It’s taken me 2+ years, seemingly endless drafts, and rewrites, and literally hundreds of late nights, but today I finished what I hope will become my debut novel. When I began writing this book, a psychological suspense story about loss, lies and the consequences of both, I could not have anticipated the sheer amount of work and dedication it would take. There were many times in its journey where I felt I would never write ‘the end.’
I began writing the book on a 6-month novel writing course with the Faber Academy, where the goal was to write the first 15K words. At that time, I had the tiniest seed of an idea, and used the course to not only learn the craft of writing, but also to figure out how to grow my tiny seed into a fully leafed tree. I learned lots and met other talented writers, most of whom had a lot more of their stories planned out than me. The encouragement and support from both my Faber tutor and classmates was invaluable (I plan to write some in-depth posts soon on the many writing classes/workshops I have taken—there are a lot!)
Once that course ended, I applied to take Faber’s 1-year novel writing course and was accepted. By this point, I had a much clearer idea where my story was headed and, as well as taking the Faber classes, was reading any books I could get my hands on about the craft of writing. (I will write a post soon about the books I found most helpful).
Sadly, during this course, I suffered a sudden family bereavement, which derailed me from my writing. I put my novel down as I felt unable to write. Despite not working on my novel, the itch to write never left me. I penned a story about the grief I was experiencing and wrote short pieces of work for a writing group I am part of. Eventually, the characters from my novel called me back, and I decided once and for all to complete it.
I knew my story at this point, but still felt I wanted help, advice and support from other writing professionals. A talented writer friend of mine introduced me to the Gold Dust mentoring scheme, which pairs an award-winning/best-selling author with writers and works one-on-one with them. It is an application-based scheme, which I applied for and was accepted on. (I will write a post detailing my experience soon).
The mentorship was phenomenal. My mentor gave me incredible and valuable feedback, which made me believe more in myself and my writing. As a result, I completed my novel and believe it is the best it can be at this point in my writing journey. I am so proud of it, of how my characters evolved, and how I turned a tiny seed into that fully leafed tree I’d dreamed of.
I am now editing it and getting it ready to query later this year. I hope that someday soon, I can write a post sharing its title and cover as it gets ready to be published.