else saw it. It got locked away never to be seen again.

Except – it did have some really good moments. Some good scenarios. A good method of murder. I liked some of the characters.

So the books I’m working now have some of those aspects. I’ve gone through the detritus of that failed book and found something lovely, something useful to put in a better book.

The point is – even if you write something you think is rubbish and everyone tells you is rubbish there will be something good about it. A particular character, an interesting setting. Don’t throw away the entire thing. Recycle the good bits for another, better book.

House at Baker Street by Michelle Birkby

The Women Of Baker Street

Sent from my iPad