Daniela Sacerdoti
Oh, that pesky second album! Take Me Home is not really my second novel, it’s my fourth, but it’s the one that has to follow in the footsteps of Watch Over Me. And that’s a hard act, given that Watch Over Me has sold over 500,000 e-copies and has been in the Kindle top 100 for a year and a half and counting. Needless to say, while writing Take Me Home I felt under a tiny bit of pressure! So this is what I learnt:
1) Going with you heart and your true inspiration is always a good idea. Don’t ever write following some sort of commercial plan, thinking of what sells or what’s the latest trend: your readers will know. Give them all of yourself and give them your soul - any less and it won’t work.
2) Bad reviews are useful. Yes, reading them can be painful – especially when someone decides to really, really let rip and every word of theirs is a needle in your flesh. Sometimes they’re just nasty, sometimes they simply mean ‘this book is not me’ - but sometimes they truly hold a mirror up to your book and reveal things that neither you or your editor spotted. (It’s advisable to have wine/chocolate biscuits/somebody huggable at hand after you go sauntering through your one star reviews!)
3) Trust your editor: having your book edited can feel, in a nutshell, like having your hair cut by a hairdresser who hates you. On the other hand, it’s essential to the shaping of a book. Editors are there to push you out of your comfort zone, to challenge you, to pursue a vision of your book you never thought was possible. They can be cruel to be kind. Go with it, and your story will be better. The editing of Take Me Home was such a fruitful process, and so enlightening, like I never thought possible.
4) Push yourself hard: there will be days when writing is like trying to squeeze orange juice out of a stone. You sit in front of the computer and you’re so spent you could cry. These are the moments when unexpected things can come out of your head, where your writing is raw and honest because you have no energy for it to be otherwise. Do push yourself and write for an hour, it’ll be worth it.
5) Lastly, the most important thing I learnt is how deeply and completely I love this job. If you want to write, do. I promise you, the rejections, the bad reviews, the sheer hard work, it’s all worth it for those moments of pure joy. There is nothing like it, nothing like the happiness that comes from creation.
I’m always up for a chat: follow me on @danisacerdoti
Take Me Home by Daniela Sacerdoti will be published by Black & White Publishing on 10th April 2014 price £7.99 paperback original