The Trick to Getting Published

By Ruby Speechley

Disclaimer: There is no trick, no magic formula.

But there’s always a way.

Early influences

At three years old, before I could even read, my parents bought me a stack of hardback books by Enid Blyton. The brightly coloured characters on the covers were so enticing! I can still recall my deep frustration as I whined and cried, ‘Read them to me.’ With a smile on his face, my Dad refused, saying I’d have to learn to read myself. It felt harsh at the time, but he’d planted the seed of a life-long love of books. 

My childhood was packed full of adventures: travelling to Portugal by train aged seven, exploring historic buildings and monuments like Stonehenge and the Uffington White Horse, Wookey Hole caves and digging for fossils at Folkestone. We visited graveyards, exhibitions, art galleries and I spent long hot summers in the Algarve and Lisbon with my Portuguese family.

Whether in England or Portugal, I never quite fit in, but I absorbed everything around me and wrote stories the moment I learned to write. I still mine this rich seam of memories today. I was particularly drawn to life’s little secrets and mysteries, often fuelled by my Dad. On holiday, we’d go for long walks on cliff tops or beaches and make up stories. What if that funny smell in the front room at home was a body under the floorboards? What could be in the jewellery box that had belonged to his long dead relative? (We never did find the key!)

Other early influences were TV dramas, films and books: Rebecca, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Beau Geste, An Inspector Calls and Agatha Christie, amongst many others. Everything that sparked my interest had a dark thread running through it.

Always improving

In The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, she recommends topping up your creative juices by going to a new place every week (an Artist’s date) as part of your writing routine. I find this important, even if I can only manage it once every month or two. I take a notebook and pencil with me everywhere. Yes, really. When I go somewhere new, my senses become heightened. I notice the surroundings I’m not familiar with. I see people in new ways. I love watching people’s behaviour, the tiniest gesture can allude to a whole story.

When I first took my writing more seriously, I followed the exercises in Natalie Goldberg’s, Writing Down the Bones. I built up notebooks full of free writing, ‘composting ideas’ as she calls it, while gradually finding my confidence.

I moved on to courses to learn more, see what people thought of my work. I left my failing marriage and chopped my long hair short. This was the beginning of my new life. I plucked up the courage to go on my first Arvon Foundation course at Lumb Bank (I’d always thought it was for ‘other’ people, not for someone like me). It was a truly life changing week. I found my voice at last in the form of small vignettes, a collection of strange characters.

One day I happened to be sitting in the raised gardens when an artist came to sketch out a painting commissioned by Arvon’s founders. He kindly asked me if I minded being in it. I felt as though my fate was sealed. I knew that however long it took, writing was what I was destined to do. I was pretty useless at everything else!

Building resilience

I visited Lumb Bank several times after and there I was, the lonely figure in the painting, which hung on the wall of the barn or in the dining room. Perhaps it would turn out to be a curse. Was I fooling myself that I could be a published writer? I decided to enjoy every moment anyway, take as long as I needed because I loved writing and studying the craft. I firmly believe you can never stop improving.

But doubts still crowded in. Encouraging words from tutors and writers at key moments have kept me going. I can’t emphasise enough how important these crumbs were to me. When I had a crisis of confidence halfway through my MA in Writing for instance, my tutor kindly passed on a comment about my submission from one of the external markers, a top literary agent. He said I had a storytelling instinct which other writers with higher marks, did not have. I clung to these words for years as proof that I should carry on.

I started to have a few small successes with short fiction, and I used competition deadlines to push me to complete the next draft of my novel. Even if I wasn’t longlisted, nothing was wasted. I’d sulk for maybe an hour or two then use the rejection to spur me on to improve. A successful businessman once told me that nothing worth doing is easy, and we can always achieve more than we think we can.

Winning the Retreat West short story competition in 2014, followed by winning their First Chapter competition in 2015, was a huge moment for me. Agents began to take notice of my submissions. I tried not to take rejections personally, because they’re not personal, but it was difficult sometimes. Competitions and Agents have high standards for a reason and being rejected can be a sign that your novel needs more work. Push on.

Belief

Eventually, despite all the rejections and failings, I believed in myself and my work. By the time I signed with my agent, I’d written and edited three novels. 

Finally, it’s my time. And yours will come too if this is your dream, because the trick to becoming published is a love of writing, hard work, persistence and belief. 

—

Ruby Speechley graduated from Sheffield Hallam university with an MA in Creative Writing. She is a Faber Academy alumna and prolific writer whose work has been longlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction prize, Exeter Novel Prize, The Caledonia Novel Award, The Bath Novel Award, and has won the Retreat West First Chapter Competition and Best Opening Chapter at the Festival of Writing in York.

Twitter: @rubyspeechley

Facebook: Ruby Speechley Author

Instagram: rubyjtspeechley

 SOMEONE ELSE’S BABY

She gave away her children. Now she wants them back.

Charlotte Morgan knows how it feels to desperately want a baby. As a child, seeing her mum devastated by losing her longed-for babies, Charlotte wished another woman could give her mother what she so craved.

Now Charlotte’s a mum herself, and knowing how much love her daughter, Alice, brings into her life, she vows to help others achieve their dreams of becoming a parent.

When she meets Malcolm and Brenda on a surrogacy website, it seems she’s found the perfect couple. In their late forties, they have wealth and an enviable life, but there’s one thing missing – a child of their own.

When Charlotte falls pregnant with twins, the pair are overjoyed. And while Charlotte’s heart breaks as she hands them over, her reward is knowing how much happiness the two tiny babies are going to bring into their life.

But are Malcolm and Brenda all they seem? As secrets become unravelled, Charlotte is forced to face that she has given her children to virtual strangers. And when Malcolm and Brenda disappear without a trace, Charlotte is plunged into a frantic search for the babies she carried – before it’s too late…

A gripping psychological thriller with a heart stopping ending – readers of The Wife Between Us, Rachel Abbott and C.L Taylor will not want to put this down…

 

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: How To and Tips, On Publishing