• Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
Contact The Writing Coach today

The Writing Coach

Literary Consultancy and Coaching for Writers from Jacqui Lofthouse

  • Home
  • About The Writing Coach
    • Testimonials
    • Novels by Jacqui Lofthouse
    • Media and Journalism
  • Services
    • Coaching and Mentoring for writers
    • Coaching Fees
    • Literary Consultancy
    • Literary Consultancy Fees
    • The Ultimate Literary Coaching Programme
    • Coaching for Poets
    • Proofreading and Copyediting
    • Get Black on White: A Guide to Productivity and Confidence for Writers
  • Online Writing Course
  • People
    • Meet the Team
    • Clients
    • Recommendations
  • Blog
    • Archives
    • Popular Posts
  • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
  • New Client Area
    • New Client Area (Literary Consultancy)
    • Literary Agent Submissions

Creativity and Leadership – A Guest Post by Trevor Waldock

July 15, 2019 by Jacqui Lofthouse Filed Under: Authors, Books, Guest post, Inspiration, Interviews, Literary Consultancy, Self-publishing, The writing coach, The writing life, Uncategorized, Writers 1 Comment

We are delighted to share this guest post by Trevor Waldock. Trevor is one of the best-known, and best-respected, executive coaches in Europe and has worked at the most senior level in organisations across all sectors. The author of Doing the Right Thing – Getting Fit for Moral Leadership, he is also the founder of Emerging Leaders, a charity, which aims to bring the best of leadership development to the poorest of communities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Trevor Waldock

I have struggled for years with being a writer. Am I a writer? How do I know? How do I judge the answer to that question? I write. Yes. But do I write well and how do I make an honest assessment of myself? I recently published my sixth book on Amazon Kindle Doing The Right Thing, so you could say that makes me a writer. But do the four books published on Amazon Kindle carry the same weight as my books that were published by ‘real’ publishers on real paper? Is Amazon Kindle cheating? I’m sure that every writer has to wrestle with their own demons and these are just a few of mine. One of the great tensions that I have battled to resolve over the past years is the need, the desire, the urge to write, on one side and the fact that I run an international charity on the other side. In my book Jericho & Other Short Stories, I wrote a story called Poets & Engineers.  It captured something of this tension. My job often demands me to be an engineer – issues of structure, details, processes, boundaries and delivery – yet by heart, I am a poet.


How to resolve such a tension? One way was to write about my work in developing leaders in both the first and third worlds, in The 18 Challenges of Leadership and To Plant A Walnut Tree. While I was writing about aspects of leadership – like my latest book Doing The Right Thing – then I could tell myself that my writing was part of my job. That way I could justify carrying on leading and carrying on writing. But that doesn’t explain my book about travelling around Rwanda with my son 11 years after the Genocide, or my short stories books, or the short book Am I Really Tired? which could be seen as work or maybe not.


The tension came to a head for me in a dream that I had a few years ago. I was trying to get back home and came to the High Street but a police line cordoned it off. As I tried to find out why I could not go down the normal route home, I discovered that someone had died there. A murder or death of some kind. So I had to find a different way home. The scene then cuts to me talking with my dad who was asking me about my writing and I was telling him how much I wanted to write. He was so overwhelmingly supportive and said he would do anything he could to support me financially and that I should just get on and write. (In real life my dad showed zero interest in my writing. I’m not sure I even told him of my aspirations). The dream was one of those shocking dreams that you know you have to listen to. The meaning of the dream, for me, is summed up by a scrap of paper that I wrote soon afterwards, which still sits on my desk. It simply says,

“Write or die”

So I made some tough changes in my daily routines. Firstly I decided that whatever the risks to my leadership role I had to write and so I set aside each morning to write and read things that would fertilise my writing. The next thing I did was talk through my ‘real’ job with a coach. What he helped me see was that I had segregated the idea of leader from that of creativity. It had become an either-or, in my mind. He came up with this idea that my strength was as a creative leader. Creativity can show itself in coming up with ideas, shaping strategy, forming new ideas and… writing about them. Reforming my identity in this way led me back to the definition of leadership that I love most and use across the world.

“Leadership is the ability to create a story that affects the thoughts, feelings and actions of others ” (‘Leading mind’ – Howard Gardner, 2011)

Leaders are authors. They create stories and they can do that with thoughts, with actions, with inventions, with innovations, with imagination and vision and with words.

So, armed with these liberating insights I am trying to be kinder to myself. To embrace the totality of who I am as a writer, rather than segment myself in someway. Writing has become like a thermometer or warning light. When I’m not writing and caught up in the operational realities of leading an organisation (the engineer) then I know that I am out of balance and very soon I will feel the ‘soul death’, as I call it, creeping upon me. So when I see that happening I stop and I write (the poet). This is no theory for me. I write this on the first afternoon of three days vacation that I’ve taken. Taking the vacation was a last minute decision, made only the night before, because I knew I was out of balance. So I stopped and I’m writing and I feel some new blood flowing through my veins today. I write because it’s who I am.

 

Routes to Publication: our Event at Google Academy

July 18, 2018 by Jacqui Lofthouse Filed Under: Authors, Bookselling, Community, Corporate, Events, Inspiration, Motivation, Publishing, Self-publishing, The writing coach, Writers Leave a Comment

A Panel Event at Google Academy exploring routes to publication and writerly integrity in the process

Thursday August 16th at 6.30pm- 9.30pm

Jacqui Lofthouse interviews special guests Louise Doughty, John Mitchinson, Clare Morgan and Stephanie Zia

Louise Doughty
Louise Doughty
Unbound, John Mitchinson
John Mitchinson
Jacqui Lofthouse – Founder of The Writing Coach
Clare Morgan, MSt Creative Writing Oxford
Clare Morgan
Blackbird Digital Books
Stephanie Zia

Would you love to find out more about routes to publication – from the traditional route to working with smaller innovative publishers to self-publishing? Are you keen to discuss how to maintain your integrity and individuality as a writer, whilst also having one eye on the marketplace?

We are delighted to announce this one-off special event at Google Digital Academy where you will have an opportunity to network with writers and industry specialists whilst also considering your own best route to market.

Price: £20    Limited to an audience of 60

 

Our Founder Jacqui Lofthouse is thrilled to chair this special panel discussion on 16th August, featuring guests who, between them, know the publishing industry inside-out. Our aim is to help you to unravel the possibilities for your writing – and also to inspire you with a real vision that will enable you to write your very best work – and also to find an audience for it. Our discussion will be full of information and advice to help you make the right choices for your writing – with advice on how to stay true to yourself as a writer and how to choose the ideal route to publication.

Whatever genre you work in, our panel discussion aims to give you the tools to write with confidence and to clarify your vision for publication.

Schedule:

18.30-19.15: Reception drinks, nibbles and Google Virtual Reality Hub

19.15-20.45: Routes to Publication Panel with Jacqui Lofthouse (chair), Louise Doughty, John Mitchinson, Clare Morgan and Stephanie Zia. To be followed by Q & A

20.45-21.30: Networking drinks

Location:

Google Digital Academy, 123 Buckingham Palace Road, Victoria, London, SW1W 9SH

Doors open at 18.30pm, with drinks and nibbles kindly provided by Google

Booking & Payment

The price for this event is £20.

This is not a ticketed event – once you have booked, you don’t need to bring a ticket on the day as your name will be on our guestlist.

 

Our Speakers:

Our speakers have been chosen to give you the broadest view of routes to publication.

Louise Doughty

Louise Doughty is the bestselling author of eight novels, one work of non-fiction and five plays for radio. Her latest book, Black Water was nominated as one of the New York Times Book Review Top 100 Notable Books of 2016. Her previous book was the number one bestseller Apple Tree Yard, shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award and the National Book Award Thriller of the Year and has sold in thirty territories worldwide. A four-part TV adaptation with Emily Watson in the lead role was broadcast on on BBC1. She is a critic and cultural commentator, broadcasts regularly for the BBC and has been the judge for many prizes and awards including the Man Booker Prize and the Costa Novel Award. See: www.louisedoughty.com

 

John Mitchinson

 

John Mitchinson is a writer and publisher and the co-founder of Unbound, the award-winning crowdfunding platform for books. He helped to create the award-winning BBCTV show QI and co-wrote the best-selling series of QI books. As a publisher   he worked in senior positions at Harvill, Orion and Cassell. Before that he was Waterstone’s first marketing director. He is co-host of Unbound’s books podcast Backlisted (@BacklistedPod) and a Vice-President of the Hay Festival of Arts & Literature. See www.unbound.com

 

Clare Morgan

Clare Morgan is founder and director of Oxford University’s Creative Writing programme. Her most recent novel A Book for All and None (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), was shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best Novel award, and was described as ‘a spell-binding, effortlessly propulsive unity’ by the Independent; ‘written with eloquence and artistry’ by the Mail on Sunday; and ‘too tantalizing to resist’ by Time Out. She has published a collection of stories, An Affair of the Heart, and her short fiction been widely anthologized, and commissioned by BBC Radio 4. Clare gained her D.Phil. from Oxford University, and an M.A. in Creative Writing from U.E.A. She has chaired the Literature Bursaries Panel of the Arts Council of Wales, been Literary Mentor for Southern Arts and Literature Wales, and a literary assessor for publications funded by the Welsh Books Council. She is now an Academician for the Folio Academy. See www.claremorgan.co.uk

 

Stephanie Zia

Stephanie Zia has worked in the arts all her life: at the BBC, the Guardian and as a published novelist. She is the Founder of Blackbird Digital Books which publishes rights-reverted titles by established authors alongside exciting new talent and has sold over 100,000 books,  sharing over £100,000 in royalties 50/50 with her authors. She strongly believes in the on-going promotion of titles rather than the traditional 3-month window, nurturing the creativity of her #authorpower authors and promoting them with the latest, ever-changing, digital marketing techniques. See www.blackbird-books.com

 

Jacqui Lofthouse

Our chair, Jacqui Lofthouse is a novelist and founder of The Writing Coach. In 1992 she studied for her MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia under Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain. She is the author of four novels, The Temple of Hymen, Bluethroat Morning, Een Stille Verdwijning and The Modigliani Girl. Her novels have sold over 100,000 copies in the UK, the USA and Europe. She is currently working on her first YA novel. Jacqui has taught creative writing in a broad variety of settings from City University to Feltham Young Offenders Institution. She is also an actor, training at Identity School of Acting (IDSA). She continues to mentor writers at The Writing Coach where her mission is to help writers to be confident and productive, producing their best work and getting it into print.

 


We can’t wait to meet you at this very special evening for The Writing Coach!

Sarah Dickinson, author of ‘Plenty Mango’ speaks with Jacqui Lofthouse (Part Two)

March 20, 2018 by Jacqui Lofthouse Filed Under: Authors, Books, Inspiration, Interviews, Marketing, Reading, Self-publishing, The writing coach, Writers Leave a Comment

Sarah Dickinson was our Founder Jacqui Lofthouse’s first proper ‘boss’ when Jacqui began her career as a graduate in 1988. Here Jacqui interviews Sarah and they reminisce about ‘the old days’, about their relationship and on the nature of business and being a writer.

 

Sarah Dickinson, Plenty Mango

Sarah Dickinson – author of ‘Plenty Mango’

Sarah, when we first met, I was a twenty-two year old graduate fresh out of university and you were a successful businesswoman, running a media training company and a radio production house. I know how impressed I was by you and all you’d achieved. I was also rather terrified of you! Dare I ask, what were your early impressions of me?

I remember you bounced into the office, fresh, eager and intelligent.  I tended to rely on intuition when I hired someone and certainly in your case was proved right.  Anyone who started asking me about holiday entitlement, pay or career opportunities early in the interview was unlikely to find a job with me.  As for being ‘terrifying’, of course, I find that hard to believe!  I like to think I led by example, not fear.

Of course, when I looked at you, in those days, all I saw was the power (who’ll ever forget our 1980s shoulder-pads!) and the success…  You made it look so easy. Was it?

No, it wasn’t easy, but then it wasn’t hard either.  Obama hadn’t come on the scene yet, but his ‘yes we can’ catch phrase could have been invented for me.  I realise now that I’m very much a start-up kind of business woman.  I seemed to have had the ability to spot a gap in the market and went for it.  Hence we were the first independent radio production company in the UK, one of the first to offer media and presentation training, and way ahead of the game with TV cookery shows.  Too ahead, I suspect, as we didn’t manage to get our pilot show commissioned – but we had a great time producing it.

One of the things I loved about working for you was the fact that you trusted me to do important jobs and plunged me straight in at the deep end. I edited a radio interview with Edna O’Brien on my first day in the job and was straight off to meetings with top-level corporate clients. Was it intentional, that trust – or just a necessity of getting the work done? One can certainly learn something from that ‘deep-end’ approach I think…

It was Edna O’Brien was it?  I’d forgotten.  Perhaps a little naively, I simply assumed you could do it.  You reminded me, when we last met, that it took you nearly a week to edit.  I trusted your ambition and desire to learn.  In an ideal world, everyone should be given the opportunity to learn and develop in their work.

I’ll confess, I was in love with the glamour of it all too – the fridges full of Chardonnay and Perrier, the luxurious radio studio, the celebrities wandering through the door and the Christmas treats – dinners at the Groucho Club and Mosimann’s… Was that just the world you moved in, or did you cultivate a sense of glamour?

God, that Chardonnay!  It looked and tasted like yellow turpentine!  Something to do with the wine having been matured in oak barrels, but both us and the clients loved it!

I never ever saw The Groucho Club or Mosimann’s as being ‘glamourous’, just fun places to be.  Also, because I was the main person bringing in the work, they were seductive environments for prospective clients.  I remember one time at The Groucho when I was pitching for a contract, Joanna Lumley & Dawn French were lunching together.  That didn’t go unnoticed by my guest.  We got the job.

One thing I particularly learned from working with you – that has remained with me until this day – was the importance of a good list. I’ll never forget the regular meetings and your words ‘Jacqui, come in here and bring your list…’   Are you still a lister?

I’m still an inveterate ‘lister’, relishing crossing things off and moving unfinished tasks to the next day’s list.  Psychiatrists have a name for this obsession, I’m sure.

Perhaps I also learned ‘dress for success’ – I’ll never forget the time you bought me a suit – I had £100 budget, which I spent in Jigsaw on my first proper business attire…  

A 100 pounds – a lot of money then and a lot of cheek on my part.  I’m not sure you were entirely comfortable though in being power dressed.  Nor that the corporate side of the business was for you, but you went along with it.

Down to more serious matters (remember, I see all this through the lens of an excitable twenty-something) – looking back at it, I feel very privileged that my first boss was a woman. Was it hard to start your business in what must very much have been a male-dominated industry in those days?

This probably sounds either arrogant or foolish, but I never thought ‘how can I do this, I’m a woman’?  I knew I had drive and tenacity and a wafer thin reputation as a broadcaster, but the main motivation was the desire to work in such a way that I could spend time with our two young boys as well.  Ironically, of course, I probably worked much harder building up my business than if I had been employed.  But the control was in my hands, and that was very important to me.

Thinking further about a ‘male dominated’ sector, although we now know there were, and apparently still are, wide wage discrepancies between men and women, the media is certainly no longer a male dominated world.  I never felt in competition with men.

Jacqui Lofthouse

Jacqui Lofthouse and a former colleague back in the media training room at a recent reunion

Without doubt, working with you helped my early ambition as a writer. I was lucky enough to produce your interviews with many authors and I remember seeing the mention of the UEA Creative Writing MA in one of the publishing catalogues that landed on my desk. That definitely changed my life… as did the opportunity of hearing so many writers talk about their work. Did interviewing them influence you too?

This is the one moment in our relationship when I initially felt let down.  If I’m honest – envious.  I would have liked nothing better than to have waltzed into writing heaven with Malcolm Bradbury at UEA.  There I was, poor little Cinderella, hacking away at the coal face.  But I got over that pretty quickly and was genuinely pleased when your first novel was published.

As for interviewing authors influencing my writing ambitions, I was so preoccupied with running the business that, no, they didn’t.  But I loved helping them express themselves.  Edna O’Brien, about whom we talked just now, opening up her soul, and Peter Carey describing how he felt an electrical charge through his fingers when he’d find the right phrase or word.

As a small business owner today, I remain in awe at the ambition of your business – that when you set it up, you had such beautiful premises and permanent staff. What advice do you have for women in business who have similarly ambitious plans?

Find something you really like doing, be brave, be enthusiastic and be prepared to work night and day.  Hope that your staff respect you, but don’t automatically assume they will like you.  Always make time for feedback and constructive criticism and appreciate that no-one stays forever.

Plenty Mango

‘Plenty Mango’ by Sarah Dickinson

Now you are a writer, of course, and your book ‘Plenty Mango’ has recently been published. We speak about this in our first interview here. How did your life in business prepare you for life as a writer?

Well, in business you are writing all the time – treatments, scripts, proposals, reports, staff appraisals.  It teaches you how to write clearly, how to judge tone and the important role played by grammar.   Or am I being old fashioned?  I still find the informality of e-mails surprising.  Now that I have more time, writing has become my main focus – as you know only too well.

What general advice would you give to women looking to lead in business? Do you have any particular ways of working that others could learn from?

I think we’ve already touched on this but, if you were to ask me the one most important quality needed to lead, it has to be courage.  Courage to develop, courage to delegate and, although it happens rarely, the courage to fire someone.

Sarah Dickinson

Jacqui (left) and Sarah (centre) with colleagues at a recent reunion.

In 2015 we had a reunion, which is how you and I met again after many years. What was it like, seeing everyone again after so long? Was it odd to see your protégées grown-up or did we seem just the same? I know that for me it was a strange experience returning to that place only as more of a grown-up and being able to talk to you in a very different way…

It was wonderful.  A kind of levelling.  None of us had changed (we all lied about not having aged) that much.  What fascinated me the most was how differently we all remembered things.  Memory is an unreliable witness, isn’t she?

‘Plenty Mango – Postcards from the Caribbean’ by Sarah Dickinson is available via either Amazon.co.uk/books or Amazon.com/books in paperback, Kindle, Audible and iTunes formats.

You can read the first part of Sarah’s interview with Jacqui, about her writing of the book Plenty Mango here.

Sarah Dickinson, author of ‘Plenty Mango’ speaks with Jacqui Lofthouse (Part One)

February 9, 2018 by Jacqui Lofthouse Filed Under: Authors, Books, Inspiration, Interviews, Marketing, Reading, Self-publishing, The writing coach, Writers Leave a Comment

It is with great pleasure that I introduce a new book and Audible recording, Plenty Mango: Postcards from the Caribbean by Sarah Dickinson. This is a very special one for me as Sarah was my first ever proper ‘boss’ after I graduated from University – aged 22, she offered me a role as a radio producer at her company Ladbroke Radio. The full story of how I met Sarah and what I learned from her as a female business-owner way back in the mid-eighties will form Part Two of this feature. But in the meantime, let’s dive into the interview and find out more about this tale of life on Montserrat and living through the volcano years.

 

Sarah, when I was in my early twenties, I remember working on your first book ‘How to Take on the Media’ as your researcher.  How do you remember the experience of writing that book?

And a very good researcher you were!  The abiding memory is of acute physical pain. I’d slipped a disc and could only get comfortable either by standing upright or flat on my back, so the physical act of writing was challenging, to say the least.  But the thinking, mapping and ordering of the content was exhilarating.

I knew I ran the risk of being labelled ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’, as I was revealing the tricks in a journalist’s arsenal. But I genuinely believed then, as I do still, that an interviewee has a right to know the so-called ‘rules of the game’.

Apart from being verbally mauled by Melvyn Bragg on Radio 4’s Start the Week show, the gamble paid off.

In those days, I mainly knew you as my boss, a businesswoman and a radio producer/presenter. But have you always been a writer?

From about the age of 6, I have always wanted to write.  My first favourite author was Monica Dickens (no relation sadly) whose witty series ‘One Pair of Feet’, ‘One Pair of Hands’ made a big impact.  Won a few writing prizes at college, but then had to earn a living, a need which occupied me, as well as bringing up a family, for many years.  It’s only in the last ten years that I have the luxury of time to write continuously.

Your new book ‘Plenty Mango – Postcards from the Caribbean’ tells the story of your experience of the Caribbean island of Montserrat – how did your relationship with that island begin?

As with so many things that change the course of our lives, it was serendipity.

One summer, many years ago, I was driving through Northern France with my husband John.  We were on our way to Switzerland and at one with the world.  It was one of those typical straight French country roads with white ringed poplar trees on either side.  Nothing coming the other way, I signalled to overtake two cars in front of me.  All was well until I was alongside the first driver who decided to overtake the car in front of him.  There wasn’t room for the three of us, so I ended up hitting one of the poplar trees while they drove on.  John somehow got me out just before the car exploded.  He saved my life.

Despite being grateful for being alive, come that winter, we couldn’t quite get over the enormity of what could have happened.  So, to cheer the soul and warm the body, we headed for the West Indies, unknown to both of us, eventually finding and falling in love with Montserrat.  So much so that John, who is an architect, decided to follow a dream and find some land on which he would build a group of contemporary West Indian style villas.  We did find that land, 27 acres of tropical hillside overlooking sea, beach and mountains.  We re-mortgaged everything we had to pay for it.

We only needed to build one more house to almost break even.  And then the island’s volcano re-awoke after 400 years …..

That was in 1995 wasn’t it?  I assumed everything changed for the island?

I can tell you the exact date .. Tuesday, July 18th.  I remember it was one of those glorious tropical days, bright sunshine, cooling breezes, our two teenage boys glued to their Walkmans, working on their sun tans.  I was dozing on a sun lounger when it suddenly felt as if someone was trying to tip me out of it.  I shouted at the boys to back off.  When they looked up at me from the other end of the pool, I realised my mistake.  Something very strange was happening. I learnt later that I was experiencing a tectonic earthquake, one of the indicators that a volcano is ‘waking up’.

I devote quite a few chapters in Plenty Mango to the devastation caused by the volcano and the impact that it has had on the economy and the lives of Montserratians.  Tragically 19 people lost their lives, more than half the island’s population (5,000) left and those who stayed had to endure years of uncertainty.

Today, albeit very slowly, life on Montserrat is returning.  I’d like to say ‘returning to normal’, but that wouldn’t be strictly true.  I still jump when the 12 0’clock siren rings across the valley, and the especially adapted radio tuned to the Montserrat Volcano Observatory, in case of an emergency, is never turned off.  But, and I include John and I, we’re a resilient lot and we all still say of our precious little island ‘still home, still nice, still paradise.’

Sarah Dickinson, Plenty Mango

Sarah hard at work in the Caribbean

How did ‘Plenty Mango’ come into being?

For 40 years I have written a Christmas report on the activities of the Renton family during the past 12 months.  Not surprisingly, Montserrat had a starring role.  It wasn’t until about 3 years ago, when I was invited to give a series of illustrated talks ‘Living Under a Volcano’ on one of Fred Olsen’s cruise ships, that I dug out the letters.  And what a valuable history they provided.  At the end of each talk, I read directly from some of the letters and was surprised and gratified by how well they were received.  ‘You should put them in a book’, several people suggested.  So I did!  Obviously, Plenty Mango is very special to me, but I think what gives it an added attraction are John’s wonderful, quirky illustrations.  We have this catch phrase between us ‘I do the words, he does the pictures.’

What’s the essence of the book?

I suppose Plenty Mango is a kind of love story, between two people who share a love for a tiny island in the West Indies which, despite the ructions of a volcano, is home to about 5,000 people who care about each other and are proud of their heritage.  Incidentally, it’s astonishingly beautiful.

I’ve structured the book as a series of illustrated postcards – word portraits about its history, traditions, myths and, most importantly, its people.

I believe you still live part of the year in Montserrat?  How has your experience of the volcano affected your life and relationships there over the years?

There’s that quote by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche ‘that which does not kill us, makes us stronger.’  As I think I was trying to say just now, the hardship has brought us all closer together and made us more determined to make Montserrat a real tourist destination.  John hasn’t given up on Isles Bay Plantation and hopes, one day, to build some more villas.  The British Government seems to be still hanging in there, providing much-needed aid and more and more people are returning.  Of course, we’d all like things to move much faster, but we know we’re still dependent on the whims of the volcano.

It’s the characters, of course, that we remember after reading your stories …

And they are all people I know!  I’ve changed the names of one or two, but not many.  I’m relieved that the book has been very well received on Montserrat.

I’m often asked, do you have a favourite?  Of course not, but I am forever grateful to a lovely old man, never seen without his white wellingtons, who is a dab hand at clearing storm drains.  I was waiting for John who had gone in search of a particular type of screw (no mean feat on a small island) when the old man came up to me and said ‘I jus seen your Daddy, an I tole him I clean dem drains soon.’  Who needs botox with compliments like that?

Do you see the book as journalism or creative non-fiction or short stories.  Did you think about ‘genre’ when writing?

I really dislike this pigeon-holing ‘genre’ thing but, if pushed, I suppose it would fit into ‘travel’.

What made you self-publish?

How long have you got?  Despite knowing lots of publishers and agents and receiving some very encouraging feedback to Plenty Mango, that depressing conjunction BUT kept appearing.  ‘We’d love to publish it, but travel is such a tough market’, ‘Love the text and the illustrations, but all that colour would make it expensive to publish.’  Those are from people who bothered to reply;  there were an awful lot of who didn’t.  So, self- publish it was.

What has the experience of self-publishing been like compared to traditional publishing?

It’s much harder!  You need cash, time, determination and, in my case, a technical guru.  First of all, John and I set up a small publishing company called Tamarind Press (just in case we needed it later on).  Because my media background is as a reporter/presenter, I decided, initially, to record all the stories and try and get them played on radio or on some of the airlines flying to the West Indies. It meant finding a producer and hiring a radio studio but, as I’d been in the business for some time, that wasn’t difficult.  I’d also heard of an organisation called ACX who operate as an intermediary for Amazon’s audio imprint Audible and iTunes.  There is no upfront charge and, once satisfied with the quality of your submission, will add it to their catalogue.  ‘Look no further,’ I thought.  Another lesson to be learned.  Always read the small print.

What I’d failed to notice was that Amazon won’t publish an audio version of your book until it is available either as a paperback or in Kindle – which leads me to the Kindle Direct Publishing site which urges you to ‘Self-publish e-Books and paperbacks for free with Kindle Direct Publishing, and reach million of readers on Amazon.’  Sounded good to me and because my technical guru was right by my side, I didn’t have to worry about such things as JPEGs, or page and line breaks.  My job was to proof read the final manuscript before pressing SEND.  You know, I swear I spotted every ‘typo’ and slightly confusing edit but, (there’s that but again) as I suppose is inevitable, I have spotted a few since reading the published version.

The great thing about publishing with Amazon is that it’s a ‘just in time’ outfit.  Someone orders a copy and, if it’s an e-book or audio, it’s instant, if it’s a paperback, could be with you the next day.  No remainders this way.

How have you found the marketing side?  What advice would you give to others going this route?

I compiled a data base of about 400 people and e-mailed them all INDIVIDUALLY, letting them know about Plenty Mango and the formats in which it was available.  I kept the price of the e-book very competitive.  The paperback version, which had all John’s coloured illustrations, didn’t offer me such lee-way, and Audible charges a fixed price.  I have to warn you that the royalties are pretty small.

Word of mouth is, I’ve found, the best marketing tool and, to this end, I have become very active on Facebook.  It’s quite hard work, as I’m not one of those people who post photographs of my last meal, so it tends to be news, at the moment at least, about the book.

I’ve also got a website sarahdickinson.net – which is proving to be a useful communication tool.

I’m thinking of commissioning a PR specialist as well, but haven’t as yet done so.

The book, I’m happy to say, is doing well.  Not ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ – well, you understand, but well enough.

You recently took part in a literary festival in Montserrat – what was that like?

Hard work, but great fun and it’s a wonderful experience being asked to sign copies of your book. Have written a piece for the book’s sequel

‘PLENTY MORE MANGO’.

When we met recently, you told me about your regular journaling and that was very inspiring.  How has writing regularly changed you as a writer?

It’s like exercise, the more you do, the easier it gets.  I write in Moleskines – good size for carrying around and protected by a hard cover.  Anything and everything goes into them – funny things our grandchildren say, rants about politics, the beginnings of stories.  A word of advice – always date everything.To-day’s entry will be about this interview!

‘Plenty Mango – Postcards from the Caribbean’ by Sarah Dickinson is available via either Amazon.co.uk/books or Amazon.com/books in paperback, Kindle, Audible and iTunes formats.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience Sarah – I can’t wait for our second interview about our early days, though I’m slightly nervous what you’ll say about the younger me…

An interview with novelist Stuart Warner

September 21, 2017 by Jacqui Lofthouse Filed Under: Authors, Books, Guest post, Inspiration, Interviews, Motivation, Self-publishing, The writing coach, The writing life, Writers 2 Comments

In this post, our Founder Jacqui Lofthouse interviews her former client, the novelist Stuart Warner,  author of The Sound of Everything. They discuss his transition from poet to novelist.

Stuart Warner

Novelist and Poet Stuart Warner

When we first met, in your writing life you were primarily a poet. What made you want to transition to novel-writing?

I recall telling friends how much I admired people who’d shown sufficient determination to write a novel. I’d written hundreds of articles, as well as the poetry, so I knew I could write fluid prose. I set out on the first draft as an adventure to see whether I could produce a story of 80,000 words or so – whether I had the persistence to do so. That was my initial goal: simply to produce a first draft.

Did you have an initial impulse that prompted you to write the story that you chose? Did you begin with a story premise or just an image or an idea for a character…?

My decision to write a novel came first. I then had to decide what to write about. Having read Stephen King’s On Writing, I’d decided not to make a detailed plan. I took a few days off work and, on day one, I sat down at my desk, fountain pen in hand, and wrote a single page of notes. It was about 300 words. Rereading it now, I’d call it a rough synopsis. It contained several ideas, which carried through to what became The Sound Of Everything. Mostly, it was about the protagonist: the pickle he’s in and what he wants instead.  After writing those 300 words, I turned to a fresh page and started chapter one. Interestingly, the first sentence I wrote had nothing to do with my initial notes, yet it drew on an image I’d been carrying round in my head for a while, a location which plays a major part in the novel.

Stuart Warner
It’s interesting to me that an image was central to your beginning – as I too, often work from images and strong hunches. I’ve noticed the importance of landscape too in your novel… what role do you think a sense of place plays in your writing?

Place is very important in the novel and it has been in my poetry, too. The Sound Of Everything is set mainly in a small town on the Welsh border, though there are also a couple of hill-top scenes. Certain locations – or types of location – seem to resonate with what’s going on inside us.  For example, someone might feel the freedom of the wide-open spaces on a beach or a mountain, or a sense of being trapped by their daily routine in an urban environment.  For someone else, I guess the opposite could be true. For me, there’s some sort of interplay between what one might think of as the magic and the mundane: what we see with our eyes, what we feel inside and, perhaps, what we experience beyond the five senses. Writing about different landscapes helps me access that interplay.

Beyond the five senses – you’ve sometimes described this, I know, as ‘spiritual fiction’?

I’d say it’s a small-town mystery with a spiritual aspect – spiritual in the sense of questions we might sometimes ask ourselves, such as ‘Who am I?’, ‘What am I doing here?’ or ‘What’s the meaning of life?’ Going back to your previous question on place, while my initial 300-word outline related to the external plot, the image that came through in the first line I wrote – sentence one, paragraph one – was concerned with the protagonist’s internal exploration. It was only when I came to working with you on the second draft that I delved down deeply into that exploration – the feelings the protagonist experiences when he starts to open to that side of himself.  It was difficult to decide what Amazon genre the finished novel fitted into, but I plumped for visionary and metaphysical. Spiritual seemed to me to be too much associated with Christian fiction, whereas the novel resonates more with Eastern ways of thinking – yoga, for example.

That’s fascinating, that the mentoring process allowed you to delve deeper into the protagonist’s inner exploration. Is that what you expected?

When I found your website, I wrote an email to you to enquire about your one year mentorship programme. Here’s what I said: ‘I’ve just finished the first draft of my debut novel and so I’m a beginner as far as novels are concerned… Completing the first draft, regardless of its merit, has given me a huge confidence boost.  I now feel ready to commit to learning the skills that I will need to become a published novelist. ’  I had no idea what to expect from working with you, but I figured it made sense to learn from someone who’d already achieved what I was setting out to do, particularly as I’d never studied creative writing.

One of the key points you made in our first meeting, having read chapter one, was that I needed to show why my protagonist acted as he did, by describing what he was experiencing from his point of view.  I’d done that in a few places but, generally, the point of view I’d used was too distant.  I know now that you were teaching me a technique to improve my writing, but you also opened a door for me, one which helped to strengthen the bridge between my writing of the novel and the way I’d approached my poetry.

I’m so glad that the new closeness in point of view has revealed a link between your fiction and your poetry. For those who might be considering working with a mentor, what in your view, have been the main benefits of the work we’ve done together?

Just to explain how it worked, I’d send you an extract – 6,000 words or so – about a week before our meeting date. You’d then read and mark up the extract before we met. In meetings, which were on the phone as we live 250 miles apart, you’d give me feedback.  We’d discuss what you said and we always ended the meeting with an action plan for the next month.  Three or four weeks later, I’d send you a new extract ready for our next meeting.  Meanwhile, you’d post the marked-up extract back to me. This went on for a year.

The regular schedule was superb because it enabled me to put in a renewed burst of activity every four or five weeks, trying to put into practice what we’d discussed.  I’d have to work hard to produce the next 6,000-word extract – sometimes, the same extract as the previous time but substantially rewritten. Then, I’d send it to you and receive almost instant feedback on how well I’d achieved my goals. Rather than slaving over a whole manuscript for a year and then sending it to a beta reader or agent, I’d get ‘mini-reviews’ of my work every month.  I believe that accelerated my learning process.

While you were always very positive in your feedback, you always encouraged me to go further.  I would usually feel that I’d made huge strides forward each time and you always liked what I’d done. But, after every meeting, I felt I could delve even deeper, because that’s what you asked me to do.  That was the bridge with the poetry.  When I wrote my poems, I was expressing my truth, as best I could, in a few short words. With the novel, your mentoring helped me to dig down to that same depth in a much longer written work.  Of course, I also learnt much in the way of technique.  Probably the most important point was the need for the protagonist and other main characters to act in a way consistent with what would be going on in their head: psychological realism you called it, I believe. Why would they act that way after what happened in the previous scene?  What was their motivation?

What has changed for you in your writing life in the last year?

The biggest change is that I’m now working on my second novel rather than my first.  This time last year – June 2016 – you were mentoring me on revisions to what would become The Sound Of Everything. A few months later, in August, I sent the manuscript to a couple of professional beta readers, followed by further edits and more beta readers in October.  Then came the publishing process and a few months brainstorming ideas for the next book. Eventually, I started to write again at the end of April and now I’m 30,000 words in.

Back in summer 2015, when I’d just completed the first draft of The Sound Of Everything, I wondered whether I’d be better to ditch that project and start a different story from scratch.  Then I read somewhere that you learn a lot more, about writing a novel, by editing rather than starting afresh.  I think that was great advice.  My whole experience with that first novel has given me a lot more confidence this time round – that my rough first draft will evolve in a way I’m happy with.

You decided to self-publish ‘The Sound of Everything’ – what was behind that decision?

When I started to read about the importance of genre, I figured I might find it difficult to find an agent. Also, I’d already been down the self-publishing route with my poetry.  When I raised the idea with you, you suggested several websites I could look at.  One of these was Joanna Penn’s.  I found her advice very useful, and I started to realise that many writers now self-publish from choice, particularly if they plan to write several books.  It’s a long-term strategy, with less emphasis on the initial book launch and more on building a following.

Can you describe ‘The Sound of Everything’? Tell us about the book…

The book involves two quests: one internal, the other external. I wanted to write a story, which was a bit of a page-turner but also had depth to it – the spiritual aspect we discussed earlier.  It’s told from a single viewpoint and includes quite a bit of internal dialogue. It starts with Jack, the protagonist, dashing into an Indian gift shop.  What happens to him there, changes the course of his life.  Below, I’ve copied extracts from two kind reviews I received on Amazon.  I’m sure the book isn’t for everyone, but the extracts are in line with the feedback I’ve received from most readers I’ve heard from.

‘You are drawn into the story from the first page.  You gradually learn more about Jack, the main character – why he has moved back to Drimpton, the town where he lived as a young child, and how he adjusts to working there and dealing with the many different characters he soon meets.  There are surprises and twists, warmth and touches of humour and wisdom – it is thought-provoking, you don’t want to reach the end, and when you do, you find your mind returning to explore the unfolding themes.’

‘It is beautifully woven from a number of threads relating to the current and past of a town and some of its people as they are discovered by the main protagonist over a few days where he is trying to work out the answers to a number of different (and interesting) issues.  It also covers the growth of that lead character as he tries to work out how to move forward from a position in life that he has arrived in because that is where he thought that he would like to be, and then isn’t 100% happy with now he’s got there.’

To find out more about Stuart Warner’s work, visit his website here.

A fresh direction for The Writing Coach

May 20, 2012 by Jacqui Lofthouse Filed Under: Publishing, Self-publishing, The writing coach, The writing life 3 Comments

“Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy.” – W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge, 1943

As you may already know, The Writing Coach is about to enter a new phase of development. Having been running the business for seven years now, I have recently realised that a change was necessary.  I’ll be writing more in future posts about how that change came about for me (and lessons that I can draw from this process) but for the moment, suffice to say that from September 2012 I will be returning to full time education and embarking on a new stage of my career.  I will be studying for a PGCE in English with Drama at London’s Institute of Education with a view to teaching drama, literature and creative writing to teenagers, whilst continuing to pursue my own writing.  I am immensely excited about this new direction.  It does, however, mean that from the end of July this year, I will no longer be personally available as coach; indeed, I have already closed my books to new clients.

Will the Writing Coach website still be running?

Absolutely.  In order to fully focus on my new studies, I will no longer be running a literary consultancy here at the Writing Coach – at least for the time being (if that changes, readers of this blog will be the first to know). However, this is not the end of The Writing Coach website; instead it marks a fresh beginning.  The blog will be very much alive and I will continue to send out the newsletter so do sign up for regular updates and subscribe to the RSS feed or email updates on the blog.

In the coming months, it is my intention to publish both my latest novel and my backlist (previously published by Penguin and Bloomsbury) on Kindle and iPad and I’d like you to join me on this self-publishing journey.  I will continue to update this blog by publishing all archive articles and I will be writing fresh posts that I hope will be useful to new and established writers, whatever stage you are at and however you decide to publish.

In coming weeks I will streamline this website as the focus will increasingly be on the blog.  I have yet to take a final decision on the membership aspect of the site but I am not closed to the idea of a membership aspect/forum.  An announcement will follow in due course though I may wait until October before taking this decision.

What will be the focus of the blog in coming months?

As ever, my aim is to bring you inspiration and motivation relating to all aspects of your writing work and life.  I will continue to post on the subject of traditional publishing and how to approach agents and publishers.  I will also be documenting my own epublishing journey and sharing what I learn in the process as well as offering advice and guidance to those who are also considering this path.  My current interests in theatre and in education will doubtless impact on this blog.  I will share what I learn about how drama and writing interact, for example what I learn about character development and story structure as I study drama.  I will also be reflecting on the process of writing fiction for young adults (YA fiction) as I embark upon a YA novel and work with teenagers.  My hope is that I can bring my own continuing education into my writing here – with the intention of sharing, encouraging conversation and, I hope, continuing to inspire your writing in the months ahead.  I will also write about change: how we recognise the need for it and how we act upon that impulse.

How can I stay up to date with The Writing Coach?

Aside from signing up for the newsletter and RSS or email updates to the blog, you can also ‘like’ The Writing Coach on Facebook here or follow me on Twitter here and here. If you have any questions about the future of the site/the business, do feel free to ask them in the comments below and I will be posting a FAQ soon too.  I’m looking forward to all that lies ahead and to sharing it with you.

 

 

 

On visiting the London Book Fair 2011

April 12, 2011 by Jacqui Lofthouse Filed Under: Authors, Publishing, Resources, Self-publishing 1 Comment

View of the London Book Fair from the International Rights Centre

My first visit to the London Book Fair has been a lively and exhilarating day. I have found it fascinating to meet so many people working in so many different areas of the publishing industry.

The day began early, rising at 5.15am to make it to  The Sloane Club for an 8.15am breakfast hosted by Firsty Books who have just launched their excellent Firsty Authors epublishing package. I attended with author friends Shelley Weiner and Jennifer Potter and found myself quickly drawn into the discussion.

It was interesting to hear how the forthcoming new EPub3 files will allow “enhanced ebooks” to become even more interactive. Firsty CEO Darin Brockman suggested that publishers will need to begin thinking about producing content across multiple platforms. I raised the example of one of my clients who is currently developing a multimedia novel which will have embedded video and audio as part of the package.

The new ebooks will be more interactive. For example, they will allow children to colour in pictures and email them to their grandparents. I was particularly curious to hear how ebooks will be used in the developing world, reaching audiences who might otherwise not have access to books. Indeed, a representative of Oxfam was at my table. He surprised me when he told me how difficult it is for Oxfam to place free books in libraries!

At 10.30am I headed over to Earls Court for the Fair. I met Stephanie Zia of blackbirdebooks at the Author’s Lounge and we went to the Literary Cafe to hear the bestselling Russian author Boris Akunin in interview with Tibor Fischer. Tibor opened with the words: “Boris, you have sold tens of millions of books – how did you do that?” The answer, apparently (and doubtless ironically) is “in the stars”. Akunin, originally a literary translator said that in fact, when he began writing, he had “a five year plan… I plan big.”

I was delighted to discover that Akunin recommends the organic method of writing. He begins with “a spark or a trick if it’s a detective novel” and then he begins to dream up his characters, each of which have their own story. His plot is then influenced by the “force-fields” that arise between the characters. Interestingly Akunin maintains a blog, despite his success. He said that he blogs at 5pm (at 7pm he goes out with his friends or plays video games!) and he doesn’t think of blogging as work: it uses a different part of his brain; he is enjoying himself.

Kazuo Ishguro took to the stage after Akunin. In the short interview, he focused first on the current need for ‘an alliance’ between media that will enable serious work to survive. He believes that the “serious novel” by which he means all “good novels” (not meaning a specific genre) may need to be protected in this age when a “huge tide” of “celebrity culture and sequels” threatens to overwhelm us. He touched on an adverse effect of the ebook revolution: “I don’t know how we will persuade people to pay for our writing”. He wondered if a system of patronage might have to make a come-back; he commented that he had been offered £10,000 by a diamond manufacturer to write a short story that included product placement! Needless to say, he turned it down.

Ishguro’s own current work is, he suggested, an “intimate epic”. He talked about the challenge of keeping the work intimate when writing against a huge historical canvas. The theme of his current work is memory. He asks the question: “When is it better to forget the painful things a society has been through?” and likened it to the dilemma surrounding therapy – should one “stop repressing” or ‘”just move on…”?

Jacqui Lofthouse and Stephanie Zia celebrate their first visit to the London Book Fair

After a breath of fresh air and lunch, Stephanie and I went up to the International Rights Centre where we were able to connect with several literary agents. It was exciting to share the work of my clients with these agents and I also had a chance to speak with my own agent. Then it was time for a glass of champagne!

Next, after a brief tour of the Digital area of the Fair, Stephanie and I returned to the Firsty Books stand to meet with Firsty’s publishing director. It was an ideal opportunity for us to explore what is now possible in book Apps and for us to pool our knowledge and resources in this area.

Finally, to round off the day, I joined the London Book Fair ‘Tweetup’ (a gathering of those who Tweet), organised by Jon Reed of Publishing Talk which began in the bar at Earls Court and continued in the pub…

It was fantastic to meet Jon after following him for a couple of years on Twitter. I was also lucky enough to bump into a colleague, Judith Watts who teaches on the MA Creative Writing at Kingston University. Judith introduced me to Anna Faherty, lecturer on the publishing MA, and by chance I met Susan Greenberg, lecturer in Creative Writing from Roehampton University. If anyone still thinks that Twitter doesn’t help one forge real relationships, I think we all proved them wrong in the Prince of Teck pub at Earls Court tonight.

I rounded off my day by reading the Bookseller on the tube home. Funnily enough it contained an excellent article about the importance of Twitter for publishers today. If you’re looking to get started on Twitter, Jon shares Publishing Talk’s “Twitter Cheat Sheet” here.

Thanks to all those I met today for making it a memorable occasion. I am, shall we say, a little sleepy but oh, it was worth it!

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

Receive Jacqui's free ebook Get Black on White: 30 Days to Productivity and Confidence for writers.

Bluethroat Morning – New Edition

‘A thriller full of twists and turns that keeps the reader guessing. Every word is magical, almost luminous.’
– The Daily Mail

Buy the book

About The Writing Coach

Jacqui Lofthouse

The Writing Coach was founded in 2005 by the novelist Jacqui Lofthouse. An international mentoring and development organisation for writers, it is also an online home for writers, somewhere you can find advice, information, motivation and most of all encouragement for your writing work ... read more

The Modigliani Girl

Anna Bright never wanted to write a novel. At least, that’s what she tells herself. But a chance encounter with a famous novelist and a surprise gift of an art book cut a chink in Anna’s resolve. The short, tragic life of Modigliani’s mistress, Jeanne Hébuterne, becomes an obsession and before she knows it, she has enrolled on a creative writing course, is writing about a fictional Jeanne and mixing with the literati.

Buy the book

Recent Posts

  • Celebrating our MA Creative Writing success stories at UEA
  • An interview with Antony Johnston, author of ‘The Organised Writer’
  • The Silence of the Archives – A guest post by Pete Langman
  • Supporting The Creative Future Writers’ Award
  • Creativity and Leadership – A Guest Post by Trevor Waldock

Read our most popular posts

Read our most popular posts

The following posts are particularly useful for writers and include advice, ideas and inspiration...read more

Search

Become a Client

I work to support you as you develop a writing life that is engaging, sustainable and productive.

Learn about my Coaching and Mentoring Services for ongoing support of your writing. I also offer Literary Consultancy for tailored manuscript assessment.

Get the Newsletter

Become a subscriber and receive Jacqui's free ebook Get Black on White: 30 Days to Productivity and Confidence for writers.

Copyright © 2021 · The Writing Coach · Design customised by Goburo