This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Rachel Abbott recently made the headlines for selling the millionth copy of one of her first three self-published books. Each book was a number one best seller and her fourth book, Stranger Child, came out at the end of February. Debs recently spoke to Rachel – who lives on the nearby island of Alderney – about her writing, route to publication and writing process.
Can you tell us a little about your average writing day?
I’m not massively enthusiastic about early mornings, which I’m slightly ashamed to admit. If I don’t have a deadline, I don’t set the alarm and just wake up naturally – which I prefer to do. Having said that, I usually wake up about 7.30, so read for about half an hour and then get up. And I start work straight away. I take my coffee and toast to my desk (a really bad practice), and start going through emails, tweets, Facebook messages. I clear those – and then I start writing.
Sometimes I stop to make some lunch – sometimes I even force myself to sit down and eat it away from my desk – but as soon as I’ve finished eating, I’m back again. I quickly check to see if there’s anything that I need to do urgently but then it’s straight back to the exciting stuff – the writing. I normally write until about six, by which time I’m ready to relax.
I am trying to do more away from my desk, though. I’m going to attempt to fit in a Pilates class once a week to give my body a bit of a stretch, and force myself away from my desk to go for a walk most days. I live in a beautiful place, so I have no excuse.
When you are writing, do you use any celebrities or people you know as inspiration?
Not their personalities – but I may use their photos. When I am defining a character, I want to know exactly what he or she looks like. I can visualise them, but it’s really useful to have an image that I can relate to from time to time to ensure that I don’t say they have a hooked nose in one section and a straight nose in another. I scour the internet for pictures of people that match my idea of this person, and sometimes it ends up being a celebrity. On the other hand, sometimes it ends up being somebody in a hair advert, or somebody’s mum.
What is your favourite Women’s Fiction book of all time and why?
I was concerned about this question to start with, because I wasn’t sure what your definition of Women’s Fiction would be. I didn’t know if you meant romance – people seem to have different ideas. Good old Wikipedia helped me out saying that what binds Women’s Fiction novels together is that they focus on a woman’s emotional journey.
Given that definition, I feel safe to say that my favourite book of all time fits into Women’s Fiction category – and that book is Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. The protagonist – name unknown – certainly goes on an emotional journey, and what I love about the book is the fact that we – as readers – know something is wrong. We just don’t know what it is. All the way through, the unnamed narrator is suffering because she believes her predecessor – Rebecca – was so much more than she can ever be. And then she discovers the truth. It’s heart-breaking, tense and exciting – everything a book should be.
If ever there was an emotional journey, it’s this.
What is your writing process? Do you plan first or dive in? How many drafts do you do?
I am a planner. I’ve had the same conversation with other writers who only have a vague outline. Some say they don’t know how their books are going to end, but when I’m writing I have to understand the motivation of each and every character. If the book starts with a murder, then however the murderer behaves throughout the book, it has to seem realistic when the reader finds out. There must have been indications – however subtle – in their behaviour.
Also, my books are quite complex. There are multiple clues, often several threads. If I didn’t plan, there would be a huge risk of not tying up every loose end. I actually do a kind of flowchart for each storyline, so that I know how it works in isolation, but also how all the threads come together.With regard to drafts, I write the whole thing first – which gives me the complete story, but at the end the writing needs work. I then start on the rewrite, and after I am happy this goes off to my agent who does the first edit. Inevitably she comes back with some structural changes, and although it’s usually not a total rewrite, large chunks are always written again.
Then, when the other editors get their hands on it, it comes down to individual paragraphs that have to be rewritten, and finally just tweaks.
It’s a long process – but I love every stage of it. When I edit, it’s wonderful to see the book slowly transforming from an interesting story to one that I hope will captivate readers and draw them in.
What was your journey to being a published author?
Well – in the UK I am independently published. That has been my choice. Two of my books were published traditionally in the US, but when the publishing company wanted world rights I said no, so I have reverted to independent publishing there too. My books are traditionally published in foreign languages, but I can’t add much to the process.
My journey to publishing my books was probably quite unusual. I had sold my business in the UK and had given up working. I decided to write my first book as a hobby – and when it was completed I was persuaded by family to try to get it published. I went down the traditional route to start with, but when I realised how long it might take – and given the fact that I was no spring chicken – I decided to just have a go and publish it myself. It sold one or two, but it was only when I took the time and trouble to write a marketing plan that things started to happen. The first book – Only the Innocent – got to number one in the charts, and from there it’s been a whirlwind. I’ve written a book a year – I’ve just finished my fourth – and I have a whole new career, which I love.
What do you think is the biggest myth about being a novelist?
That it’s an easy job. Some people believe that writers just have to work a few hours a day. If you calculate the numbers for actually getting the words down on paper, it would seem that it shouldn’t take long to write a book. I type an average of 70 words a minute. To write a book of 105,000 words (because it makes the maths easier) should take 1500 minutes – which is actually only 25 hours.
And yet it takes me a year to write a book, and I work seven days a week!
Admittedly, I also do blog posts, chat on Twitter and Facebook, do interviews, etc. But even if I didn’t I think the fastest I could write a good book is nine months.
There’s the planning, the plotting, the character definition and all the different drafts to do. It is hard work – but if you love writing, it’s also the best job in the world – although certainly NOT the easiest.
What advice can you give to our readers who want to write a novel of their own?
Decide why you’re doing it. If you’ve read loads of success stories and believe that financial reward is guaranteed, ask yourself some hard questions – such as will you be happy if you’ve written a book and nobody buys it?
It is difficult to make a financial success out of writing. I am inundated with emails from people asking what else they can do to build readership, and it’s so hard to tell them that although I can suggest some ideas, there is no sure fire way of getting up those charts.
So if desire to write a novel is based on the belief that you will get rich, it’s not the right reason.
Write because you love to write, and can’t wait to get your ideas down on paper. Your book is your baby – you want to nurture it, feed it, take care of it before you let it loose into the big wide world, and then you hope it will be successful, but you’ll love it just as much if it isn’t.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m still in the marketing stages for Stranger Child. As an independent author, I have to do a lot of promotional work myself, using social media, blogging, etc – and I can’t really stop that until the book has made an impact. It’s done so well already, getting to number 11 in the main Kindle chart immediately after launch. But keeping it visible until the reviews start to come in and people begin to talk about it requires a lot of work.
At the same time, I am writing the outline of book five. I’ve had the idea in my head for a few months now – I just need to pull it all together.
Thanks, Rachel!