Don't give up the day job

I find myself back “tent-making” this week. Some of you may know that I worked as an interior designer and decorator for seven years, before sensing I should lay it down at the start of 2019. I’ve been privileged to have spent most of my time writing since then, but this week I have picked up the paintbrush again in order to help out a friend.

It feels odd not to be writing – not that I’ve entirely abandoned it, of course. My whiteboard in the office still shows some looming deadlines of shorter, commissioned pieces but the magnus opus no longer needs my undivided attention. In fact, said novel – resplendent in its shiny new re-write – is currently being pitched to a publisher, a testing of the waters by my agent. And the parallel is not lost on me: that I am spending time painting a lady’s house because I have finished writing my psychological thriller about an interior designer doing up a lady’s house…

In this brief season of busyness, I have found precious companions via podcasts. When UCB begins to pall, I turn off the radio (trying to avoid smearing paint on the button in the process) and open my iPad. The other day, I listened to tips on marketing, making a financial plan and how best to conduct research. This afternoon, it was homing in on fiction via the wisdom of Joanne Harris. I enjoy her “calling a spade a spade” attitude, stripping away some of the pretension that comes from other established writers. Furthermore, I remain intrigued at knowing she was once the English teacher of one of my piano pupils. She recounted how an older lady on one of her courses was struggling to understand how to create a character, despite her evident skill as a writer. In the end, Joanne suggested that she spent ten minutes fleshing out life from the bland name, John Smith. I loved that, in just a short space of time, this lady had decided not only the general outline of what he looked like and how he lived but had added the curious detail that he went out at the same time each day but no one knew where he went. Well, how many plot possibilities lie in that simple statement!

So, I may not be actually writing at the moment but even my time away from my desk can keep the creative juices flowing. Who knows, I might even benefit from the break.

Jane Walters is the author of Too Soon, a mother's journey through miscarriage (Jane Clamp, SPCK) and is vice-chair of ACW. Her current novel, The Updoing of Marjorie Taylor is in the process of finding a publisher through Intersaga Literary Agency.

www.janewyattwalters.com