This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Jon Rance is the author of This Thirtysomething Life. He's currently working on his second novel Happy Endings, which will be released in August of this year.
Can you tell us a little about your average writing day?
I’m still dreaming about having a writing day. Despite being a full-time writer, I’m also a full-time stay at home Dad, which means I get very little actual writing time. Nap time, evenings, weekends and whatever else I can squeeze it in. What this does mean is that I’m always thinking about it. It’s on my mind twenty-four-seven so when I do get an hour or two free, I’m ready to go. The idea of having writing time, three or four hours a day, five days a week, is the dream and maybe, one day it might come true – probably when both kids are in school. Then, of course, there is the dream of having my own office, but that’s crazy talk.
When you are writing, do you use any famous people or people you know as inspiration?
I don’t think I’ve ever used or even thought about using someone famous as inspiration for a character. I tend to use friends and people I know more because I actually know them. They inspire me. I have used bits of television characters, but they feel more like friends because I know them – at least in my head anyway.
What is your favourite Women’s Fiction book of all time and why?
Wow. A difficult question. I suppose going back I would have to say Jane Austen. I love Pride and Prejudice. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is a book I always end up coming back to as well. Popping back to the present, I’ll read anything by Lisa Jewell and I loved The Pile of Stuff at the Bottom of the Stairs by Christina Hopkinson.
What is your writing process? Do you plan first or dive in? How many drafts do you do?
When I first started writing I was definitely a diver. No question. All I needed was a title, a vague idea, a name for the lead character, some motivation and I was away. I probably rewrote my first book about twenty times as a result. Since then I’ve evolved and now I’m still a bit of a diver, mainly because I love the process of writing, but I plan a bit more than I did at the start. This Thirtysomething Life took under a year to write and only had about ten rewrites. I think writing is a balancing act. Too much planning stifles the creativity, but not enough can lead to problems no amount of creativity can fix. I’m still learning how to get the balance right, but I’m getting better with each book.
What was your journey to being a published author?
A long one. I started writing seriously when I was twenty-eight (I’m now thirty-seven). I spent years talking about it, starting a few novels, writing some short stories, but one day I decided to start taking it seriously. I wrote four novels and sent them all off to agents with great hope, but they were all returned with a big fat “No thanks”. Looking at the books now I can see why.
After I finished my fifth book, This Thirtysomething Life, I decided to do something different and self-publish on Amazon. That was at the start of 2011. I didn’t do much promotion. I just put it online and then cracked on with Happy Endings, my next book. However, in late 2012, for some reason, I decided to do a bit of promotion and after reading a few writers’ blogs, I did the Amazon KDP free promotion for five days. My book got to number one and then just took off after that. I got into the top 100 paid Kindle books on Amazon, the top twenty and then eventually the top ten.
During this time I was contacted by an Editor at Hodder and Stoughton. I was blown away, obviously. This didn’t happen to people like me! We had a few meetings and then eventually they offered me a two book deal. In January of this year, I signed with United Agents, who also approached me and now I have an agent too. All because one day I decided to do the free promotion on Amazon.
What do you think is the biggest myth about being a novelist?
That you will suddenly become very rich and famous. I’m only starting out and my first paperback isn’t out until April, so hopefully the riches and fame are still to come, but when I tell people they seem to think I got paid hundreds of thousands of pounds. I didn’t. And I’m not famous. Writing is a wonderful thing to be able to do. I count my blessings every day that I get to do this for a living. That is enough.
What advice can you give to our readers who want to write a novel of their own?
Start. Nothing else really matters. Don’t spend months and months planning. Don’t talk about it to all and sundry. Just start writing it. Write about eighty thousand words and then type…The End.
Then sit back, be very proud of yourself, have a drink, give it a few days, then read it back. It will probably be awful (mine was), but writing a whole book that has a beginning, middle and an end, once you’ve done it, it takes away some of the pressure. Don’t expect your first book to get published. It probably won’t. Keep writing, keep getting better and then maybe, one day, with a bit of luck, you’ll get a publishing deal too. It takes time, hard work and dedication, but it does happen.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m working on my second novel Happy Endings, which is due out later this year. I presented it to Hodder along with This Thirtysomething Life and they loved it. But it needed some work. After talking with my wonderful editor Harriet for a while and after she gave me some editorial notes, I have just finished rewriting that. It is a lot better because of her.
While my editor and agent read that, I’m working on the follow up to This Thirtysomething Life. It’s called This Family Life and will be my third novel. I literally only started that this week, but I’m very excited about it. There’s nothing quite like starting a new novel.
I also just finished a short (ish) prequel to This Thirtysomething Life, called This Twentysomething Life, which is being released on Thursday March 7th as a FREE eBook to go alongside Thirtysomething and introduce the characters a few years before. It covers the two weeks leading up to their wedding. I loved writing it and I think it’s just as heartwarming and hilarious as This Thirtysomething Life.
Thanks Jon!