Committing!

Hello!

Happy Thursday!

Ready for commitment?

Introducing Peter Twohig!

I wrote a novel, and it took me four years. In that time I was working full time. I was writing about 4,000 words a month. But I was aware that the novel was taking second place, and that was not what I wanted. So I took a stand. I became a full-time writer with a part-time job.

My next novel took me one month to write. I wrote about 3,500 words a day. It found an agent, and my agent sold it to HarperCollins. Now I have to take myself seriously, because so many others do. There’s no motivation like respect.

My writing workload has since increased, not so much in wordage -- I think that would not be possible -- but in quality and commitment. I am now working on a the second draft of a nonfiction book (120,000 words and writing), the second draft of a novel (114,000) and the first draft of a novel (44,000 so far). I am also maintaining a blog for writers. In the present context, I am committed to: excellence in writing and becoming financially dependent on writing alone.

So how do I maintain the balance between writing and the rest of my life? That’s easy. My commitment puts writing first. It means for the time being doing casual work I’d rather not be doing. It means taking the train to work and back (an hour and a quarter each way) so that I can write on the train (a possible 2,000 words). But I’m not obsessed (though I’m not sure about that…) and I do make sure that I get time off to eat (one meal a day), sleep, swim and ride my motor bike (an hour every Sunday morning to the beach and back). I catch up with friends (mainly in coffee shops, where, if they turn up late, I can catch up on my writing).

To help me maintain the balance, I write as efficiently as possible, having bought myself to touch-type at 60 wpm. I have a most excellent MacBook Pro with an 18” screen, a 27” Mac cinema display for all my work at home, the best possible writing, word processing, database and book planning software. I also have an agent who does a heap of work for me, and I am a member of writing organisations.

The only potential problem is communication with my non-writing friends. The trick is to maintain social networking, email, and Skype a lot.

So you can see that my ‘balance’ is little skewed in the direction of writing. But I have good advice here. it is this: commit to your writing, and you will attract friends and contacts you never knew were out there to help  and to be your friend. When you succeed, your old friends and relatives will be genuinely happy for you. Don’t forget, there are many people out there (and you know some) who secretly harbour a desire to write. They make excuses --I’ve heard them -- but really, the bottom line is, they have not committed.

I guess I don’t intentionally lead a balanced life: I have found that what most people call balance naturally springs from commitment.

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Peter is the author of The Cartographer (Fourth Estate, 2012). 

His author platform is http://petertwohig.com and his writing blog is The Voice of Fiction. Visit also www.thecartographer.com.au.

Every Bit Involved.

Thursdays!

Yes!

Another wonderful post,

by another wonderful author.

Today's featured guest is

Thirza Vallois

I never intended to become a writer, although I had been writing since my childhood — poems, songs, stories, plays (one of which was put up at school). I never thought much of it. Children are naturally creative and experiment in lots of different things before finding their vocation or the chance path of their lives. I suppose I did the same. Once I became an adult I found myself needing to express myself in writing whenever I felt strongly about something. Eventually things became cristallised around France, and Paris in particular, not because Paris is the unique city many people fall in love with, but quite the contrary. I had issues with Paris, because  the place and the people both compelled me and exasperated me. Mistakenly, my readers believe that I was unconditionally in love with Paris. I wasn't. At the time when I wrote my books my feelings were complicated. It was a love-and-hate relationship. Writing about Paris was like going through therapy. I had to understand the French psyche, with all its paradoxes and contradictions. And of course the myths and the mystique.

It took me fifteen solid years to plunge into the psyche of Paris. Almost nothing else mattered during those fifteen years. I was wholly engrossed in and committed to my project. I slept it, I breathed it. It mattered little whether it was day or night, winter or summer. It was my one commitment (obviously it wouldn't have been possible with young children at home). I am pretty sure that without that kind and level of commitment,  I could have never written such books. There can be no concessions. It takes a lot of sweat. And time cannot come into the equation, for the simple reason that writing flows from inspiration. You can't stop that flow; you must keep going,  somewhat like beating  an egg into a mayonnaise, steadily and patiently, adding the oil, drop by drop until the yolk starts thickening. If you stop midway, everything collapses.  You never know beforehand how long it's going to take. Hence the long hours of anxiety that accompany any creative undertaking.

The intensity has since subsided, because my next books were easier ones to write. But there is no vouching what will happen in the future. I write a lot of articles these days, which obviously don't take as much out of me as full-length books do. Yet even an article is a demanding task, even though easier to balance with other activities (and one's own private life). However, I would not express it as "balancing writing with one's 'real' life," because writing IS part of one's real life. The object of writing may be fictional, but the writing itself couldn't be more REAL! Since every bit of us is involved, together with the above-mentioned anxiety, the fear, the responsibility, the frustrations, but also the immense joy.

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 Author Thirza Vallois is an expert on all things Parisian and lectures worldwide on Paris and France. She has lived in Paris  most of her life and holds several post-graduate degrees from the Sorbonne, including the most prestigious agrégation. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed Around and About Paris series, Romantic Paris Aveyron, and A Bridge to French Arcadia. Thirza Vallois has appeared on PBS, BBC, the Travel Channel, the French Cultural Channel, Discovery and CNN and has spoken on radio in the UK, the US and France. She is also the author of the Paris entry to the Encarta Encyclopaedia and contributes regularly to the international press.  Her award-winning Three Perfect Days in Paris story was published in United Airlines' Hemispheres and aired on their international flights. 

No Stone Unturned

Today I'm fortunate to talk with Jeanette A. Fratto.

Author of

“NO STONE UNTURNED” and   “NO GOOD DEED”

Tell me a little about yourself and your writing life.

Jeanette:  I grew up in Michigan but have lived in southern California most of my life, graduating from California State University at Fullerton, with a B.A. and M.A.  I’ve always loved to write short stories, articles, and essays, and have won awards for some of them. It wasn’t until I retired from a 26-year career in probation that I wrote my first novel, NO STONE UNTURNED.  The sequel, NO GOOD DEED, has just been published.

What made you decide to write a novel?

Jeanette:  It seemed to be a logical extension of my writing experience, and a challenge for me to develop a plot and characters that would engage readers. I’m an avid reader, and love mysteries. I decided that would be the genre for me.

Was it difficult to come up with a story line?

Jeanette:   Yes and no. I knew I wanted my story to unfold through the inner workings of the probation department for two reasons. One, when I worked, I realized that few outside the field understood what probation officers did, and what the department did in general; two, mystery writers rarely mention probation, which is an important aspect of the criminal justice system, and if they do, they usually get it wrong. I wanted probation to have its own audience. The harder part was coming up with a plot where my protagonist becomes a probation officer and have it be believable.

How did you finally get there?

Jeanette:  I thought about the many people who want to make a change in their lives and used that premise to bring my protagonist from Michigan, where she was a school teacher, to California, with the promise of a job in publishing. Unfortunately the position doesn’t work out. She decides to stay in California and job hunting leads her into probation, where she finds more than she bargained for. The reader will learn a great deal about a very interesting component of law enforcement, while following an engrossing story line.

I understand you’ve written a sequel. How did that come about?

Jeanette:  The sequel, NO GOOD DEED, is the result of suggestions by many of the readers of my first book for me to continue writing about my main characters. They said they wanted to know more. I listened to them and came up with NO GOOD DEED, which begins about six months after NO STONE UNTURNED ends. It has just been published and is available in paperback, Kindle, the Nook, and an e-book. A synopsis and ordering information can be found on my website: http://outskirtspress.com/nogooddeed Through this website readers can also click on my other title, NO STONE UNTURNED, and proceed to that website for that book’s synopsis and ordering information.

What’s next for you?

Jeanette:  For the next few months I’ll be busy promoting NO GOOD DEED, with book signings, blogging, and any other promotional opportunities that come along. I’m also thinking about whether I want to turn this into a series, in which case I’ll be trying to plot the third book.

Anything else you’d like to let my readers know?

Jeanette:  I’d just like to thank them, and you, for the opportunity to share my writing, and encourage anyone who likes a novel with mystery and romance to check out both NO STONE UNTURNED and NO GOOD DEED. Both are set in southern California, and my probation experience ensures that the reader will get an accurate glimpse into this segment of the criminal justice system. I encourage feedback and can be reached at Bjfratto@aol.com. 

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