Tour/Giveaway: Silence is Goldfish by Annabel Pitcher

By Jen On May 19, 2016 · Add Comment · In Blog Tours, Guest Post

Welcome Annabel Pitcher, author of Silence is Goldfish! She’s stopping by A Book and a Latte today to share about her writing process as part of her blog tour. Check out Annabel’s post below, and be sure to enter the giveaway!

My name is Tess Turner–at least, that’s what I’ve always been told.

I have a voice but it isn’t mine. It used to say things so I’d fit in, to please my parents, to please my teachers. It used to tell the universe I was something I wasn’t. It lied.

It never occurred to me that everyone else was lying too.

Fifteen-year-old Tess doesn’t mean to become mute. When she discovers that her dad isn’t her biological father, at first she’s just too shocked to speak. But quickly she begins to see the benefit of silence. She can protect herself from the questions she’s too afraid to ask. It frustrates the heck out of her parents. And it also gets the attention of her handsome Math teacher, Mr Holdsworth…

Tess sets out to discover the identity of her real father. But when trouble strikes and everything spirals out of control, how can she ask for help when she’s forgotten how to use her voice?

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Annabel Pitcher shares about her writing process…

Share about your writing process.

Hmm.

It’s difficult. Yes, there are things that I do in order to write a book (drink tea, write synopsis, ignore synopsis, type) but there is some magic involved too. Like, sometimes, just sometimes, writing is effortless. Words flow in abundance as my imagination and fingers work together in perfect unison to produce a paragraph that is so right, so brilliant, so bang-on perfect that I want to scream WE NAILED IT! THANK YOU, WRITING GODS from the top of my lungs. In these rare, giddy moments, that’s just how it feels: as if some divine being is in charge of the book, and I’m the mere vessel channelling a power far greater than myself.

I’m aware of how frustrating this is for any would-be writer to hear.

‘Come on, Annabel! We need techniques, Goddammit! Skills. Sensible advice that we can follow in a handy bullet-point list. If we wanted to talk about magic, we’d reread Harry Potter, you bombastic blast-ended skrewt.’

Well, I empathise. Really, I do. I know how daunting it is to sit in front of a computer for the first time, keen to write but having absolutely no idea how to begin. I have been there myself. In my pre-published days, the challenge of it often put me off (*see desk drawer stuffed full of abandoned manuscripts*). Writing my second novel in particular, the fear almost stopped me in my tracks. I trembled when I sat down at the computer – quite literally. My poor fingers quaked in terror as I surveyed the blank page, unable to fill it for fear of writing it wrong.

But here’s what I’m beginning to realise: you have to write it wrong first. That is part of the deal. First-draft hatred is pretty common across the board. Certainly no author I’ve ever met has ever professed their love for a first draft. And it makes sense. We’re moved to write by the things that excite or frighten us, the things we love or hate, the things we want to forget but can’t, or the things we’re scared of forgetting so try to recreate on the page – the big things, in other words. The moments that have touched our souls. The ideas that have set our brains alight. Of course we’re going to struggle to do this justice. It’s going to take more than one draft. It’s going to take more than ten drafts.

So stick with it.

That is what I told myself as I embarked upon the journey of writing Silence Is Goldfish. It enabled me to take that first step and not to panic when it felt clumsy and awkward. This is how it’s supposed to feel I reminded myself. It isn’t meant to be easy. This knowledge gave me the courage to carry on when I was overwhelmed by how far I still had to go. It gave me the resilience to retrace my steps and take yet another route after yet another wrong turn. When it felt like plodding, like traipsing through mud, like struggling up a mountain, I persevered, trusting that this was an inevitable part of the process and that sometime soon I’d be freewheeling downhill.

I’m starting to realise that this is all the so-called ‘magic’ is – simply the pay-off for persevering, the reward for all that hard work. It seems like magic because you suddenly click into another gear, but it only feels effortless in comparison to the exertion that has come before. You can’t have one without the other. So get to it.

Trudge
Try
Trust

Some advice, after all. Good luck!

About the Author

Annabel Pitcher studied English at Oxford and has since worked as a script writer and an English teacher. She lives in Yorkshire with her husband. MY SISTER LIVES ON THE MANTELPIECE was her first novel. She is a full-time writer.

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Many thanks to Annabel for visiting today! Readers, follow the tour (schedule below) for more chances to win, and be sure to enter the giveaway!