Charlie Tyler, author of The Tangled Mane: The Best Thing About a Writing Course is the Other Students . . .
I write things down to make sense of them. As a family we have a shared electronic diary, but I secretly transcribe all the events into a paper organiser. I also write lists; a characteristic I’ve given to my fictional heroine although it doesn’t help her solve any crimes. I have an endless supply of notebooks stashed all over the place including the pocket of my dog-walking coat should the muse descend whilst I’m in the middle of a muddy field.
Ever since childhood, I have written stories; at first to entertain my family and then I started sending them off to publishers with no clue what I was doing and no success either. Whilst bringing up my children I kept on with the writing, snatching moments of time here and there, and when my youngest went to secondary school, I told myself I was going to get published within two years or I’d quit writing. By this stage, it had become clear that the route to publication wasn’t as simple as I’d previously thought. I needed help and so I decided to go back to school.
I opted for a 6-month online creative writing course with Curtis Brown Creative. There were 12 students; all different ages and from all around the world. The course took the format of an online forum with a mix of lessons, from some big names in the publishing world, assignments, and one-on-one tutorials plus a couple of nerve-wracking sessions where a section of your work was critiqued. There was also an opportunity at the end of the six months to ask questions to a handful of agents. Some students came to the course with finished manuscripts, but plenty, like me, only arrived with opening chapters. Whilst we were encouraged to engage fully, the timescale for completing tasks was compatible with a busy life.
I found the course rewarding, challenging and helpful. For the first time I was hearing feedback from people passionate about writing, not biased friends and family. I learnt something existed between 100% positivity and total rejection. No one on this course stood to gain anything by suggesting my characters needed more dimension or that certain sections of my prose were overwritten – it was just the truth. As the course progressed, I became friends with a handful of people who understood what trying to get published involved. Five years later and we’re still in contact, some with book deals and some without.
When I was reading another student’s work, being shared for the first time, I realised what a privilege it was, and I also learnt how to give feedback which is a skill in itself; it’s all about being truthful but also about being kind. The flip side to that lesson is learning how to take criticism from others – another important thing to get used to as it thickens the skin in readiness for the inevitable bad reviews. We bonded whilst dissecting each other’s cover letters, opening chapters and the dreaded synopsis. We commiserated over how slow the publishing world is and the generic rejection emails, but we also celebrated and continue to celebrate our successes, however small.
There are a lot of great, affordable courses out there now for every budget and every time constraint. Finishing my first novel, a psychological thriller, and finding a publisher was the direct result of doing a creative writing course, but I also know I wouldn’t have got there without the support of my classmates. I don’t believe you can become a writer, but I do think there are a lot of things you can do to become an excellent writer and one of those is to share work with your peers.
The Tangled Mane, is a crime story about what drives someone to commit murder and how the twists and turns of fate steer their decisions. My PI, Cally Simmonds, has been through many metamorphoses on the page to get to where she is now, including input from an agent and several editors, but it was mainly the feedback from my CBC writer friends who, with truth and kindness, breathed life into her.
About The Tangled Mane by Charlie Tyler:
Introducing PI Cally Simmonds.
When a social media star’s childhood crimes catch up with him, he retaliates by exacting revenge on those he holds responsible, leaving undercover PI, Cally Simmonds, in a race to discover his real identity.
At the same time as finding the killer, Cally must continue planning her upcoming wedding to keep both her fiancé and mum happy.
Set in The Welland Valley, The Tangled Mane is full of mystery and suspense with a final, emotional twist of fate which will leave the reader reeling.
The Tangled Mane is the first in the series of The Welland Valley Murders
Order your copy of The Tangled Mane by Charlie Tyler online here.
