A Writer’s Diary: A Year in the Life of an Author #1

Does anyone believe that their own life is interesting?

I’m yet to meet anyone who does, which always surprises me although it shouldn’t, because I don’t think my own day-to-day life is particularly noteworthy. It’s punctuated by amazing moments but on the whole, my weekdays are pretty boring…if you ask me, anyway.

I was on a trip to Transylvania last week with Monica, aka The Travel Hack: mum of two, living in a fabulous house in the countryside with my dream dog, travelling the world and generally being ultra successful. During our trip, she was explaining her job to someone on our tour, and she said “my life’s pretty normal”.

I turned to her, shocked, and blurted out “no it’s not”! I mean, her life is probably the most exciting of anyone I know, and she thinks that’s normal?!

And then she looked at me and told me something equally shocking: she thinks my life, living in London, writing novels and travelling occasionally, is interesting.

Well I never!

I guess it’s tempting to look at other people’s lives and believe they’re more glamorous or put-together than our own. But when I stop to think about it, I am literally living my dream. If you’d told me ten years ago that I’d spend my days writing and travelling, and that I’d be a published author, I never would have believed you. Like, ever. And I don’t want to take for granted the fact that I’m doing what I dreamed of once upon a time.

So to have a record of this time in my life (because that’s why I started blogging in the first place), and to reveal what an author’s life really does look like day-to-day, and maybe also so that I can appreciate the mundane as well as the overtly exciting, I’m starting a diary. I’m not committing to a frequency, because I get overwhelmed by things like weekly posting schedules, but I’ll try to post as often as I can, and I’ll share the boring bits along with the highlights.

I’m starting a bit late but I’ll try to sum up the first few weeks of 2019 – it’s been busy!!

January Week 1

It was Wednesday before I actually got anything done, and even then it was a slow start into the new year. I barely touched my laptop or phone over the Christmas break so it took some time to get back into the swing of things. I did some edits on my third novel (yet to be named), did some prep for the launch of a new podcast I’m co-hosting with two author friends (more on that in a sec) and emailed my agent to ask if I could send her book three soon (gulp!) for her feedback.

To my relief, she replied saying she wouldn’t be able to read it for another couple of weeks. I don’t know what it is about a deadline, but as it approaches I seem to have more ideas than when I first began…so I was happy to have the chance to implement some of those.

Determined to regain the fitness I’ve lost over the past few months, I got my running shoes out, dug out my winter running gear and went for a few 5km runs along the river. The mornings were crisp and clear, and the views were beautiful. It reminded me of how much I love running, and how energised I feel afterwards, so I was pleased I’d got past my initial hesitation about getting out in the cold. It was so worth it.

Otherwise the week was spent catching up on emails and generally getting used to being back in the rhythm of work again…no small feat!

January Week 2

This was an exceptionally exciting week, because Niki Mackay, Victoria Selman and I launched our brand new podcast, Crime Girl Gang!

It’s a true crime podcast with a fictional twist: each season we look at three strange cold cases and then share how we’d solve them if we were writing them as fiction. We had so much fun creating it (although it was a steep learning curve!) and we’re proud of what we’ve produced. There are four episodes available to download now, with a new episode each Monday until the end of the season. Head over to iTunes (or your favourite podcasting service) and have a listen.

Oh, and if you enjoy it, please do leave us a rating and review…it helps us out massively!

The three of us met for lunch to celebrate the launch, I did some more edits, I ran a bit, did a Barrecore class (my friend gave me a code for a free month of ClassPass, so I’m trying a few gym classes between runs) and frantically rummaged through cupboards to find thermals and ski gear because on Friday I flew to Romania!

I did a five day tour with Untravelled Paths through Transylvania, stopping at Peleș Castle, Brașov, staying a night in an ice hotel, visiting Bran Castle (aka Dracula’s castle) and exploring Bucharest. It was incredible, and I have so much to say about it, but I’ll save that for a future blog post. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this photo of an absolutely mind-blowingly beautiful bookshop I found in Bucharest. It was every writer’s dream!

You might also like: The 10 Most Beautiful Libraries & Bookshops in the World

January Week 3

I returned from Romania (a rare trip where I didn’t pack my laptop) on Tuesday night, and had agreed with my agent to send her my manuscript on Thursday, so Wednesday and Thursday were spent checking and rechecking that I had my story straight. Oh, and doing an amazing boxing class, which I’m now feeling in muscles I didn’t know I had.

I also decided (as you do) that my story absolutely needed another chapter, so with a few hours to spare before my deadline I hurriedly wrote another chapter. I’m not sure it was the best idea, given that my editing was so rushed, but I’ll find out soon enough if it made any sense.

I wrote book three in Scrivener, which is software designed specifically for writers. I use a MacBook, so I’ve previously written in Pages, which was a nightmare for editing. Moving chapters, for example, required copying thousands of words at a time, scrolling through hundreds of pages to find the exact spot I wanted it to go to, and pasting. In Scrivener you can literally drag and drop a chapter, which saved me hours of painful editing.

I hadn’t thought about exporting it though, and with an hour before I promised to submit to my agent, I realised I had no idea how to compile it all into a readable Word document. After a few unsuccessful attempts, followed by some frantic Googling and multiple retries, I eventually got it to a point I thought was acceptable…and at 4:30 on the dot (the time I said I’d send it) I pressed send on the email.

Phew.

I am a stickler for deadlines, even self-imposed ones, so I was happy I managed to hit this one. Also, thanks to the frenzy over formatting and getting it sent over in time, I didn’t have time for my usual ‘Oh my goodness, someone is actually going to read this thing I’ve been working on alone for the past eight months or so. What if it’s utter rubbish?‘ type panic, accompanied by extreme nausea and a generally sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Instead, I hit send, sent some info to my accountant, ventured out to buy a bottle of wine to celebrate, heated up some leftovers, watched an episode of The Great Interior Design Challenge with a glass of wine and my chicken and quinoa, then fell asleep at 9:30 reading Dracula.

This author life is non-stop rock and roll, I tell you.