Nicci Fletcher Column – No Plan survives first contact with an aspiring writer!

No Plan survives first contact with an aspiring writer. (part 1)

It was my birthday last week. Pause for appropriate exchange of pleasantries. For me, like many others, this is usually a time for contemplation about the success and failures of the past year. Fortunately I’ve got several years to go until the next “biggie” so this was not expected to be a hair pulling, “oh my God, how did I get this old”, exercise. However, rather than being overwhelmed by assessing the many facets of my life I decided to merge my Life Coach and Business Analysis hats and break down “My Life” into its essential components. I could bore you with the details of my financial situation or the nightmare of living in a building site for nearly four years, however, I’m in a generous mood, so I’ve decided to be kind and pick an element of my life that might actually be of interest.

Nicci hard at work

I am a writer; you are also writers, or at least aspiring to be so. Thus we have a connection, which is a good basis for any new relationship. So here, in summary, is the “2008-2009 Annual Report on Nicci Fletcher, Writer.” As fellow writers I expect that many of the findings in my yearly assessment will ring true, either in the sentiment of “been there, done that” or “there but for the grace of …”. I wonder how many elements you’ll own up to.

Background

I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. At the age of six, many evening meals were spent with me enthralling my parents and siblings with “The Tales of Pigdog” and “The Nutwerts of Ninfield”. To my eternal regret these gems were never written down, as at that tender age I had aspirations of being a raconteur and keeping the tradition of Storytelling alive. Since then there have been a couple of attempts to launch my career. “Beneath the Gum Tree” may never be resuscitated, however, there are a couple of other dusty WIPs that might still see the inside of a printing press.

However, all thoughts of writing lay dormant until this time last year when an email from a close girlfriend changed my life. Her daughter had just discovered that all girls have a fairy and she wanted to know the name of mine. As I was already Isabella’s Fairy Godmother I decided I had to come up with a very special fairy and a magical story to go with her. Over the next few weeks Isadora was born and this 2½-inch figment of my imagination has now succeeded in taking over my life.

Progress Year to Date

Progress has been slow during the last year. There have been several spurts of frantic activity followed by long periods of inertia. The main cause of the problem has been growing pains. Isadora began life as a couple of very short stories for a 3yr old. As such the scope for character development and magical descriptions was limited and a major re-think was required about the purpose of the story. Was Isadora to remain a creative Christmas present for my goddaughter, or was she going to be allowed to spread her wings to reach a wider audience. Isadora, in her own inimitable way made the decision herself and an overhaul began.

Current Situation

There are now plans for 8 books in the series. The first book “Isadora Born Under a Fairy Moon” is almost ready for submitting to agents. The second, “Isadora Learns to fly”, isn’t far behind, requiring only a little editing. “Isadora and the Test for Princessness” needs a little more work as it is still in the earlier format, however, its transformation should only take about a week. So in about a month the first three books should be ready to start submitting.

So far the other 5 books each consist of a title and a basic two-paragraph outline. However, each one is fully formed inside my head, so getting the 6000 words, per book, shouldn’t take more than three days each. So that’s another 15 days work.

Plan of Action

Week commencing (w/c) 9th Nov – finish the first two books.

W/c 16th Nov – finish book three.

From 23rd Nov to 11th Dec write the remaining five books.

Between the 14th Dec and 31st Dec subject the books to the usual vicious circle of editing and rewriting etc.

4th January 2010 start the submission process.

Conclusion

If the above schedule is strictly adhered to the complete series of Isadora books will be ready to submit to agents the first week in January. However, it must be stressed that there is not much flexibility as very little contingency has been included.

So there you have it, an assessment of my writing achievements and future plans in less than 550 words. It’s well thought out, concise and easy to follow. My future success must surely be a foregone conclusion.

Well you would have thought so, however, life is rarely that simple. To begin with, like many writers, I have more than one writing project on the go and yet the above report only concentrates on one. It doesn’t mention that I’m also juggling a book of anecdotes about my experiences in France, articles for newspapers and magazines and the major research I’m conducting for a series of time-slip novels I’m about to start writing. What makes matters worse is that these are just the projects that I’m currently working on. My head is a swirling mass of ideas all demanding attention. Looking on the bright side at least I’m not suffering from a lack of inspiration.

Of course, in addition to conveniently ignoring my other writing projects, there is another key area that my report has failed to consider. I have a life. I live in rural France in a part-renovated farmhouse. This has an impact. In the last month alone urgent building works and the inevitable arrival of autumn have interrupted my writing days. Walls needed to be plastered and painted before radiators can be plumbed in, which considering the fast approaching winter has become a major priority. These have been unavoidable as my husband only has one pair of hands and often needs a builder’s mate: our bank manager currently insists that I fulfil this role.

As for autumn I’ve still got to find a way of spreading its impact over a longer period. Why is it that everything becomes ripe at the same time? I have quite literarily been imprisoned in the kitchen for weeks whilst I’ve made chutney, stews and soups to see us through the long winter months. I’ve dealt with a 36lb pumpkin and 40lbs of cherry tomatoes and don’t mention walnuts to me ever again. At least the glut of autumn is nearly over, and my main distraction will be preparations for Christmas. Fortunately this is well in hand, for being a woman I multi-tasked during my imprisonment; whilst waiting for chutneys to thicken and soups to cool I made the cake, pudding and mincemeat.

So there is an outside possibility that I might be able to stick to my writing schedule between now and January. I’ll certainly give it my best shot. I think creating more of a writing routine and having some short terms goals will help, which is something I can look at over the next couple of weeks. Other than that I think the single biggest improvement would be to find a way of keeping ideas out of my head until I actually start working on them. My subconscious is showing signs of being over-taxed and in desperate need of assistance, but that topic can wait until my next column.

Who ever said writing was easy!

Word count = 1300

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About Nicci Fletcher: I am a writer and a qualified Life Coach. I moved to France 4 years ago having life coached my husband into very early retirement. We live in a half renovated farmhouse not far from the River Garonne. When I am not writing, or life coaching, I share my time between helping my husband with the tiling, and our animals, who’ve all adapted to the France lifestyle extremely well. Prior to moving to France I was a freelance Business Development Trainer – this is infinitely better.

Tags: Beneath the Gum Tree, childrens books, france childrens writer, french columnist, Isadora, Isadora and the Test for Princessness, Isadora Born Under a Fairy Moon, Nicci Fletcher, Nicci Fletcher Column, writing for children

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Authors Lives, Columnists, Nicci Fletcher, Writers on writing, Your Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.