So today I was determined to sit at my desk and write, no matter what. But with the distraction of children coming in and out every few minutes I decided I’d had enough. This morning I moved a small chest of drawers out of my bedroom and then moved my desk and chair into the space, just beside the window. Then I sat down. It didn’t feel quite right so I moved my desk again, bang in front of the window. A little bird – a starling I think, sharp beak, sparkling black eyes – settled on my window sill, making me smile.

And the other great thing about working upstairs is the internet doesn’t work up there. So I’m not tempted onto Facebook or any of my favourite blogs or websites. I don’t spend ages ‘researching’ a small fact that I could easily look up later and not in the middle of my precious writing time.

So that’s where I wrote today, in my bedroom, 2,382 words of my new book, The Shoestring Club. And it felt good. I’ve been having trouble getting into this one as the Amy Green books are so fresh and alive in my head after just writing two in a row, but today the words just flew. So not only did I find a new, quiet writing space, I also found enough head space and a new impetus to empty my thoughts and ideas onto the page.

Maybe a move will also work for you. Is there a corner somewhere in the house that might take a small desk? Have you ever tried writing in the car – believe me, with a laptop, it’s quite do-able! I’ve been that soldier many a time when my children are having an extra noisy day but I still need to be around.

Writing is a funny old thing, sometimes it just takes something as simple as moving to get the creative juices flowing again.

Yours in writing,

Sarah X

60 Seconds with……….Sarah Webb

1. What was the last book you read?
The Help by Kathryn Stockett, about the world of black maids and the families that hire them. Set in Mississippi in the 1960s, it has some fantastic characters and knock out scenes. I loved it and would highly recommend it.

2. What kinds of books do you most enjoy reading?
I read all kinds of books, including books for children and teenagers, which often have brilliant characters and cracking plots. For example I’m off on holidays at the end of this week and I’ve packed the following: So Much to Tell by Valerie Grove, the biography of Kaye Webb, ex-editor of Puffin Books she was amazing and had such an impact on children’s publishing; The Private Lives of Pippa Lee by Rebecca Miller – as I’ve heard great things about it; Joseph O’Connor’s Ghost Light – he writes beautifully; The Love Verb by Jane Green – she’s one of the best popular fiction writers around when she’s on form; Rules for a Perfect Life by Niamh Greene – great Irish popular fiction; Moneyball by Michael Lewis, a book about baseball and the legendary Oakland A’s – I love good sports books!; Personally I Blame My Fairy Godmother by Claudia Carroll and No Ordinary Love by Anita Notaro – more great Irish popular fiction; The Radleys by Matt Haig – zingy crossover vampire book with a difference; and finally Stories from the Queen of Teen Award – stories from last year’s shortlisted authors, as I’ve been shortlisted this year. Oh and also the proofs of John Boyne and David Almonds’ new children’s novels. Phew! Will I get through them all – just watch me!

3. What was your favourite book as a child?
As a child and now my favourite book is Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. It’s funny, searingly honest and it makes me smile. I read it every year. I also love Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. I still read a lot of children’s books as they are so darned good!

4. What author past or present most inspires you?
Judy Blume first off for changing teen girl’s fiction forever. Periods, bras, divorce, peer pressure, bullying – it’s all in there – she was the Jackie Wilson of her day and is still writing for children now, well into her seventies. And also Marian Keyes for being so honest in her books and also so honest in speaking about her personal life. Her recent blog entries on her ‘black dog’ depression have been so moving and I know have made a difference to other people who have exprienced similar feelings, myself included.

5. How did you get into writing? Was writing something you always wanted to do?
I used to fill notebooks full of stories from about age 10, and a kept daily diary from 13. I think a lot of writers try to make sense of the world by writing about it from a pretty early age. Plus I’ve always been a huge reader. I used to read while walking home from school and bumped into many lamp posts and tripped over many dog leads in my day! I think most big readers try writing at some stage.
I wrote my first book, a children’s cookery book, as a single mum working in Waterstone’s Bookshop on Dawson Street. To be honest, I needed the money. I’d been writing articles and reviews for various papers and magazines and I guess I saw a book as the next logical step. It was called Kids Can Cook.
My first adult novel, Three Times a Lady, was published in 2000. That was directly inspired by Maeve Binchy, Patricia Scanlan, Sheila O’Flanagan, Cathy Kelly, and Marian Keyes – all trail blazers in their own way.

6. If you could have written any book throughout history which would you pick?
Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret. It’s inspired. And The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler, another brilliant book. I’m sure I’m supposed to say something high brow like Ulysses, but that’s just not me. For me, in novels, the character is the thing. To fall in love with a book, I have to love the characters.

7. What do you do to unwind?
Read! Walk the pier in Dun Laoghaire. Chat to friends. Watch Grey’s Anatomy (the only telly programme I watch) or a DVD.

8. If you had to choose a favourite holiday memory, what would it be?

9. Do you have a guilty pleasure? If so, what is it?

Sport movies or films with any kind of sport in them – it’s true. I don’t watch sport on the television, ever, but I love films like Field of Dreams, Jerry Maguire, and Bend it Like Beckham.
10. What super power would you most like to have?

11. If you could have three wishes come true, what would you wish for?

12. When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A ballerina. I never dared dream of being a writer. I think I wanted it too much to even dream about it for fear of jinxing things.

13. What famous person dead/alive would you most like to meet and why?
Maurice Sendak, because he has produced some truly amazing books and I have a feeling he’s just a big kid at heart!

14. What three words would describe you best?

15. Do you have a facebook or twitter account?
Yes, I like Facebook very much. It’s a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, and it also makes it nice and easy for readers to pop in and just say ‘hi’. I love connecting with readers. I don’t Twitter. I waste enough time on Facebook.

16. Who would you most like to write your biography?
Martina Devlin, novelist and columnist. Although she probably knows me a little too well for my liking!

17. What three items could you not live without?
Books, my family, my laptop. Oops, sorry, that should of course read – my family, books, my laptop.

Top 10 Villains

1/ The Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The mere thought of that crooked nose and tall black hat makes me shiver. Scary, scary, scary!

2/ Wicked Witch of the West – Wizard of Oz. Another fantastically over the top villain, green faced this time and one of my favourite films of all time. ‘I’ll get you my pretty, and your little dog too.’ Classic stuff!

3/ Jardis, the White Witch from the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis who has turned Narnia into ‘endless winter’. Nasty woman who is killed by Aslan, the lion – hurrah!

4/ Annie Wilkes from Stephen King’s book, Misery. Nothing scarier than a character that appears friendly and normal but turns out to be an obsessed ‘number one fan’ with malefic intent. Wonderfully played by Kathy Bates in the film.

5/ All the baddies in the Skulduggery Pleasant books by Derek Landy. There are too many brilliant named villains to choose from: the Faceless Ones, Serpine, Vaurien Scapegrace, Baron Vengeous. Fantastic fantasy-horror books, fantastic villains.

6/ Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding – he caused untold hurt and embarrassment to Bridget and for that alone and for dis-services to girlkind, he deserves to be on this list! He was of course played by Hugh Grant in the film.

7/ The Joker – my favourite comic book villain. Jack Nicholson is pretty great in the film version too. Such a creepy smile.

8/ The Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And the Wicked Fairy in Sleeping Beauty. Horrid women, the both of them! I was terrified of them as a child listening to the fairy tales and watching the Disney movies.

9/ Lord Voldemort from J K Rowling’s uber fantastic Harry Potter books, arch enemy of Harry Potter and all round evil guy.

10/ And finally Nan Mahon from Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy. Nan betrays her best friend, Benny, stealing her boyfriend, Jack, and lying and cheating her way into his affections. She’s a nasty piece of work but the truth comes out, Nan apologises to everyone (although I’ve never felt she really means it), and Jack wins back Benny’s heart in the end. Aah, happy ending and one of my favourite books.

And speaking of fab – thanks to all your votes, I’ve also been shortlisted for the Queen of Teen Award, along with two of my very favourite authors, Jackie Wilson and Cathy Cassidy – what an honour. Plus I’ll get to meet them both again, along with some other great authors, on 10th Sept at the awards ‘do’. I can’t wait. More on the awards soon.

But if you have a second, do vote for me (again!) on their website I’d be most grateful: http://www.queenofteen.co.uk/vote.html

I have lots to say on smashing openings – but it’s now 11.30pm and I have online grocery shopping to do – yawn – so it will have to wait.

Yours in writing,

SarahX

I’ve just finished doing a ‘light Americanisation/Americanization’ of my second Amy Green book and I was fascinated by the differences between the meaning of some Irish-English words and American-English words.

For example American readers have no idea what a ‘gooseberry’ is, ie ‘being a gooseberry’. They don’t have en suites – they have just plain old bathrooms. I guess in America en suites are probably the norm in hotel rooms and houses! And there were loads of other examples.

But there were loads of instances when the meaning of what I was trying to say was lost because – well, because it’s just the way I say it. And it would have been useful for my American editor to have some sort of heads up on these things as they often repeat in my writing.

Hence for the next book I’m going to type up a style sheet for her, a list of all the funny bits and pieces, strange spellings, place names etc – anything I think might be useful in working out what I’m trying to say on paper! Because these are things that are carrying on from book to book if you are writing a series.

You might like to try it too. It’s particularly useful for things like names that are spelt differently to American names – it means the editor won’t have to keep checking on the spelling for each book. In my case, the magazine Clover writes for is called The Gloss, but in the American book they call it the (small t) Gloss. It’s a small detail but it will make life easier for everyone next time around if I jot it down right now on my style sheet.

Anything that makes life easier for my editor and for me makes sense!

See the posting at Book Ends Literary Agency for more on this subject: http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2010/06/style-sheet.html

Let me make it clear. A style sheet is different from a series bible. A style sheet does not include the nitty-gritty details of your world or your characters. It’s for editing purposes. A style sheet should include spellings of names or stylistic changes you’ve made to the spelling of other common words. For example, if you’ve decided that “Prom” is capitalized throughout your book, that would be something you would include on the style sheet. “Prom” is not technically a proper noun.

Yours in writing,

Sarah X

Line edits come after the structural edit (sometimes there can be more than one of these if the editor has encountered lots of things they’d like to see changed or worked through) and accompanying author’s re-write. It’s when the editor (or sometimes a different editor) goes through each line of the book, making notes and suggesting changes; some small, like changing a word or adding a line, some bigger, like moving a scene, or checking a character’s motivation rings true.

It’s a vital part of your book’s progression from manuscript to finished bound book, and it’s important to put everything you can into it. By the end of the editing process you should a/ know every chapter practically off by heart and b/ be ready to let your work go, knowing you’ve done all you can to make it the best book possible.

And yes, you can get more than a little sick of your own book by the end of things, that’s kind of normal. It drives you on to write the next book and start the whole process all over again. Like childbirth, you forget the hard bits and keep writing regardless.

There are several issues that are reoccurring throughout my Amy Green book, which is now in its fifth draft. The main one is my ‘beats’ or lack of. ‘Beats’ are (and I’m quoting a book on editing here by Renni Browne and Dave King) bits of action interspersed through a scene, such as a character walking to a window or removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes – the literary equivalent of what is know as theatre as ‘stage business’.’

So there you have it – ‘beats’. Bits that spice up the dialogue, and often, make sense of what’s happening when characters are talking.

My problem – this is book 3 in the series. I now know my characters so well that the action unfolds right in front of my eyes. But I have to keep remembering that my readers don’t know my characters the way I do. They may need some nudges in the right direction. They won’t know Amy is staring at her feet and mumbling unless I say or show she is.

But too many ‘beats’ and the dialogue starts to sound stilted and unnatural. It’s a difficult balance.

‘Beats’ – good word, isn’t it? Better get back to the line edit – it won’t wait!

Yours in writing,

Sarah X

In yesterday’s Irish Times, Frank McNally wrote about Michael Collins, the Limerick writer who now lives in America. I met Michael two years ago at the West Cork Literary Festival and he’s a most interesting man to talk to.

Anyway, according to Frank, Michael writes between 3am – AM! – and 6 am, then he teaches all day, writes again between 4pm and 6pm, and sometimes between 9pm and 11pm. Holy moly! Superman writing stamina that. Oh and he also runs ultra-marathons. And yes, the man really does exist.

But this got me thinking about writing mothers and their stamina. When Amy was a small baby I used to write while feeding her, scribbling in my notebook over her little prone body. And I’m by no means the only mum who has written a book while their child was tiny.

Most writing mums don’t really get much in the way of maternity leave. With Jago, my third, I gave myself a much longer break from writing, but it was still only a few months before I was itching to (and needed to financially) get back to my desk. I know, I know, it’s a disease!

Ireland has produced an explosion of strong, intelligent, creative, witty, highly professional writers over the last fifteen years, women who are respected and loved all over the world. We have authors like Anne Enright and Claire Kilroy flying the flag for literary fiction; in the popular fiction corner, the great Maeve Binchy, and the other popular fiction giants, Marian Keyes, Sheila O’Flanagan, Cathy Kelly, Patricia Scanlan, and more recently Cecelia Ahern; Alex Barclay and Arlene Hunt heading up the crime team. And Galway based Kate Thompson has won more children’s literature awards than I can remember. And now, and now, our first Children’s Laureate is a woman – the wonderful Siobhan Parkinson.

Let’s hear it for the girls!

Last time I counted there are around twenty-five Irish women writers making a living from writing fiction. If you include children’s writers, illustrators and non fiction writers, I’m sure there are at least a dozen more. So there close to forty Irish women writers chipping away, day after day, creating, creating, creating.

Isn’t that something to celebrate? I’m proud to be part of the tribe.

McNally said in hsi piece ‘Any writer who starts work at 3am every day deserves some respect.’ Hear, hear. But please also raise a glass to the writing mums: the writing and minding toddlers at the same time women; the mothering by day, writing by night women; the juggling school runs, book launches and what’s-in-your-handbag-interview women; the ones desperately trying to keep their plot running in their head while sitting in the hospital waiting room with a teenager with a broken finger women (ie me!) so they can drop the teenager back to school with a strapped up finger and get back to work; the ones who wrote whole books while sitting outside the school waiting for their kids. Here’s to me and you, ladies!

Yours in writing,

Sarah X

I digress – yes, again! I know, I know, I’m always digressing!

Back to my point. In order to keep track of the ages, physical characteristics, birthdays, clothes, hair, eyes, dancing ability, musical tastes, name of ex-girlfriends/bands/schools and a myriad of other details I need to remember which is only growing and growing with every book, I have a big spiral notebook in which I jot down these things. I refer to if I get a bit confused/lost/freaked out.

And it’s proved invaluable. Each character has their own page, or in the main characters’ cases, pages. Even very minor characters are covered. And I have sticky notes attached to the top of pages with some of the characters’ names on them. It’s all messy, messy but it works.

For example on Mills’s page I have:

Mills Starr, age 13
Dog – Simba (Jeepers, quite honestly I’d forgotten I’d given the Starrs a dog – darn it!)
Claire – Mills’s big sis – in Perm at a ballet school
Mills – great cook
Long dark brown hair she wears in a ponytail mostly
Classic dresser – quite safe
Good with engines – can jump start cars (with leads I mean, not stealing them – she’d never, ever do something like that.), check oil and water etc
Dad – Allan – age 56 – mad into model boats and airfix – bit of a geek (Rex hasn’t actually appeared in any books but he has been referenced), Titanic nut
Mum – Sue Starr – 51 – Cath Kidson addict and loves baking
Mills’s birthday – Valentine’s Day
Says ‘Holy Moly’ a lot
Her real name is Amelia
Salutes at magpies and is scared of crossed sticks
Into star signs
Lives in 21 Sycamore Park
Hiccups in her sleep
Fave food – choc brownies
Fave colour – pink
Collects stones from the beaches she’s visited
In 2O, Mr Olen’s class
This list goes on and on and on and on . . .

I won’t bore you with any more – but you get the idea. You should see the pages for Amy and Clover if you think Mills’s is looking long!

As well as being useful, it’s also fun. I only wish I could draw so I could sketch my characters too. I do envy the author/illustrators.

Anyway yesterday I found out that what I’ve been doing – my notebook of characters – is called a ‘series bible’. Great name, eh!

So folks, how’s your own series bible coming along? Start one now before you need one – it will make your writing life a whole lot easier, believe me.

Yours in writing,

Sarah X

What really struck a cord with me was this. He said if you give him two students, one a brilliant writer, the other a pretty good writer with a heap of stamina, he’d put his money on the one with stamina making it in the publishing game.

I completely agree with him. Talent alone is worth diddly squat if you’re not prepared to work, HARD. All the time. Even when you’d rather cut off you own arm than write. Even when you’re tired, sick, bored, feel sad/grumpy/down-hearted. When you’d far rather watch Grey’s Anatomy, drink tea, talk to your friends on the phone, play with the internet. You just have to get on with it.

Last night I was at the launch of Claudia Carroll’s new book: Personally, I Blame My Fairy Godmother. Great title, isn’t it? She has a real gift for quirky titles. Sinead Moriarty – who was also at the launch – and I are very envious. We both struggle with titles sometimes. Although my new adult book: The Shoestring Club, didn’t cause me much grief at all.

Anyway, back to the launch. I met a very lovely journalist who has been writing a book for quite some time. Several years in fact. She’s a few thousand words in and has taken writing workshops to get her motivated. Yet she was at the launch and admitted to watching Grey’s Anatomy and other shows. Did I give her the lecture on sticking her bum to her chair and getting on with it? I did not. If she’s going to finish her book, she will. And no-one, especially me is going to force her to do it if she’s not ready. Will she ever do it? I believe in this case, yes, she will. She’s a great writer, has a quirky sense of humour, and the stamina (from years as a journalist) to do it.

I meet so many people who tell me ‘I could write a book/I’m going to write a book one day when I get time/I’ve written three hundred words of a book (the average popular fiction is 100,000 words!). I always smile at them and say ‘Lovely. Good for you.’ But in my head I always hear Maeve Binchy’s immortal words ‘But you haven’t written one, have you?’

You have to make the time to write. Question is, do you really, really want to?

Yours in writing,

SarahX

This morning I was up a ladder with a sweeping brush, attacking age-old cobwebs that have happily lived on our wooden ceiling for years. But today it bothered me.
OK, that’s a lie. Today I was looking for something to do that didn’t involve sitting down at my desk.

It hasn’t been a great week writing-wise. I squeezed out 500 words on Monday; Tuesday was bit more successful, but yesterday I gave up altogether and spent the day doing other things.

And I had a great time – chatted to Ryan Tubridy on his radio show live from the Dead Zoo (opening again today – hurrah!), read the new Patrick Ness (best yet – Monsters of Men – amazingly fab book) in bed in the afternoon, met some book friends in the evening for an early dinner.

And then. AND THEN – went to see Rufus Wainwright in the Grand Canal Theatre. Quite the showman. Very strange first half – Rufus in a theatrical coat with feather ruff and 17 foot train, very jaunty and touching second half, complete with lots of stories and asides. What a sweet, funny, talented man he is.

Anyway, today I have my writing mojo back and after this quick blog I will get straight to it.

But here’s the thing – sometimes you can’t force the writing. If you’re exhausted, if your spirits are low, if there’s too much going on in your life to concentrate you just have to take some time out and replenish your writing soul. But take too much time off and it’s hard to get back in the writing saddle.

So if you haven’t been writing in a while, stop chasing spiders up ladders and get to it.

Back to your desks, people.

Yours in writing,

SarahX

PS Jodi Picoult gets up at 5.30 every morning, walks for 3 miles, sends her kids off to school and then writes until they get home. But I bet she has off days just like the rest of us!