After the first million - and how I rewrote history

I've blogged today over at the Romantic Novelists' Association Blog about the process of tweaking my first novel for republication...and what I've learned by writing a million or so words in six years...

Read the post here.

A couple of great writerly things...

As my own blogs are rather few and far between now, here are two cool links:

This is an excellent programme about writing and getting published, The Write Lines, on Radio Oxford: hosted by author and broadcaster Sue Cook, with contributions from the very talented Marie Phillips, Elizabeth Chadwick, Caroline Smailes, Mark Billingham and others (I'm halfway through listening, so apologies if I've missed anyone) - but hurry, as it's only available for the rest of today, I think. But there are three more programmes coming up.

Secondly, this is a blog I wish I'd written, by fellow New Romantic Sarah Duncan - it's pithy and smart and insightful, just like Sarah herself.

On being a debutante again...

It astonishes me that I’ve now been a published author for more than six years. How can time pass so darned fast? I’ve been looking back because this week my first novel, Old School Ties, is being republished (in a new, hopefully improved form).

On September 3 2003 Old School Ties Version 1.0 was launched upon the world to general indifference. Well, maybe not indifference, but I can’t pretend I turned out to be one of the hot new debuts of the year (despite my excitement at being picked for the WH Smith Fresh Talent selection, and my positive review in the Congleton Chronicle). I was anything but indifferent myself, of course, and my friends and family and publishers and agent and work colleagues (and the random strangers I told on the bus) were excited for me.

Like most debutantes, I was hoping to be the belle of the bookshop ball. I dreamed that writing might become a ‘career’ but the signs weren’t tremendously hopeful. I didn’t get a life-changing advance, I didn’t have Richard Curtis chasing me through the streets of Notting Hill to buy the film rights (he wouldn’t have had to chase me very far, I only lived in Shepherd’s Bush), and I had the kind of mortgage that made the idea of giving up the day job laughable. Seeing my name in print was a slightly bittersweet experience – utterly thrilling, but a little disappointing all the same when I didn’t hit the bestseller list. I guess the trouble with all writers is that we have vivid imaginations when it comes to picturing our likely overnight success...

But despite the lack of posters on the Underground, something fundamental changed for me that year. I know it’s the most awful cliché, but becoming an author was a dream come true. And how many dreams come true in a lifetime? I had been published – now I was going to do everything I could to STAY published.

Although I didn’t realise it at the time, in many ways I was lucky not to have had the headline grabbing book deal, because the less a publisher pays for a book, the lower their expectations! When debut authors are paid squillions up-front and then don’t sell many books, their failure is high profile. When a debut author who hasn’t been paid much and has had no celebrity kiss-n-tell tie-in or media profile, goes on to sell respectably, then they stay ‘promising.’

My quest to ‘go pro’ involved plenty of sleepless nights. The deadlines kept me awake, but so did the decisions about which book idea to write next, whether to change publisher, whether I would ever be able to regard writing as more than a fun hobby.

And then, three years ago, I became a full-timer. It’s still a tremendous thrill to me to earn my living this way. Of course, as with any job, there are brilliant days and less brilliant ones – in this recession, it’s nail-biting time whenever a book is published: authors are judged by their last set of sales figures. Finding out that one store hasn’t stocked your latest book can fuel all those writerly insecurities, even if another store has ordered twice as many as last time. Google Alerts seemed like a good idea when I set them up, and yet they have a nasty habit of bringing the most cutting reviews of my latest books to my inbox in the morning (and somehow those are so much harder to forget than the nice comments).

But I feel incredibly lucky, and grateful, to everyone who has taken a chance on my books – people in the publishing world, booksellers and, most important of all, readers.

I’m hoping to be around to celebrate my tenth ‘author birthday’ and my twentieth and thirtieth and the rest...but the truth is, being published is not something any author can take for granted. What I do believe is that anyone who writes, whether it’s that first short story, or the thirtieth bestseller, has to focus on ‘quality control’. That means writing the best book you can, whatever the genre or style, and then editing it until you’re sick of the sight of it. And then editing it several more times.

That's what I've done with Old School Ties - The Director's Cut. I went back to the book and made literally thousands of tiny changes. I'll be posting about that soon - but suffice it to say, it was possibly the toughest writing task I've ever undertaken. I just felt that having learned a bit more about editing and story-telling over the last few years, I owed it to the book, and potential readers, to apply those lessons. It's still the same story, and it's still a light comedy with a dark edge - but I hope it's now a better read.

Being a debutante was fun. But though I look back on my launch party with fond memories, I’m happy to be where I am now – with seven published novels, and another one in progress. In the frenzied world of 3 for 2s and e-book piracy and mid-list meltdown, story-telling still matters and it’s the only thing we writers have real control over. I’m doing nanowrimo (say hello to me, I’m Caffeinefuelledwriter) but, boy, that is just the beginning. Long after November is over, I will be rewriting and slashing and then tweaking and tearing my hair out and tweaking again.

Join me. You have nothing to lose but your adverbs.

Where did the time go? (en welkom op mijn Nederlandse lezers)

Veronica, Jojo, Sue, Matt, Me at Guildford Festival

Bless me, dear blog-readers, for it's been six weeks since my last blog post. And I have probably sinned a lot. Though in truth it's hard to remember quite what I've been up to. I know that I had another book published (The Secret Shopper Unwrapped), ate and drank rather too much to celebrate its birth, went to the marvellous Mostly Books in Abingdon to talk vampires vs nice guys (a very lovely event indeed!), gave a workshop about writing romantic comedy with the wonderful Matt Dunn at the always fabulous Guildford Book Festival, followed by a talk with fellow New Romantics and dazzlingly glam writers Veronica Henry and Jojo Moyes (see picture above, with birthday girl Sue Locke in the centre ), caught up with some lovely friends, and a whole lot I have almost certainly forgotten...

The Secret Shopper's Revenge has also been published in Holland, which is a big deal for me, as I spent three years in the Netherlands as a child. I adore the cover (and her eyes are exactly the same colour as mine, weird!)... though I am confused about the title, Koopwoede. I think it means Shopping Spree, but I'm not 100 per cent certain, despite Google Translate: it's quite sad, actually, as further evidence of how poor my memory is, because I went to school in Holland and once spoke the language fluently.

Maybe it's time for me to learn it again, although as I am currently learning Spanish from scratch, that seems a high risk strategy. Anyway, if you're reading this from Holland (and particularly if you're near Rijswijk or Nieuwkoop, where we lived), then HALLO!

So, what next? Well, the 'director's cut' of Old School Ties is out in two weeks, and I'd love to know what you think. I will post soon about the process of rewriting my first book. I've also embarked on Secret Shopper 3 (haven't chosen a title yet), due for publication in early 2011 (oh, I do hope I don't jinx my progress by mentioning it...).

I will try to be back soon, but if you've read this blog a few times, you know what I am like... However, I'll be hosting the very, very talented Cally Taylor, author of Heaven Can Wait, on her extensive blog tour very soon, and if you're craving other stuff, try my Read Like a Writer Blog for a new post by another tremendous debut novelist, Jessica Ruston.

All that's left to say for now, then, is... tot ziens!

Autumnal greetings

Doesn’t time fly? Well, it does here. After months of sunshine, it definitely feels like back to school here in Barcelona at the moment. The last two days have been dark and gloomy and stormy (I felt very at home) but phew, the sun’s out again today!

It’s only two weeks now until The Secret Shopper Unwrappedis published in the UK, with a gorgeous seasonal cover. This, my dears, is the right colour – the pinky/purply design on most websites hasn’t been updated, it looked pretty on the page but rather sickly once printed up, so this new sparkly version is what you’ll be seeing in the shops (actually, I haven’t seen a copy yet but I am assured it looks just right...nail-biting stuff).

You can read the first chapter here on my main website... I've had some terrific response to the first book, and my editor loves this sequel, but I am still nervous and hope people enjoy it as much. I’ll be telling you more about the book – and about the work I’ve been doing on Old School Ties, my first novel, which is being re-published in November – in the next few posts, but meanwhile, I wanted to bring you up to date on some events.

I’m going to be appearing with three more of The New Romantics at the Guildford Book Festival on October 22 . Here’s the info:

Out with the Old in with The New Romantics, October 22, Guildford Library

What’s love got to do with it? The rise and rise of the literary love story.
Bestselling novelists Matt Dunn, Kate Harrison, Veronica Henry and Jojo Moyes present an evening devoted to the portrayal of passion on the page. As founders of the New Romantics, a group of authors dedicated to fiction with a happy ending, the four writers share their favourite novels, discuss the art of the love scene, and debate why British readers buy love stories by the million, but feel ashamed to be seen reading one in public.

On the same day, Matt and I will be running a workshop:

Boy Meets Girl: Writing Romantic Comedy
Guildford Library, North Street • 2.30pm-4.30pm
Best-selling novelists Matt Dunn and Kate Harrison lead you through the essential ingredients of writing love stories with a comic element - and then explore how to find an original angle to make your book stand out in this hugely popular, but very competitive genre. They’ll discuss titles, twists and the art of the satisfying ending.

I’m also going to be at a terrific Halloween themed event at Mostly Books in Abingdon on October 20 – when we’re asking whether Twilight has got its fangs into chick lit and killed it off. I’ll be talking there with author Victoria Connelly and discussing how to get published, how we write, and our novels generally.

Finally, if you missed out on the women’s fiction course I ran with the lovely Louise Voss earlier this summer, there’s an advanced course lined up for next March. I’ll be posting more soon, but here’s the basic information:

From Marian Keyes to Jodi Picoult and Lisa Jewell, women’s fiction is wide-ranging and vibrant – and publishers are always looking for new voices to entertain, amuse and move readers. This course offers workshops+feedback on the essentials of writing for this genre. Building on Head over Heels 2009, Kate Harrison, (seven successful novels in the genre), covers generating original ideas, developing compelling characters, key elements of structure and story-telling, and approaching publishers/agents with your work.
15th, 16th, 17th, 18th March 2010, 6pm – 9pm

So, plenty to keep me busy there, eh? Happy Autumn! May your leaves stay golden brown and never curl up!

Butterfly mind... (and Day 28 of the rather unsuccessful writing challege)

OK, maybe butterfly mind is too flattering a description. Maybe a more accurate one would be: concentration span somewhere between that of a gnat and a goldfish.

That's not to say I haven't been working on the YA idea. I have. I've passed 20,000 words now, but more importantly, I've fleshed out how it could work over more than one book. But with no deadline beyond my self-imposed one, my gnatfish brain has been looking for other sources of stimulation (it always happens at 20,000 words). And I have found it in the form of a NEW blog:

http://readlikeawriter.blogspot.com

where I am reviewing books, well, from the point of view of a writer: what I have learned about style, structure and storytelling (and other things not beginning with S) from reading the best-sellers.

I'd love to see you over there: there are already reviews for The Return, What a Carve Up! AND How NOT to Write a Novel. I am also welcoming guest posts so if you've learned a lot from a novel or non-fiction book, leave a comment and I will send you the info about contributing.

I suppose I ought to get round to doing some paid for writing at some point soon, eh?

Day um...is it 13 of the crazy writing challenge?

I know, I know, I went quiet again. I had proofs to go through on The Secret Shopper Unwrapped which took longer than expected, and then copy edits on my rewrites of my first novel, Old School Ties.

I've just finished both which is a huge relief and that means I can devote the rest of August to my Experiment (well, and to sunbathing and getting my fat writer's bum to the gym). Clearly I was a bit deranged believing that I could write an entire novel in two weeks, but hey, a girl's gotta be ambitious...

Day 2 of Kate's crazy novel challenge - and a question about speed-writing

OK, so far I'm at 6,016 words and still enjoying it. The test will come at 10K which is where the whole 'oh, this really is becoming harder work' moment usually hits.

In the comments section, Captain Black said: I can't speak from experience, never having tried NaNoWriMo, but from what I've seen so far, I don't think I'm a believer. I'm sure it's great writing exercise but other than that I don't see how anything that's essentially rushed is likely to be good enough to publish. I speak for myself, of course, as I have little natural talent and have to work very hard at my writing.I draw a parallel between this sort of thing and speed rock climbing. Getting to the top is the challenge but doing it faster at the risk of safety seems pointless.Is there some other external driving force behind your speed-writing challenge, or is it just for fun? In any case, I wish you good luck with it.

I found this a very interesting post, and I wondered what others thought? I know that for me, though I do enjoy the writing, it's the ideas that motivate me, the chance to explore and grow something from a tiny 'what if' moment. So I want to maximise the burst of enthusiasm that goes with beginning a new project...

In terms of 'publishability', I do edit a great deal after a fast first draft, but I am not sure that I edit significantly more than I would after a slow first draft. I've never tried to write a novel - even a short one, more of a novella, I guess - in a fortnight before and I admit it is bonkers, but in answer to the Captain's question about whether there's an external driving force, well, yes, there are severak:

1. I've had this idea for ages, it's quite high concept, I want to do it in case someone else thinks of it.

2. I am trying several new things for me with this project - I am usually a serious planner, but this time I am writing in very short chapters and seeing where the story takes me. It's very much an experiment to see whether that method might work or whether it will tie me in knots. Likewise, writing YA fiction is new, but I believe this idea absolutely fits that age group, and I'd like to see whether I have it in me to carry it off. Finally, the story itself is very different in tone: it does not have the 'happy-ish ever after or at least for now' ending that most of my adult fiction has.

3. For the reasons in 2. above, I want to get as far as I can as fast as I can, to see whether it's working. Basically, I have an income from my adult books that I wouldn't want to jeopardise by focusing on something speculative for too long... I have, in a slightly 'management training' David Brent-esque way, a whiteboard with my year's projects on it. My novels under contract are A category, i.e. the priority, and then I give myself a B category to run alongside the A stuff - B projects have the potential either to challenge me, or bring income, or both, and they're to be done when I'm waiting for edits to be returned, or if I am not too exhausted by meeting the day's word count for the current A project. So this is a B... (I also have a C stream, and that's for any mulling time OR for when I am very cheesed off with both A & B projects). C stream projects don't tend to progress very fast...

4. And the time limit is because in two weeks I have a set of proofs and a set of copy edits for two separate books coming home to roost, and they are top priority, as they're for books out in October and November. So if I can get Project B well underway by then, all the better.

How do YOU juggle different projects? Or am I alone in wanting to write lots of different things at the same time?

A challenge to myself

Can I write a novel in two weeks?

Not a full length novel, I hasten to add, but an idea that has been bubbling away somewhere in the recesses of my brain for a year or more. It's more of a dark YA idea, very different to what I usually write, and it would probably end up at around 50,000 words, a NaNoWriMo kind of novel. To be honest, I probably need to get it out of my system, whether it ever has a hope of publication or not.

But two weeks?

Today I started it and managed 3646 words, in wonderfully short, snappy chapters. My calculator tells me that if I write that many words for 14 days, then I will get to 51,000 words.

Hmmm. I might run a sweepstake with myself.

Broadbanded in Barcelona

OK. You may have noticed I've been gone for a while. But now I am back online, wirelessed up and ready to go.

Where to begin? Well, we’re living in Barcelona! I don’t know how long for, exactly, so it’s not exactly emigration (can you emigrate if it’s only two hours’ flight away?) but it is very exciting indeed.

Things went like this: boyfriend’s job ceased to exist due to recession. He’s never been to uni, or had a gap year, fancied trying something different, and I am very lucky that I can work from anywhere. We had been to Barcelona several times, loved it, know people out here, liked the idea of sunshine and tapas and a break from gloomy headlines…

And here we are. In the last six weeks, we’ve had our challenges, including facing imminent homelessness due to extreme trickiness of finding a good place for us and the teenaged cat (yes, we couldn’t bear to leave her in the UK). Said cat has also suffered catastrophic allergy to Frontline, needing treatment by possibly the best-looking vet/vet nurse duo in the world. Honestly, if I was a Mills & Boon writer, I would have had my next story there now. After enduring an Iberia flight sitting in a basket on my lap (actually the flight was fine, though being pounced on at Heathrow security in case she was a bomb cat was alarming), and living in a pet-friendly hotel, we hoped she would settle. Alas, no. Frontline made all her neck hair fall out and she is now locked into a self-harming cycle of ‘skin heals/skin itches/cat must scratch with back legs’ that would probably justify a series of misery memoirs if she was human. But she’s still here and seems to be enjoying herself otherwise.

We have both embarked on Spanish courses (me and boyf, not me and cat) and though it’s humiliating being trumped by fifteen-year-olds with better recall, we’re getting there slowly. I love languages, but it’s much harder now than it was when I was at school. Also tricky as the main language of Barcelona isn’t Castilian, but Catalan, a kind of wild combo of French, Spanish and other fab words with lots of Xs in them.

Oh, and the admin is a challenge, but a good challenge – the other day I had to return a parcel to amazon (don’t get me started, but I will never buy an Acer computer again, as it failed within 20 hours of receipt) and the Post Office conversation was worthy of Basil Fawlty. Then again, the sense of achievement at getting my Foreigner’s Number was very significant indeed.

We have also (so far) survived the ordeal by Possessed Washing Machine (think Stephen King). Said washer seems desperate to escape, so last weekend it walked across the terrace, and in its bid for freedom, flooded everywhere, fell flat on its face and almost electrocuted boyf. It never walks when we’re watching, of course, so we now take a glass of vino tinto in there for the whole cycle, just in case…surprisingly relaxing. The Zen of Laundry.

We now have a lovely temporary apartment in el Born, the most gorgeous part of the city (in my opinion), right opposite a market built in 1876, which is absolutely inspirational.

In other news:

• I didn’t win the Melissa Nathan award, but I had a fab time as a short-listee and got the most gorgeous runner-up trophy.
• We’re currently planning the next New Romantics event, a panel plus a short course at the Guildford Festival, and I will post details when it's all confirmed.
• The New Romantics are also now on Twitter!
• Secret Shopper Unwrapped is all done and dusted, and due out on October 1, which is also Super Thursday. Apparently that’s the day all the books by the Big Guns of fiction come out too, so I do hope it doesn’t get trampled in the rush, as it’s apparently quite good, according to my editor and agent!
• I’m also considering running writing weekends out here in Barcelona, as the place is so inspirational and flights so incredibly reasonable – if it’s something you might fancy, then do please leave a comment, it’d be good to know what level of interest there might be…
• I’m also going to be teaching a sequel to the Head over Heels course at Kingston University in March 2010, with all new material and lots of time for workshopping and feedback. More info soon.

Anyway, that’s me for now. I will be posting much more often, because we have broadband again, hoorah! Coming soon: the challenge of rewriting my first novel for re-publication (Old School Ties, the Director’s Cut), plus other tales from the city of tapas and tasty vets.

Hasta pronto!

Kate x