This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Today we're talking to Kat French, author of Undertaking Love.
Can you tell us a little about your average working day?
I'm a mum, so my working day starts once the little guys have gone off to school. I usually start with strong coffee and stats – I'm officially allergic to spread sheets, but I like to keep records of rankings and also sales figures for my self-published books. I aim to get writing by ten am, and then write through until around five. I'm easily and often distracted by twitter and facebook, but I do my best to stay focused. We've recently redecorated our spare room as my new office, and OMG, I love it! I live in a house full of boys, so I've gone incredibly girly in there; it's a real haven. I find it impossible to switch off, so most evenings find me working on my laptop with a glass of wine to hand.
When you are writing, do you use any famous people or people you know as inspiration?Not people I know, although I shamelessly steal stories they tell me! Famous people, yes. Totally. I have to cast the book in my head, and my desktop is scattered with images for inspiration. The hero inspiration for Gabe in Undertaking Love was Aidan Turner, the Irish guy who played Mitchell in Being Human, and for another of my books it's been the divine Alexander Skarsgard. I develop an unmanageable crush on them for the duration of writing the book, and then move on to my next manuscript and book boyfriend. Does that make me sound terribly slutty?! I find it less easy to cast the female lead, probably because in my head it's me, lol!
What is your favourite Women’s Fiction book of all time and why?
I love Jenny Crusie. I want to be Jenny Crusie when I grow up. All of her books make me sigh with happiness / murderous envy, but if I had to pick a favourite it would be 'Tell Me Lies'. I hugely admire the way Jenny weaves a big rich cast of characters that literally jump off the page at you. Tell me Lies has it all for me – a heroine you want to be friends with and a hero you want to fall in love with. It's funny and really smart, and Jenny's way with dialogue makes her books live and breathe.
What is your writing process? Do you plan first or dive in? How many drafts do you do?
I'd love to say I make plans, but my brain doesn't work that way so I go with the far more terrifying option of sitting down and waiting to see what comes out of my fingers. I generally have a loose idea of where I want to start, what might happen in the middle, and where I want the story to end up, but that's as big as my initial plan gets. I have to write myself into the story getting to know the characters as I go along. Actually, I do plan a little bit! I have a white board that I scrawl over in lots of different colours and stick random post-it notes on. It gets fuller and fuller as the book progresses until it resembles one of those murder case boards on a TV drama, all crazy arrows and things underlined because they are clearly vitally important. I write quite slowly because I can't switch off my inner self-editor. I'm always going back over the manuscript and altering it, which means it takes me quite a while but I end up with something quite clean. I pass that onto my crit partners, bite my nails to the quick and gnash my teeth, and then go over it all again to tighten and polish once they've let me know what they think. So I guess I do two drafts.
What was your journey to being a published author?
I started out wanting to write for Mills & Boon, but after a couple of near misses it became apparent that I couldn't adapt my writing style to fit their requirements. Turns out I like to include too many oddball characters and I swear too much. What do you mean, cut the taxidermist, the gay celebrant and the sex therapist? I couldn't possibly!
I posted the partial manuscript for Undertaking Love onto HarperCollins Authonomy website after reading about Miranda Dickinson's success through there, and within a couple of days I received a request for the full manuscript. It was with them for seven months, during which time I submitted the manuscript to twenty one agents and received twenty one rejections of varying degrees – some form, some encouraging letters and a couple of full requests, but all ultimately rejections. And then HarperCollins emailed me to say they wanted to publish the book. I couldn't believe it. I'd convinced myself that it would be another rejection, so to read that email was pure magic. I victory danced around the coffee table, called everyone I knew to tell them the news I was supposed to keep under my hat, drank too much wine, and cried.
What do you think is the biggest myth about being a novelist?
That all you have to do is write. I spend far more time than I'd like doing all of the business related stuff – keeping stats, marketing, admin, etc. Couple that with time spent on social media (How much do I love thee, twitter? Let me count the ways) and time just disappears. I try to be really strict with myself now or else I'd never get any writing done.
What advice can you give to our readers who want to write a novel of their own?
Write, write and write some more. Try to find a crit group locally or online. There are many forums such as Authonomy where you can share your work with others and learn to crit, and it really helps to strengthen and tighten your words. I've read quite a few craft books, and my favourite of all is Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass.
What are you working on at the moment?
Aside from writing romantic comedy, I also write erotic romance under the pseudonym Kitty French. I self published my first book Knight & Play in November last year, and I'm just preparing the sequel, Knight & Stay for publication in a couple of weeks time. April is a crazy month for me this year!
What are your top five writing tips?
1. Write as if no one is ever going to read it. If I let myself think about the fact that my mum might read my books they'd be far tamer affairs!
2. Be brave. Put your work out there. Sub to agents, join groups, risk rejection. It gets easier the more you do it.
3. Consider all of your options. Self-publishing is a viable alternative to traditional publishing these days, but you don't have to entrench yourself on one side or the other. It's possible to happily do both alongside each other.
4. Embrace social media, but don't let it swallow you whole! Twitter and Facebook are brilliant for meeting readers and other writers, and can be invaluable tools to help spread the word. Be friendly and update often.
5. Enjoy it. It's the best job in the world. :O)
Thanks Kat!