However… I do finally feel I am in the zone and am loving the characters. It’s another story set in Manchester. I can’t say much more at the moment because that might kill my mojo!

So a lot of August has been spent online – but I’ve found time to enjoy myself in the real world  as well. A trip to Liverpool meant that I just had to pop into Waterstones to see pal Daniel Riding – bookseller, children’s author and artist. Do check out his art on Instagram @danielriding.

August also saw the 3rd birthday of my amazing publisher Boldwood Books. In 3 years they’ve sold 8 million books, so I just had to bake a cake to celebrate!

I’ve read some brilliant stories, including the new one coming out from Celia Anderson, Coming Home to Mistletoe Cottage and They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera. I was also gifted this beautiful bird book. I’m a huge fan of birdwatching and we’ve been blessed to have blue tits nesting in the garden this year. And a huge family of sparrows live in our bushes and leylandi!

But of course, my big news is that I’ve been getting ready to launch Lost Luggage on 22nd September! Final edits are done, cover tweaks… I can’t wait to share this story and have just ordered some gorgeous notebooks so keep your eyes peeled for competitions!

Below is the blurb, and it’s up for preorder now. I do hope you enjoy it!

One lost suitcase. Two strangers. And a notebook that will change lives.

For almost fifty years, sisters Dolly and Greta have lived together – getting each other through the good times and the bad.

Except this year, Greta isn’t there and Dolly is feeling lost and alone. In memory of her sister, Dolly heads to the lost luggage auction where she and Greta go each Christmas. But her bid reveals a gift she never imagined.

Amongst the clothes is the notebook of a reclusive woman who has hardly been outside for an entire year, but who isn’t ready to give up on life. The notebook’s contents resonate with Dolly. With the support of her neighbours, retired Leroy and eleven year old Flo, Dolly decides to take on the year of firsts Phoebe had planned.

But, can you have a year of firsts when you’re seventy-two? And is Dolly ready to discover the notebook’s secrets, or are some secrets better left lost at the airport?

For those of you not part of the publishing world, a beta reader looks at the manuscript before it is published/ your agent or editor takes a look. Mine is quite hands on, critiquing as I go along as well. She also happens to be my daughter! She graduated last year with a degree in English Literature and as part of that studied a module in Creative Writing. I decided to take advantage of her living at home during lockdown and asked if she’d consider taking this book on.

It’s been an absolute joy, I’ve agreed with most of what she’s suggested, and now I’m asking myself why I’ve never considered having a beta reader before. Many authors I know have critique partners and/or beta readers but it’s something I’ve always shied away from. Writing a book is a very personal process. However, before any of my work gets published it goes through rigorous appraisals by my agent and editors and I’ve become used, over the last 8 years, to receiving criticism.

Which is just as well. I still want to be talking to my daughter at the end of this process!

What have I found to be the benefits of having a beta reader?

As the author you can be so close to your work that you don’t see the obvious flaws… So the main benefit is, hopefully, that by having a beta reader you will eliminate the stand out problems earlier on in the process, before you rewrite, polish and send off the manuscript to your agent and/or editor. It’s always easier and less disheartening to unpick character development or plot sooner rather than later. 

This should mean that, organically, you are shaping the manuscript to a higher standard right from the start.

Specific examples

Book 16 is a subtly different in style and my beta reader is helping me realise this new direction, pointing out where I’ve slipped into old habits.

The structure of the book is not simply chapter after chapter all the way through, and it’s been great having her take on this as to whether it works or not, or adds anything of real value to the story.

Very importantly it’s been great to get feedback about the main characters and whether the ones I want the reader to like and root for appeal in some way, that their motivations resonate, even though their actions might be shocking or questionable.

Crucially, whether the pace is right – chapter after chapter of emotion and drama, for example, can leave a reader exhausted if there are no breaks. And does she want to read on? Is it boring in any part?

She’s made suggestions about aspects I’d hadn’t considered – for example regarding characters that my protagonist has moved away from who, in my beta reader’s opinion, should still be part of the story.

And, of course, above all else… has my storytelling made her become invested in the story? Has she enjoyed it? 

All of this has been coupled with praise when pertinent. Now and then my daughter doodles a heart by a section she’s especially liked and this is such a boost and inspires me to keep doing my best.

And the drawbacks?

I can’t think of any – but then I’m 16 books into my career. If you are just starting out and haven’t had much experience of criticism, try not to take it personally, don’t let it dampen that heady passion we all feel when writing the first draft. Remember, any points that you agree with are only going to make your story stronger.

However also remember – it’s YOUR book. I don’t agree with everything suggested by my beta reader, by my agent or editors. Be honest enough to accept what you’ve written can be improved upon but, at the same time, listen to your heart if their view on something particularly rallies against yours.

What would my advice be to any writer considering taking on a beta reader?

Choose someone you absolutely trust with your work – not to talk about it with anyone else, or chat about it online. 

Pick someone who can be completely honest with you and be tough where necessary. The beta reader has to be able to criticise you without fear of reprisal! 

Make sure they understand the commitment – it’s a fair few hours of reading and commenting. You don’t want them to regret agreeing to help, or to drop out halfway through. 

I’ve still a fair way to go but am looking forward to when Book 16 is completed, as she’s a fast reader and is going to read the book in one go. This could throw out a fresh set of problems that I’m excited to address before my agent sees the story.

An author must never get complacent, must always keep striving to improve and expand their knowledge about the craft, and learning from my daughter has been such a rewarding part of this latest journey I’m trying to think up bribes for her to stay at home for as long as possible!

However, like everything else in your work, animals must have a function if they are to appear and here are some of the reasons I find them useful:

An animal is another tool in your writing work box to drive plot and demonstrate character. Take Toto in the Wizard of Oz. Trying to catch him is the reason Dorothy doesn’t hide in the cellar and gets swept away by the cyclone. He also tells the reader, early on, that Dorothy is a loyal, brave and loving person – her thoughts were with saving her dog, not her personal safety.

In The Summer Island Swap it is a monkey, Chatty, that takes centre stage in the fictional tropical world of Seagrass Island. Conservation leader Rick comes across as surly and abrupt yet shows a deep degree of tenderness with this small animal that he rescued. This gives the main character – and the reader – clues, from the off, that there is a softer story behind the offhand exterior of the male protagonist.

So the use of animals is an effective way of showing the grey areas of a character that, initially, might simply seem black or white. And they can also demonstrate a change in character – the smart, executive female protagonist of my summer story goes on an emotional journey and aspects of her are different by the final chapter – her rough and tumble friendship with Chatty the monkey has contributed towards that.

Animals can also make stories relatable and feel like home. Pets feature heavily in contemporary romances that write about modern people’s lives, where they walk dogs or talk to their cats. People own pets for all sorts of reasons – health, companionship, status – and including them offers additional ways of reflecting your readers’ lives on the pages.

Take my 2018 romance novel, One Summer In Rome. It features a blind Italian Protagonist, Dante, and his guide dog, Oro, (Italian for Gold). Their relationship is a functional one. Yet it’s also very much a partnership, built out of a  mutual respect and love. The moving and affectionate moments between characters and their furry friends add a heartwarming, relatable glow to stories for those readers who own a pet or have fond memories of a past one.

Also animals are, in general, hugely appealing, so don’t underestimate the the ah factor. As the creator of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, said, talking about how he imagined the internet would develop over time, “I never expected all these cats.” As a writer I have to admit procrastination due to watching animal rescue stories online, or videos of them performing tricks!

Of course animals feature predominantly in children’s literature and some adult fiction. I devoured Enid Blyton’s stories as a child and especially loved Brer Rabbit. When I got older favourites were the Stonor Eagles and Duncton Wood and the animal communities within these stories, with their leaders and followers, are effective at showing readers how a society functions. Plus a wide cast, with different species, subconsciously teaches children about the differences between people and, perhaps, how we should all get on, even though we might look nothing like each other. And they are also instrumental is helping children take the first tentative steps to understanding and accepting death. Author Tom Moorhouse has written an excellent piece about why animals are important in children’s fiction and you can read that .

When my son came back from his rainforest volunteering trip I immediately wanted to write a story about animals that needed rescuing and the people who did that. From the feedback I’ve had so far, readers have fallen in love with monkey Chatty and I’m thrilled with that. Especially for contemporary romances, animal characters are an extra way of pulling on your readers’ heartstrings, in this way making them become even more invested in the story and driven to keep turning those pages.

This doesn’t mean to say that authors aren’t facing challenges. Especially those of you looking after ill relatives or home-schooling young children – or for whom writing isn’t your full-time work and you are trying to juggle the demands of another job from home. Hats off to you all.

We’re sensitive souls and in my experience turmoil in real life heavily impacts on creativity. And I speak personally, having a deadline at the end of May that I’ve got to meet and am struggling with.

So here are my five tips to keep working.

Firstly – and  most importantly – be kind to yourself. By this I mean don’t beat yourself up if you miss a daily word count goal. We’ve got to get through this lockdown as best we can. As the UN General Secretary said, it’s the biggest challenge for the world since World War Two. So don’t consider yourself a failure if you are slipping behind. We all have less head space at the moment. Other priorities have come to the fore.

Secondly – take it one day at a time. Try not to look too far into the future. I have a deadline for my Christmas book on the 25th May. In all honesty I’m not 100% sure I will make it. The best way I can cope is not to think about that. I just look at each day. See what I can achieve. Do my best to congratulate myself that slowly the word count is mounting up.

It reminds me of when I got help in 2016 for my mental health. I used to worry about the future and past way too much.  The man who got me sober told me off for thinking I had a crystal ball. Treatment taught me there is absolutely no point in wondering and worrying about what might be. There is no point in trying to second-guess when lockdown might end. There is no point having sleeping nights about whether you will hit your deadline. Worrying won’t alter what happens. So just keep ploddng on, little by little, in the present moment.

In fact a lot of what I learnt to get sober and in AA is helping me enormously.
One day at a time. Keep on keeping on. Accept the things you can’t change. Keep it simple.

Thirdly – structure your week. Even though my Christmas deadline is pressing, and I have promotional work to do for my summer novel, The Summer Island Swap, coming out on the 7th May,  I do not work at weekends, apart from a little social media. I bake. Read. Watch movies. My family and I dress up for dinner on a Saturday to try to  make the weekend feel different (this means I wear jeans instead of joggers!) As a result I feel really fresh Monday morning and keen to carry on with my project.

I also try to think of my working week as having some sort of structure – Tuesday morning I do a food bank drop-off, Thursday night I do the NHS clap, Monday and Tuesday evening I watch EastEnders… it may sound silly but thinking of the week in that way gives me a degree of normality and stops the whole of lockdown just looking like an endless void.

And make sure you take that daily exercise. A cycle ride. A walk in the sunshine – or rain! That gives your days structure as well.

ROUTINE, ROUTINE, ROUTINE is proving to be my saviour. I listened to the dawn chorus the other morning. It struck me that whatever happens the day before, the birds still get up at the same time and sing their song. And that’s what I try to do. No lie-ins or late, late nights.

Fourthly – just get anything down. This attitude has REALLY helped me forge ahead with the first draft. I’ve found it so difficult to concentrate and hold the plot lines together, everything seems muddled in my head what with catching snippets of Coronavirus news on social media… so even if I think it’s rubbish, I type, type, type. THERE IS ALWAYS THE REWRITE to pull everything together.

Finally – take regular breaks from the key board. Perhaps spend longer than usual preparing a delicious lunch. Ring a relative or friend – you’ll both feel better. Treat yourself whether that is with a daytime soap or a read with coffee and biscuits. And take an extra long break if you’re really struggling more than usual. Yesterday I just couldn’t concentrate after a few hundred words, so I did some baking, rang a relative and took a walk. And there’s no shame in that. Tomorrow is another day.

I’ll always think of my 2020 Christmas novel as the one I wrote during lockdown. From that point of view it will have been the hardest I’ve ever written. Yet, at the same time, I’m grateful for the escape it is offering me and us writers are lucky to have that outlet. More than ever I’ve enjoyed disappearing into the cosy festive environment I’ve created.

Best of luck with your projects and spending part of the days ahead in your fictional worlds. I know it’s hard but you can do it and start by being kinder to yourself

Decide whose story it is. This isn’t just about point of view. My latest release, The Christmas Calendar Girls, is written in the first person, from journalist Fern’s perspective, but the story is also about the journey of new  man in town Kit. Fern must move on from the death of her husband. Kit must move on from a troubled, secretive past. Think about who you really want the reader to connect with. It is those characters you want them to invest in, so that their heart is in reaching the end and finding out if everything is resolved – or not.

Ask yourself to what degree you want those significant characters to change during the course of the chapters – because change they must. Otherwise what is the point? The character/s you really want your readers to be interested in must, in my opinion as a reader and writer, go on a journey, learn something about themselves and in some way be different by the end. Strong character development, as the plot plays out, is one of the important things that will hook your reader.

I’ve just read a beautiful story called The Girl I Used To Know by Faith Hogan. It is about two neighbouring women. One must overcome the present. One must overcome the past. It is watching this process of change, in them both, that made the read so compelling.

Are the stakes high enough? This change your characters undergo can’t be too easy to achieve – they must suffer for it! Overcome challenges. Nearly fail. Feeling like giving up. Face a degree of risk. The reader must become their cheerleader, hoping against hope that everything will work out in the end. Or perhaps the opposite…maybe one of the significant characters is not likeable and the reader is compelled to see how they change –  either through redemption or getting their comeuppance.

I’ve recently read Trickster by Sam Michaels, a great gangland story set in Battersea just as World War One is announced. It’s very much a story about female empowerment and the main character, Georgina, must find a way to be independent and consolidate her position as a woman locals respect. For her the stakes could not be higher – abuse, possibly worse – and this totally invested me in the story and made me reluctant to put the book down until I had finished it. As did the journey of one vile character, Billy. Would he change for the better? Or would he get his just desserts?

Is the concept high enough to attract the book browser’s attention? What’s the one-line premise of your story that will make someone stop to read the rest of the blurb? It doesn’t necessarily need to be really *out there* like, say Twilight – *teenage boy turns out to be 104 year old vampire*. But, essentially, this is about what makes your story stand out as different.

The Christmas Calendar Girls revolves around the concept of a living advent calendar. I’ve not heard of another romance story that contains this event. I wasn’t even sure what it was when I first heard about it! When I did research on the subject the whole idea fascinated me and I felt it would be a wonderful concept to base a novel on and that, being a little different, it might catch the attention of readers.

In other words, what is your book’s USP – Unique Selling Point? Due to the rise of the ebooks there are more novels than ever out there – why should a reader pick yours?

And finally… Have fun! This is the stage where your imagination can really run wild, before your inner critic, beta reader, agent or editor get involved!  You may need to tailor you initial ideas but get those creative juices flowing. That initial buzz  – a bit like falling in love –  should carry you through the project!

Good luck!

During one session in recovery services I was asked to think of something in my life that I’d achieved – and then to analyse how I’d done that. It could be anything that had taken work and time – passing an exam, frequently getting out of the house whilst feeling depressed, saving to buy house, leaving an abusive marriage… the discussion amongst the group was very interesting.

For me I thought about getting published and as I spoke the parallels between that process and getting sober appeared.

It took me eight years to get a deal. During that time I got rejection after rejection. But I picked myself up after the initial tears and kept on writing and submitting my manuscripts.

And during the first few weeks of being in addiction services I kept on stopping drinking – but slipping again. So I tried again. And again.

I remember similar senses of entitlement. When I sent off my first ever manuscript I was upset but also kind of baffled that I received a rejection… I thought that completing a novel was amazing enough to gain a publisher! In the same way, I thought it was enough to finally take the plunge and get into addiction services. I expected the group sessions to magically get me sober; that I was kind of owed that recovery in the same way I’d thought, all those years ago, that I was owed a publishing deal.

Then it hit me about six weeks into treatment: I was going to have to do this myself – albeit with the facilitators’ advice. And I was going to have to work bloody hard at it – just like the writing. No one else would write and polish and submit my novels. It was important to learn my craft and take advice form other authors and How To books etc etc… but, ultimately, it was going to be down to me.

There were big hurdles along the way to achieving both my goals of being published and staying sober. An agent chased me at one point but, ultimately, told me to move on, they were no longer interested. And, three months into recovery, I relapsed. Both of these set-backs were hard and getting through the first helped with the second. Trying to get published had taught me there was no point in pity parties. All I could do was pick myself up and carry on working towards my goal.

That’s the key. Taking it one day at a time. If I’d thought ahead when I’d first started writing, and considered that it might take me YEARS to get a deal, I wonder if I’d have carried on. And when I first went into addiction services would I have stayed there if I’d known about the day to day, month to month, year to year, challenges ahead?

Because it has been hard. The first half of this year was very wobbly for my recovery. But I got through it, one day at a time, not thinking about the future, not thinking about the past.

A therapist suggested I write a positivity diary to help with my mental health issues. Each day I was told to write down a couple of good things about myself. It was hard at first but, over time, it helped change my low opinion of myself. So if you are struggling to get published, do the same to make yourself realise that you ARE  progressing. Perhaps today you finished a difficult chapter or took another rejection on the chin. Write that down. Or keep a daily word count, however big or small. It’s the sum of all these very important little things that, in time, will help you achieve the bigger ones.

Of course, one can never get complacent. Even though I’m about to have my 12th novel The Christmas Calendar Girls published, I am only ever one breath away from a potentially bad review or a downturn in sales. Even though I am 1000 days sober I am only one breath away from relapsing again. The working hard and learning must never stop.

Good luck with your goals. Forget the what ifs and if onlys. Focus on what you are doing and achieving in the present moment and that will be all the magic you need to get there

But it also means you are thrust into an environment where you are ranked against everyone else in terms of success and popularity, just like you are as a teenager in the classroom. This can, inevitably have a downside. But first of all let me explain my comparison.

Publishers remind me of teachers. They can be seen to have *favourites*. Some can hold you back. Others can push you and your career forwards. On the whole I’ve been very lucky with my experiences with my three publishers, and I’ve been chuffed with the success they’ve helped me achieve, including two Top Ten AmazonUK Kindle bestsellers. But I’ve heard of other authors experiencing, for example, editors that don’t reply to emails, promises of marketing that don’t materialise or publishers’ Twitter feeds that rarely feature their books…

Agents are the prefects or peer mentors. They’ve got your back. They are someone to go to when the going gets tough – to give you advice or perspective. They are a go-between and can talk to the publisher on your behalf if there is anything you aren’t happy about.

Other authors are the classmates – there are those who like the same subjects as you, those who don’t; the tight cliques and the loners; the populars who look as if they are having 24/7 fun and success; those who have to work all hours to move forwards – those who don’t; the frustrated big dreamers and content pragmatists.

Amazon rankings are the exams and tests – within a few weeks of starting high school everyone knows what position they are in, compared to everyone else.  I can’t think of another job where you are ranked by a number, day in day out against your peers.

Best friends are best friends. They support you. They help you commiserate and celebrate.

Whilst it’s great to belong to a body of people who are passionate about learning their craft and achieving the same end goal, how can you happily navigate the challenges this environment might throw up?

Simply having awareness is a great thing. Before I got my first deal, I never realised, for example, that publishers might favour certain authors and give them more attention and a larger chunk of their budget. I didn’t realise that publishers sometimes paid to have particular books placed in shops at a certain chart position. It was naive of me really. But I don’t think I actually thought of publishing of a business. It was simply a dream machine!

Now it makes sense. Although having said that, some of the newer publishers, predominantly digital-first, have made it part of their mission statement that they treat all their authors equally. So there has clearly been some awareness, on the part of the industry, that this is very important to writers.

Get yourself an agent. Mine has always got my back. Has helped me avoid some bad decisions. Has dealt with publishers when there have been disappointments or things haven’t gone to plan. It’s definitely helped lessen the stress. And, of course, an agent does many other things such as helps shape your long-term career.

Accept that – like at school – your peers are a diverse bunch, and SO ARE READERS. You’ll find your niche.  And realise that almost every author, at some stage, faces rejection, poor sales, bad reviews, an unrenewed contract… I’ve often been surprised by the story behind some of the social media fronts (as I’m sure people were surprised when I came out about my own issues in 2018). Sometimes all is not what it seems. Only a few authors don’t face career peaks AND troughs. There is lots of fun to be had, as an author, but it’s not realistic to expect that 24/7.

Don’t obsess about rankings! It’s a hard one, I know. Limit yourself to looking only a certain number of times a day or week. There is so much more to how good a book is – such as reviews or touching readers’ lives, in the same way that, at school, there is so much more to a pupil than how well they can do in a written exam.

Keep your best friends close and support them back in the way they support you.

Of course, getting published isn’t actually going back to school. There are no mean girls (or boys!). It’s a wonderfully supportive community and within that I include fellow authors, aspiring writers, editors, agents, readers, bloggers… My career, to date, has given me lots of joy. Every new release is a whirlwind and I’m currently enjoying the preparations for the upcoming publication of my festive novel, The Christmas Calendar Girls.

It’s an exciting time – just like it’s exciting starting high school and moving onto the next stage of your life. The industry isn’t out to get you. But you need to get yourself a realistic view of it as a business. AND you need to find a set of  helpful tools – and people –  in order to surf the ups and downs

If the cast of your book is too wide, readers will lose track. Their is nothing more annoying than having to keep checking back, in a novel, to see who so-and-so is. And if you have too many really distinctive characters it could be overwhelming. You don’t want the minor players to outshine the leading cast members.

So I’ve always tried to shave my number of characters down to the bare minimum. The ones who survive are there for a reason. No, they mustn’t outshine the lead but they still play a crucial role, as long as they serve one or more of the following purposes:

Demonstrate the themes of the story

My last novel, Forgive Me Not, is about Emma, a recovered alcoholic, who goes home to the village of Healdbury to try to make amends after tearing apart her family and causing uproar in the community.  As the title indicates, forgiveness is a big theme of this story and the villagers reflect this. Some cannot forget her old behaviours and the trouble she caused. Others, over the course of the story come to realise they too are flawed and everyone deserves a second chance.  All the people she encounters again serve their place, even those who only appear very briefly. Like the elderly woman, in the street, shop owner Mrs Beatty, who crosses the road immediately when she sees Emma approaching on the pavement when she first returns to the village. This minor character’s one simple action tells the reader what Emma used to be like and suggests she is not going to have an easy time trying to fit back into her old life and make amends to those people she hurt.

Show something about the main character

Stig, the homeless man Emma used to know, gives the community insight into what life used to be like for her. It might be shocking for them to hear that the protagonist used to live on Manchester’s streets. It might confirm villagers’ preconceived ideas about the sort of people who end up as rough sleepers, that Emma really must be a no-good no-hoper. But then they get to know Stig, a gentle soul, who once had a good job as a geography teacher but who lost everything due to mental health problems. He demonstrates to the villagers that any one of them, given a certain set of unfortunate circumstances, could lose their home. His appearance in the novel questions any assumptions that might be made about Emma and how much she deserved to find herself homeless. He adds another dimension to her character from the villagers point of view. He is a window into where she has been for the last couple of years.

Another more minor character is runaway homeless teenager Tilly. Her purpose is to show how Emma really has changed – the Emma in addiction only thought about herself. Now she wants to help those less fortunate and Tilly brings out her maternal side.

Then there is Dash, the three-legged dog Emma grew up with. Yes, even animal characters must earn their place. He is overjoyed at her return, despite her selfish and unpredictable behaviours displayed before leaving the village.  His unconditional love shows the reader that there must be good inside her – that once she really must have been a decent person. In fact I’ve just finished a project where a kitten plays rather an important role. It is there, in the background, throughout the novel, and at the end we realise just how significant its presence has been for the main character.

They embellish the setting

In Forgive Me Not there are flashbacks to Emma’s past. A violent rough-sleeper who beats her up personifies the drab, threatening, dangerous, solitary place Emma has found herself in. Whereas the appealing rabbits and pigs on the farm in present time, with their colour and playfulness, reflect the happy, carefree, nurtured, safe, communal life she left behind.

So think carefully about your  minor characters because they contribute massively to themes, plot, setting, so many aspects of your novel. What’s their point? If they don’t have one, get rid. Like so much in writing, it won’t be a waste. They might suit a future story.

“This year I will get published.”

“This year I’ll stop drinking.”

Over the years I’ve pledged to reach career heights or sort out all my mental health issues within the space of twelve months.

And every time I’ve failed to reach my set goal. Is it any wonder?

I’d advise you to look carefully at any resolution you make and give it a good edit. Pare it down to the minimum – otherwise you are going to end up disheartened and disappointed.

Let’s take my example of pledging to get published. For a number of years I vowed I would accomplish this but it’s impossible. It didn’t matter how hard I worked, so much of achieving that target is out of an author’s control. Your manuscript has to fall into the hands of the right agent and publisher, and for commercial fiction it has to be suited to the market and your writing needs to be at the top of your game…

So, in time, I learned to make my writing resolutions more realistic. For example “This year I will polish my manuscript and send it out to ten agents” or “This year I will enter some writing competitions and if I can save enough money pay have an editorial report done on my current work-in-progress.” There are many steps to getting published and it is far more satisfying, as time passes, to tick off each one as you accomplish it. Appreciating the journey and looking at it as a series of smaller parts will make it far more likely you’ll reach that ultimate destination.

And this applies once you have signed your first publishing contract. Hands up, secretly I still covet that film deal and stroll down the red carpet. But if I made that my New Year’s resolution, the likelihood is I’m going to feel like a massive failure by the end of the year when I haven’t cast Jason Momoa in the lead of my latest novel or been interviewed on Graham Norton’s sofa!

My resolutions to stop drinking were also unrealistic. Like publishing, the journey to sobriety is made up of many steps. But I’d try in one giant leap and just stop point blank without changing any other aspect of my life. Of course, I would fall off the wagon by the end of January (or often its first week) and feel like a complete loser. Addiction services and AA helped me to refine and edit my goals.

For example, I had quirky routines around my drinking and one was that I’d never allow myself to start before 6.40pm. So a first step – a first resolution, a first small change – was to break this habit by going for a coffee, having a bath, cooking or taking up a hobby at that specific time each day, instead. And doing this was the first step to stopping drinking all together. Each day I managed this, it inspired me to continue my journey.

So go and edit your resolution. Step back from the bigger picture. Analyse exactly what it is you really need to do, to reach your ultimate target. For example to you need to lose two stone? Perhaps resolve to cut out snacks and get off the bus one stop early to walk, as a starting point, instead of embarking on a crash diet.

The photo below is of a writer who’s had highs and lows but has learnt to appreciate ALL the special moments along the way, big or small, such as great reader feedback, foreign rights sales or simply an editor’s enthusiasm. It’s also of a woman who this week turned two years sober. Oh I slipped after three months, and picked up again – that taught me a lot. And I still have days where I want to drown my problems in a bottle of wine. But I don’t. I continue to pursue my goal, one day and one task at a time, relishing the smaller milestones and victories that keep pushing me forwards to living my dream.

And – most importantly of all –  I don’t beat myself if I fail at the target I’ve set myself.

As Nelson Mandela once said:

“I never lose. I either win or learn.”