Enjoy!
How long have you been
writing?
Ever since a small child, I
have had a vivid imagination and always wanted to write. However, ridiculed for
the slightest thing at home and too nervous to give more reason for ridicule, I
kept my writing to only that of essays in my English classes at school. I would
always write far too much for an essay but one in particular. The assignment
had been a two page (four sides) essay. By the time I had completed it, it was
160 pages! An avid reader, I had to content myself with reading all the books I
could get my hands on, though I dreamed of writing one day. It was actually
only nine years ago, at the age of forty three, that I started my first book.
After nearly a year, I felt it was ready and sent it to an agent. I hadn’t done
my homework though and it was not the right agent for the genre of my book, it
was quickly rejected! I felt too embarrassed afterwards to send it again and it
has sat on my shelves and moved house ten times in the last eight years. I
decided only less than a year ago, to write another draft. Since then, I have
edited it a few times and started the sequel to my first book in the meantime.
I am now, after a final edit, ready to submit my manuscript again.
Why did you decide to write?
Why did you decide to write?
My first book actually tells
a story which my heart has been aching to share. The sequel and a third book,
will complete the tale. With the issues I had as a child and which prevented me
from writing no longer there, I am now able to press on and write. I can’t say
more than that, it is all revealed in the first book.
What makes you keep going?
With my first book and the
next two in particular, the conviction that my story should be shared, is the
driving factor. My love for writing is what will keep me going with the other
books, already in my head, after the first three!
Ouch…..I was afraid that you
might ask that question! Well, with the best of intentions and the desire to
write, you know, it never kind of pans out quite how I think it will! I have
had some traumatic upheavals the past ten years, the effects of these,
seriously compromising my writing time. With working too, my time is more
limited so I really have to fit in my writing around everything else. A large
notepad and pencils take up permanent residency in my hand bag and whenever I
find I have a few minutes or longer, away from the house, I will use that time
to jot down anything that springs to mind. So, whilst I am not sitting at my
desk for six hours solid every day, my mind is working out detail and ideas as
I go about my day’s work. When I am not working, the plan is always to get up
in the morning about 3am. This is my favourite time to write and can write then
for a good four hours. After a short break, I can continue for another four
hours or so. I am a natural “night owl” though and it has been the self
discipline to get to sleep at an earlier time, in order to be able to get up at
3am, that has been really hard to find. I usually end up writing whenever I
can, no real established routine. On the occasions that I have been able to
stick to my plan, that is when I found the writing and my focus, to be easiest.
What do you do to study the
craft?
Apart from having read since
the age of four, I have to admit, I have done nothing in the way of studying. I
have never been able to make it to any writer’s clubs or such like so really, I
have only my reading of various genres to learn from.
Do you have a goal when you’d
like to be published? What is it?
Now that my first book is
ready for a final checking over by another editor, my goal is for my book to be
published within two years. This may be an unreasonable goal and will more than
likely take much longer but two years, that’s what I am aiming for.
My preferred choice for
publication, is via the traditional route.
With my first book and the
two which will follow that one, the genre is non fiction. The books are in
essence, autobiographical, though I have written the first (the other two will
be in the same form), as a novel and written in the third person.
Why is The Inn of the Sixth Happiness your favorite book?
When I was ten years old, I
read my favourite book ever. Her story brought me, at the age
of ten, to God. Born into an atheist family, Gladys Aylward’s story not only
brought me to God but also gave me the determination and confidence to pursue
a life walking with God. My life changed dramatically after I had first seen
the film of the book… “The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness.”
For my first three
books, I have been able to draw on Gladys Aylward. The story was written from
the heart and that is the only way that I can write mine. I am not an academic, I do not know all the
grammatical rules necessarily but I write from the heart and the story will
hopefully be compelling enough to move others and to see the aim of my books.
(I cannot divulge that aim just at this point).
What would you tell a writer
like yourself, struggling to get published?
I am really only beginning on
the long road of publication myself. I don’t know exactly what advice I could
offer at this present time. However, I do know that it can be a long and maybe
lonely road, filled with frustration. The obvious pitfalls for me will be
believing that after the several, inevitable rejections, my confidence will go out
the window, and the belief that my books are rubbish will almost convince me to
stop.
But I do not intend
to stop, even if it means sending my manuscript to each and every literary
agent there is, one by one! I think that we, as writers, have to have the
courage of our convictions and believe in our own writing otherwise, who else
will? “Never give up,” is what I would say to any author hoping to get their
manuscripts published.
Carmina!
Learn more about Carmina:
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/22391061-carmina-widmark
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