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How I Started Writing

Hi readers!


Thanks for taking a look at my first blog post! ‘So,’ I hear you cry, ‘how did you write your first book, Talking to Lobsters?’ (Buy it on Amazon here!)   That’s a great question, thanks for asking it!

Well, like a lot of new writers, it was the middle of the pandemic, early 2021, and I was pretty stressed. In addition to Corona, I’d only been out as trans for about a year, and I was in the final year of a languages degree with the Open University. 

I’ve always written songs to escape this kind stress. The songs I used to write generally had a sort of weird sci-fi vibe about them, and my favourite part of the song writing process had always been writing the lyrics, so, I thought I’d try my hand at short stories. 

I didn’t have a lot of time on my hands due to the other stuff going on in my life, so I utilised the bit of free time that everyone has in abundance... time on the loo! 

Yeah, this might be too much information, but for months, I took my iPad to the loo with me and wrote a few sentences each time. I’d make sure that I kept it with me just in case I found myself on the sofa or a train platform with a few minutes to spare too, as you never knew when you might get a couple of minutes to just get a few words down. Consequently, over the next few months, my stories started to take shape.

After I’d finished each one, I showed it to my wife, who gave me a few hints and tips on how to improve it, and then I would go back and tweak it. Without this feedback, I wouldn’t be getting the positive response I’ve had from people. 

At this stage, I still wasn’t planning on releasing a book; I thought about maybe sending some of the stories to sci-fi and fantasy magazines, but hadn’t considered an entire book. Luckily, however, once I started writing stories, I kept having ideas for more, and before long I had enough to justify putting out an entire collection. I did send a few individual stories off to magazines, but they weren’t interested. It’s fine that they weren’t interested; I mean, that happens to most inexperienced authors when they’re first starting out, and I could’ve continued to seek out more publications and plugged away until someone picked up a story, but being trans, I’m used to gatekeeping; whether it’s for healthcare, or for legal status, I’ve had a whole lot of people make me jump through a whole lot of hoops over the last couple of years, so I wanted to take control of my writing and just do it for myself. 

The next thing I knew, I was watching videos about how to format a book on the Kindle Direct Publishing site, and after a few weeks of tinkering around with the manuscript, Talking to Lobsters was born.

The feedback I’ve had has been fab, and I’m thrilled to have the book out there in the world. All I need to do now is work out how to promote the thing!

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