Can I become my dream author?
Why I'm finally excited about my new direction
Hello and welcome to Making Crime Pay! I’m Nicki Thornton - I’m an author who writes for children and is forging a path towards writing for adults.
I share my creative journey here and what I am learning along the way. I pass on my love of books by sharing what I am reading and review them so you can enjoy them too. Don’t forget I’m always up for talking about books or writing. I visit schools and other places to encourage a love of reading and help writing be more fun!
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Nicki
I have a small announcement!
It’s exciting when you’ve got a new book coming out and you’ve news to share. But that’s not my announcement!
Here is the biggest (not very) secret thing about writing – it takes a long time. And most of it consists of exciting broadcasts like: Wrote 1000 words today. Wrote 200 today. Deleted 500 today. Struggled with a plot point. Changed my POV character.
Yes writing is hard, mostly sitting on your butt, staring at a screen. It does not make for exciting viewing, plus it’s often difficult to even feel yourself you are making progress.
I have completed two drafts I feel happy with!
This is my announcement! And it’s difficult to express how hard it’s been and how long it’s been to be able to say this. Three years at least.
I’ve been attempting a change of writing direction for a while after having written six books that I’m very proud of – six books for children, all set in the same fantasy world.
I never expected to write something else I was happy with in my first attempt.
Even so a lot of words have passed through my brain and across my laptop, most of which I haven’t been very happy with. And that’s been incredibly hard too.
So I have completed a new children’s book (sci-fi!) - big new direction. And the other is adult crime, my experiment with a totally new field.
Even what to write has been a tough decision
Writing books is a competitive area, publishers are notorious for all piling into one trend and leaving others out in the cold. All too easy to spend a year (or three) writing something only discover it’s no longer flavour of the month. Actually, I sometimes think this is the only thing about publishing that happens rapidly!
What’s doing well? (and do you then try to write for that area, or is that too overcrowded?). What’s not really been done (and then are you trying to convince a publisher that there will be any demand for your story?). Stick with crime? What about fantasy elements?
I didn’t realise quite how at sea I was with trying to decide what I really wanted to write.
Is it time to give up?
My approach was just to set off writing and see what happened. But actually what happened was that I became less and less clear about what I really wanted to do. And then I think my writing confidence started to evaporate and I felt unhappy with pretty much everything I was writing.
I have started and not finished several stories in the last couple of years and really started to question if I should simply decide having six books published is a pretty good achievement – and give up.
I have also been exploring other jobs. But I have kept on writing!
So these two early drafts now with my agent feel like a breakthrough. Even if she doesn’t feel either of them will be possible to place, which I do realise she could easily say.
But I am happy with them and really, that’s all I can control.
Publishing options
I have also been exploring the differences between children’s books and adult. Trickier to identify the differences than you might think. Also discovering there are far more publishing options for adults.
Digital publishing is now bigger than the whole of the children’s sector.
So I have also been thinking about things like: should I do what many writers these days do (particularly crime writers) and self-publish? Would I enjoy doing that? Would I find more readers that way?
Constantly trying to improve
I have also been improving my writing skills, so this leads onto the next thing I am looking forward to that I really want to share.
I have signed up to an author coaching programme called Dream Author, run by crime-writer Sophie Hannah.
As someone who’s very much struggling with a new direction, I am looking forward to this so much, so just wanted to share it with you in case anyone else wants to join in.
She is kindly offering a month-long festival for anyone who can’t afford to sign up for her full programme.
I am loving it
I’ve already plunged into the webinars, workbooks to download, podcasts and coaching videos and I am very excited to learn from someone as experienced as Sophie and learn lots of new and different ways to approach not just writing, but also face the difficulties and challenges of being an author.
I know this is going to be very valuable to me and you can still join in if you want to here.
Here are some of the sessions I am looking forward to:
Why Everything Is Fine For Writers (or, How To Apply Your Discouragement Sunscreen)
Why Writers Give Up, And How To Make Sure You Don't
Appropriate Responsibility
If It Ain't Broke, Sometimes Break It
How To Think About Uncertainty
I will keep you posted and thanks to all in this community for your support.
I met someone the other day who told me she discovered my books when younger and still re-reads them now she’s an adult! So incredibly lovely to hear things like that. It really does make being an author feel very worthwhile.
Nicki