The Trials Of A Crime Writer: Has This Been Done Before?
Every writer, no matter whether they are published or not, is looking for the original idea. The one thing that hasn't been done before. A lot of the books I've read on the subject say that there simply aren't any original ideas anymore. They've all been used in one way or another, and that you just have to look at how to turn your unoriginal plot into something with a twist. I don't necessarily agree that there are no more original ideas, after all, history has changed the way things in the world work, and with all that history, there has to have been new things happening. The other bit that bugs me is that every single person is different, is unique and therefore the majority of us don't all act the same when placed in the exact same circumstances. I think that means that there are plenty of ways to turn a previously used plot into something original, or to think up something completely off the wall that hasn't been done before.
Of course though, this is more about my trials as a crime writer, and therefore what I'm mostly talking about is the central plot or theme that runs through each crime novel. When you're thinking up ways for people to break the law, the motives can be as unique as you want, but sometimes the crimes tend to repeat themselves. It's a fact of life that people kill each other in many different ways, but also that most police officers don't deal with serial killers, nor do they deal with unique crimes every single day. The motive may be something they haven't heard before, but the crime itself is usually the same no matter how different you try to make it.
Having said that, it doesn't stop me from trying to make sure that the motives behind each central crime - whether they be a serial rapist, murderer or petty thief - all have their own unique twist on them. Sometimes you can't do that because there are rarely convoluted reasons for why someone stole drugs from a drug dealer and then got murdered for it. As a crime writer, you have to be aware that by not repeating the crimes, by trying to make them all different and unique, you've already started to stretch the boundaries of what is and isn't believable. So while it's a good idea to not have every victim act, respond and/or die in the same way, there are patterns to crime and if you want your book to hold a reader's interest, you have to be sure that you follow some of the laws of the world.
Yet when I sit and write my chapter notes before I start a book, or read through what I think makes a good crime to talk about, I still try to make each case somewhat different. It's a difficult trap to avoid, but at the same time it's something you have to be flexible with. Outside of the pages of crime novels and the Hollywood movies, you have to realise that the majority of police officers will never really deal with a serial killer. They make for good fiction, but are not as common as fiction and the media would love to make out. That said, they are a great way to tell a story and have the characters work towards a common goal. After all, fiction is a way for the unimaginable to happen and although there are unimaginable things done to people by others, sometimes it's nice to believe that the only horrible crimes happen between the pages of books, where you can see that justice prevails and all ends well (hopefully!)
Usually I deal with multiple cases when writing a DYING THOUGHTS book, with Tara helping the police, and there needs to be some level of difficulty in the cases she's called in on. Otherwise it gets to the point where I, and the reader will be asking if her gift is really needed or if the police are just lazy. The joy of fiction is that there is some level of being able to suspend belief. The aim is to not push it so far that it snaps in two. So, as I sit here at 1am, writing a piece about believable and unique crimes, I find myself wondering if it is possible to achieve both those without breaking the believability of the scenes. To be honest, I'm not really sure, but that doesn't mean that I won't continue to try!
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Spoonie Writer: Worrying About Deadlines.
One of the first things I realised after being published, was that I was going to have to do some serious thinking about how I'd handle the stress related to deadlines. It was one of the reasons I ultimatey chose to go with Indie publishing. It allowed me to control when I had a deadline, and it also allowed me to work around anything that popped up health or life-wise that would stop me meeting that deadline. I did a piece about schedules and deadlines, (found here) and in it I talked about how I set my own deadlines - such as the four chapters I do each fortnight, which make up a big part of my writing work.
As a spoonie though, you'll be very aware that stress is bad, and you'll also be aware that your health and ability to do things such as write are unreliable. Sometimes you'll be able to meet your deadlines (self set or not) and other times you'll have to miss them. The trick as an indie author, and as a spoonie, is to allow your deadlines to be as flexible as they can be without them becoming completely meaningless. By now, you'll have read a number of pieces about my life as a spoonie writer, and you'll be aware of the term "pacing". My advice for this piece is similar, so much so that it's become one of my life's mantras.
Stress is bad for anyone in large enough doses. For some people, their everyday stress level is higher and for others it's lower. What you personally can deal with depends on you alone and as a spoonie you will be very aware of knowing your own body and how it reacts to certain triggers, stress being one of them. I know that in all my time being chronically ill - and I mean back towards the time when I just had Brittle Asthma - I have been inherently aware that I do not do stress well, like at all. If I put myself under too much pressure, my lungs goes splat, I wheeze, get chest pains and feel dreadful. Add to that two newer conditions (Fibro and M.E) that also don't go well with stress and you can imagine the trembling ball that is me on the floor in the throes of both an asthma attack, a pain flare and an M.E relapse. Stress for me is not good, and it doesn't even have to be in large doses.
So, when I decided to go down the Indie author route, I was very glad to know that I'd have more control over when I published which book and what chapters were due whenever. As I've been writing for near enough thirteen years, I've learnt that I don't have the ability to deal with pressure mounting from missed deadlines. It's one of the reasons I took my uni courses the way I did, I liked being able to get ahead and then not have to worry if I needed time off. I am the same with writing. By the time this piece is published on my blog, my seventh book will have been released and meanwhile, I recently finished my twelfth book and started writing my thirteenth and fourteenth. I still only plan to release one book a year, unless circumstances change. By doing all of this it means that in a way, I am ahead with my book writing already. It allows me to leave a book to sit for a while after being written before I go back, with fresh eyes and start the editing after process.
Now, that won't work for everyone, and it's not always the best way to do things, but it's what works for me. I know that when I set up my fortnightly to-do list and I add those four chapters, I also add four bonus ones just in case. Sometimes I manage them and other times I don't manage any. It really is all dependant on how my health is and how I'm doing both physically and mentally. Some fortnights I even manage to go further and do more chapters than expected on both the to-do list AND the bonus one! It really does depend on how I'm doing.
Pacing myself has always been a big thing for me since I fell sick with the Fibro and M.E. I was always someone who was organised and I liked things done in a certain way. I'm the same now, but I have learnt to be more flexible. While I would love to be able to write all day, all night, and then all day again, it's just not something I can do (though not many people can!) I need a certain level of sleep and rest breaks. If I push myself too far one day, I pay for it the next and that is not conducive to a schedule or deadline of any kind. So, I try to pace myself, and if you can find something that works for you, then try to keep yourself into some kind of schedule or routine. After all, you are the only one who knows how it feels to be you and the best one to know what your body needs. It may take time away from actual work, but it will also possibly take away time you would have spent in a flare or relapse. You know you best, and you have to work with that!
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This is a Joey approved update. Just to let you all know that there'll be a few blog posts popping up over the next week or so as Joey recovers from surgery. Nothing major, but it will still mean some time away from the blog, writing and all things that keep Joey going. So, do not be alarmed if you only see blog posts on Facebook etc. Your normally scheduled Joey will re-appear soon!
Thanks for your patience
Joey Paul Online
The Trials Of A Crime Writer: When Your Friends Ask You About Murder
It's a running joke between me and some of my friends that if they were ever to be driven to the point of committing a crime, such as murder, then I would be the best person to ask about how to get away with it. It's true that for a lot of crimes, I have done extensive research, I even own the "Forensics for Dummies" book which I have used in the past to help me with plot lines. I also really recommend "The Crime Writer's Guide to Police Practice and Procedure" (link here) if you're in the UK and looking for down to earth and simple explanations of how the police force works. However, while I'd never claim to be an expert, and because the majority of my criminals get caught, I don't actually know the way to commit the perfect crime.
I would imagine that it would take a lot of forethought and planning. While getting ready to write a book about someone who works in a Forensics lab took a lot of research, I don't think I have the commitment, or the stomach for a life of crime. The added knowledge of watching shows such as NCIS or Castle, is that no matter how careful you are there is always going to be something you leave behind which will lead the cops right to your door. I have though, in the past, thought about the validity of so called unsolved crimes. On TV they usually get their guy...eventually, but in real life there are so many "cold cases" which may go unsolved for decades if not longer. So, how does one go about committing the perfect crime?
Well, I have some ideas, but feel the need to make it clear to everyone reading that I'm not planning to ever use these ideas in anything other than fiction. First you'd need to pick a victim who is, in no way connected to you. The first thing police will look for is an identification of the victim and then anyone who may have had a reason to want them dead. So, if you're desperate to commit a murder, then you need to make sure there is no way for the police to join the dots from them to you. The problem is that most people are not the kind of people to just randomly murder someone, which is why the perfect crime is so hard to achieve. Unless you're a psychopath or serial killer, you generally would need some kind of motive before you go around murdering random people. The motive is usually your downfall.
The second thing to remember is that if they can't identify your victim then they can't always connect the dots that will lead them to your door. This means you'll need to get rid of the hands, head and any other distinguishing marks that could leave a hint as to who the victim is. That's grisly work, I've never had to amputate or disfigure a body (and I don't think I ever will have need to) but I imagine that it takes a lot of strength and a strong stomach to deal with all the blood, guts and gore. You also need to cut through bone and remember that the CSI people will be able to tell what kind of instrument was used from the cut marks, so you'll have to be extra careful in your choice of hacking instrument.
After that comes the forensics, the human body sheds DNA through skin cells and hair. All it takes is one stray hair and if you're in the system, you're caught. Hell, even if you're *not* in the system they have something to match you to that body should they catch up with you. All in all, I'm not really sure how you'd go about making sure that there was nothing incriminating left behind. You also have to take into account "Locard's Exchange Principle" that states that for every place you go you not only take something with you, but leave part of yourself behind. So, even if you manage to pick a random victim, remove their identity, the forensics are probably going to get you in the end.
So, while my friends and I joke about the perfect hiding place for a body, the chances are that we'll be caught before it's even cold. There is nothing like the perfect crime, and with my search history, I'd probably get the death penalty, if that was still around in the UK. For the time being, I'll stick to fictional murder, it's less messy and doesn't carry a life sentence!
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Spoonie Writer: Worrying About The Future And Your Writing
As long as I've been a writer, I've been sick. Even before I was medically retired and writing became my job, even when I was writing as a teenager in school, I was still chronically ill. I hadn't embraced it the way I do now because this was before the wonders of the online chronic illness community. I have a lot of respect for my fellow spoonies and the ways in which they have helped me. However, as I was saying, I've always been sick as a writer. I have never known any other way to be a writer, I've always needed to move my schedule around and fit writing stuff inbetween the hospital stays, the stuck in bed days and the days when I just can't. I'm not saying that because I want you to look at me and say "Oh wow, she never got to live a different life", or to throw myself a pity party and be all "woe is me. I've always been sick". I'm telling you because my writing journey has been affected by the fact that I have, for as long as I can remember, been chronically ill.
When I was still in school, before the Fibromyalgia and M.E were in my life, I wrote a lot. I wrote poems, I wrote short stories and I did all that because I had a passion for the written word. I loved choosing my pen, my ink and paper and letting all the scenes in my head out into the world. To me, a big part of writing was the act of picking up a pen and actually, y'know, writing! However, things changed after school and my diagnoses. I found that writing hurt. It wasn't the good hurt either, the one where you had written and written and your hand was cramping in protest. I mean, it started like that but eventually the sentences got shorter and the bulk of what I could handwrite was interjected with breaks every few minutes because the pain was *that* bad. I eventually had to accept that I would no longer be able to handwrite my stories because I thought a lot faster than I could ever write. It hadn't always been like that, but it was one of those things that I had to let go of.
I adapted and started to type, which is what a lot of writers - spoonie or otherwise - do. It's so much easier in the world of the internet and all this technology to write with a keyboard. Having been typing for as long as I could form words, I am lucky enough to be able to touch type with some speed. It was a change that a lot of people would look at and say, "your point?" My point is not that I had to make this big change; after all, everything that was handwritten would eventually get typed into my computer anyway. My point is this: when you're chronically ill, you adapt your life around your conditions because if you don't adapt, you have to stop doing things you love.
About a year ago, I developed symptoms that were worrying to me, though not all that uncommon for people with my conditions. My legs would tingle and I'd be unable to bear weight on them. I was becoming more and more reliant on a wheelchair to get around. It was hard for me because I had always kept some level of mobility through my own terms, but now it was all different and I was reliant on being pushed, pushing myself, or using my electric wheelchair to get around. It wasn't how I wanted to be, but the fact that my conditions had gotten worse wasn't all that unexpected. I have been "lucky" in that for a couple of years prior to this new symptom, I had been having very few flares, relapses and new problems. It seemed that my conditions were just getting worse and once again, I adapted.
Which brings me to the point of this piece: I have started to show similar symptoms in my arms. The thought of losing the use of my arms and therefore my hands terrifies me because without the ability to type, I would become very silent. I use my keyboard to do so many things, writing, commenting, research and all of that. The only thing that I keep thinking is that I will find a way and adapt. I'll have to. That's just part of having a chronic illness and/or disability. You find a way to adapt. I know of some people that are bed bound, and they still are as active as they can be doing what they love. They have adapted because they *had* to. A friend of mine is bed bound and is still very active in writing. She has gotten the technology that will enable her to continue writing despite the fact that she doesn't always have use of her hands.
The joy of living in the age of technology means that even if we have to change how we get the words onto the paper, there are always ways of adapting your life so that you can continue to do the things you did before. The fact that things have worsened with my conditions doesn't mean that I have to give up what I love doing. There are voice recognition programs that will allow me to talk and the words will appear on the page. I've used them before and while they take some getting used to, they're not out of the realms of possibility. Just because I'm chronically ill, it doesn't mean that I'm any less able to do what I consider to be my career. I make the times when I'm well enough to work count, and the times when I'm not, I try not to beat myself up about it too much. After all, I didn't choose this for me, but I also can't change that it's happened. So, even though I'm able to type these words myself, it doesn't mean that I can't adapt and change the way I work in the future should the need arise. I can adapt, and so can you.
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The Trials Of An Indie Author: Giveaways, Events, Oh My!
When I talked about making connections (piece found here), I mentioned giveaways and events that would help you get noticed in the indie world. One of the things I have learnt both as a writer and a spoonie, is that sometimes you have to say no (a piece about this found here) because you can't afford to stretch yourself too thin (piece found here). However, if you want to get noticed when you're a new name in the sea of thousands on Facebook, Amazon and Goodreads, you'll need to make sure that you say yes to as many of these types of events as you can possibly manage.
It's said that to make money, you have to spend money, and along with events come giveaways. It may seem like a weird idea to be offering up free copies of your book to winners when you're trying to get people to buy them, but the fact of the matter is, if they like what they read and leave a review, then that can lead to other readers taking a chance on a new writer. You don't have to be new to the scene to want or need to take part in these kinds of things because it can help you at ANY stage of your career. Whether you've written a series and wanted to entice new readers by doing a giveaway or taking part in an event and offering up the first book as a prized, doing events with a number of other authors, indie or otherwise, can help you get the news out about your upcoming release. They are a great opportunity to make friends, connections and encourage new readers.
The other good thing about events that bring a whole group of authors together is that you may find that the next time they're looking for someone to donate or join them in an event, you come to mind because of your previous connection. Connections are a good thing, and I've talked about them before, but along with being fellow authors, you're around people who may be interested in reading your work and then recommending you to their own followers.
In the past three months, I have been asked to take part in three separate events, with a fourth coming in a few weeks. These help me to connect with other writers, and also to promote myself and my newest releases. If you can learn to work the events to your advantage, they can result in sales, good friends and reviews. Reviews will enable you to sell your image to other readers without it costing you anything.
You don't even need to put on an event to do a giveaway, you can do flash giveaways on your page that will result in sending out a swag pack to a chosen winner. You'd be surprised how many people are happy to receive things such as signed bookmarks, key-rings and other little prizes that will promote your work. You can also do a giveaway in conjunction with a smaller group of authors. Rafflecoptor is a great resource as it will list all the prizes, log every entry and even choose your winner for you so that there are no chances of judge favouritism. These can be to celebrate a new release or even a milestone number of followers on your blog or Facebook.
Overall, with good connections and taking part in both events and giveaways, these can lead to sales, your name being noticed and reviews of your work that will promote you to other people of your chosen target age. Your mileage may, of course, vary.
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Choosing To Go The Indie Route
When you've gone through all the creative parts and emerged on the other side, having edited your manuscript until you can't bear to look at it again, you have another choice. You have to decide whether you're going to go the traditionally published route, or down the indie/self-publishing route. Although I have experience with both, the majority of my time as a published author has been as an indie author so I'm going to focus on that.
I did a piece a year ago about publishing your work (found here) and while it is a great piece, it does only focus upon where you need to start. This piece will be about whether or not the indie route is the one for you. I can only talk from my experience, but I hope it will be of some use to someone else who is thinking about starting their own journey in the published world.
As I'm sure many of you are aware, I have been writing pieces for over a year now, all of which can be found on my blog. I have done a whole section simply on the creative process, as well as a smaller section on the after process (which is where this piece will fit!) I have also recently begun to do several other types of pieces, focusing upon the trials of life as a crime writer, an indie author and a spoonie - someone with a chronic illness who identifies with The Spoon Theory. I am telling you this not to wow you with my dedication to my blog, but to also point out something that has heavily influenced my own decision to stay as an indie author.
When I was retired from my "working life" at nineteen and realised that this really was my retirement, I made the choice to write books. It was something I had always planned to do, but never had the time for and with the flexibility of working when I was able, writing opened a lot of doors to me that I thought had previously been shut. So, when my traditional publishing contract fell through, it was a few years before I realised that going Indie would be the best answer to continuing my career.
When I say that I didn't start writing to become rich, it's mostly true. I never planned on making my millions, though it would be nice. For me, it was more about being able to let free all of these bottled up stories I had to tell. It was an outlet for me, just as writing these pieces are. It wasn't until 2011 that I finally felt able to launch the Bug Books label and control my own future as it were. Part of the reason I lost my other contract was because I was having so many bad days I couldn't meet deadlines. As an indie author, I was able to work around that because I was, after all, my own boss.
However, being an indie author is not for everyone. As I've said in several pieces (found here, here & here), there are many things that are expected of an author - indie or otherwise, and when you don't have whole departments to manage all of that for you, it's a lot of hard work. To me, it was worth it and I've made do with what I have. There'll be some days when I don't get anything done, others where I'll be awake at the wee hours sending out emails and answering posts and writing pieces just like this one. There are also the hospital stays where I have to hand the controls of my Facebook page over to either my editor or my cover designer and hope that everyone copes without me for a while.
If, like me, you think the indie route is the best one for you, then you should go down it. Research all the ways to bring out your work without the middle men. Make sure you know what YOU want to achieve from your work. It takes a lot of giveaways, making connections, swapping reviews and sending out ARC copies to get yourself noticed and it can be really daunting at first, but when you manage it, and you will, you'll find yourself on an even keel and forget that you almost drowned in your first few days in the deep end.
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Writing Angelina & Zack
It was 2007 when I first put pen to paper and wrote the opening sentences of WAITING ON YOU. I was in a long distance relationship that would ultimately end before I completed the book, but I was always clear about what I wanted the book to say, and whose story I wanted to tell. With the book already released in the summer, I figured now would be a good time to tell you what it was like to write the two main characters, Angelina and Zack.
ANGELINA
Angelina is a fourteen year old in a very difficult situation. She has no friends at school (through no fault of her own), and spends most of her time dreaming of the day that "Prince Charming" will fall head over heels in love with her and whisk her away from her dreadful life. Her mother is an alcoholic who doesn't seem to care whether her daughter's happy and her sisters both seem to live to make her as miserable as possible. They live in a council house, survive on whatever money her mum doesn't spend on alcohol and a lot of responsibility sits on Angelina's shoulders. Her sisters don't seem to want to contribute to buying her new clothes or making sure she eats, and they also lay a lot of pressure on her to look after them as well. She is a fourteen year old turning forty.
So, when she gets a chance to go online and make "real" friends she takes that chance and sees it as the start to a whole new life for her. In a way she's right, it is a new beginning, but no matter how much we may wish that the virtual world of the internet is real and safe, it's not and in reality, well, it sometimes sucks.
She wasn't a hard character to write. I imagined her as a thin, pale and sickly looking girl who may have come across as distant and aloof to her class mates, which is one reason why none of them have welcomed her with open arms. The issues Angelina face happen all around the world, her father has never been in her life and people seem to blame her for that. Whilst I am sure that a lot of what she thinks other people feel about her isn't true, sadly some of it is. She's a sad, scared little girl really, who just wants her mum to wake up and realise that she's drowning in the deep end with no one to rescue her.
Which brings us to Zack...
ZACK
Zack is sixteen and his life could not be more different to Angelina's. He lives with his parents and siblings in a nice house in London. His mum works, and his Dad is a respected surgeon. He's never known what it's like to go hungry, nor has he really experienced bullying. He's the second oldest child in his family and has a few good friends. However, that same level of responsibility is resting on his shoulders too. He makes sure that his four younger siblings get to and from school okay, cooks, cleans and makes sure everyone is fed, watered and in bed by the time his parents get home from work. He doesn't seem to mind it too much, but for me, it still feels like that there is more responsibility on him than there should be for a sixteen year old. However, Zack doesn't see anything wrong with it as his older brother had the same job when he was still at secondary school.
His family is loving, caring and always there for each other. Zack has his exams in the summer and knows that once he starts college, the responsibilities he carries will be handed to the next in line. He's already got a bunch of friends in the chat room where he meets Angelina and he's got a bit of a saviour complex. Always wanting to help, to make sure everyone is okay.
As a character, he was my first male main character and I was worried I would find it harder to write a teenage boy, but once I got into the swing of things, it all seemed to click into place and Zack grew as a character and a person before my very eyes. This book was my first attempt at a romance without any other crime or mystery sub-plots and I do think I managed to capture the story well.
I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. One thing I love about releasing one a year, and having so many already written is that I get to look back a few years later and rediscover my characters and their stories hidden in the pages. Please feel free to drop me a review once you've read the book!
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Choosing Your Editor
I have recently started adding to my pieces about the after process, which I mostly wrote around this time last year. I did a whole piece dedicated to the process of editing (found here) as well as one about beta readers. While it'll be easy enough for you to find those pieces as they're linked in my blog, I thought I would post some thoughts about what you want to look for when choosing your editor. I'm basing these suggestions on my own experience and the fact that I am an Indie author so have a lot of control over who I use as my editor.
My editor is a dear friend of mine and we kinda fell into the arrangement that she would become my full time editor. I release, usually, one book a year in the summer and so we work the rest of the year to get the next release ready. She is a gold mine of an editor and while I do have a proofreader as well, my books wouldn't be anywhere near as good as they are if it weren't for Kim. So, having said that, here's some advice for those of you who have not yet been lucky enough to find a great editor who works with you.
#1 - THEY HAVE TO BE CONSTRUCTIVE
For me, it's not just a case of sending Kim my book and telling her to correct any bad grammar or spelling (of which there is plenty I can tell you!), that's not the job of an editor. Her job is to read the book critically, tell me of any major plot points that don't work, or if they do work they need something added to them. She also needs to tell me when I'm making my characters act out of character, and other things like that. While any editor in the indie world (or in traditionally published books as well sometimes) can tell you that you HAVE to remove this chunk or what not, the choice to do so is yours. So, when you've got an editor working with you, they need to know what you're trying to do with the story, what the end vision looks like. You need to be able to work with them to achieve that, and while it may be that your manuscript doesn't yet make it all the way to where you want it to be, there needs to be a lot of constructive advice or criticism. It's no good saying "this part is crap" without explaining what needs to be changed to make it better.
#2 - THEY HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE YOU'RE USING
If you've primarily written your book in English, then there is no point giving it to an editor who won't be able to identify the grammar rules and spelling issues that will no doubt crop up. You wouldn't expect just anyone to be able to correct Spanish grammar and you can't expect the same from anyone in regards to English either. Your editor needs to know the rules of the language you're using, not only so they can recognise when you're breaking any grammar rules, but so that they can tell if it's intentional or not. And while you should always go through your work before you send it to your editor of choice to make sure that they're working with a "clean" copy - one that once corrected will be the final sequence of events - there will always be mistakes that you have missed. Which is why it is NEVER a good idea to ONLY use your own editing skills, no matter how awesome they are!
#3 - THEY NEED TO BE ABLE TO WORK TO DEADLINES
I've been unfortunate enough to work with editors in the past who claimed to be able to meet my deadlines and then didn't. Worse still, as deadlines approached, they failed to inform me that they were going to be unable to meet them. I spent two years telling people that a book was coming out, to only miss every deadline and release date given. I don't have that problem now, thankfully, but the experience taught me the importance of a reliable editor. You need to know that when you say to someone "I need it by [date]" they're going to deliver, and that if they can't, they'll tell you in enough time for you to make the appropriate arrangements.
And finally, #4 - YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO WORK TOGETHER
Technically Kim and I have never been in a room together, but I know that when she sends me edits, if I have an issue, I can call her and we can talk it through. I also know that if she doesn't get the message I'm trying to send through my work, she can call me for clarification. If you can't work with someone and listen to what they have to say, then it's possibly not the best idea to give them the manuscript that you've slaved over for months. It will end in heartbreak and you'll be no further forward in getting your book published. Your mileage may, of course, vary.
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Spoonie Writer: Writing When You Can
One thing I learnt early on when I was diagnosed was that sometimes things don't go to plan. You may think that because you've gotten a good nights sleep, you'll be able to do that big thing you planned, or even that little thing you planned. Sometimes though, when chronically ill, our bodies have other ideas. Part of being a spoonie is knowing how to understand what your body needs and what it's saying, so that if it says rest, you can do so as soon as possible and not miss out on days of work because you overdid it.
Another thing I have learned since I got medically retired and took up writing as a career was that no matter how much you may want to do something and have a relatively "normal" day, it's not going to happen that way all the time. Some days you'll be able to do more, other days you won't get anything done. The trick is to know exactly how YOU are feeling, what your body is telling you and what you need to do to make sure you don't get hit with major payback.
As someone who has to count "spoons" and decide whether or not it's the right time to write, I can tell you that there is never a "right" time, it's all about writing when you can and listening to your body when you can't. I know I have talked before about things you can do when you can't write (found here) but there are times when you're just well enough to get a page written. While you may find it easier to write when you're able to fully commit and sit for as long as it takes, as a spoonie writer you will have to learn to adjust. For some of us, sitting for long periods of time is impossible, whereas for others, it's the only thing they can do without causing more issues.
I may be uttering these words all the time in pieces like this, but it really is a fine balancing act between doing what you can when you can and pushing yourself past your limits and paying for it later. Personally, I've done both. I have done writing in bits and pieces and found I got more done than if I'd waited for a longer period to write, and I've pushed myself past breaking point and then found myself unable to manage anything constructive for the rest of the week. If you're working to a deadline that's one thing, but for me, my deadlines are arbitrary and rarely set in stone. Of course, I have a publication deadline, but the book has usually been written by then and it's just the editing that needs doing.
That's another thing though, being a writer is not just about sitting down at the keyboard and pouring out chapter after chapter. There are other responsibilities that we need to meet and for some of us, doing those in manageable chunks helps and makes them seem less daunting than attempting to do it all at once. My fabulous editor sends me corrections in chunks and I work through them at my own pace. We start the editing process a couple of weeks after the last book was published so that we have the majority of a year to work through it. You will learn these kinds of work-arounds as you become more familiar with how your conditions affect you and what works for you. Don't give up hope and try not to push beyond what you are capable of at that moment in time. After all, it's you who has to deal with the payback and you who suffers for it.
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