30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 26 – you should write the book that's in your heart
An interesting thing happened to me after I had written two books. I decided to try to be a bit more strategic.
My first two books were written on nothing more than instinct and an interest in an idea or theme (for example, The Rival was based around my own experiences of losing my job while pregnant, and Unfollow Me was something I wrote because I had become completely fascinated with mummy vloggers when I was pregnant).
But when it came to book three, The Perfect Father, I decided I wanted to write a book with a massive twist in the middle.
That was the entire basis of my ‘idea’.
Initially I thought it would be really cool if you read the first half of the book thinking that the stay-at-home parent, Robin, was the mother, but then in the middle you discovered that Robin was actually a man, and the child’s father.
I’d written a short story with this exact twist at the end that had gone down well, so I thought I might try to expand it into a novel.
But sustaining that kind of trickery over an entire novel was really hard.
It basically meant I couldn’t use pronouns to refer to that character at all, or the game would be up.
So I ditched that, and went in another direction (and in the end this book took forever to write and was really really hard. I still find it ironic that to date it’s my most successful!)
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When it came to book 4, I’d noticed there was a big trend for locked room mysteries, and decided I’d write one of my own based around my USP in the suspense genre - which by then was pretty established as ‘modern-day parenting’.
The Sanctuary is set at a pre-natal yoga retreat, where a group of women with secrets go off to the Devon countryside and everything goes wrong.
And then, for my most recent suspense, The Wrong Mother, I decided to explore the idea of co-parenting agencies, where men and women who want to have children, but don’t necessarily want to be in a relationship, get together to raise a child.
As you can see, this was also a strategic choice as it fitted in well with the ‘brand’ that my publishers and I had created for myself.
But before I wrote The Wrong Mother, I had an idea for another book. It was completely different from all my other books, and was really something I felt called to write.
I knew it wouldn’t fit in with the brand I had been building but I had a break in my schedule so I decided to give it a go, and wrote the first draft in six weeks.
I genuinely didn’t have any intention of getting it published. There was nothing strategic about writing that book at all.
And yet, when it was written I thought it was actually OK. So I sent it to my agent to see what she thought.
If you’ve followed me for a while you’ll know how this story ends… it sold in the UK in a week and then was pre-empted by a major publisher in America, and then several foreign publishers and then it was optioned by a major Hollywood film studio.
Writing that book changed my life.
The One That Got Away means the world to me. I am so proud of it, not just because it seemed to strike a chord with publishers, but also because it was the book that was in my heart.
It contains more of me than any of my other novels, and although I appreciate it’s not for everyone (it has some seriously heavy topics in it), I still consider it my ‘best’ book.
This was a huge lesson to me. I think there’s a place for being strategic with your writing, considering the market, and building a brand, and staying consistent with your books so that readers who become fans know what to expect from you.
But I think it’s also important to listen to your heart from time to time, and if there’s a book you feel compelled to write, then you should write it.
Perhaps it’s down to authenticity - if a book is very personal to the author, it’s going to be an authentic read, and I think this means it resonates with readers more strongly.
So if there’s a book that you REALLY want to write, then I honestly think you should go for it. Even if it feels completely random and like a stupid idea.
Nothing in this industry is guaranteed anyway and if the idea is calling to you strongly, you’re probably going to really enjoy writing it, which is really all we can hope for.
And you just never know where it might lead you…
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Can I write the book you want to write? Yours sound pretty good : )