BTS at The Write Resources: April 2024

Welcome to behind the scenes at The Write Resources – 2024 has got off to a strong start so here’s a rundown of what I’ve achieved, experienced, explored and created so far this year. My focus has been more on events and networking as well as deep-diving into both fiction and creative non-fiction – I’m grateful to my local library as well as my neighbourhood charity shops for supplying me with a wide selection of reading without breaking the bank!

I haven’t done as much writing as I’d planned, but I’ve set some goals to spend more time journaling, and despite my assumption that I lack a talent for storytelling, I might also experiment with writing fiction as a few ideas have started to emerge that could be fun to explore….

London Book Fair

There’s no escaping that whether you write fiction, non-fiction, magazine articles, screenplays or poetry, you need to approach your work as a business if you want to build an audience and make sales. It’s essential to learn creative entrepreneurial skills, as well as figure out how to weave those tasks into your schedule without them taking over your life and leaving you no time for your actual writing!

Whether online or IRL, events are a great opportunity to learn everything from the elements of writing craft to editing your manuscript, finding an agent, traditional and self-publishing, as well as current trends in social media and marketing to effectively promote your work and make those all important sales.

Every year in March, Kensington Olympia hosts London Book Fair, one of the world’s biggest publishing industry events. Attending something on this scale can be daunting on your own, so this year I buddied up with author and writer friend Rose Sandy – we met at SelfPublishing Live last summer and discovered that we are near neighbours, so now regularly meet for coffee (and the occasional gin and tonic!) to chat about our writing goals and projects.

It was great to be able to hang out together and attend the event’s Author HQ which hosted a fantastic schedule of talks on all aspects of the writing and publishing process. I came away with a notebook full of ideas and advice – I’ll be sharing some of the tips and advice I picked up in future blog posts, so keep an eye out for those!

I’d definitely recommend a visit to London Book Fair; it’s an exciting opportunity to see the publishing industry in action and there are plenty of talks and events aimed at writers at all stages of their publishing journey. The after-show parties are also a great way to network and meet other writers.

AI For Writers

The subject of AI seems to divide the writing community, with one side embracing it and the other deeming it cheating, or even predicting the death of creativity as technology takes over.

So I signed up to a recent AI Summit for Writers with an open mind – I felt I was falling behind with the developments in the AI world and wanted to learn from other writers how they incorporated AI into their writing practice, and the pros and cons of using it. The summit delivered fantastic value, with a five day schedule of speakers discussing the many and varied ways they used AI, covering everything from creative ideation to productivity and marketing.

It was overwhelming trying to keep up with all the sessions but the content really opened my eyes to the creative potential of incorporating AI into my writing process. The main takeaway was that AI isn’t a satisfactory replacement for human writers, but that it does have value as a timesaving tool for research, creative ideation, to speed up the process of planning and drafting online and social media content, and even to help with devising a writing schedule and as a project management tool. I decided to invest in the AI for Writers Bundle – at $97 it offers great value, giving lifetime access to all the summit speaker sessions as well as additional courses, training, blueprints, advanced masterclasses and exclusive software discounts. Now it’s time to dive in and start exploring how to integrate AI into my own writing projects.

My Reading/TBR Pile

After picking up a copy of Francesca Wade’s Square Haunting in my local Oxfam bookshop, my latest hyperfocus/obsession has been with all things Bloomsbury, both exploring the area on foot and also researching its past history as a neighbourhood of bohemian artists, writers and social activists.

I’m now fangirling Virginia Woof’s novels and essays, and have also been reading Virginia Nicholson’s Singled Out, about the lives of the ‘Surplus Women’ who, due to the savage loss of three-quarters of a million soldiers during the First World War, had to navigate a life where the expectations of marriage and children would be denied to them. Many went on to forge careers as teachers, academics and writers, so the experiences of this generation of women have been well documented but are often overlooked.

Life in early 20th century London was a time of activism and progress, with women pushing the boundaries of social norms, gaining the right to vote and also to be admitted to universities and awarded degrees. I’ve always had an interest in social history, so this is a period I’ll continue to explore and has prompted me to enrol for a few online short courses at London’s City Lit: Women Writing and Walking and Journal Inspiration, as well as a two-hour Sunday morning workshop Writing Inspiration Jam (not writing about jam, but exploring the many sources of inspiration available to writers in our everyday lives!).

Author Events

I started going to author talks during my Creative Writing MA as a way of exploring the creative life of a writer rather than just discussing the theory of craft. Last year’s highlights were seasoned professionals Margaret Atwood and Michael Rosen, as well as authors Natasha Walter, Stella Duffy and Claire Kohda discussing their writing careers at a Feminist Book Society event celebrating the 50th anniversary of publisher Virago Books.

Hearing first hand from successful writers is really valuable and it’s something I’d definitely recommend as part of your development as a writer; whether it’s a talk run by your local library or bookshop, a literary festival event or a podcast or YouTube interview, you’ll pick up insightful tips about the writer’s daily routine as well as how they overcome challenges and manage the ups and downs of rejection and isolation, as well as their strategies for marketing, promotion and social media.

My favourite author events so far this year have been interviews with Marian Keyes at St James’s Church, Piccadilly for the launch of her latest novel My Favourite Mistake, and Lemn Sissay who took part in an author panel at London Book Fair. They’re both cheerful and endearing personalities who bring a playful energy to their talks and have a great connection with their audiences.

If you want to find author events in your region, Waterstones run a nationwide programme; you can find out what’s on in your region on their events page here. You can also find a list of UK Literary Festivals here at The Glossary Magazine.

Writing doesn’t have to be done in solitude, so make sure you get some dates in your diary to meet other writers and attend author events, it will bring new dimensions to your own work!