I’ve been thinking lately about how much more of the querying and publishing journey lies ahead of me. It can feel really daunting thinking about how far there could still be left to go before I even get close to getting an agent, let alone a book deal of some description.
But instead of thinking about the long road that might lie ahead, I wanted to spend a moment thinking about how far in this journey I have already come. Recap on all the years spent working on my dream, as a reminder to myself that, no matter how much time lies ahead before I reach my goal, I can do it. I can be dedicated enough to put as many more years and books in as it takes to reach my goal, because it’s what I’ve already been doing all this time!
2002(?) – My first memory of writing was when I was six, lying on the floor of my brother’s bedroom, while he wrote his own at his desk. I remember that it was a set of short stories about a lion and her cub, and that one of the stories was “Mr. Monkey” rescuing the cub from a river. After that, my Mum bought me a purple notebook that I carried around everywhere and was always scribbling in! I spent all the time I wasn’t sleeping or at school either writing in this notebook, or making up stories to myself whilst playing on my swing.
2011 – Though I spent all my school years constantly scribbling in various notebooks, I didn’t set out on a big project until I was 15, where I handwrote a very short and very bad first draft of FIRE BURNS, a YA fantasy about a magical, fire wielding circus. Though it was objectively terrible, it started off something amazing – the understanding that I could write a story from start to end, even if it was probably the third of the length it needed to be!
2012 – I discovered NaNoWriMo and my life was changed forever! I discovered the challenge I think about a day or two after it started, but as soon as I heard about it, I knew I had to participate. I launched myself into rewriting FIRE BURNS to meet the 50k words target. It showed me both how to write a project from beginning to end, but also how to make my projects actually novel-length! From here on, I began to get in the habit of writing, on average, one book a year.
I also joined a play-writing course with my local theatre, to focus on picking up the skill of writing dialogue, and began to take online writing courses, which helped me realise my desire to study the craft of writing in an academic setting. I started to research university courses in writing.
2013 – I joined in for this year’s NaNoWriMo again, staying up to midnight so I could start on the dot. I absolutely loved my second experience, and wrote TO BECOME THE NIGHT, a YA steampunk fantasy. At the same time, I began applying to Creative Writing university courses.
2014 – I got in to my chosen University and began studying a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing. Keeping in fashion of previous years, along with my studies, I participated in NaNoWriMo once more, and wrote THE SUMMER BEFORE, a YA contemporary set in the summer before my MC left for University.
2015 – To mix things up a bit, instead of joining in the normal NaNoWriMo in November, I decided to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo when I was home for the summer. I wrote ANNELIESE, a YA fantasy about an unnatural princess born out of witchcraft, in the sun at my garden table. After several drafts, a very young and unexperienced me queried for the very first time, and, unsurprisingly based on how little I knew about the querying process, didn’t get any requests.
2016 – I took the lack of requests as an opportunity to learn and understand more about the querying process, as well as settling in to write my next book, THE BIRDS SING FOR WARSAW, a YA historical set in Warsaw in WW2 (though arguably the age category was very mixed up with this one). I queried and received a handful of requests, all of which unfortunately didn’t lead anywhere. But again, I was unfazed! Writing is what I love to do and this wasn’t going to stop me.
2017 – I graduated university and didn’t have a clue whatsoever what to do with my life. I wrote my next book, THE THREE DEATHS OF HENRY about childhood sweethearts experiencing WW1. I wrote a first draft but didn’t take it any further, instead beginning to plan out my next book.
2018 – No longer participating in NaNoWriMo and instead preferring to work at my own pace since I had firmly discovered that I have the determination to see projects through to the end, I wrote my next YA contemporary, THE DARE GIRLS, about a misfit group of teen girls in London. I submitted to my first Twitter competition and got a request, but didn’t get any further. I sent out a handful of queries, but when there was no interest, I shelved THE DARE GIRLS early to instead focus on a new project.
2019/2020 – I didn’t manage to get back into writing until quite late in this year due to *life* in 2019, and then of course the absolute mess that was 2020 hit too… So my next project, a YA contemporary about space school and ambition, THE INFINITY OF TOMORROW, was written over a very long period of time. I entered this into several twitter competitions, and again got a couple of requests that didn’t go any further. I tentatively queried, but when there wasn’t any interest, I shelved this one early too, to instead focus on surviving the chaotic year, including handling the loss of my livelihood!
2020/2021 – My latest project and my 9th book, a YA gothic titled MARIONETTE, was written whilst I had buckled down to wait out the U.K’s longest lockdown. With a combination of circuit breakers, a tier system, and a full lockdown, my partner and I were essentially isolated for something like 5 consecutive months. To try to handle this difficult time, I threw my attention into writing my dark novel. Similarly to other projects, I entered a couple of twitter competitions and received requests for MARIONETTE, but these too unfortunately did not go anywhere. I am now currently querying MARIONETTE and seeking a lovely agent to rep this project.
So there you have it! This is my writing journey from age six until now. It has been a long road, but though it feels like I’ve been at this game for quite some time with little success, I really appreciate every moment of it because I have not stopped learning for a second. Every project, every course, every book I’ve read on writing, has inherently changed and, I think improved, my style. The longer I do this, the better I get, and the more determined I am to succeed.
Thanks for sticking around!
E. V. Woods
