Persistence and Adaptation

The long journey from evening class to a two-book deal

Jane Austen wouldn’t have produced such a clunky title. But what if she had? Would she have had honest, supportive writing friends, or a friendly editor to nudge her away from Persistence and Adaptation and in the direction of Sense and Sensibility, let’s say, or Pride and Prejudice? 

‘Persist and adapt’ is my recipe for success as a writer. In one sense it’s an obvious approach: anyone who wants to improve has to keep practising and learning. But neither is easy – as a writer you have to be prepared for endless rejection, often without any explanation. And, while reeling from all those rejections, you have to find ways to improve your skill as a writer until that happy day arrives when you get that longed-for book deal. It has taken me twenty years. 

It began with a creative writing evening class, followed by a one week course at Ty Newydd, the writing centre in North Wales and a couple of Arvon courses. Those led to a short story which was shortlisted in the Fish Short Story competition and my first publication. It also led to me finding an agent for my first novel. I was on my way! 

Except I wasn’t. 

When I attended a week-long course run by the American short story writer and novelist David Means he spoke about having three unpublished novels on the shelf before he wrote the first that was good enough. ‘That won’t happen to me,’ I thought. Hubris being what it is, that is exactly what happened. I took six months unpaid leave from my job to finish the two novels I was working on. Mercifully neither was picked up when they went out on submission (they were terrible). But did I give up? Well yes, sort of. I tried to reconcile myself to never realising my dream of becoming a published novelist. But I couldn’t quite stop. That was in part because I love to write but also because I was fortunate in having become part of a superb group of writing friends; ten brilliant, encouraging, honest and perceptive poets and novelists who offer each other feedback and encouragement on our various writing projects. 

In 2014 one of my short stories was runner up in the Bridport Prize and that spurred me on to try to find an agent for novel three. I got an offer of representation, although my novel wasn’t finished. (Note: a mistake – only seek an agent when you have a novel that is both complete and as good as you can make it). In 2015 I did a course with Curtis Brown Creative which helped me with plotting and, just as importantly, forming another invaluable group of writing buddies. In the same year another of my short stories won the Manchester Fiction Prize.

That felt very significant – not least because the £10,000 paid for me to take two years of unpaid leave from my job (together with selling the house – I was beginning to take matters seriously!). Novel three went out on submission and came close. The dozen or so editors who gave feedback each said much the same thing: the story and the writing were great, but somehow the characters felt emotionally unengaging. 

I needed to adapt. 

One of my writing friends recommended a mentor, the novelist Liz Jensen. The wonderful Liz taught me the lesson that I most needed to learn: it isn’t enough to write beautiful sentences and craft an absorbing plot. Every character must have a beating heart and make the reader understand its rhythm.

A year on and I had novel number four, but this time I knew it was likely to be my last throw of the dice. It had to be polished and truly ready. That brought me to the Writers and Artists Advanced Fiction Writing course with Bill Ryan. In addition to useful tips and advice from Bill, I had encouraging feedback from the other course members and a very useful steer towards the right agent for my novel. 

David Headley signed me up and sold my novel on a dream two book pre-empt to Transworld a week later. The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley, set-in eighteenth-century London and Constantinople and filled with parrots, clocks, automata, spies, eccentric aunts and love both unrequited and requited will be published by Doubleday in Spring 2022.  

I’m not sure I’d advise anyone to follow my approach – it’s been a little slow. But I would recommend writing courses, competitions, finding a group of supportive, honest writing friends and a mentor. And, most important of all, persistence!