From Chris: Writing can be very solitary really. Even if you’re sitting in a café working on your latest masterpiece, you’re still alone with your own imagination, because, basically, you have to be to create the world you’re putting on the page.
So, its lovely to hang out with other writers and chat about what we do and how our brains work! I’m fairly new to this world – 8 years of working on my first book, The House That Alice Built, before it got published. Now I’ve written two more , I’m finally becoming part of this wonderful writing community.
So, when Lizzie and I chatted about getting together to not only talk about writing, but to post about it too, I jumped at the idea. And this is the result of our first ‘formal’ project, or as I like to call it, Lizzie and Chris and the Blustery Day (Big fan of Winnie the Pooh!)
We met at a café on Southend sea front in May, armed with notepads, two microphones and our mobile phones. What was recorded on the microphones was a lot of dramatic windswept noise. Really, that’s all you can hear! What we were actually talking about was how when you’re writing, you may start with one idea, then it will evolve into something else, because our best laid plans of what we were going to do were disrupted by the weather, so we had to be imaginative and do it a different way.
And as we walked along the sea front, we not only noted how the weather was affecting the sea and the sky, but we both described what we saw in slightly different ways.
So, here is our photo/film story of that day. Apologies for the hair….
From Lizzie: Hello everyone. When I spoke to Chris about trying some fun marketing ideas, we weren’t sure what we would end up doing. We decided to meet, (which may or may not have included a huge cooked breakfast) and to record our chats about writing and marketing. We thought we’d include what worked and what didn’t. A seaside stroll seemed a great way to begin and what followed was a comedy of errors
The wind was so feisty that we could barely hear ourselves speak and the video I took of Chris describing the sea was hilarious, as you can’t actually hear a word she says! This could be seen as an epic fail, but to look at it another way, the video was funny and the photos that we thought would be glamorous (the seafront) and professional (us) were so ridiculous that we decided to post them anyway. Even the photo of Chris with the microphone managed to end up looking like I had a weird hair bobble or antenna!
The content though, could still connect us with our readers and hopefully make them smile, which is what we look to do in our books. We both write women’s fiction. Like Chris, it took me a long time to publish my first book, as I hid it in a cupboard for five years while I battled imposter syndrome. Today, I love writing novels, talking to readers and I find marketing an interesting challenge. Connecting with people isn’t always about doing things the expected way and although our meeting didn’t go the way we thought, I don’t think I’ve laughed so much all year and I’m now excited to see what our next monthly instalment brings.
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Find out more about Lizzie’s romance books that are full of sizzling romance, beautiful settings and second chances at love. All of Lizzie’s books are available from Amazon and her latest book, Shh… It’s our secret, is available in bookshops worldwide and in audio.
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