Five things I wish I’d known

It’s almost a year since I started writing Two Metres From You in April 2020, and quite a lot has happened in the world since then. Here are five things I wish I’d known when I started:

1.       You will still be in lockdown when your book is published.

Somebody asked me the other day, ‘would you have written a lockdown novel if you’d known we’d still be in lockdown when it was published?’, and it’s a really difficult question to answer. When I started writing I had no idea or expectation that this book would ever be published, it was just an experiment in ‘can I write a novel?’.

But the short answer is ‘yes, probably’ – so much was happening in the world in April 2020 and looking at that time through the lens of a small, fictional village was actually a really helpful way of processing it all.

2.      Writing in real time is really hard.

With hindsight, writing a pandemic novel in real time wasn’t exactly making life easy for myself. The book opens on Sunday 22nd March 2020, and I started writing it less than two weeks later. So the plot had to mirror the progress of a situation that was changing all the time. That made it very hard to plan ahead, not knowing if/when lockdown was going to end, or whether something huge would happen that might have an impact on the story. Little things like weather ended up driving the story – the hot and sunny Easter weekend prompted a barbecue that ended up being a key moment in the story. Much as it would have been lovely to end the story on a big ‘lockdown is all over’ party, it didn’t quite happen that way (but fingers crossed for this summer).

3.      The moment you’ve finished this book, you’ll want to write another one.

I hadn’t expected to love writing a novel as much as I did, and the second I queried Book One with literary agents, I started writing Book Two. Not because I had any expectation of finding an agent or a publisher, but because the idea of stopping made me feel a bit bereft. I also wanted to free myself from the restrictions of the pandemic and write a book where people could meet and travel and snog freely, which was heaven. By the time I signed with an agent I had about 25,000 words of Book Two written, so that ended up being part of the submission. So I’m really glad I kept on writing – Book Two is out later this year, or maybe early next. Watch this space!  

4.      Being a novelist is a marathon, not a sprint.

When I started writing, it was really about seeing if I could write a novel. I’d thought about it for decades, but never actually tried. So the goals I set in those early months were things like ‘can I write three chapters?’, then ‘can I write 25,000 words?’ It was only when I got past the halfway point and realised that I was going to finish it that I entertained the thought of trying to get it published. Querying agents took another six weeks, finding a publisher another two months. As someone who is used to things moving along at a gallop rather than a trot, I’ve had to learn to be patient. The wheels of publishing turn sloooowly, get used to it.

5.      Book people are the best people.

When I started writing this book, I had no idea what I was doing. Not a clue. But it turned out I wasn’t the only one, and the online writing community is huge and generous with its advice and support. It was a source of brilliant advice on querying agents, how to write a synopsis and a cover letter, and reassuringly accurate on how long everything took. My literary agent Caroline and my editor Bea have both been absolute superstars, answering my Publishing 101 questions with patience and understanding. It’s such a brilliantly supportive community, particularly on social media, and I’m so grateful for all the help and encouragement.