Step Away From Your Comfort Zone

By Beverley Harvey

For the last month, my writing has stalled. Spectacularly. It’s not time, opportunity or commitment that I lack, it’s motivation and self-belief. 

Like myriad writers, I am prone to introspection, anxiety and low self-esteem. No sympathy required here; I count myself lucky that I manage these personality traits – and that they do not manage me. However, it does mean that I have to push myself hard and set realistic goals and achievable targets.

Regardless, my writing habit is strong and on a good day, feeling wildly optimistic, I can fly through 1,200 words – and words that I still like the next day – other times, just conjuring 500 can be a colossal challenge. Nevertheless, I keep chipping away and so far I’ve managed to write and publish two novels in this way. 

So why now do I find myself mired by indecision about whether to finish my Work in Progress or not? 

Since January this year I’ve been working on my first psychological thriller and have even completed the first two drafts. It has a beginning, a middle and an end; a fully formed plot and a great setting; a mid-point twist and some red herrings along the way. The characters are warm, flawed, annoying and well-intentioned and the villain is well, villainous – but with a sympathetic side to his nature that messes with the reader’s loyalty. So far so good. So why the sudden, seismic loss of nerve? 

Trying to figure out the answer, I’ve thought of little else recently. What is stopping me from finishing Book Three, and from shutting down the sneaky, vindictive little voice whispering in my ear, telling me to down tools because I am not a writer and never will be? 

Here’s what I’ve come up with – and apologies in advance if it sounds trite – but I wonder if I have tried to leave the safety of the cave too early in my writing journey. Whether I should have stuck to familiar turf and written another domestic drama as part of the Eden Hill series, following on from Seeking Eden and the sequel, Eden Interrupted, thereby creating a trilogy. 

In short, am I too far from my comfort zone? 

I wrote my debut, Seeking Eden, with the words ‘write what you know’ ringing in my ears. It was great advice and I ripped through it, barely able to contain my excitement as the fictitious new town of Eden Hill came to life and the players became as vivid to me as friends and family. It felt like a natural fit; after all, I’d based Eden Hill on the prosperous new suburb where I’d lived for several years, and as an avid people watcher, my characters were an amalgam of friends and acquaintances that I’d met throughout my adult life. 

When I wrote the sequel, I had a ready-made location and a central cast whom readers seemed to love. This time the task was to create and integrate new characters and come up with fresh plotlines for the residents of Eden Hill. Things slowed down a bit and I struggled more with Eden Interrupted; partly because now there was an expectation, but I also tortured myself that readers wouldn’t take to the new characters in the way they had embraced the old. And on it went…but eventually the job got done and the book was published. 

Somewhere between filing my final draft with Urbane Publications, and Eden Interrupted becoming a physical book, keen to fill the void, I’d started something else. Something different; dark, twisty, unpredictable. 

This time, I have no publisher and am writing on spec, hopeful (deluded perhaps?) that my finished manuscript will blow somebody’s socks off enough to take a chance on me. It’s a big ask and I know the odds of this happening are slim. 

Moreover, writing my first psychological thriller feels like a big deal and the process very different. Because whereas my Eden Hill novels were character driven, Book Three is plot driven; a completely different skill set that I was unprepared for and had hugely underestimated. 

My WiP has tested and stretched me in a way I had not anticipated when I started at the beginning of the year. A major challenge for me has been marrying up the timelines of the past and present – something that had not come up before as my previous novels are linear, spanning calendar years in chronological order. 

And so, tentatively, haltingly, I created a first draft. I was unconvinced. Did it work as a concept? Would the characters resonate with readers? Did it even make sense? Then I fiddled with the timeline, tweaked it some more and called it my second draft. And then…deep breath. I handed it to a beta reader. Granted, that person is also my partner, but I begged him to be brutal in order to spare me future humiliation at the hands of agents and publishers. 

And guess what? He liked it. It took him three days to read – and yes there are flaws and inconsistencies to sort, but his belief in me as a writer has been upheld. So now I am back in the saddle, determined to finish what I’ve started – with or without the support of a publisher or an agent in my corner. 

*

About Beverley Harvey

From a tender age, a diet of Enid Blyton ignited Beverley Harvey’s love of fiction and she’s been reading ever since – albeit her tastes are more varied these days. She’s been a receptionist, a PA, a PR, a media consultant, a copywriter and a dog walker; all roles which helped inspire Seeking Eden, Beverley’s debut novel (Urbane Publications, 2017) and the sequel, Eden Interrupted (Urbane Publications, 2019). 

Born in Yorkshire, but raised in Kent, Beverley currently lives in Chichester, Sussex, with her partner and their naughty terrier. Currently, she writes about domestic drama and family life: Her motto is “there’s no such thing as an ‘ordinary person’ and everyone is the star of their own show”.

Follow her on Twitter @BevHarvey_

Or visit : http://www.beverleyharvey.co.uk/ 

—

EDEN INTERRUPTED

90s popstar Ben Wilde and his bride Lisa return from honeymoon to find a cuckoo in the nest and a surprise European tour in the diary. Lisa befriends neighbour Rosemary, who is also home alone while husband Nigel travels for work. But will the women’s grim suspicions be confirmed, or does absence make the heart grow paranoid? In the village, Eden Hill’s coffee shop is under new management with the arrival of divorced Mum, Chloe, and troubled teen son, Jake.

But serving flat whites leaves Chloe feeling, well, flat – until she meets Caleb, a widowed father of two; if only Jake and Caleb weren’t at loggerheads. New to Eden Hill are Jan and Martin Bevan, but a frosty reception leaves them wondering if they’ve made a huge mistake. From the writer of Seeking Eden, Eden Interrupted is another sizzling slice-of-life drama where paths (and swords) cross, and misunderstandings abound. Perfect for fans of Fiona Gibson and Marian Keyes.

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips