A good writing day will look different for each author. But here’s one I had this week. What’s your experience of a good writing day – or a bad one?
Writing: a catalogue of catastrophe and disappointment
A mail pops up from that agent you submitted to three months ago. She’s replied! You click with trepidation. It’s another rejection. You turn back to your new novel, where you’ve just noticed a plot snafu that needs fixing. Two hours later, you’re pretty sure you’ve made things worse, and spotted two new problems. On social media, a change in the algorithm seems to mean that posts that were popular just last month are suddenly getting no hits.
Writers have to have a thick skin. Contact with the outside world can be bruising. Good news can be vanishingly rare.
long believed to be the lance that pierced Christ’s side
A good writing day
So I thought I’d write up what a good writing day can look like. Here are five good things that happen to me in a single day this week.
- A couple of hours working on my new romantic comedy, working title The Spear of Destiny, make me laugh out loud. The Spear of Destiny is set in Vienna, and includes a plot around an alleged descendant of Princess Anastasia of the Romanovs emerging to claim the Russian throne. My laughter at my own work is not necessarily proof that it’s any good. But I thought several times ‘this may have something’. Result: pleasure. The Spear of Destiny is the third volume of my Diplomats in Trouble rom-com series. One day, I hope, world’s worst diplomat Angus Fairfax and his hyper-achieving brilliant ex-wife Carolyn, with whom he lives for the sake of their troublesome children Emily and Ned, will be household names. The chance of that ever happening felt marginally higher for a few hours this week.
- The Turkish translation of my Istanbul thriller Palladium – in Turkish, Paladyum – has gone on sale. You can actually see sales numbers (updated once a day) on the Kitapyurdu website, where you can also buy the book. It’s also other Turkish sites, including Amazon, where you can’t see the sales. Friends in Istanbul send me pictures of copies of Paladyum in bookshops. This is all encouraging.
- I get an invitation to appear on a high-profile radio programme this week to discuss diplomatic issues. I’ve been on it twice before; it’s always been a good discussion. I’ll have to prepare. But it’s good to be invited back.
- In Waterstones on Trafalgar Square, I find my book Lessons in Diplomacy in stock. They’re happy for me to sign it. Signed books seem to sell more or less instantly.
- I talk to students at a university in London. Visiting universities can be a bit of a lottery. Usually, audiences are lively and engaged. But sometimes numbers are small and you can’t help feeling they’d rather be somewhere else. On this occasion, the classroom is crammed, and people queue up afterwards to buy copies of Lessons in Diplomacy. I even get a small honorarium for giving the talk.
Copies of “Paladyum” in an Istanbul bookshop
“Lessons in Diplomacy” in Waterstones Piccadilly
How about you?
What’s your experience of a good writing day (or a bad one)?
