Welcome to my stop on the Blog Tour for This Child of Ours by Sadie Pearse! I'm so excited to kick off this tour with a special guest post from the author!
About the Book:
This Child Of Ours tells the story of Sally, Theo and their child Riley. When Riley says that she wants to be a boy it throws their relationship under the microscope. As everyone around them has an opinion on how to raise their child, can they come together as a family?
Guest Post from Sadie Pearse
New year, new novel? How to get started
A clean slate, a blank canvas, 360-odd days you haven’t met before – however you choose to look on 2019, it could be an opportunity to do something you’ve always dreamed of.
You might have it in mind to write something. Perhaps you’ve been writing for a while, and want to work on a bigger piece, or maybe you’re looking to put down your words on the page for the first time. It
can feel like a big leap, but if you break it down, it’s achievable.
Whether you’re a planner or a ‘pantser’ (flying by the seat of them! Without a fixed plan), the key thing is to keep writing, whether you feel those words are good or not. I have a word count target each
working day – usually 2000 words – and I do it in two bursts. In between I’ll reward myself with something (usually food-related) and do a bit of admin or time-limited social networking before starting again. I stick at it, forgiving myself the occasional
missed day when life gets in the way, and then, after a few months – it’s there. An exciting, messy first draft. The beginning of the story becoming a story.
My inner critic is and always has been relentless – I’ll never finish the book, the characters won’t come to life, people won’t like what I have to say – so my main job as a writer during the first draft
is to shut that voice down. I tell her she has an important job, but it’s not now – it’ll be when I get the red pen out to reshape my second draft. Our inner critics don’t really know anything much – their only role in life is to try and stand in our way.
If we listen to them, they get bigger and more powerful, which serves no one, and will stand in the way of your book or project getting finished. Save the energy they demand of you for imagining, and creating, instead.
I became a writer because I wanted to talk to people, and learn to understand the challenging parts of life – heartbreak, family disputes, bereavement – together with them. It’s a wonderful thing to be able
to share a story with readers – and by that I don’t mean tell them a story, but let a reader become part of it. I sketch out the way I see a story, and each reader will fill in the gaps. When a book’s published readers often surprise me with the small elements
of the book they’ve picked up on – their imaginations have given colour to a part of the plot that in my mind was just in the background. With
This Child of Ours, I wanted to put the reader in the characters’ shoes, as they face a very modern dilemma – what would you do? And is being ‘right’ the most important thing?
Whatever is on your resolutions list, I wish you a very happy new year! Good luck and enjoy it. Sadie x
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