W2 – The Life of a writer

Good morning all,

The world woke up a little sadder yesterday, with the news of David Bowies death. So many shared memories, through multiple generations, of a talented artist, who was very, very cool. David Bowie was one of the living legends that we were all fascinated with. I think the world will be a little duller without his bright genius.

Right, lets get week 2 kicked off in my new series about following the life of a writer.

Week 1 here.

Well my big news is that yesterday, I finished my third revision edits of Book 4 (title to be announced).

It’s been tricky to get these done, only because we’ve had such a run of ill health in the house with the children. And when they are at home, needing mummy cuddles, writing has to take a back seat.

For this stage of revisions, when I’m really drilling down into scenes, I can’t just dip in and out of the story either. I need to get into the heads of the characters and work consistently with as few breaks as possible. So at the weekend, Rog took the kids off for long walks. I worked both before the kids woke up, after they went to bed, while they watched TV, while they ate, any time I could, I had escaped to the office. I felt like I really connected with Olly, Mae, Evie, Jamie and Pops again and that’s why I cried so much! Yes, total boohoo cry on a few occasions, for certain scenes. The characters become real to me, when I finish their story, when it reaches the right conclusion, it’s an emotional punch!

I’ve been working with a new editor too, as I’ve switched houses in Harper Collins. I won’t lie, I was a little apprehensive. But I needn’t have worried, because it was a joyful experience. Emily pushed me hard with this story and as a result I have a book that I am so proud of. Now I need to wait and hopefully the readers agree!

So what else is on this week?

Well, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m one of the curators of Focal Wexford Literary Festival. We had a meeting last night about our Festival  2016. Lots to do, as it’s time to start booking speakers and thats one of my roles.

Also, this week I need to decide what Book 5 is going to be. I’ll need to start writing it pretty much immediately, as it’s due with Harper Collins end June. First of all I need to flesh out two ideas I’m torn between, work on characters and then see which one sings the most to me. At the moment, one is definitely making the most noise, so I have a sneaking suspicion I know which it will be.

And last but not least, I have to finish two articles that I didn’t get completed from last week that are ridiculously overdue and get a couple of pitches to some newspaper editors.

Oh thats not last at all, because of course I need to do some promo work on  my latest book, Every Time A Bell Rings.  With that in mind, if you fancy reading it, here’s a link and I’d love if you took a peek, check out the reviews, read an excerpt. I’m thrilled that as of today, I now have 60 reviews on AmazonUK. And 50 of those are 5star!

http://lrd.to/EveryTimeABellRingseBook

Chat soon, if you are writing yourself, may the force be with you,

Carmel x

 

 

 

 

One Comment

  1. Pingback: W4 – Life of a Writer | Carmel Harrington Author

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