"No, actually, writing EVERY book is extremely painful!"

 

As I sit here working on my 30th novel and slowly inching my way out of the mid-way point, it suddenly feels important to put the work in progress to one side and write this post...

Why??

I need to share you with, lovely Readers, just how darn hard writing novels can be! Over the years, I have been asked 'So, what's the formula?' or 'So, you just write anything and hope it sticks, right?' or sometimes it's not even a question at all...'Once you've written one novel, you can write a hundred. That's what I've heard.'

These have all been asked or said to me at some point (on numerous occasions) since I started writing over 17 years ago and every time I find it incredibly difficult to keep an amiable expression on my face when I respond with, 'No, actually, writing EVERY book is extremely painful!'

Then the next question is inevitably a surprised or dismissive, 'Then why do it?'

That, lovely Readers, is the ultimate problem if you want to do something so badly at the beginning that you try and try until you succeed, then on the back of your glowing achievement, you think you'll try again - write another book. That's when you realise it's not going to be any easier than writing the first, but the need to write has well and truly got you. There's no going back!

Which is where I find myself again this morning - my latest book is set in the court of Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra and I am discovering my so good plan is not so good after all. Oh, the joy! BUT to give up is not an option, to throw away the 55,000 words I have written and start again COULD be an option but one that will make me curl up into a ball, rock back and forth with my thumb in my mouth and mewl like an injured kitten...not a pretty sight.

So, the only option is (as with all things ever worth fighting for) to push on - push through to find the words that won't come, push through to believe the character you had in mind when you started could also find his or her way into another book or push through because maybe - just maybe - your work isn't quite as dire as you think it is right now!

Now whether my pain surprises you or not, I can promise you there isn't a writer on the planet who will not read this and nod along with complete understanding - writing is painful but, good lord, is it worth it! So, if you are an aspiring writer, keep going - you've got this. If you're a reader, know that it is highly unlikely your favourite author will throw in the towel any time soon!

I, for one, love my job and will keep writing for as long as my lovely Readers want my books! Okay, I'm heading back in...

Rachel x

Download my latest release, A VERY MODERN MARRIAGE, today - here's the blurb & buy link:

He needs a wife...
Manchester industrialist William Rose was a poor lad from the slums who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, but in order to achieve his greatest ambitions he must become the epitome of Victorian respectability: a family man.

She has a plan...
But the only woman who's caught his eye is sophisticated beauty Octavia Marshall, one of the notorious ladies of Carson Street. Though she was once born to great wealth and privilege, she's hardly respectable, but she's determined to invest her hard-earned fortune in Mr Rose's mills and forge a new life as an entirely proper businesswoman.

They strike a deal that promises them both what they desire the most, but William's a fool if he thinks Octavia will be a conventional married woman, and she's very much mistaken if she thinks the lives they once led won't follow them wherever they go.

In the third instalment of Rachel Brimble's exciting Victorian saga series, The Ladies of Carson Street will open the doors on a thoroughly modern marriage – and William is about to get a lot more than he bargained for...

 

BUY: https://geni.us/xa9ln5