Update on my New Book, SWEET DECEPTION

I’m so excited to be able to share details of my new book SWEET DECEPTION, out in eBook in the UK on 29 October, and in the US on 3 November. The paperback is to follow next February. I absolutely adore my very messed up heroine, along with her very suave, sophisticated love interest, and I hope all my readers will do, too. Here’s the official synopsis:

And here’s the beautiful cover:

Well, my first New Adult novel, BEAUTIFUL LIAR, is out in eBook today, 7 May 2015. I had some banners made up for twitter and Facebook, so I thought I’d showcase them here in honour of the occasion. And for those of you who still like to have a physical copy (I know I do!), the paperback will be published on 30 July 2015.

Five More Hot TV couples

I was delighted with the interest in my last post, on my top five favourite TV couples – mostly from Klaroline fans, of course, as we’re a passionate bunch! But given the great response I got - and the fact that I had a lot of fun writing it! - I thought I’d pick out some of the other TV couples that I love:

 1) Emma and Hook

Who doesn’t love a pirate? When Captain Hook burst onto our screens early in the second season of Once Upon a Time, he quickly became one of my favourite characters. I loved his snark and swagger, and as he says himself: “I am devilishly handsome.” From early on I was rooting for him and Emma (Captain Swan!), and my biggest frustration is that because I live in England, I still haven’t got to see how things progress between them in Seasons Three and Four! But I know from the little snippets of spoilers I see on twitter that I have a lot to look forward to. I was writing Beautiful Liar as I watched Season 2 of OUAT, and Hook’s flamboyant dress sense inspired the style of my (anti)-hero.

2) Felicity and Oliver

I’m not a big fan of comic book movies or TV shows, so I wasn’t especially excited about Arrow. But I ended up tuning in for the first season, and came to adore Felicity. She’s gawky, self-depreciating and always speaks her mind – however inappropriately. What’s not to love!? I’m less a fan of Oliver / Green Arrow, as I prefer my men a little bit bad, but Stephen Amell is just so damn gorgeous that I can live with it. I just wish he’d been allowed to channel more of the badass werewolf character that he played in Season Two of the Vampire Diaries. But still, I’m fully Team Olicity – sorry Laurel fans!

3) Eleanor and Vane

This is probably a bit of a quirky one, as I suspect a lot of pople don’t watch Black Sails. But my husband and I discovered it on iTunes earlier this year, and have been addicted ever since. It’s set in eighteenth century Nassau, during the golden age of piracy. It’s cheesy as hell, and sometimes a bit confusing, but a lot of fun to watch. It’s also rather sexy – think muskets and muff! My favourite pairing is between Eleanor Guthrie, who runs the business side on the island, and Captain Vane, the most ruthless pirate of them all. I’ve seen them referred to as Lady and the Tramp, but I have to say, for a lady, Eleanor sure drops the f-bomb a lot! Vane always looks like he could do with a good wash, but dear Lord, he’s hot in such an intensely manly way, that I wouldn’t change a thing about him. What I love about their relationship is that she’s his only weakness – and she sure knows how to exploit that! In the most recent plot development, she screwed him over to secure the future of Nassau, leaving him to be killed by his own crew. Thankfully (for me) he managed to survive, and then went on to murder her father in revenge. I have no idea what’s going to happen between these two the next time they meet, but I like to imagine that it’s going to involve some very hot hate sex.

4) Zoe and Wade

Yes, Zoe’s a bit irritating on Hart Of Dixie, but Wade Kinsella… he’s just yum! That drawl, that good-natured snark, that big heart… You can’t help wanting him to get the girl. Part of me wishes that the girl he liked was the awesome Lemon Breeland, but if he wants Zoe, then I’ll get behind him.

5) Rackham and Bonny

This is another slightly left-field pick from Black Sails, which may go over everyone’s head. Rackham is the smooth, sartorial pirate, who’s more likely to talk his way out of a situation than fight. He has that slightly effeminate feel, while still managing to be manly. Anne Bonny is possibly the most charmless female you’ll ever meet. She doesn’t say much, but her most memorable line of the Season was: “fuck you want?” That pretty much sums her up. She’s very beautiful, but you wouldn’t know it from the way she skulks around, hiding under her huge, black hat. Rackham and Bonny are probably one of the most intriguing couples in the show. He saved her from an abusive husband when she was just thirteen, and they’ve been together ever since. She’s horribly damaged, and spent a lot of the Season screwing Max, the irritating French girl who runs the local brothel. But even after causing each other a great deal of pain, Rackham and Bonny are still together – they’re family, and always will be. They’re also both gorgeous, which always helps!

Does anyone also like these couples? More importantly, has anyone ever watched Black Sails?! It’s keeping us going while we wait for Season Five of Game of Thrones…

My Favourite TV Couples of All Time

I think the main reason I love the New Adult genre is because of the intensity of the romantic relationships. I’ve been known to get seriously addicted to the relationships of my favourite characters in TV shows, but I have to say that I never experienced that in the novels I read – until the New Adult genre. So I thought I’d give you a run-down of my all-time favourite TVcouples, which should also clue you in on the type of romantic relationships I write about in my books:    

1)   Klaus and Caroline

While they were never officially a couple, Klaus and Caroline – or Klaroline - remains one of my favourite pairings. I’d never heard of the term “shipping” before 2012/13 (when you obsess about a TV couple), but I confess to shipping these guys hard throughout Seasons 3 and 4 of the Vampire Diaries. The chemistry between Candice Accola and Joseph Morgan was seriously off the charts! I was so captivated by these two that I’d get up early on a Friday morning to read recaps of the episode that had aired in the US the night before, so I could find out if anything had happened between them. If it had, I’d then hit youtube to view the scenes that had been uploaded. (Yep – I’m a geek!) Obviously my life hasn’t been the same since Klaus got his own spin-off show (sigh). I’ve re-watched the episode Dangerous Liaisons an embarrassing number of times, and I aspire to write a couple with as much chemistry as these guys had.

2)   Chuck and Blair 

These two toxic characters became the unlikely heroes of Gossip Girl. Like Klaus and Caroline, they were never meant to be together, but their undeniable chemistry and popularity with viewers led the show-runners to reconsider this. The on-off / push-and-pull was superbly crafted, and with their ruthlessness and game-playing they were truly a match for each other in every way. I was less a fan in later seasons, when they both became “good”.  

3)   Spike and Buffy

During 2001-2003, while my friends were busy planning their weddings, I developed my earliest addiction to a TV couple – Spike and Buffy. My gal-pals thought I was having a quarter-life crisis as I raved on about Spuffy while they wanted to chat about bridesmaid dresses (only one person I knew watched the series). When my boyfriend went away on business for two months, I bought all the boxsets and indulged. A lot of fans of the show weren’t keen on the direction that Buffy’s character took during Season 6, but I loved the darkness that drew her to Spike. To borrow a phrase from a book I read recently, he “dirtied” her up, and given that she could be a bit goody-two-shows at times, I think it made her more human. But for me the real spark in that relationship was Spike. He always had the best lines – i.e. the snarkiest – and his unrequited love for Buffy made you root for him to win the girl.

4)   Logan and Veronica

As you can undoubtedly tell from the list above, I’m a sucker for a bad boy – and they don’t get much worse than Logan Echolls from Veronica Mars. Described by Veronica as her high school’s "obligatory psychotic jackass" in the pilot episode, he slowly evolves from being her nemesis to her love interest. He was so clearly a fan favourite that the third part of their love triangle – Duncan - was written out during Season 2. Like Spike, Logan always had the snarkiest lines, and his banter with Veronica was brilliant. Such a shame the series ended after the third season. Sigh.  

I think this probably gives you a good idea of what I like in fictional relationships – a hero who’s a bad boy, and a heroine who is irresistibly drawn to him. Oh, and a whole heap of snark and banter between them!

So who are your favourite TV couples? Do you agree with the list, or do you have other thoughts? Let me know!

How should authors deal with bad reviews?

Earlier this week my publisher released the eBook ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) of BEAUTIFUL LIAR. I’d decided a long time ago that I was going to do my level best not to read any reviews until my book had been out for a good few months, but naturally a well-meaning friend alerted me to the fact that the first rating and review had gone up on goodreads, and because it was a five star one, I of course had to go and peak!

Yes, reading that a blogger “loved” my book and had shelved it under their “favourites” was momentarily great for my ego. But there are inevitably going to be bad reviews too, so I thought I’d come up with a list of five tips for dealing with them:

1)   Don’t engage with reviewers. So you’ve read a review ripping apart your beloved masterpiece. You simmer with rage at the unfairness of it. You desperately want to respond. My advice: DON’T. There’s no point. The reviewer is entitled to their opinion. You’re never going to reason them into liking your book, and you may just start a war that escalates out of all proportion - and trust me, you won’t win. There have been instances of reviewers blackballing authors for bad behaviour on sites like goodreads. Do you really want to ruin your whole career over one review? Eat a tub of Haagen-Dazs. Moan to your mum, friend, Priest… But whatever you do, DON’T ENGAGE. For your own sake.

2)   Don’t be a (social media) stalker. Following on from my last point, I think it’s worth remembering that bloggers and reviewers are people and have feelings, too. How would you feel if you knew someone was watching out for your review of their book? It would probably make it hard to write an honest review. That’s the problem with social media. It’s so easy to follow / friend people on twitter, facebook, goodreads etc. But it takes away the arm’s length relationship that is necessary for honest feedback. Even if someone gives you a great review, think twice about getting in touch – unless, of course, they contact you first. The bloggers I’ve come across are just book lovers who like reading. They don’t have an agenda beyond that. So let them get on with it – without fear of you monitoring them. And if you need any further proof of this, I stumbled across one particularly alarming incident of an author getting bizarrely obsessed with a reviewer who didn’t like her first book. The author in question wrote a riveting article about it, which I suggest you read if you get a chance:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/18/am-i-being-catfished-an-author-confronts-her-number-one-online-critic

3)   Remember that a bad review isn’t personal. Your novel may feel like your baby, but the review honestly isn’t about you. This one book doesn’t define you unless you let it. The reviewer is just expressing their opinion. It might hurt, but it isn’t the end of the world.

4)   Try to learn from the criticism. The bad reviews may hurt, but they can also be extremely useful. If someone doesn’t like your genre, then fair enough – there’s probably not much to glean from that one star review. But if a blogger who, say, loves New Adult books doesn’t like your one… well, then it’s time to sit back and take stock. If a good proportion of reviewers are all coming up with the same criticisms, then maybe you need to consider whether they have a point. And that isn’t the end of the world – in fact, they may be doing you a big favour! You aren’t going to learn much from someone who tells you that your work is perfect (especially if they’re lying to spare your feelings!) So take the negative points on board, and try to improve on them next time. And the next book might just be the one that blows the reviewer – and everyone else - away!

5)   The only to avoid criticism is not to write. As Aristotle said: “To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” And who wants to be nothing?

And lastly, if all else fails, try to remember the wise words told to me by wonderful agent, Darley Anderson: “If you can’t take criticism, you’re going to have a very miserable career as an author.” So if you still want to write, maybe it’s time to develop a thicker skin.

How Do I Generate Ideas for my Novels?

One of the most common questions I’m asked is: where do you get the ideas for your novels? It’s hard to formulate a satisfactory answer to this – after all, ideas by their nature are fairly abstract. Most of the posts I’ve read on this subject have been fairly unhelpful (to me at least!). They give what I consider to be wishy-washy advice, like to sit in a coffee shop and look around you for inspiration, or to use a series of bizarre writing prompts (so you end up having to come up with a story involving a chimp, a watering can and One Direction stranded in the Mojave desert). Personally I prefer a more scientific approach, so here’s my top five tips for coming up with an idea for your novel:

1)   Decide what genre you want to write in. This, to me at least, is crucial. I think it’s really important to give your mind something to focus on. If you’re trying to come up with ideas without knowing if you want to write a thriller or a romance, I think it would be pretty impossible to get anywhere.

2)   Now you’ve decided on a genre, make a list of your favourite books and authors in that genre. Then think about what they have in common. Is it a strong heroine who keeps the world at arm’s length? A brooding hero who is deeply caring? What sort of ages are the main characters, and what settings do you enjoy? What twists and turns occur?

3)   Once you have a good idea of what elements you like, make a list of them, and then try to put them together in your own unique story. Obviously you don’t want to copy ideas, but there’s no shame in using your favourite stories for inspiration. I think everyone who loves New Adult is a fan of Jamie McGuire’s BEAUTIFUL DISASTER – if you like the set up of a good girl trying to resist her attraction to a bad boy, then think about how you can put your own unique spin on it. Change the setting; give your main characters different backstories; find another reason or the characters to spend time together… Use your favourite books for inspiration, and then have fun making up your own plot.

4)   If you’re still struggling to come up with your own story, try to think of a book in your genre that has frustrated you a little. Maybe you read the back of the book, and it didn’t pan out the way you thought it would. Or the plot twisted one way, and you were desperately hoping it would go another. Think about how you would rewrite it in your own – more satisfactory – way.

5)   Another way to come up with ideas is to focus on your favourite subsidiary characters, and develop a story for them. A lot of New Adult authors are using this trick to create a whole series of books – look at Abbi Glines with her Rosemary Beach series, which has developed characters from FALLEN TOO FAR. Jamie McGuire and Penelope Douglas (and many others!) have done this too. Try picking a character you’d have liked to know more about, and then develop a story for them. You can keep tweaking details until you have your own unique story (no copying of course – just use someone else’s characters for inspiration).  

I hope some of this is helpful. Do you have any good tips for generating ideas for your novels? If so, share them below!

I've started playing around on pinterest over the last couple of weeks, and it inspired me to put together some images of how I envisioned my main characters in my upcoming novel, BEAUTIFUL LIAR. Alex, the antihero, is a posh English playboy, sexy, charming and utterly untrustworthy, and I thought this picture of Ben Barnes captured him perfectly - he manages to look aristocratic and dangerous all at once. My heroine, Nina, is meant to be a tough girl from the rough part of London, but I still wanted her to be desirable and attractive. I love this photo of Shannyn Sossamon, who manages to look cool and funky, but also vulnerable and sexy, all at the same time. I've included the official synopsis below to give you a taste of who Nina and Alex are, and what their story is about:

Reliable

Nina Baxter has her life all mapped out.She wants to work hard, take care of her younger sister and not end up like her drunk of a mother. Most of all, she plans to stay away from bad influences.

Reckless

Alexander Noble doesn’t give a damn about anything or anyone. The heir to an unimaginable fortune, he’s never had to do a day’s work in his life, and devotes himself to pleasure and partying.

When opposites attract…

From their very first meeting, Nina knows Alex is bad news, and vows to stay away from him. But as their paths continue to cross, she can’t help being drawn to him – especially when he makes no secret of his interest in her.

Can they resist the pull?

For the first time ever, Nina is on the brink of following her heart. But can she believe Alex when he tells her to trust him? Or is he just another beautiful liar?

Do New Adult (and Erotica) books glamorise abusive relationships?

With Fifty Shades of Grey hitting cinemas earlier this month, we inevitably saw a round of articles and TV discussions about whether EL James’s novels are glamorising abusive relationships. Although I’m not a hard-core Fifty Shades of Grey fan, I adore a lot of novels and TV shows that seem to fall into a similar arena, and which have come in for a similar amount of criticism. So I thought it was time to look at the issue in more detail - for my own peace of mind, if nothing else! 

For the record, I’m against abuse in any shape or form. I was brought up to believe that a relationship is about partnership, not control, and to run a mile if a man ever tried to tell me what to wear, who to associate with, how to think, or – heaven forbid – raised a hand to me. And I appreciate this goes the other way, because let’s face it, there are some controlling ladies out there, too.

Given all this, I was unsurprisingly alarmed to find that a lot of the novels and TV series I love have been accused of promoting abuse. This first came to my attention when I started scanning the Internet for information on Klaus and Caroline, two characters in The Vampire Diaries. Having been captivated by this romantic pairing, I was appalled to find that apparently this meant I was a brainless teenager, who was supporting an abusive relationship. Yikes! It was a similar story when I looked on goodreads for reviews of Jamie McGuire’s Beautiful Disaster. Alongside her legion of devoted fans, there was a very vocal minority who hated the book, and despised anyone who supported Abby and Travis’s apparently abusive relationship.

This gave me pause for thought. Was it true? Were the books and TV series that I loved really glamorising abuse? How had this happened?  

I’m not going to argue that the characters mentioned above are perfect. In fact, they are decidedly flawed. Christian Grey is clearly a deeply troubled man who wouldn’t know a normal relationship if it hit him with a cat o’ nine tails. Klaus from The Vampire Diaries is a sociopathic killer. Travis Maddox is a man-whore with anger issues. But, in my opinion, that’s the whole damned point.

I’m a huge fan of Lisa Cron’s Wired for Story, which seeks to explain what hooks a reader into a novel. In it, she talks about how a story is about an internal journey not an external one, and how in the best books and movies, the protagonist is seeking to overcome what she terms a fatal flaw. This fatal flaw is defined as a “deep-rooted fear, stubborn misconception or dubious character trait”, such as believing that it’s better to close yourself off to love than risk being hurt. During the course of the story, we – the audience – sees how the protagonist learns to overcome this fatal flaw, and in the process comes to live a happier life.

I think this is exactly what we see in New Adult books – either the hero or heroine, or often both, seeking to overcome their fatal flaw. In Beautiful Disaster, Travis displays some admittedly scary possessiveness towards Abby, telling her what to wear, and exploding into violent rages when she doesn’t want to see him. I think the point here is that Abby knows his behaviour isn’t right, and she breaks up with him because of it. Travis also comes to realise that he is hurting Abby, and that if he really loves her he should walk away. They can only be together once he changes, and overcomes his fatal flaw. Abby also has to overcome a fatal flaw in the novel – at the beginning, she is pretending to be a conventional good girl, because she’s scared of being dragged into her parents’ murky world. But as the story goes off, it becomes obvious that she’s essentially living a lie. Travis helps her be her true self again – he sees the real her, and helps her start living fearlessly.

This idea of overcoming a fatal flaw is also apparent in another of my favourite New Adult books, Tammara Webber’s Easy. The book opens with the heroine in a lousy situation, all of her own making. Jacqueline gave up her dream place at music school to follow her arrogant prick of a boyfriend to the university of his choice, where he promptly dumped her. To make matters worse, Jacqui is even taking a course that she hates because he was doing it (WTF!?), and she’s missed classes because she’s so cut up about the break up, thereby jeopardising her academic career. This spineless idiot is clearly not a good role model for young women. But over the course of the book, Jacqui grows a backbone, and by the end she chooses to follow her heart and attend the music school she really wanted, even though it means leaving her new boyfriend behind. Now, that’s progress! That is surely a positive message for readers, showing it’s a bad idea to sacrifice your dreams for someone else.

I think that’s what all these books and TV series have in common – the protagonists need to address their fatal flaw in order to be happy. Ana doesn’t want the kind of relationship Christian is offering – which is why, at the end of the first book, she walks away. While I haven’t read the rest of the series, I’m fairly sure he needs to overcome his demons in order for them to make it work and get their HEA (Happily Ever After).

Of course I’m not arguing that New Adult books are there to teach us all how to conduct healthy relationships. But then I also don’t think they should be. At heart, they are entertainment, for readers who want to read about dramatic, passionate relationships – the kind that we all know don’t exist in real life, and we wouldn’t want them to either! Would I personally choose to have hot, dirty sex with a guy who had murdered my best friend’s aunt and my (ex)-boyfriend’s mother, along with countless others over the centuries? Of course not! But it didn’t stop me rooting for a hook-up between Klaus and Caroline in The Vampire Diaries. If someone aired a TV programme (or wrote a book) about a healthy, functioning relationship, where the well-balanced couple worked together to overcome life’s travails, I think I’d…. Oops – sorry. Fell asleep there. I mean, where is the fun in watching a happy couple just be… well, happy?

Personally, I think a lot of the hatred towards the New Adult (and Erotica) genre is down to the fact that it’s considered lowbrow. Commentators – and a lot of the general public – resent the huge success of what amounts to light, frothy romances. It’s easy to get behind the success of a book like The Help, which has a powerful message to impart to its readers about prejudice and humanity. It’s far harder to justify the success of a book like Twilight which, to paraphrase Stephen King, “is about how important it is to have a boyfriend”.

But even if we accept that the New Adult genre has no valuable life lessons to impart, I can’t help thinking: does it matter? If books like Fifty Shades of Grey get people reading, then surely that’s a good thing. My dad left school at fifteen with no qualifications, but he is one of the most voracious readers I know. You know why? BECAUSE HE READS BOOKS HE ENJOYS! He doesn’t slog through DH Lawrence or Charles Dickens just to impress people – he reads James Patterson, Andy McNab, Ken Follett and Lee Child because he wants to. Reading should be a pleasure, not a chore. That’s how I was brought up. Reviewers might want to laugh at Jeffrey Archer’s writing ability, but he tells a darn good tale – and he’s made a mint doing it in the process!

I think this intellectual snobbery towards New Adult is at the heart of the criticism. To say that New Adult books glamorise abusive relationships gives little credit to readers. Does anyone honestly believe the general population are that easily influenced? If so, then aren’t doctors who watch the TV series House going to assume that a substance abuse problem is no impediment to practicing medicine? And won’t chemistry teachers be inspired to set up meth labs after watching Breaking Bad? Shouldn’t we be saving impressionable viewers from themselves?!

Of course not! Obviously we credit viewers of House and Breaking Bad with having more sense – to be able to separate the fantasy from the reality. And given that, maybe it’s about time that we started extending the same courtesy to young women, and let them read what they want without trying to belittle them for doing so.

Do you have any thoughts on this? Feel free to disagree with me – it’s always good to open up discussions and hear other points of view!

Here's the gorgeous cover of my novel BEAUTIFUL LIAR - out 7 May 2015 in Kindle and 30 July 2015 in paperback

How To Create The Perfect Cover For Your Novel

I had a blog post all lined up for today, but then I found out that my publishers were going to do a cover reveal for my novel, BEAUTIFUL LIAR. So along with showcasing my gorgeous cover - which you can see on my tumblr - I also decided it was the ideal opportunity to look at how writers can ensure they have the best possible cover on their novels. Because let’s face it – even though we’re told not to judge a book by its cover, your potential readers will be doing just that!

1)   Make sure the cover accurately reflects what your book is about. It may seem like a very basic point, but it’s definitely the most important one. If your light, fluffy romance has a picture of a knife dripping with blood on the front, it’s probably going to attract the wrong audience. Look at other books in your genre, and make sure your cover fits in with them. You could try posting a draft of the cover on social media sites that you use – without the title or any hint of what the book is about – and ask people to guess what kind of book it is.

As a reader, I recently had an experience with the cover failing to match the contents. I’d read great reviews of Mia Sheridan’s KYLAND, so I looked into buying the book. Frankly, when I saw the cover – a black and white picture of a semi-naked man – I assumed the novel was going to be some kind of erotica. I probably wouldn’t have bothered buying it if I hadn’t already been told that it was an amazing book. And I have to confess, it was fantastic – a beautifully written story, that vividly brought the impoverished setting to life. This was definitely a case of the book being short-changed by its cover, and I think it was only because the author was already established that she could get away with it.

2)   Make sure the cover looks professional. I’m lucky enough to have a publishing team behind me, who put the covers together and just show them to me, but I know more and more people out there are self-publishing. The good news is that the explosion in this area means there’s been a corresponding increase in the resources out there to help you get a great cover for as little cost as possible. I’m not an expert in this field, and it’s not something that I can discuss in the space of one blog post, so what I’ve done is put together a few links that should hopefully be helpful for anyone who is starting out. I’ve tried to include a mix of advice, from hiring a professional designer to DIY-ing your cover. 

 http://completelynovel.com/self-publishing/writers-toolbox-cover-design

http://www.publishingtalk.eu/self-publishing/four-steps-to-create-a-great-book-cover/

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/pw-select/article/60851-diy-how-to-design-an-indie-book-cover.html

http://diybookcovers.com - apparently easy to use, customisable cover templates

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/10/20/book-cover-design-ms-word/ - a detailed and informative article on how to make your own free cover design in MS Word 

I hope these links prove useful. As for my own cover, I was thrilled when my publishers emailed me the first draft. A few people have said it looks a little like erotica – which my book most certainly isn’t! But I think it accurately reflects the dark, twisted romance between my main characters, and the somewhat sinister world that they inhabit. I suppose I won’t find out if readers agree until the reviews start coming in. But meanwhile I’d be interested to hear your initial thoughts / impressions from just looking at the design, and what you would assume the book was about just from that picture. 

Overcoming Writer's Block

I mentioned in my last blog post that I’d struggled with writer’s block. I wrote two family sagas in 2008 and 2009, but struggled to write anything after that. I’d come up with ideas, but dismiss them all. If I did start on one, I’d struggle to write it and give up. Nothing was ever right or good enough. And it was torture. It was also a huge waste of time. Instead of getting on and producing novels, I was staring at a blank page every day. I was at the point where I thought I might never finish another book. 

It was my husband – knowing how unhappy my writer’s block was making me - who eventually suggested that I look on the Internet for help. I’m not sure why it hadn’t occurred to me before, and it was such good advice. There are so many great resources out there – and a lot of them have really helped me.

Having said that, I have to confess that I’m unlikely to cure anyone’s writer’s block in one blog post. Dealing with writer’s block is actually a pretty big subject. But I have learned a lot, and so I’ve tried to give a summary below of the most important points I’ve gleaned from everything I’ve read.

What causes writer’s block?

Fear.

Yep, I can sum it up in one word. Fear causes writer’s block - fear of failure; fear of criticism; fear even of success.  

As John Cleese said:

“Nothing will stop you being creative more effectively as the fear of making a
mistake.”

You probably don’t even realise that fear is at the root of your problem. You instead blame it on a lack of creativity – I can’t write my novel at the moment because I’m just waiting for the muse to strike, right? In fact, more likely than not, it’s fear that’s stopping you pushing on with your novel. Fear causes procrastination. And procrastination is in turn linked to a lack of productivity. Think about it - if you never finish your novel, then no one can ever tell you that it sucks, can they? Unfortunately, you’ll also never get to see your name in print either, which is after all what we all want, isn’t it?

How do I get over writer’s block (or My Fear)?

Well, unfortunately there’s no single solution to this. But here are a few suggestions that I’ve found useful:

1)   Give yourself permission to write badly

In reading about procrastination, the word perfectionism comes up a lot – and not in a good way! When you’re writing a first draft, just go for it. Switch off your inner editor. Just get the story down, even if you can’t find quite the right words. It’s a very rare author who writes a perfect first draft. Get used to the idea that it won’t be until the fourth or fifth draft that you have something good enough to show someone else. That might sound daunting, but in fact it will make the whole process a lot quicker.

2)   Set yourself a daily word count.

This follows on from my first point. In order to get a rough first draft down as quickly as possible, I find it really helpful to set myself a daily word count goal when I’m writing the first draft, usually of around 5,000 words. Yes, it’s not always pretty, but it gets me from beginning to end, and gives me the raw material from which to craft the finished product.

3)   Eliminate distractions

This is pretty much a given in any post on productivity. Find a quiet place to work where you won’t be disturbed. Switch off your phone, email and the Internet for a set period, when all you do is write. Stay away from social networking sites. If you’re struggling to work from home, go someplace else – like a library or a coffee shop. Be honest with yourself about what is stopping you from writing.

4)   Break the novel down into manageable pieces

This comes from reading I’ve done on tackling big projects. If you’re facing the prospect of writing a whole novel, the amount of work involved can be so overwhelming that you never start. So instead, make a plan, breaking down the book into manageable chunks (chapters!), and working out how long it will take you to complete each chunk. Then make sure you stick to it!

5)   The Pomodoro Technique

This was something I’d never heard of before, but it has actually worked really well for me. It’s a time management technique developed in the… oh, who cares? Basically, you work in short spurts, and then take a break. The recommended amount is twenty-five minutes – you set a timer to measure it – and then take a five-minute break, before doing another twenty-five minutes. After four of these “pomodori”, you take a longer break of 15-30 minutes. This is great for people who are procrastinating. Twenty-five minutes is such a short amount of time, that it’s easy to make yourself sit down to start the work, and you’ll be really surprised at how much you can accomplish in 25 minutes, when you’re really concentrating (as opposed to looking on twitter!)

6)   The 80/20 rule

This is for all the perfectionists out there. It’s embracing the idea that you can get 80% of the way on a project with 20% of the effort – but that to get the full 100%, you’ll have to expend 80% more effort. Basically it’s keeping in mind the cost-benefit of continuing to work on your novel – is it really worth the extra effort involved in getting to 100%, if you could have spent that time writing four more novels instead?

7)   Set a time limit

Remember Parkinson’s Law - work expands to fit the time available. To stop your current work in progress dragging on for ages – which prevents you from moving onto other writing projects – put a time limit on it. Give yourself a reasonable amount of time to finish it in, and stick to it. Remember - the more you write, the more likely you are to get published!

Some of these ideas might work for you, some won’t. I’ve only given a handful of suggestions here, because this blog post would go on forever otherwise. But there are a lot of other good resources out there that might help you. Here are a few I’ve found useful:

1)   The 7 Secrets of the Prolific, by Hillary Rettig

2)   The Now Habit, by Neil Fiore

3)   21 Tips to Become the Most Productive Person You Know http://www.robinsharma.com/blog/09/become-the-most-productive-person-you-know/

4)   Overcoming Procrastination http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_96.htm

These suggestions aren’t finite. As I’ve said, there are so many great resources out there on the Internet. If you find any, feel free to pass them onto me!

How I Came to Write in the New Adult Genre

I'm going to start writing a weekly blog here, coming out every Friday. It's going to be on writing and publishing novels mostly, although I may stray onto other topics! My article below originally appeared as a guest post for The Hotbed (the New Adult branch of my publishers), but I felt it was worth republishing here, as I think it does a good job of introducing me and why I wrote in the New Adult genre.

I stumbled onto the New Adult genre quite by chance. Back in August 2012, I happened to see a novel on Amazon that had a huge number of great reviews. After reading the synopsis, I thought it sounded like something I’d enjoy, and so I went ahead and bought it. That book was Jamie McGuire’s Beautiful Disaster.

From the first page it completely captivated me. I got instantly sucked into Abby and Travis’s will-they-won’t-they relationship, and couldn’t wait to find out if they’d finally work out their issues and find happiness together. I stayed up all night reading, and finished the novel within twenty-four hours.

Unsurprisingly, I was desperate to find similar novels to read, so I Googled the author, and came across articles and blogs on the New Adult / Erotica genres. Soon I had a list of book recommendations, and over the next year I discovered the likes of Tammara Webber, Christina Lauren, Samantha Young and Colleen Hoover, among others.

At the same time, I was trying to write my own novel. I’d completed two books in the women’s / family saga genres, but I wasn’t feeling entirely happy. Somewhere along the way I’d started trying to write what I thought people wanted to read, and it had left me with a bad case of writer’s block. I’d come up with ideas, start writing them, and then lose interest. I got so frustrated, that I was convinced I’d never complete anything again.

Then, in mid August 2013, I started on Abbi Glines’s Fallen Too Far. I remember reading it on the tube, as I went to meet my friend, and thinking how much I was loving the story. It was just so much fun! And I thought to myself: why don’t I try to write a book like this?

It was a revelation. By the end of the night, I had an idea for a story, and over the next couple of days, I began to plot what would eventually become Beautiful Liar. After months of banging my head against a wall with my writing, I suddenly felt energised and excited again.

Unfortunately, ten days later my happiness abruptly ended, when my mother was diagnosed with advanced bowel cancer. We knew she was terminally ill from that very day, 23 August 2013, and from then on, our lives began to revolve around doctors, hospitals and chemotherapy.

In the initial shock of the diagnosis, I found it impossible to write. My poor mother had gone from being a fit, active person, to being unable to walk down the road. She was devastated to realise that she’d never get better, and frightened at the prospect of dying. Meanwhile I was filled with overwhelming anxiety at the thought of losing her. I’m an only child, and we’d always been close, and I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like without her. For the first few weeks I went round in a daze. I couldn’t eat properly, and lost a lot of weight. I’d wake in the middle of the night, and search the Internet for information on my mother’s cancer, desperate to find a glimmer of hope.

But as the chemotherapy kicked in, things settled down. Her symptoms eased, and we were able to get back to some semblance of normality – going out on shopping trips and for afternoon teas, like we always did. Even though we still knew she was terminally ill, I think we all began to hope she’d have years rather than months. I started to work on my novel again, and writing it provided a much-needed escape from the harsh realities of a loved-one having cancer.

Obviously I told my mum all about my new work-in-progress. She was delighted to hear that I’d found inspiration again, and her greatest wish was that she would live long enough to see it published. Unfortunately that wasn’t to be. After Christmas, her condition went rapidly downhill, and she died on 6 February 2014.

It’s almost a year since my mum died, and if anything I miss her more every day. She was a naturally happy person, with a great enthusiasm for life, and family gatherings just don’t feel the same without her sparkling presence. She was always my greatest supporter, and believed in me even when I wasn’t sure I’d ever write again.

Naturally I’ve dedicated my first New Adult book, Beautiful Liar, to my lovely mother. I know she’d have been so pleased to see it published. She would have sent me congratulatory flowers, and taken me out to dinner to celebrate. And so, however happy I’ll be on publication day this year, I’ll also be mourning the fact that she isn’t here to see it happen.