How to achieve big scary goals, and a very belated Happy New Year!

This year is already 1/26th over! I swear 2013 ended five minutes ago. I'm going to blink and it'll be 2016, and then I'll nap for a bit and it'll be the year 3016 and all of our consciousnesses will be uploaded to the cloud and easily downloaded into teeny-tiny robots that can roam outer space and the bottom of the ocean. It'll be grand. In the meantime: a very belated New Year post!

Speaking of time being weird, I forget how long I have been keeping this blog for. I have five years worth of New Year posts (here they are, in reverse chronological order: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010) and I had to write a sixth or it would ruin the continuity. Blogs are like funny little personal time machines that anyone can access. This time last year I was binge-watching The Walking Dead; this year it's Game of Thrones and Supernatural. I've totally evolved as a person, clearly.

My 2014 highlights: All This Could End was longlisted for the Gold Inky. I taught a workshop for young writers at QWC for a week, and had lots of other lovely school and library visits. I finished writing a manuscript and worked on two others. I graduated from one course I was studying and started a double degree. There are probably a lot of other things I'm forgetting.

My 2015 goals: write every day (so many novel ideas!), blog more, study smarter (less binge-studying at the last minute! Why do I do this to myself?), have more fun and adventures and stop stressing quite so much. It's all very unnecessary. (My goals are not all that different from when I was fifteen.)

I don't have any big scary goals this year, more habits I want to put in place, but I've had big goals in the past that I managed to achieve and big goals that I sort of... forgot about. So: maybe you want to write or publish a book in 2015. Which can seem like a very intimidating goal, but it's very possible. Here are the best ways I know to make big scary goals way more likely to be achieved (obviously with reference to writing books, because that's what I know. But I think you can apply these to anything):

1. Make yourself accountable to someone. Tell people about your goals! People who will ask how everything is going later in the year - make sure you get some work done so that you can answer truthfully rather than vaguely. Promise a friend that you'll send them the next chapter of your novel every Friday at lunchtime. Preferably the sort of friend who will come over in the afternoon if you fail to do so and take away your modem and uninstall all the programs on your computer except Word. Join online forums or enter in challenges or writing sprints (this is why NaNoWriMo is so great: community! time limits! pressure!). If you do not have deadlines from an external source, create them, and make sure someone will hassle you if you miss them. If you don't tell anyone and no-one's checking up on you, it's really easy to just let things fall by the wayside and wait till next year and have the same goals again. Which we don't want! You can do it! You just need someone to yell at you! Or, be supportive and encouraging. Either, both. It all works.
2. Make a daily habit of it. Everyone is different, but I do think that the best way to get work done is to work consistently, a little bit every day. I tend more towards binge-writing sporadically and then stewing on ideas but not actually writing for a few weeks, and then it's always harder to get back into it. If it's something that's really important to you, and you don't want to forget about it, make it a daily habit. Tell everyone that you write from 7:00p.m. until 7:30p.m., and then write. Put it in your day-planner/Filofax/Google Calendar/iPhone/scheduler of choice. Make it an important and immovable commitment. You wouldn't miss an appointment with your hairdresser (I hope you wouldn't), so you shouldn't miss an appointment with... yourself, I guess? And your goals? (Talking to yourself is optional. I enjoy it, it contributes to my writing process.)
3. Make sure your goal really means something to you. It's much easier to motivate yourself to work towards something you want more than anything else in the world. There are a lot of people I know who say that they would like to write a book, but for whom writing is not of central importance in their life. It is incredibly difficult to put work into something day after day unless it's something about which you're passionate (or something for which you're being paid or there's some other obligation). Big important difficult goals that involve a lot of work over a long period of time (like, writing and publishing a book) are challenging to achieve, but borderline impossible if you don't have really strong motivation. Don't set goals that aren't really important to you, personally - there's not enough new years for resolutions that are really from other people/society (for example, weight loss).
4. Take small steps. The other day I went on a big walk over a big hill. My life is incredibly thrilling. If I thought about the entire trip at once it seemed overwhelming. So I told myself I only had to walk to the next tree. That was manageable. So I walked to the next tree. Super cool. Walked to the next tree. Eventually got over the hill. No big deal. Manageable steps. I thought to myself, this'll be a great metaphor for my blog. I didn't really. It's a terrible metaphor. At one point I thought I was going to faint and I realised hiking at midday in Queensland in the summer was a bad idea. Not really relevant. What I'm saying is: don't think about the whole thing at once. You don't have to write a whole novel. You just have to write a hundred words. How manageable is that? Then you write another hundred. Repeat until book reaches desired length. That's how books get written.
5. Enjoy the journey. I don't want to sound like a hippy guru yogini, but I think a lot of the time people want to achieve something because they perceive that they'll feel different once they've achieved that thing: happy, or confident, or cool, or proud. I know this is true for me, and it's definitely true for goals related to weight loss - people believe they'll be happier when they're thinner. Unfortunately the reality of things is often very different to what we fantasise about. Once you achieve something, you will just aspire towards something else. It's absolutely worth aspiring to be your 'best self' or whatever else, but enjoy the process of working towards your goals, because you likely won't feel hugely different once you achieve them. (I still fully expect I will reach a certain level of success as a writer and suddenly become a Glamorous Novelist. Delusional, I know.)

I hope you are having a most splendid 2015 so far, and you manage to achieve everything you set out to achieve this year. Don't stress if your resolutions don't work out. You're probably pretty awesome already. I wish you a year of good reading, good writing, good fun, lots of lovely people to be with and lots of lovely places to go and just lots of magic, generally.

P.S. Here are my five favourite blog posts from last year:

1. Your stories are just as important as anyone else's

2. On being published as a teenager, and regret

3. 27 blogging tips I'd give my fifteen-year-old self

4. Persistence counts for more than talent

5. How to support authors when you have no money

Your stories are just as important as anyone else's

Just because someone else is older than you, or has won awards, or is a bestseller, doesn't mean that their stories deserve to be told more than yours do.

You are the product of years upon years of life experience that is totally unique to you. Even if someone else had a totally identical upbringing, they wouldn't process information in the same way you do. There's this marvellous thing about your brain: there isn't another one exactly like yours in existence. (And the technology doesn't exist yet for us to effectively clone you, I don't think. I'll let you know if this changes. I'll get another Steph to write for me.)

Your viewpoint is entirely your own. The ideas and opinions you formulate cannot be truly known by any other human being unless you communicate these ideas to them. Can you see how important your stories are? There are decades of writing fodder percolating in your brain, lying in wait for the day you need it. Whether you use that for essays or memoirs or poetry or short stories doesn't matter. Your words have value.

Oddly, it's the people who are told their opinions aren't valid who we really ought to be encouraging to express themselves. I don't think there's enough Young Adult fiction that reflects genuine teenage experience in this country. I don't think there's enough YA that reflects what it's like growing up as someone who follows a non-dominant religion in this country, or as someone who was born elsewhere, or as someone living with disability or mental illness, or as someone who is not only dealing with all the standard teenage identity issues but also their multi-racial identity. I think we hear too much about minority groups and not enough voice is given to the actual people. Do you not think that fiction is a brilliant way to explore other people's viewpoints? Don't you owe it to the world to share your stories?

If you want to write, you should. Your words, your opinions, your thoughts, your stories - they are important. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Lacking technical skill, or being too young are rubbish excuses. Your words have the power to inspire others, to entertain, to inform, to allow you to connect. Which, you know, I've got this theory that's what human life is all about. I'm still working on this theory, but don't you think it's a nice one?

You can have respect for the writing of others, for your elders, for the tradition of storytelling, and you can also have enough respect for yourself to know that your stories deserve to be told.

Listen, listen: I'm telling you the truth. You matter. Your stories matter.

Persistence counts for more than talent

If you don't sit there and put in the hours, write all those words down and go over them again and again and again, being talented doesn't count for anything.

If you spend more time telling people you're a writer and indulging in some romantic ideal of being a writer than you do actually writing, you're not going to get anywhere.

The person who doesn't naturally have an affinity for words but who spends ten thousand hours working at it is going to learn more and likely become better than someone who has a natural ear for a sentence but spends their time staring wistfully out rain-streaked windows and imagining being interviewed about how much of a literary genius they are.

(I have no idea what 'has a natural ear for a sentence' means. People say weird things like that. Sometimes people say weird things like that to me. It counts for nothing unless you put a lot of sentences together.)

Just put in the time. Create a product. Whether that's a novel or a short story or an album or a painting, I don't think it matters. At the very least, create a hundred almost-products and learn all you can from them. This goes for anything.

If you want to be published, and you want to make a living as a writer - which is a valid goal, just as valid as wanting to write just for yourself, just to creatively express - you can.

Things that help: perseverance, single-mindedness, motivation, inspiration, passion, a little bit of madness. Just a touch.

Talent? Affinity? Genius? Doesn't really matter. If your brain is wired for writing it's not any use unless you actually write. If you're really shockingly bad at writing? That doesn't matter either. Writing, and writing, and continuing to write, and writing a bit more after that? That does. That's pretty much all that does. (Okay, not including reading, editing, ability to accept critique, ability to deal with rejection, shh, shh, I'm trying to keep it simple.)

Persistence counts for more than talent. That shouldn't be a depressing thought. Things aren't just handed to you. That's good. It's much more fulfilling to become good at something through a lot of hard work. You'll never really 'make it'. You'll always be improving; you will always need to persist. Talent can be a good nudge - if something comes easily to you it might seem a waste not to pursue it - but it won't take you far unless you put in the time and effort.

You got it? I'm twenty now. I've got all the answers.*

*Maybe an overstatement. Maybe.

My first rejection letter, circa 2009

In 2008, the year before writing Girl Saves Boy, I wrote an epic road trip novel that featured four narrators. It was titled Running With Scissors, before I realised that was the name of a well-known memoir and film. The opening line was Death reeked of cheap perfume when we met. It was... melodramatic. Which is to say, incredibly terrible. I was fourteen! Didn't we all submit novels about amnesia, teenage pregnancy and arson to publishers when we were fourteen? Okay, maybe not.

I submitted it to two publishers. I did not really expect a response, and if I did get one, I knew it would in all likelihood be a form letter. This was okay with me! I expected I'd be super disappointed, but that this would be the first of many rejections, and I had to get used to it. Eventually my manuscript did show back up from one of the publishers, but not with a form letter.

I wrote a blog post after receiving it, saying:
I received back my manuscript from a publisher yesterday, with a very kind rejection letter and almost an entire page of feedback, which must have been very time-consuming to write, which I am infinitely appreciative of. If she’s reading this (which she probably isn’t, because I imagine she’s very busy and important), I want to say thank you. It means a lot to me.

It was disappointing, but not as much as I thought it would be. I know I can keep writing and submitting and eventually it will pay off. I’ve got the advantage of starting very young. I know I have a lot to learn as a writer. Who’s mastered anything but Halo 3 by the time they were fifteen? (Or for older readers of this blog, Space Invaders.)

This letter made a big difference to me. I felt incredibly hopeful going forward. The publishing industry did not seem enormous and faceless and mean. I had a rejection letter! Like a real writer! I had feedback! From an actual editor! I was amazed that a super busy person who likely read a hundred mediocre manuscripts a week actually bothered to do this.

So, this is just to let you know that 'kind rejection letter' is not always an oxymoron. Here's that letter (identifying details all removed, hence all the white space): 

Basically the internet is responsible for everything great: On critique partners

Cait asked: Do you have critique partners? If you do, how did you find them/meet? Do you recommend having them?

Cait, I love this question - I have tons of thoughts on critique partners and getting feedback and the wonders of the internet, and I may go on for a while, so here is the short answer: Critique partners are brilliant and vital, if they're the right ones. You can't possibly be objective about your own work, and neither can your friends and family, as wonderful as they are. The internet is a great way to meet them, especially if you're a shy writer type like myself. (You can skip over the rest of this nonsense and to the end of the post for more recommendations... or you could read all this! Up to you!)

Long answer:

When I was 14-15 I was really incredibly into the whole thing of being a writer, and used terms like 'beta-readers' and blogged daily and read agent blogs obsessively. I was also painfully, cripplingly shy and was completing high school by distance education. I lived an hour and a half by train from Melbourne, which is a very literary city but seemed inaccessible to me, because of my age and my shyness and where I lived and not feeling like a 'real' writer.

So blogging was important to me. I could talk to people about books and writing, including actual real-life published authors. I could play around with identities - if you read my blog in 2009 or 2010, you'll know that I changed the design almost weekly (in 2008 I changed my blog address almost weekly, but all those blogs are lost to the abyss of the internet now) and took tons of weird self-portraits and jumped around subject-wise, compulsively deleting posts because I decided they didn't fit in with what I wanted to say (I haven't done that for a few years now, and wish I hadn't - there's a lot of things I remember writing that I'd like to read again). I was not 'Stephanie' who was awkward and shy and weird, I was 'Steph Bowe' who was awkward and shy and weird in this very specific endearing way that I wanted to project.

People didn't know I was a kid, unless I decided to share that. My family were always wonderful and took me seriously (I was a pretty serious kid, which is probably why I've turned into a silly adult - have to get the balance, you know), but other adults were often patronising, which was endlessly frustrating for me.

(These days, I do workshops in primary schools and secondary schools, and I meet so many kids - even ones who don't consider themselves creative - who are profoundly insightful and imaginative and smart. They use complex words and come up with fascinating stories and I take them just as seriously as I'd take a roomful of adults. Just because you are young does not mean your thoughts and opinions are invalid. Don't let me get old and forgetful and start being condescending towards kids, okay?)

I'm getting back to the point, I promise, and this all has something to do with that point (if only peripherally).

Without the internet, I have no idea where I would be at as a writer. I've met many writers through my blog, a lot of whom I've now met in real life, who have had an impact on my journey as a writer (I do plan on writing about them, eventually, too - though I am always fearful of forgetting people).

I had a real sense of being part of a community. I finished Girl Saves Boy (then titled These Bones and with a ridiculous then-the-kids-get-married ending - I kid you not), and I put a call-out on my blog for anyone who'd like to beta-read, and I got a few responses! One of whom was American suspense writer Sara J Henry.

Sara was thorough, very straight-forward and sometimes slightly brutal in her feedback. Which was exactly what I wanted and needed. Being taken seriously as a writer was pretty incredible. It was also a good preview of what it would be like to work with an editor - sometimes spirit-crushing, ultimately rewarding. She was also impressed enough by my novel to recommend me to a few agents she knew as well as suggesting I enter a blog first-page competition (which is how I ended up with my agent). Sara was in the process of publishing her first novel, too, and was an invaluable source of advice. I'm incredibly grateful to her. There's more about that beta-reading process and my journey to being agented in this guest post by Sara (from four years ago! Extraordinary).

Between Girl Saves Boy and All This Could End I wrote an incredibly tacky murder-mystery novel about a girl going to live with her grandmother in the country following her father's death, and gradually unraveling his dark past. It was terrible, but for ages I was so stressed about writing my next book - and not messing it up awfully (proving everyone who thought I was merely a novelty right) - that all I could write was crap. I couldn't see just how crap it was. And I am infinitely glad I never sent that manuscript to my agent or editor - it was horrific, really - and that was entirely because Sara let me know how far off-track it was. And then I wrote All This Could End, and everything was all right. Until now. When I'm panicking about the next book. Vicious cycle.

Another talented young writer - and now literary agent - Weronica Janczuk also gave me some wonderful feedback on Girl Saves Boy, as did Mya Rooney, another book blogger. There were other writers, but these critique partnerships sort of fizzled before they started, for a bunch of reasons, but mostly because of a mismatch in taste.

So, what I recommend to you: Find critique partners! Except that some match-ups will fail, and it's not really because you're a terrible writer - they're just not the right fit. You need someone who will be as honest as possible, but who also enjoys and respects your work. Putting yourself out there on the internet is a risk but I think it's a risk worth taking. Look for someone at a similar stage in their writing as you. If you're not a blogger, there's always forums like on the NaNoWriMo site or Absolute Write. If you're a brave soul, maybe find yourself a writers group (I would really love to be part of a writers group someday - I've been to a couple of meetings with different groups but I haven't found the right fit yet, and I find it all very nerve-wracking) - your state writers centre will likely have a list on their website (here are writers groups in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales) (I have found a lot of the writers groups skew towards older people, and how committed people are to writing and the stage they are at varies a lot. So it might be a bit of a search for you. Or you and I could start a writers group! Let's do it).

Friends and family are wonderful to get feedback from in the super-early stages (when you really need someone to tell you how great you are to encourage you to keep going) and in the super-late stages (when you need proofreaders). My grandparents are the first readers of everything a write, and they are always supportive. My mum was an excellent proofreader on Girl Saves Boy. My friend Ashleigh read a draft of All This Could End (she didn't like the original ending, I don't think. But she was too nice to say so). This was all fantastic! But it did not help me grow as a writer.

You really need the feedback of another writer (or two) who you respect the opinion of for the meaty revising bits in the middle. It's an editing sandwich. I'm terrible at metaphors. How on earth did I become a writer again?

Questions, of the frequently asked variety!

(And also infrequently asked) (And questions no-one ever asks but potentially could) (Just a random assortment of questions, really)

This frequently asked questions page is a work in progress! Feel free to email me at stephbowe (at) ymail (dot) com if you have a question about writing or my books that doesn't appear here (it makes me feel really important when you do that!). Or if you just want to say hi. You can do that, too.


On writing

How long do you spend writing each day?

At the moment I don't write daily. I really should, though. Once I sit down to write, I'll likely write for a couple of hours. I try and write at least a few times a week. I think spending a little bit of time writing very often is better than spending a big chunk of time writing rarely, but it depends on the writer. Here is some stuff I wrote about writing habits.

How old were you when you started writing?

I have written stories for as long as I can remember. I attempted my first novel when I was seven. It was called The Merryhem's First Adventure and it was a blatant plagiarisation of The Magic Faraway Tree, of which I was a fan at the time. It remains unfinished. The last scene involved the three siblings encountering the most shocking and incredible thing ever, which was so shocking and incredible that I couldn't figure out what it was and stopped writing. I finished my first novel when I was fourteen, a weird bucket-list novel called Gracie's List, about wacky Gracie and her boring twin Teddy and their mad adventures. I like writing stories about siblings! And wackiness! (Here's the start of a failed sci-fi novel from around the same time. I was prone to melodrama.) 

Do you have to be a certain age to be a writer? Don't you need life experience in order to write?

I wrote a blog post about this, which you might like. The short answer: you can (and should! If you want to) write at any age. You don't necessarily need life experience. You have a unique viewpoint and interesting stories to tell, and being young might help you write better stories for young people! Here are some tips on writing what you haven't experienced first-hand.
 
Was writing your second book easier than writing your first?

No. It was a much harder and very different experience, because I knew other people would read it and expect it to be good. It is a lot easier to write when you are just writing for yourself, and don't have to worry about other people's expectations.

How do you write boy characters when you are a girl? (And vice versa.)
I wrote a post about this. Sorry, I'm going to keep saying that. 

Do you base your characters off real people?

Not wholly. I really love being able to make up characters, but inevitably bits and pieces of myself and others will end up as part of my characters. So they are mash-ups of lots of different people and traits, but still my inventions. This way, no one can sue you!

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

I have a fairly clear idea of my characters, their general story and a few events (including the ending) before I begin working on a novel, but I don't know exactly what will happen or plan any of it  outside of my head. That would probably be a good idea though? I don't know, I like being able to make stuff up as I go along - that might change in the future.

Do you have any special routines during the writing process?

Not anymore! I used to have a whole lot of things I thought I needed to write: something to eat, a cup of tea, a hat, silence, the right time of day... Eventually I realised I was just using all of these things as a way to delay writing. Now I just sit down and write. No excuses!

How did you get your agent?

I wrote a short post on how I got my agent here. 

Do you need to be homeschooled to be a teen author?

No, you don't! I was lucky that I had plenty of free time to pursue my writing in, as it can be difficult to manage a writing career and school. There are a number of authors that were first published while they were attending to high school, and lots of writers who manage to balance being an author with higher education or full-time jobs. So you can do it, too! Here's a blog post I wrote about homeschooling. 

Do you brainstorm? What type of brainstorming / planning works for you?

I think a lot, very in-depth, about my characters and their stories for ages, before I start writing a novel. I write some random notes of things I want to include in the first draft (snippets of dialogue and lines I think are brilliant but are terrible in retrospect), but I don't tend to actively try and write down plotlines or have any systems for planning.

How do you get your story ideas?

Ideas tend to show up unannounced. They're everywhere! Everyday life is full of inspiration (i.e. interesting characters on the bus). Here is some advice regarding ideas and inspiration. 

How do you tackle writer's block?

I'll go and write something else (another story, an essay, a journal entry, a poem, an email or letter), go and do something else (going for a walk, washing dishes - the more inane or mindless the better), or discuss whatever problem I'm having with my novel with someone else (usually my mum - sometimes she suggests something genius, but usually just talking about the problem aloud helps me work through it and I'm back to work before she has an opportunity to say anything). It's just a matter of time and figuring out what to write next. 

What are your favourite books?
I have so many! The YA novels I especially love are Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley, On The Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood, Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell, This Is Shyness by Leanne Hall, Preloved by Shirley Marr... I could go on for a while. (Here are books I loved as a kid.)

Will you read my manuscript?
It's awesome that you've written a novel! But there are much better people to share it with than me. I recommend sharing it with a supportive friend or family member first, and when you feel ready for some constructive criticism, look at joining a writers group. Writers centres are a good place to start, and there's one in every state, and often have listings of local groups - I'm a member of Queensland Writers Centre. If you want to chat writing or are after some writerly advice - feel free to email me! I am always happy to talk writing.

On Girl Saves Boy  
What happens to Sacha and Jewel after the end of Girl Saves Boy?
I chose to leave Girl Saves Boy relatively open-ended because I love being able to figure out ways the stories I love might continue after the last page. There is an obvious and very sad ending that I could have written, but I wanted it to end hopefully. Whatever you want to happen to Sacha and Jewel is what happens to Sacha and Jewel. Here's a post I wrote about this.

How long did it take to write Girl Saves Boy?
It took about six months to write and edit Girl Saves Boy. I completed a few more drafts over several months with an agent and editor to prepare it for publication.

How has Girl Saves Boy changed your life?

I am writing full-time at the moment, which is awesome and crazy and I am very fortunate. I also get invited to speak in schools! That's fairly brilliant. So it's changed my life in that I am beginning to make a career of something I love doing, and I've also become a more outgoing person since I've started public speaking.

What inspired you to write Girl Saves Boy?

I wrote a blog post about ideas.

On All This Could End

What inspired you to write All This Could End?
Apart from all the general inspirations mentioned above (life! music! creepily eavesdropping on conversations!), I had one big definitive inspiration for All This Could End, and that was watching the news. I am a big fan of the law and have never done anything illegal (I don't think I've even copied a CD), but I think crime is fascinating. Probably because it is so removed from my own life. When I was little I loved Crimestoppers, and was very certain that I would someday see a criminal out in the street and call the 1800 number and be hailed as a hero (this did not happen). I always wonder about what motivates people to commit crimes. The only reason I'd rob a bank would probably be if my mum asked me to. Fortunately she's not a crazy bank robber. But that's how the idea for this story came about - a girl who robs banks with her family, accidentally taking someone she knows hostage.

On publishing and being an author

How did you get published so young?
I wrote heaps, I sent my work out, and I was very lucky! Here is my advice to other teenage writers.

How did you deal with the negativity that often faces teen writers?

I haven't encountered too much of it, and it doesn't bother me too much. People will say negative things about you for some reason or another - becoming a writer makes you vulnerable to a lot of criticism - so I just ignore it. Don't be dissuaded from writing because of other people's negativity. Age doesn't matter in publishing as much as you may think it does. (You should read this post). Here is some advice on dealing with self-doubt, too.

Is being a published author everything you thought it would be?
This post sums up my thoughts. It's wonderful! But there is a tendency for unpublished writers to think that being a real author will somehow make writing easier, and it doesn't. It's even trickier.

Did you always want to be a published author?

Yes! When I was seven I decided I wanted to become a published author and buy a house. I may have overestimated how much money writers earn. Here's a guest post I wrote about my journey to becoming an author.

How long did it take from writing your manuscript to actually being published?
For my first novel, it took about a year and a half from when I started writing to when the novel was published. For my second, more like three years. It depends on the book. From when a publisher acquires a book to when it is published is generally one or two years.

How do you handle the editing process? How do you deal with criticism?

Not very well! I think everyone finds criticism hard to deal with (my technique largely involves collapsing on the floor and wailing), and it can be tricky trying to figure out ways to make the novel work better. Writing a novel is difficult because whether it is any good is so subjective, and it's hard to judge your own work. It gets easier. I think.
 
What's your favourite thing about being a published writer? 
Having people read my work and tell me how much they enjoy it! One of many things I love about being a published writer. There are lots of things that are absolutely wonderful about being a writer that are wonderful even if you aren't published, though - when the writing is going well, it's pretty much magic.
 
Is writing fiscally rewarding? (Or, more bluntly, are you rich?)
Very! I am going to go roll in my money right now! Unfortunately all this money is in the form of five cent pieces and as a result this is more uncomfortable than it may be if I had notes. No, but in all seriousness, I'm not rich, and not many writers are. It's a tough biz but lots of bizzes (bizzee? biz's?) are. You have to really love it, and you have to deal with the reality that you're going to need a day job, or do some freelancing, or try to get tons of speaking work, and even then you might be living on two-minute noodles for the rest of your life. It's a bit inappropriate to ask people how much they earn, though... this question is a bit of a pet hate of mine (here are some other questions not to ask writers, preferably). 

On speaking
Do you visit schools? Will you visit my school?
Yes, I do! I'm based in South-East Queensland but I travel a fair bit to speak, and have been lucky enough to visit lots of schools (and appear at festivals) for talks and workshops, with students from grade four to grade twelve. I usually talk about creativity and inspiration, and developing characters and plots, and make lots of silly jokes. If you're a student, suggest it to your teacher-librarian or English teacher.

If you're in Queensland, contact Speakers Ink.
If you're in Victoria, contact Booked Out.
Elsewhere, email me: stephbowe (at) ymail (dot) com.

Any advice for public speaking?
Here's a post I wrote of public speaking tips. The more you speak in front of people, the easier it becomes and the better you get at it. Not fainting beforehand is the main thing. I used to feel very ill before I had to speak, and now I really enjoy it! (And I think people enjoy listening to me a lot more.) Here's a weird/funny story about a speech I gave when I was twelve and running for primary school captain - remember, if something goes wrong, it'll make a good story later!

The greatest writing advice I can possibly give you: Be creepy on the bus.

I lack good hand-eye coordination. I've known this for a long time. It's okay. I accept my shortcomings. Being generally unco is something you come to accept as part of your life. Walking into walls, tripping on flat surfaces, being unable to catch anything thrown to you even from a short distance. I did most of my schooling by distance, so I didn't have to go through the horror of being picked last in P.E. very much.

I'm nineteen now. In the state of Queensland, you can get a provisional license when you're seventeen, I believe, but I'm still on my learner's permit, largely due to this whole brain-hand disconnect and the frequency with which I entirely forget which way to turn the wheel (there is something that confuses me a great deal about reversing. I expect the direction of wheel-turnage to be the opposite, and it is not).

I remain hopeful! After all: your brain continues to develop until well into your twenties. (This is why I am not much of a drinker of alcohol. I am very keen on my brain cells reaching their full potential. Also I have a great deal of love for my liver, and other internal organs). I am taking driving lessons, and my driving instructor panics only very rarely! (Driving instructors are a tough sort though, in my experience. Not easily shaken.)

As a result of being unlicensed, I spend a great deal of time on public transport. Which I love. I realise this makes me a complete and utter weirdo. I don't really take the train with enough frequency for it to become painfully boring. I hate to think what it would be like to take the train every day and not be a creative sort.

Here is why trains and buses (and ferries!) are wonderful if you are a writer:

You can very subtly listen in on conversations.

The more you listen to conversations, the more natural the dialogue you write is going to sound. I like to listen to interesting speech patterns - I think the way people phrase things and the pauses in their speech are really interesting - sometimes I imagine how their words would be punctuated, how they would appear on the page, because I tend to picture written words when I think.

I also like paying attention to funny things people repeat. In Vanuatu I met a man who said at the end of every sentence 'but you probably know more than I do!' I did not, in fact, as he was talking about living in wartime Vanuatu, which I knew nothing about. I think when you're writing, repeated phrases are a good way of identifying and differentiating certain characters, if done right.

Listening in on and not participating in conversations is also really good practice in observing how people relate to each other. When you're talking to someone you're paying attention to what they're saying, and what you're saying, and whether they're interested. There's a lot in your head. When you're watching you can try and decode people's relationships, see how people mirror each other, notice changes in tone. You see more when you go third-person. (Elderly people have some of my favourite conversations on the train. I can't very well tell them how awesome they are though, without it being weird.)

You can make up stories about everyone you see.

I think this is great practice for coming up with ideas and figuring out plots and characters. I think we should get rid of this concept that every idea is brilliant and sacred and must be retained because what if we one day run out? And replace it with the concept that you can have a thousand ideas a day, that the more you use your imagination the easier they come, that material is everywhere and ideas are limitless.

So I am always practicing my skills in coming up with unique ideas (as unique, of course, as an idea can actually be when we live in a world where everything's been done before, a million times). Of course the lives of everyone I see are far more exciting in my head than their business attire may betray.

You can add to your memory bank of interesting physical characteristics. I find descriptions in stories that are just a laundry list of everything about a character to be incredibly boring and actually convey very little for all their adjectives. I try to describe my characters in terms of what stands out about them, and seeing lots of different people every day and imagining how you would describe them in the fewest words is a good way to practice this. (See? Even when I'm not writing, I'm practicing writing! Yes, I know, I'm fooling no-one).

And it doesn't have to be physical characteristics! What are they doing? What are they reading? How exactly are they falling asleep? (I often fall asleep on the train, but I do the thing where my head jerks forward and hurts my neck and I keep waking up. It's unpleasant. Watching people fall asleep on the train is interesting, because it's this very vulnerable thing in a public space.) What ideas do these things give you about the sort of person this is?

If you want to be slightly less creepy, you can actually talk to people!

I am shy and a bit awkward, but people talk to me lots on the bus and train. I wonder whether this is because I'm little and I have a rounded face and wear dresses a lot. Being non-threatening is probably a good way to get people to talk to you. If you don't want to talk to people, you don't have to! (We have a really wonderful thing on Queensland trains called 'the Quiet carriage' if you want some peace. Though people don't always respect it. We also have wi-fi on lots of trains, which is pretty awesome, and what I am currently using to post this.)

But I have had lots of interesting conversations and met lots of people I wouldn't have otherwise encountered if I'd been driving. Oversharers are some of my favourite people. I am probably one of the few people who does want to hear your life story.

I had a great conversation with a bus driver recently, who was teaching himself how to complete a Rubix cube at every red light, about learning the piano, and muscle memory, and about how learning new things might not result in any financial gain but is its own reward. (I also feel much more positive about life when I meet really cheerful people.) (I encounter very, very few unpleasant bus drivers in south-east Queensland, and heaps of really nice ones. Which is great. It's very understandable for people to become jaded in that job.)

I had a chat at a bus stop on the Sunshine Coast with an elderly man waiting for the same bus, about the marvels of modern phones and what newspapers are reputable these days. I met a girl that same week at another bus stop on the Sunshine Coast, who was very helpful telling me about which bus to catch and also told me about the various schools she had been to, and how much trouble she had had with being bullied (she was much happier at a new, specialised school).

I think public transport is pretty magic. I think if the buses are running on time and you can have a nice chat with a stranger then life is pretty good.

Self-promoting authors on the internet: This is what you're doing wrong

1. Not bringing value. Contribute. Think of blog posts (whether on your own or on other people's blogs) as articles, rather than press releases.
2. Sending thirty thousand emails that are all non-specific and self-congratulatory. People will just delete these. (Also re Facebook invitations: it turns out that you can resend an invite to like your page after someone has rejected it, however it appears that you just haven't invited them yet. So maybe don't repeatedly invite someone who doesn't like you to like you? Learn from my mistakes.)
3. Just trying to sell and not actually interacting. No actual meaningful interaction occurs if your sole goal is selling lots of copies of your book. It does happen if one of your main goals is making your blog/Twitter/whatever else interesting to read rather than just a method for selling your work. And don't just 'network'. Try to legitimately connect with people.
4. Not promoting others. Don't expect something for nothing. Promote others! Return the favour! But only people you genuinely like the work of. And not everybody at once, because that's just overwhelming.
5. Not being interesting, or being anything. Really. Don't find your niche or whatever and then stay comfortably wedged there. If your blog is identical to hundreds of others, how are readers supposed to know your work is unique and brilliant and worth reading? This is just basic life advice, you-only-live-once type stuff, but applicable here: just do you.
6. Not thinking about what engages you as a reader. Think about the books you purchase, and why. Think about the authors you like. Don't think 'I will sell a lot of copies by emailing everyone in the world, repeatedly' because no one is paying attention anymore. People are just deleting your emails. People who are vaguely annoyed with you do not generally purchase or promote your book.
7. Choosing quantity over quality in terms of communication, who you're contacting, the social media websites you are on, your blog, etc. Again, not emailing everyone in the world repeatedly and having a blog that is just 'this is my book, give me your money' over and over again. It's okay to blog less regularly, really! People have limited time, so they probably would prefer to read a small amount of interesting stuff rather than a large amount of the same old boring stuff. Contact a smaller group of more relevant people rather than a big group that includes everybody (people enjoy feeling special, and only being contacted about things that are relevant to them).
8. Making people do too much. I'm not going to tweet and Facebook and blog and write a sonnet in order to win a copy of your book. I don't actually care for winning copies of books anymore to be honest, but I think you really need to think about what is easy and fun for your readers, rather than just what will get you the most exposure.

Steph vs. Time: On time management & writing habits

When I am invited to speak at schools (which I have done a bit of these past few days, it being Book Week, which is heaps of fun), I am usually asked how I managed to balance writing my novel/becoming an author and finishing high school. If it's a girls' school, my presentation usually then devolves into a discussion of One Direction. I'm usually blather something about prioritising school work and writing a little bit every day or some such.

And this is nonsense. I am not remotely reasonable or organised or smart about balancing various aspects of my life. I'm still working it all out. I very much long to be super profesh about everything, and maybe someday I will get there, but when I was still a student, sometimes I did prioritise writing over school work. I managed to finish a novel and start a career as a result of being incredibly, crazily stuck on the idea of becoming an author. When I give writing advice, I generally say that writing lots and writing consistently are the most important things. Mad passion is very helpful. If you are crazy about something, no matter how busy you are, you will make time for it.

I think this insane level of passion is difficult to maintain long term. I think eventually you grow up or lose your mind and then it can be difficult to get motivated, and those little bits of time you do have aren't treasured and used for writing.

There never really seems to be enough time. Everything on my to-do list seems to expand to fill the amount of time available, and then some. So writing a thousand words might have taken me half an hour last year, when I was very busy, but now, with more time on my hands, it might take all day. This is mainly because I keep thinking to myself, hey! I've got plenty of time! I'll write later! Unless one is a writer who needs large amounts of time to dedicate to writing (eight hours to myself, to write in, intimidates me), I don't think taking time off from other things to focus on one's writing is a good idea. However, in my case, 'focusing on my writing' is pretty much a euphemism for watching excessive amounts of TV and thinking about what might happen after I die and pretending like this is work.

I think the secret to it is writing every day. I don't do this. I really want to. I assumed as I got older I would become more disciplined, but that has not quite happened. I was reading about S. E. Hinton getting terrible writer's block for years after all of the success of The Outsiders, and she only managed to write her second book by writing two pages a day before she went anywhere. If you write every day, I am sure it becomes a natural and easy process. Even if it's only two hundred words or however much. 'A year from now you'll wish you started today'! I have inspirational quotes memorised for every occasion.

Often I hear about novels that were written in two days or a week or a month, that later went on to win awards and be generally brilliant. And the authors of these books seem to be these really mysterious tortured artists. When I write a whole heap of words in a short period of time, they don't tend to be particularly good. But I think it is worth getting words down on the page, even if they are terrible. I'm trying not to judge things until they are done. (Sometimes I have to, though, otherwise the plot may veer off in a ridiculous direction. I have to keep myself in check.) I think if you have that mad passion, you may manage to write a book in a few days, but setting aside days and days to write a book would be too much pressure for me. Fifteen minutes a day for a year sounds a lot more manageable, a lot easier to fit into a busy life.

So, advice: write a lot, write frequently, write daily, write every chance you get, don't judge it until it's done. When you are struck with inspiration, never ignore it! Drop everything! Let's hope your crazy passion for writing continues forever. I think a tiny bit of writing every day may be the key, but maybe you write differently. That was an accidental rhyme. I am going to stop now.

Advice for newly published writers

(And oldly published writers, and yet-to-be published writers, too - basically whoever is willing to take advice from an eighteen-year-old)

1. Do not read your reviews, good or bad. Remember: reviews are for potential readers, not for you, the author. Leave the review reading up to your editor or publicist or grandparents or whoever. Your work should already have been ripped apart by about ten different people prior to publication, and reviews will not tell you anything you do not already know. You cannot convince people who hate your work to love it, and you will never be able to get quite enough praise from those good reviews. Don't go down that path! That path leads to no good things! (I say absolutely do not read your reviews because I know you will read a few anyway. They are very easy to look up and very difficult to resist.)
2. Forget about rubbish like 'personal brand'.  I know everyone says things like 'your book is not the product you are selling, you are the product' but really, if you think too much about yourself as a packaged, constructed thing, then you will go mad. Just be generally nice and supportive of other people, and don't badmouth anyone, and don't write a blog full of swear words if you write for children. It's pretty straightforward. People who are just trying to sell themselves are not people you will read the blog of or converse with at a party (sometimes people who are just trying to sell their book/themselves will corner you at a party, and you just have to subtly shuffle away, saying 'of course! we'll catch up for lunch!').
3. Do not pay any attention whatsoever to awards and short-lists. You will likely only be continually disappointed. You write the best book you can, you send it out into the world, beyond that point it is out of your control. People will tell you if you get nominated or long-listed. Don't fixate on these things, because missing out ultimately does not matter all that much.
4. Just keep moving forward. Continue writing! Never stop! When you get distracted by bad reviews or not being long-listed or not selling well enough, you are probably not being very productive. If the selling and promoting parts of writing are what you enjoy most, get a job in marketing! If the writing is the most important, then that is what you should be doing. It is too easy to get caught up in promoting the book/yourself and not actually produce new material.
5. Get used to self-doubt and always yearning. I don't think there is a point at which a writer suddenly feels like a real writer, and the self-doubt disappears and one stops yearning for more success/more money/another book deal/an award. I think it's easy as an unpublished writer to assume the recognition of publication will change everything, and it's still easy as a newly published writer to assume a bit more success will instil self-confidence in you. I think these negative emotions associated with being a creative person (I don't know whether  people in more practical professions experience self-doubt, we shall have to ask them) are very useful to writing. Deal with the fact that you may never see a day when writing becomes easy, or you like your own work, or you feel you are a 'real writer', and keep producing new material despite it.
6. Stop comparing. Right now. Right this very second. Support other writers. You are really not their direct opponent. All you can do is produce your own best work. Someone else getting a six-figure deal has nothing to do with you. Someone you know winning an award or getting on a best-seller list does not make you any less of a writer. Be happy for other writers' success. But don't focus constantly on these markers of success. There is value in writing, even if you don't make a fortune out of it. You are not less-than any other writer. Your writing is unique and deserves to be read just as much as anyone else's.

My Writing Process: Twelve Simple Steps

Step One: Stare at computer screen for minutes on end, blinking occasionally, trying to figure out how to start. 

Step Two: Think to self: 'I would be a much more productive writer if I had a whiz-bang writing program, and also a newer laptop, and also a way to directly transfer my thoughts to text, and also a wireless keyboard. A wireless keyboard would sort out all of my problems.'

Step Three: Imagine the book is finished, and it is beautiful, and full of really excellent sentences and even better paragraphs and mind-blowingly intelligent chapters. Imagine a parade held in my honour because I am such a brilliant writer.

Step Four: Be suddenly struck with brilliant idea. Type out one hundred words. Rejoice, for I have started writing the greatest novel ever to be written. Practice answers about my personal writerly struggles and such for when I am interviewed on national TV programs that interview only very important, very smart people.

Step Five: Reward myself with a cup of tea.

Step Six: Return to desk. Reread what I have written.

Step Seven: Delete.

Step Eight: DESPAIR.

Step Nine: Think of possible alternative careers. Look up bachelor degrees in Accountancy.

Step Ten: Wish for a wireless keyboard.Or a magical typewriter that writes all on its own. Or another cup of tea, possibly some Vegemite on toast.

Step Eleven: Eventually start writing again. And then refuse to look back, or stop, or do anything foolish like that. Get about fifty-thousand words down. While writing, think: 'This is glorious! This is wonderful!' Finish first draft.

Step Twelve: Reread. Start thinking about alternative careers again. (And, eventually, edit it. And let other people read it. Eventually.)

--

This post wasn't very helpful, but here is a list that is:

(source)

Tell me about your writing process!

(And advice about finding inspiration, and not falling into this-book-is-terrible despair, would be awfully appreciated!)

This is your permission to fail

Sometimes people email me, or comment somewhere on this blog, and they are asking for advice. Usually they are young folks who are inclined towards writing but they are worried that they are not particularly good at it. I would love to be an old wise person who knows everything, but most of the time with writing I feel like I am about as good at it as I am at assembling Ikea furniture. Without instructions. In the dark. Underwater.

See what I mean? I'm not even good at metaphors. (And I consider writing to be one of the things I'm better at in life. You should see me try and operate a washing machine. I have a long and storied history of mixing darks and colours, and ruining all the clothes.) So I do not feel I am in a position to be doling out advice. (I give advice anyway. My main tips for life are: 1. be respectful towards everybody, 2. avoid scumbags, 3. have fun.)

And here is the real and awful truth about writing (and probably about other things, too, but I've been alive for all of five minutes and I've been focusing on this, mainly. Maybe next year I'll take up dance): beyond the basics, advice is not going to take you very far.

The state of fear and unknowing about your own skills is likely something that will only lessen slightly with age and practice (unless you are arrogant, in which case I wish I were you!). But that is what makes it magical when everything goes right, and you recognise something that you have written as great, or someone else does. Someone who perhaps has the power to share it with other people.

Every now and then someone comments on this post, from two years ago. Recently, I got a comment, asking Should I work so hard just to possibly fail? You know, the sort of doubts that are always creeping in when you are writing. (I imagine all writers are like this.)

I ramble a bit, but this is what this post is really about: Failure. And failure as a writer.

Sometimes I see advice from writers saying: don't write a novel! You'll fail and get all disenchanted and never write again! Instead write short stories!

The problem with this is two-fold:
1. It reflects the writer's personal experience, as all advice does. Everybody is different, everybody writes differently. (You have to be very selective when you are reading advice. I think mostly people just write advice to their younger selves, even if they don't know it.)
2. You can't ever really, truly fail when you're writing. You can write things that will never be published. You can write things that are just plain bad. You can invest hundreds or thousands of hours in a novel that never gets anywhere. But that's hundreds or thousands of hours you've spent getting better at writing. Hopefully some of that you enjoyed. Hopefully there are things you will bring to the next novel you write.*

So here's this: Go ahead. Write a novel. Wouldn't you much rather start writing today than not, and wonder in one or five or ten years what might have become of that novel? If your novel is terrible, you don't really lose anything - you've spent time developing your ideas, or expressing yourself, or whatever else. Maybe you've enjoyed parts, and shared them with your friends. Everyone looks back on their teenage poetry and cringes but for a lot of people, I think it was really important to them at the time.

Be willing to fail. You don't really gain very much in life by holding back because you're afraid you'll fail. You don't give yourself opportunities to succeed. And writing is the sort of thing you learn by actually doing it - all of the advice on grammar and adverbs in the world will not make you brilliant. If you decide to write for the rest of your life, or try and make a career of it, you'll always be uncertain, and self-doubting, but hopefully the consistency with which you produce good work improves. People never really start out brilliant. It takes time.

But you have to start, really, and keep going. Write about whatever you want, and be willing to fail. Really, it's a very safe world to muck up in, the one on the page. (If you were considering taking up tightrope-walking or shark-baiting or something, I would not be encouraging failure.)

*And hell, I'm bad at writing short stories. I ramble. It's bad. Also all of the endings are, 'it was all a dream!' I try to do that with full-length novels, too.