DYCP: A Personal Journey (2)

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There were many times I had to put aside the manuscript or fight hard to make time to do it, while working on projects for Catcher Media, but that was the beauty of DYCP – it validated this aspect of my creativity. It said ‘we believe in what you’re doing’. And that’s an incredibly powerful thing.

When C.D. Rose sent back his next manuscript assessment, it felt like there was a lot less work to do. He had another in-depth Zoom discussion and, although he still had lots of advice and suggestions, I felt on firmer ground – I’d been through the worst of it. My wife, Julia, and my two mates, Dean and Richard, were also game for reading and critiquing the new version. I’m thankful to my online writer friends, Wendy Jones, Allie van den Hoek and Tony Chapman, who were great at reviewing single chapters.

The next learning experience came from Mandy Waller, who I commissioned as an experienced copy editor. Before I could send her a draft of my novel, I meticulously line edited the manuscript. Initially, I thought this would be fairly uncomplicated: I’d just go through and prune sections, tighten up the language here and there. Again I was mistaken. This stage was joyful as I was able to fine-tune the text armed with my new craft skills. On occasion a new idea or paragraph jumped out of nowhere. I was glad that the novel still felt very much alive.

When my manuscript came back from Manda I set about attending to the many tweaks and comments she’d made. The whole process was very informative and exciting: a learning experience in itself. Manda produced an editorial review that flagged up some of the recurring things for me to consider – luckily not too many. She provided pointers around coherent use of past perfect (or pluperfect) tense slipping into past tense and back again for flashbacks* and approaches to dialogue tagging. She flagged up my use of tentative language, action beats, timeline nudges, vocatives and contractions. She’s even laid it out properly: it was beginning to feel like a proper book.

C.D. Rose and my online writer friends helped me shape a submission package which is an introductory letter for an agent or publisher containing information about myself and my book, alongside a concise 1-page synopsis. Compressing your 70,000-word labour of love into a single page of 300-400 words wasn’t easy. Wendy and Tony were incredibly helpful at this stage, spending time in helping me to strengthen the package. I even tried ChatGBT!

So that was it. I was ready to go. I submitted work to a series of novel competitions e.g. Grindstone, Bath, Jenny Brown Associates and Bridport, and after I’d heard nothing back from any of them, I felt I’d earnt my spurs as a proper writer.

Seventeen months later (October 2023) and thanks to the grant, I’ve attended writers conferences, online writing courses, online and face-to-face reading events, but I’ve also (fanfare please) completed my Activity Report for the Arts Council! From now on I’m sending out work and waiting to hear back from competitions, agents and publishers.

Catcher Media is still going strong, and we’ve got some great projects on-the-go, and lined up. Everything I’ve learned on DYCP will find it’s way back into my creative practice. I know that a second novel would be less arduous, so I just need a good enough idea.

Recently, I taken to advising creative friends and colleagues that they should apply for DYCP. It won’t be easy but then again, when was anything truly worthwhile easy?

DYCP has been a chance to test and extend my own aesthetic horizons. The grant has allowed me dedicated time to gain the necessary skillset to produce and promote my long-form writing. I was able to focus on a personal creative project that I had longed to do my whole adult life. One-to-one mentoring, meeting other writers and working with a copy editor has strengthened my written work and confidence as a writer.

Although at times the long and protracted stages of writing and rewriting the novel have been gruelling, at other times it has truly been wonderful: there is nothing quite as much fun or creatively stimulating as a good day writing. It has been packed with learning. I’ve met other creative people that have pushed me into new areas, sometimes kicking and screaming it has to be said.

In the course of running a busy creative media company it can be easy to stop learning new skills and become repetitive in terms of the the creative challenges you take on, or shelve more ambitious ideas, but the DYCP project has provided me with the rare opportunity for a complete ‘step-change’.

The grant has nudged me on to succeed on my own terms and I dearly wish that my mother, whose death 13 years ago first prompted me to sit down and begin this novel, were alive to see what I’ve done. The initial idea of the book was about someone who brought his mother back to life virtually for one hour. And even though that possibility seems a lot more feasible than when I first began, there have been many times that the act of writing brought my mother’s spirit closer to me.

Thank you Arts Council. I think DYCP will pay dividends for many years to come, and enrich the creative landscape of the UK. I sincerely hope so.

* Not sure if working on my manuscript prompted this blog entry about writing flashback scenes from Manda, but I wish I’d read it a year ago. BACK TO FIRST PAGE.