How I wrote my second novel
(with much difficulty). a diary ✏️
Last week, I announced my second novel, TABLE FOR ONE, which is now available for pre-order and out in April next year. (Thank you so much to everyone who supported the announcement & helped it climb to #1 in ‘hot new releases’). I wrote more about what the book is about here:
I wanted to share my four year writing diary with you. Writing a novel can take a very long time.
(OK fine, some authors can write a novel a year —this is NEVER gonna be me!)
It’s usually a long process because you’re creating a whole new world that didn’t exist before. It’s like taking a big chunk of marble, and then picking at it, hour after hour, month after month, until eventually, years later, you have something resembling art. And because you have been chipping away at it for years with zero ‘likes’ or validation from the outside world, you feel like you’ve created something of substance and focus — and that feels good.
Then you say, covered in bruises and limping slightly: here, look, I made something for you. I hope you like it!!!
This is my timeline of events…
In 2020 —
A few months after OLIVE was published, I sat on the balcony of my old Hackney flat and started typing into a Word Document entitled: Novel2. Little did I know that a pandemic would occur and we would subsequently be traumatized by the news, the lockdowns and the government telling us we couldn’t sit on benches. I tried and failed multiple times to come up with an idea. Nothing. One paragraph stuck with me. A tiny little seed.