I’m having such fun writing my current novel-in-progress. As I was deeply affected by the tragedy at the heart of The String Games, I decided my new novel would be lighter and funny. In order to avoid the very many redrafts that my debut novel involved, I planned This Much I Know to the nth degree. I also recycled characters from a previously written and incomplete novel called Paula’s Secret that told the story of two first-time mums. So with this head start, I thought it would be straight forward to complete the first draft. Instead, it’s taken me longer than ever to get to that stage and I’ve still got three more chapters to write.
One of my early planning grids
I started writing This Much I Know in December 2017 and would never have guessed it would still be incomplete twenty months later. I completely underestimated the amount of time it would take to get The String Games to print and at that stage I didn’t know I would also be working on the publication of my poetry pamphlet adversaries/comrades. And following the release of a book, there is a massive amount of work to do to attract readers to the novel. Although I enjoy marketing and promotion, it does gobble away the hours.
Instead of giving myself a hard time about this delay, I’ve embraced it. I love my protagonist, six-year-old Mikey and his life in suburban London. I’ve set the story in New Malden, where I lived with my young family for ten years. It’s been such a joy to return to this location, and all the things I used to do with my children. I’ve drawn upon the Friday afternoons we spent at the park, cycle rides to school and the usual calendar of events such as firework nights and collecting conkers.
I’ve been working on a synopsis of the novel so that I can enter #Pitmad. This is a quarterly Twitter event that enables writers to get their work seen by agents through a concise synopsis that can be shared as a tweet. The next #Pitmad is on September 5, 2019 (8AM – 8PM EDT). I’ve not whittled my synopsis down to 280 characters yet but you can get the gist of what I’m writing about from the short synopsis below:
Six-year-old Mikey Griffiths is an only child who sees in Leonard, a disabled new arrival at his local church, similar challenges around fitting in. Isolated at school, Mikey has few friends and annoys staff with his silly jokes. Although Leonard is unkempt and socially awkward, he gets Mikey’s sense of humour and this brings the two close. Mikey inadvertently arouses suspicion about Leonard which fuels community tensions and relationships between Mikey’s parents and their neighbours deteriorate. It is Mikey’s Dad who saves Leonard from smoke inhalation when a gang attack his home. The shock of this incident causes everyone to reassess how they treat newcomers to the community and Leonard is helped to integrate so that Mikey can be friends with him once again.
What do you think? Do I stand a chance of attracting literary representation with this synopsis?
the writer is a lonely hunter 