From Rejection To Publication

I’m 54 years old and very proud of my age. It’s the time in my life where I feel most comfortable with me and who I am. It’s taken me a long time to get to this place where I think life is just what it is…it’s just life…just live it.

I’ve been writing for ten years on and off and have enough rejections to wallpaper a room. All heart breaking and demoralising. Even the nice rejections shatter your belief. And yes, there can be nice rejections.

It’s been my dream to be published and a long road to learn my craft. I never did a creative writing course but read an awful lot of books and absorbed everything. Deconstructing them until I understood how they were put together in a way that feels natural to a reader.

I’m not good at being told how to do something, I have to see it, and do it for myself. Too much information stops my flow. I have learnt by doing. By writing and writing and rewriting. Learning where to cut and cut again. Building the plot and back story and developing the characters takes a long time. Sometimes when I’m deep in to my story I get really annoyed when the story is not going the way I thought it would.

Writing is organic and grows and shoots in different directions. And sometimes, it stops and I’m blank and think to myself, Oh my God, what now? So I leave it for a few days then when I come back it starts flowing again.

When I started writing I began with women’s fiction, chick lit and romcoms. Then when my life changed direction I came back to it and began writing thrillers and found I loved writing them even more, it is with this genre that I have been successful with publication.

My first thriller (which will be my second book out next year) was rewritten so many times that I was sick to the back teeth of reading it. However, I never gave up on it because I truly believed it was a great story. But I couldn’t place it with anyone.

While that was sitting on my desktop I wrote my second book Behind Closed Doors and found a lot of interest for it and it was finally placed with Ruby Fiction who have been marvellous to work with. When I got that email to say they wanted to publish my book I was so shocked I didn’t know how to feel. Don’t get me wrong, I was delighted, but still thought it would never happen.

It was a surreal experience to be honest after so long trying. I still can’t believe it’s happened. I was ecstatic with happiness and a little overwhelmed.

Then I signed my contract and I could say to the world that I was a real author. Wow, that in itself is a wonderful feeling.

Now that the book is due out in paperback it will feel even more real with an actual book in my hands with my name on it!

My favourite place to write is my office, with a blanket around my knees and a hot water bottle. I know I sound like an old granny, but really, I’m not, it’s just that sitting in one place for long periods of time you get cold. I have the blinds closed for less distractions. My little dog in her basket under the table and my cat squeezed in behind me on my chair.

I tend to lose concentration after about an hour and jump on the internet. I find this helps me clear my thoughts. Then I force myself to get back to work after about twenty minutes. Oh, and I always, always have chocolate nearby. Crackers as this sounds, when I get to a part in the story where I get stuck, having some chocolate helps me work it out! Maybe it’s physiological, but hey-ho, it definitely works for me.

Writing is a lonely world where you live in your mind a lot of the time. Great if you enjoy that sort of thing, lucky for me that I do.

Usually, before I’ve finished the novel I’m writing I’m thinking of my next one and I’m eager to get started, this usually happens when I’m about 60k words into my WIP.

I have a second set of eyes called, Stephen, my partner who reads everything and catches a lot of first, second and third mistakes. It’s great to have that help because when you are so close to a piece of work it’s easy for your brain to see what you want to see and that’s not always what’s written on the page.

I usually do about four drafts before I finish a book. The first is pretty complete because I edit whilst I write.

The second edit starts when I’m about half way through the first! Here I re-read from the beginning and tie up what I need to carry forward any changes into the second half of the book. It is here I alter the structure if the story has changed direction along the way, which usually happens.

The third edit is when the book is finished and I put it to one side after giving it to my guy to read and do a small edit. Sometimes I waffle and he cuts that out, but I’m getting better at it.

Then I start on my next book and when I’m half way through I set that aside and re-read my previous book. I read it, edit and line edit myself and check that all timelines, names, occurrences, etc, are all correct. Then I send it back to my guy who by this time is so fed up of the story I have to bribe him with dinner at a fancy restaurant. LOL.

The fourth edit takes place after my second set of eyes sends it back. Here I read the book very quickly. If all is good, and it usually is by then, I send it straight to my publisher. Then I get back to my WIP and it all starts again.

I love it! All good fun!

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Sadie Ryan is a British author with two grown up children, she lives with her daughter, adorable rescue dog and cat in a small village in leafy Cheshire in the North West of England. She writes psychological suspense/domestic noir novels. She has completed three psychological suspense/domestic noir novels and is currently writing her fourth. Her first book, Behind Closed Doors, was snapped up by publishers Ruby Fiction and published in May 2019. Her second will be out in March 2020. When asked where she gets her ideas from, she says, ‘From observation, inspiration and lots of wicked thoughts.’

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

She’s in your house, now she wants your life …

Tina Valentine has it all: the loving family, the beautiful house, the successful career.

But then Megan Pearson starts work at Tina’s law firm and with her arrival the perfect world Tina has built for herself starts to collapse as it becomes clear that the newcomer is intent on infiltrating every aspect of her life.

Something is obviously wrong with Megan but nobody else seems to see it. As the mind games and manipulations continue, Tina comes to the sickening conclusion that now she’s opened the door to Megan, it’s going to be impossible to make her leave …

Praise for Behind Closed Doors:
~ Gripping from the start and truly gets into your head as good psychological novels do.
~ I loved the pace of this story – it draws you in and plays with your mind! A cracking thriller!
~ Yay for twisty thrillers!! And this is another fabulously gripping read that I haven’t been able to put down since starting it, as I was just eager to find out what would happen next and how it would all end! And the twists didn’t let me down!
~ Behind Closed Doors is a compulsive read. The author, Sadie Ryan has written an excellent thriller with an surprising ending that took me totally by surprise. Highly recommended.

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing