![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() That is why you need to wait until the right story comes along. Soon afterwards, I travelled to Italy with my choir and visited a place that was truly inspirational, and suddenly Levi’s Gift was born.Ī blank piece of paper staring up at you can be a daunting thing. I tinkered around in my spare time but waited, knowing something would hit eventually. None of them made me want to stop what I was doing immediately to get the story down on paper, which was how I had felt about The Secret Son. I had a few ideas – some good ones, even if I say so myself! But none about which I was really passionate. And above anything else, that is why it was a success.īefore I ever got a book deal, I had finished The Secret Son and was waiting for inspiration to hit for another book. It demanded to be written more than any of the other ideas I had for novels. I’d write a bit, then put it aside when life got busy, but I always came back to it. Instead of just leaving money in an unexpected way, what if it revealed a secret, one that threatened to pull the family apart? I began to conceive of a will that went one step further than the cases I was learning about. While I should have been frantically transcribing the details for my upcoming exams, my mind started to wander. I was genuinely shocked at the number of cases that come before the Irish courts where families were fighting over wills. I came up with the idea for my first book The Secret Son while I was sitting in a lecture on wills and probate law. That is the crux of it, and what you need to find. ![]() No child asks to be read a “book” or a “novel”. Why waste your time writing well, if you’re not saying anything.Īs often is the way, kids put it best. Be yourself, and tell a story that means something to you.Įven literary novels, which traditionally focus more on pros and quality of storytelling than the story itself, must at their core have something worth telling. Of course, other authors can inspire you and you might unconsciously pick up a particular style, but never actively try to copy another writer – again, it will be spotted immediately as nothing but a copy. The only way to do that is to tell a story about which you are passionate, not because you think “it will sell.” Just like in a job interview, people in the industry can spot a fake a mile away.ĭon’t try to write like someone else, especially another famous writer. If you want to convince the agents and publishers to back you, you’ll need to reach them on a personal level. Move them, whether it be with an action packed thrilled or an emotional love story. What you are trying to do with your story, if you are a real writer, is touch people. They are looking for something authentic. They have every style and genre at their fingertips. Your job is to present them with something they can relate to. And please, please, please don’t pick a story or a genre because you think ‘it will sell.’ That is your agents and publishers job. But before you get there, focus on what agents and publishers are really looking for – a real, authentic story, told well. Those are the finishing touches – the details to polish once the novel is complete. Those all help – but if you’re starting to write a novel, I wouldn’t worry too much about them. There are many theories on how to write a novel that agents and publishers will eat up. And not just that – you’ve decided that you want to try to get published. National Emerging Writer Programme Overview. ![]()
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