Tuesday 4 June 2013

So what's it like having your first novel published? people ask. Well (as Chris Hayes would say), it's a little like walking around with no trousers on. You're not sure whether anybody will notice, and if they do, whether they're going to be impressed, burst into laughter, or ask why it hangs a little to the left.

It's been rejected seventeen times, rescued once (thank you Nelleke - once is all it took),  relieved of thirty thousand words (that's a good thing, really it is), rewritten half a dozen times, and sharpened by an editor who I thought might have better things to do with her time than fiddle about with the dabblings of first-time authors.

How do you write a book? Stamina. If I'd never ridden a few Argus tours or run a few Two Oceans (okay, just the half, but over the years they add up to a full one), I'd never have got there. My advice to other wannabe authors: plan, plan, plan. And then put one foot in front of the other until you hit the finish line.