As an experiment, I’ve just put 12 signed copies on sale here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230323633624

Buy a copy of the first Scream Street book – Fang of the Vampire – via that eBay link, and I’ll sign it TO YOU (or whoever else you want) before posting it out. All you have to do is include a message with the name you’d like when you pay for the book via PayPal.  This is your chance to get a signed copy for yourself, or a reader you know!

Please note: I’m not doing this through a reseller – it’s all me – and the only way you can be sure the signature is genuine (other than cornering me in the street or a bookshop, that is!)

What a scream!

Tommy

His words got me thinking about when to start writing, as well as stopping. For me, it’s my job. I have to show up every day, sit here and create, edit or rewrite words in order to put food on the table and keep a roof over my family’s heads. The fact that I do all that from an office that is really a spare bedroom and can stop any time I like to make a cup of tea does nothing to diminish the fact that this is a job. I don’t write, I don’t get paid. No waiting for the muse to show up for me – every time I head up to my office, I drag the muse with me, kicking and screaming if need be.

Now, I’m not moaning here. I absolutely love my job and realise that I’m very fortunate to be doing it, but I face a problem that every self-employed person struggles with on a daily basis – I have no boss. That might sound like a dream come true (and it can be) but it’s up to me to discipline myself, up to me to set targets and hit them, up to me to ensure the work is done on time and to an acceptable standard. The result – and this is true of every self-employed person I know, whether they write, design websites or sell cars – is that I work much, much harder than I ever did in my previous 9 to 5 jobs.

The same holds true whether you write full-time or not. If you want to write a novel or screenplay, you have to put the time in and create whether you feel like it or not. How many people do you know who’ve talked for years about that book they’re going to write? Yep, me too. The difference between us and them is that we’re sitting our asses down and doing it. Writers write, they don’t just talk about writing.

But, I hear you cry, I don’t have the time. I work all day and have to spend time with my family in the evening. Yep, so did I before I was able to quit my day job (although my family still force me to spend time with them). The truth is if you want it hard enough, you’ll make the time. You’ll give up watching some TV, going to the pub, or you’ll get up earlier than everyone else. You could write a measly 250 words a day in your lunch hour (just half the length of this post) and, at the end of a year, you’d have a 90,000 word novel in your hands. The question is, do you want it enough to sit down and do it? There’s a word for writers who do: published.

It’s a tough master, this writing bug.

Tommy

It may sound glaringly obvious, but I’ve known so many writers who have an idea for a book and start to pitch it before they’re even at the end of chapter one. They figure that, as it can take so long to hear back from agents, they have plenty of time to write the thing. This attitude, however, can easily backfire.

What if your query letter for child-becomes-robot novel lands on an agents desk just as she’s getting off the ‘phone with Mr Big Publisher who’s been saying that what he really wants is a book about an android that used to be a small boy? Bingo – the agent is going to want to read your book now! If it’s not ready, you’ve wasted both her time and your own. And you can bet you won’t get another chance at that agency.

Even more likely is that your book will change as you write it. Characters will develop, plot twists will happen and, on occasion, the finished book will look nothing like the idea you started with. If you’ve already pitched the book as one thing and it’s become another – you simply can’t send it out.

Years ago, when the movie Ace Ventura: Pet Detective first came out, I was carrying around a vague idea for a comedy screenplay set in a theme park. As soon as I saw Jim Carrey on the big screen it hit me – this story would be perfect for someone with his talents! So, I wrote a query letter and sent it to his agent in Hollywood thinking, at best, I’d end up with a pretty fancy rejection to show around. It didn’t happen like that.

Three nights later – just three – the ‘phone rang. It was Jim Carrey’s agent. Jim liked the idea and wanted to read the script. Sh*t! I stalled for time, saying it was going through another draft at the moment and I could send it over in two weeks’ time. Then I got off the ‘phone and I wrote. I wrote and wrote like my life depended on it, trying to stick to my original pitch – the one Jim Carrey liked, no less – and complete a feature length comedy screenplay in two weeks. The result was a mess and, as you can imagine, I never heard back. Lesson learned.

So, finish the thing before you query. Yes, it’s hard. Yes, it takes time. But it will be worth it.