Following on from the New Years Eve where I decided I would dedicate endless hours to writing (and raising three smallish children) I eagerly set about surrounding myself with writing books such as Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass and Stephen King’s, On Writing.

All I had to do was:

a) Create a great plot from interesting characters facing adversity;

b) Be persistent and dedicated to the craft.

I was off.  

In reality, I knew it wasn’t going to be as simple as that, but I didn’t want to acknowledge the unavoidable truth that only one in one thousand manuscripts get published.

I started writing. My target was 5,000 words a week and I sometimes achieved it.  After seven months, I’d finished my 110,000 word manuscript—despite accidentally hitting inconspicuous buttons on my keyboard several times and deleting several hundred words at a time.  

I didn’t mail my masterpiece to publishers straight away. No, I sat on it for a good three and a half days before sending it out to a dozen publishers. What a mistake that was. Rejection letter after rejection letter followed. What had I done wrong?  I had an efficient working habit; I thought I’d plotted and developed believable but exciting characters; I did my best to show not tell.

Hadn’t I done all that had been asked of me?

Long story short. My manuscript was woeful. Overwritten, banal, clichéd— with way more telling than required and very few hooks. With the benefit of time and emotional distance, I can see now how tedious and predictable the writing was.  Because I’d tried to stick to a formula which clearly wasn’t suited to me, I’d written a boring story about people I had no interest in and it showed, chapter after boring chapter.

But despite the piece having little merit, the process showed me I did have commitment. Okay, so the manuscript wasn’t exactly a masterpiece, but I looked upon those 110,000 words as my apprenticeship. My next manuscript would be better.

This time, instead of rushing in, I read and reread books by my favourite authors, checked out their websites and learnt everything I could about their writing techniques and motivations. I continued reading how to books like Self-editing for fiction writers and 100 ways to improve your writing, and followed their advice where appropriate. (Still disregarding the annoying fact that less than 0.1% of new authors make it to publication.) Lastly, I removed all games from my computer. I was NOT going to be distracted!

I wrote stories I found interesting—specifically about women in their 30s facing mid-life crises. I wanted to create a world I could relate to, with the prerequisite hooks, with interesting but flawed characters and snappy dialogue.  I was aiming for contemporary women’s fiction featuring humour, romance and strong women. The odd death didn’t bother me, but I didn’t want to write full blown tragedies—I got enough of that from the six o’clock news.

By sticking to what I knew, I found the writing process, especially at the beginning of my new story, thrilling. I also loved writing in first-person. (I’d written my first manuscript in third-person.)Writing the outline and creating characters came relatively easy to me, so staying motivated and keeping on track wasn’t a problem.

That was until I’d reached the end of my manuscript and realised I’d only written 60,000 words. I needed at least another 30,000. Aware my first manuscript had been overwritten; I’d been far more circumspect with number two. I’d gone too far the other way.

I sat on this one, torture that it was, for two months before rereading the entire manuscript in one sitting. Armed with a mountain of sticky tags, I was excited to find holes on nearly every page, so there were many opportunities to flesh out characters, and add dialogue and narrative.

By this stage, I’d joined the NSW Writers Centre, Australian Society of Authors (ASA), and Romance Australia (ARW) and an online critique group. I also continued reading ‘how to’ books. I went to writing conferences and workshops whenever practical and listened to authors talk about their journey. Inspiring stuff!

With persistence and determination and the odd game of solitaire (okay, so I didn’t delete ALL the games from my computer), I managed to reach 90,000 words.  I finally felt ready to send out my manuscript to the world, or at least the judges of ARW’s ‘Single & Loving It’ competition. I was excited and confident...

Until I received the feedback. One of the comments was, ‘Great first line but it’s all pretty much downhill from there.’  (I’m sure the reviewer had some constructive advice for me, but I was too busy crying, guzzling wine and kicking the dog. The children were spared.)

I could have thrown it all away then and there. I was certainly despondent enough. But after I’d allowed myself a couple of days to wallow, I slapped myself and moved on.  

This writing gig was hard. Damn hard. If I was going to get published—and I was determined I would—I needed to continue writing while also networking, entering  competitions and paying  specific attention to my online critique buddies as well as the new face to face writer’s group I’d joined. I begged my writing partners to be ruthless with their advice, and continued writing—by this stage working on two manuscripts so that when I reached a blank with one, I had another to go on with.

I sent off partials to publishers, especially those specifically seeking ’new authors’.  I’d think, ‘aha, this is my chance. So off I’d trot to the Post Office, armed with my partial. Each time I submitted, I’d make changes to my manuscript sometimes big, often minor.

In the space of a few months, I got very used to receiving rejection notifications. Of course, my initial reaction upon reading said letters was to stomp around the house, scream at my husband and pout.  By now, the cat and the dog had learned to avoid me when sensing I was in one of my ‘moods’.

But every couple of months, I’d get some practical advice wrapped within a rejection letter, which while leaving me devastated, provided just enough encouragement to continue in the hope that,  ‘maybe next time,’ I’d get a break.

Whenever I felt like a failed writer, I’d read another successful author talking about the fifty rejections they’d received before landing  a publishing deal. Then I’d take a deep breath and tackle the keyboard again. If the computer proved too daunting (there are many moments when I hate my computer) I’d take a couple of chapters to bed (regardless of time) and read them, focussing on how the scenes could be improved—be it plot, character or narrative.

Then, one month last year I read a piece on the back page of Hearts Talk about Louise Thurtell, Publisher, Arena/Allen & Unwin, inviting would be authors to submit their work to her ‘Friday Pitch’. At the time, I wasn’t feeling particularly motivated but knew I had to give each opportunity that came my way, a shot. Because you never know when it could be ‘the one’.

I emailed her my submission and now, Lucy Springer Gets Even is in a bookshop near you! It’s really been a dream come true.