April is one of my favourite months for several reasons. It’s Mr Leigh’s birthday, the bluebell wood next door bursts into bloom with its intensely blue fragrant carpet, daffodils are over, camellias are on their last gasp, but the wisteria is starting to come out as are leaves on the trees and the forget-me-nots which I definitely didn’t plant last year. 7th April is the anniversary of the creation of Isabella M Smugge and reminds me of that moment when a ludicrously self-satisfied woman with everything money could buy sprang into my mind and started off my fiction career.
It’s not quite out, but you get the idea
So here I am, a full time writer and great fun it is too. Deadlines play an important part in what I do. With freelance work, you get a brief and a tight deadline and there aren’t any options. You might get a day or two’s extension in a real crisis (your interviewee is ill, or has flown to Guatemala without telling you) but if you don’t submit your piece in time, there’s a good chance you won’t be asked to write for the client again. I like that though. If someone asks me to write something and utters the immortal words, “Get it done when you can,” it will never be produced.
(If you look at those first two paragraphs, the first one was written by the creative literary part of my brain – lots of adjectives and descriptive language, and the second by my freelance mind. Facts. A quote. Anyway. Back to the blog.)
Novels are a different ball game. The eager writer must produce around 80,000 words, adhering to the publisher’s house style and submit it on or before the deadline. I invariably ask for an extension. Back comes the reader’s report, which tells said writer what the good bits were, the issues with plot, characterisation and narrative flow and how many words will have to be cut (between 10-15,000 this time, which is par for the course).
Last week, I submitted, “The Deliberations of Isabella M Smugge” which will be the last Issy novel. (Don’t worry, we haven’t heard the last of her. Watch this space). It was due in at 7am on Monday morning and I hit, “send” at 22.20 on Sunday night. My brain felt like a sponge squeezed of all moisture and it took me three sleep cycles to stop dreaming that I’d missed the deadline. I love writing about Issy, but by the time I’m trying to finish the book, my mind empties of new ideas and I’m convinced that this time I’ll have forgotten how to write.
Manuscript sent, I needed a distraction. Fortunately, I was off to Leamington Spa for the annual Resolute Books weekend away a few days later and as always, it was a road trip to remember.
Regular readers may remember that last time I went away for a literary weekend with the lovely Sarah Nicholson, she forgot to pack her pjs, so I lent her my best ones. She wrote a blog about them, which you can read here: https://www.sarahnicholsonwrites.com/blog/those-are-not-my-pyjamas This time round, another writer friend came to collect me and stood by patiently as I went through my pre-journey packing rituals. I must stand by the boot of the car reciting the contents of my suitcase before I can go anywhere. Don’t judge.
This is what alerted Sarah to her lack of nightwear last year. This time round, when I mentioned pyjamas, my friend suddenly remembered she’d forgotten to pack hers. I thought she was joking. She assured me she wasn’t. I laughed heartily and congratulated her on her poker face.
“No, honestly Ruth,” she said. “I completely forgot them.”
I was prepared to sacrifice my own pjs again (I have a rarely-worn second best pair tucked away), but she decided to take the risk, and fortunately there was no occasion for any of us to get up in the night and wander around in the corridors of the hotel.
We stayed on the outskirts of Leamington Spa and there were ample opportunities to take pictures of our dinner, each other (sometimes sitting in attractive jewel-coloured velvet chairs), the grounds, and amazing chum and writer Fran Hill. Fran is the author of two of my absolutely favourite books ever, Cuckoo in the Nest and Home Bird (published by Legend Press in case you were wondering. Buy them at once, if you haven’t already) and since she’s a Leamington resident and knows about 50% of the Resolute Books gang, it was the ideal chance to meet up.
This month has been a good snapshot of a writer’s life. A mix of fiction and freelance writing, a bit of travelling, weird anxiety dreams, meeting up with someone I see once a year, posh chairs and learning new things to make my books better. Glamorous it wasn’t, but it certainly was fun! #writerslife #poshchairs #lifelessons