Novel Writing 5: Beta Readers Unite!

Was it meant to feel like this? Last night I hit send on a bunch of emails to my beta readers. It’s been a few day since I wrapped up the first draft of my debut novel, and after a solid edit, the text is now in the hands of real people for its first road test. I won’t lie – it’s a nerve-wracking thing to hand over […]

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Novel Writing 4: First Draft Complete!

I’ve completed the first draft of my novel! It doesn’t seem very long ago that I was writing about the twists and turns of working on my first novel. Today I’m happy to announce that (as of two days ago) I’ve reached the end of my first draft! For those who missed it, here was the Twitter announcement: That's it! I'm calling time on my first novel […]

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Friday Focus: Writing on the Road

Writing a novel is a time-consuming labour of love. Over the past year I’ve learnt that the process of writing a novel involves lots of ebbs and flows. To write 80,000 words is a challenge for anyone, and it takes dedication and determination to make it happen – it’s the marathon of writing challenges. To help facilitate a smooth writing process, most writers I know […]

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Novel Writing 3: The Long and Winding Road.

How the road turns unexpectedly. Ten weeks ago, I hit the halfway point on my first novel, and was assessing where to go next with my story. I had expected to be able to press on quite quickly from that point, but life had other plans! Since I was taking a long-overdue holiday, I soon found myself with little time set aside to write, and […]

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