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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Tom Vowler's Laws for a Literary Life

26/6/2014

5 Comments

 



I'm delighted to be hosting a post by Tom Vowler as part of the blog tour for his new novel, That Dark Remembered Day, which I reviewed on Annecdotal last month.




Over to you, Tom. Thanks for revealing the dark side of the literary life!

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1. Where before you had real-life, flesh and bone friends, 96% of your social life will now occur online.

2. Hemingway said in order to write you just need to sit at a desk and open a vein. When things are going badly, it’s important to remember this is a metaphor.

3. Most of the best ideas will surface at 4am, when you don’t have pen and paper on your bedside table, and you have a hangover.

4. Most of your family will be convinced a character is either based on them or actually them. Nothing you say will persuade them otherwise.

5. In the morning, yesterday’s words that you regarded sublime, will seem mediocre. 

6. In the morning, yesterday’s words that you regarded mediocre, will seem the worst thing anyone has ever written.

7. Everyone you meet at parties (ha, like you get to go to parties) will be either writing a novel, be about to, or know someone who is. They will want to talk about this (see #2).

8. Nobody will notice or care if you grow a beard. Especially if you’re a man.

9. When you think you’ve finished the book, it’s time to start the real work on it. In other words you will write at least 4 novels’ worth of material for each book.

10. Coffee and biscuits are the other 4% of your friends (see #1).

11. Dividing money earned into hours spent will end badly (see #2).

12. There are some lovely and wonderful fellow writers out there. You will never meet them.

13. When you send your manuscript to your agent or editor after two years of blood, sweat and tears, a glorious, warm feeling rises within you. This lasts for ninety seconds. Move on to the next book.

14.  Nobody understands what you really do. Except other writers (none of whom you will meet) and perhaps the cat.  

15.  That dull office job you once had, with regular income and holidays and colleagues and fixed hours and Christmas parties and a pension looks more appealing each year.

16.  You know it’s a bad week when even your stalker emails to criticise your latest book.

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Tom Vowler is a novelist and short story writer living in south west England. His debut collection, The Method, won the Scott Prize in 2010 and his novel What Lies Within received critical acclaim. He is co-editor of the literary journal Short Fiction and an associate lecturer in creative writing at Plymouth University, where he’s completing a PhD looking at the role of the editor in fiction.

That Dark Remembered Day is his second novel.
One family, one town, devastated by one tragic event. Can you ever know what those closest to you are really capable of?


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When Stephen gets a phone call to say his mother isn’t well, he knows he must go to her straight away. But he dreads going back there. He has never been able to understand why his mother chose to stay in the town he grew up in, after everything that happened. One day’s tragic events years before had left no one living there untouched. 
Stephen’s own dark memories are still poisoning his life, as well as his marriage. Perhaps now is the time to go back and confront the place and the people of his shattered childhood. But will he ever be able to understand the crime that punctured their lives so brutally? How can a community move on from such a terrible legacy?
Published by Headline on June 19th in Paperback and Ebook priced £8.99. The Annecdotal review is here.

Thanks for sharing this insider view, Tom. I hope you can stick around to see what my blog readers think about these tips.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
5 Comments
Nicola Vincent-Abnett link
26/6/2014 03:38:15 am

This made me laugh out loud. It made me sigh over the observations that I found to be true, and feel rather glad that I'm not afflicted by the ones that happen not to be true for me.

I would add that there is a percentage of people that seems to be rather impressed by what we do and think it's terribly glamourous. To them I always say that this is a job, just like any other job. Like most other people, we sit our arses in a chair day in and day out. We do it for longer hours than most other people and our pay is all performance related, but, you know what, it's still work.

Reply
Joanna Campbell link
26/6/2014 06:37:09 am

I really enjoyed this and it made me feel better after a morning of grimacing at everything I wrote yesterday and filling the gaps between the computer keys with Special K Biscuit Moment crumbs. I have a week off coming up, during which all I plan to do is read, and I would like your book to come with me. Many thanks.

Reply
Annecdotist
27/6/2014 09:37:23 am

Good to have people laughing on my blog, but coffee and biscuits only 4%? Glad you mentioned the exact TYPE of biscuit, Joanna ;)

Reply
Kath link
27/6/2014 10:29:46 am

I was nodding and chuckling as I read this but I'm thinking that I might have to cut back on my biscuit intake. Only 4%?!

Reply
Norah Colvin link
29/6/2014 04:48:41 am

This is brilliant Tom and Anne! I had quite a chuckle as I read through. Thank you so much for sharing: the lighter side of a writer's life? I agree with absolutely every one of them! I'm still looking forward to dividing money into hours spent! But am very happy that I have managed to meet many wonderful writers - online; many on this blog!

Reply



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