Blog

This is just a collection of views, musings and general ramblings that may be of interest (although, that's up to you to judge).

If you need to hear about anything in particular, I'm open to offers.

Why Do We Write?

What prompts us to write a novel? It's a question that's no doubt been asked of anyone who's committed enough (or stupid enough) to spend hours of their time producing something that may not be read by many. Countless hours locked away in isolation, slaving away at a hot keyboard with little encouragement save the vain hope that a best seller may be produced, or even something that's critically acclaimed. We're all optimists at times, I suppose.

Some people write because they want fame and fortune, for acclaim and awards, which rarely happen. The realists among us do it because we want to write. Simp!e as that. Any financial reward is an unexpected bonus.

The outcome for me is a debut novel, "The Itch That Couldn't Be Scratched", available on Amazon and elsewhere from 1 March. It's a tale of obsession, of one man's quest for justice for a woman he never knew.

18 March
2024

Write What We Know

The general advice for any inexperienced author is to write about what they know. Which is okay if we know a lot but otherwise can be a challenge.

In my case, my debut novel is loosely, very loosely, based on my own life and surroundings. Or at least it started that way and then diverged a lot. It had to because I don't lead the most interesting of lives.

I guess what all authors need to do is be observant of everything that happens around them. Take notes, record events and build up a store of experiences. Treat nothing as too trivial because you never know.

30 March 2024

The Process of Writing

There are plenty creative writing courses that teach us how we should go about things. I've never done one.

I'm thinking the proper way to do it is start with an idea, then create a plot timeline and a bunch of characters. Once that's done, the story can be written, starting at the beginning and working through in sequence to the end.

I didn't do any of that, other than starting with an idea. I wrote the first chapter followed by the last one, then filled in the middle in no particular sequence. I then had to be sure that everything worked properly.

I guess there's no real right or wrong way. It's really whatever works for you.

12 April 2024

Getting Published

24 April 2024

Writing a novel is the easy part. Getting published as a new author is much more difficult.

Literary agents and publishers don't usually won't to take a risk with unknown authors. So they routinely reject manuscripts, saying only they're 'not for them' or something equally unhelpful.

Steven King and JK Rowling were rejected several times so that gives us hope to keep trying. I did and the result is my first novel, "The Itch That Couldn't Be Scratched", available on Amazon and elsewhere.

Does Anyone Want My Book?

9 August 2024

Getting a book published is very difficult for a new author but, once that's achieved, the hard work starts. Without some sort of serious marketing effort, the book will simply sink into oblivion with no or minimal sales.

The reason for this is simply that there's so much competition out there, particularly from established authors. Amazon is by far the biggest market for books and one estimate has at least 32 million books on there with around 7,500 Kindle titles alone added every day. I have no idea whether these numbers are correct but they suggest a huge number of competitors.

My debut novel, "The Itch That Couldn't Be Scratched", a tale of obsession and one man's quest for justice, is available on Amazon and elsewhere. My publisher isn’t doing much to promote it so it’s up to me to put some effort in to try to give it any chance of success. Wish me luck!

Jeff Senior