Welcome to another Friday Reads blog. My featured book this week is the gripping festive cosy murder mystery, A Christmas Murder, by Mary Grand. Isn’t the cover gorgeous? Mary is going to tell us a bit about the book, and her writing life. So grab a cuppa, get cosy and let’s get chatting to Mary. 😊

Blurb

Duncan Fern is the notorious editor of The Daily Flame, a leading tabloid newspaper.  He is returning  to the Isle of Wight for Christmas and brings with him his wife, adult children with their partners, and Antoine, his right-hand man from the newspaper.  Each has secrets to hide.  They arrive in a blizzard on the evening of 22^nd December. The next morning, they wake not only to find themselves snowed in but, to their horror, discover that Duncan Fern has died in the night.

Duncan’s death is thought to be from natural causes, but Susan Flynn, an islander working in the manor, is sure he has been murdered and that there is a killer among the guests. Can she, or you for that matter, uncover the killer?

Link : https://mybook.to/christmasmurdersocial

Welcome to my blog, Mary. Your book sounds fab. Can you tell us a bit about your writing life?

Certainly Mary. Here we go:

My Writing Life – The Other Side of Fear.

I don’t know about you, but I really struggle with procrastination when I’m writing.

For me the worst time is that moment when I have to open my laptop and face the blank screen. Research and plotting are fine, but I know I can linger too long over them because of this dread I feel about starting to write.

Why does this happen to me, and others, on every single novel?

I started to read around and discovered that this feeling of dread which leads to procrastination, can have its roots in a fear of failure.  This makes sense. If we don’t write anything then we have nothing to be judged on, in a way we can’t fail (we can’t succeed either but that’s the least of our worries at that moment). 

Digging deeper I discovered that fear of failure can be rooted in perfectionism.

Now, perfectionism is not the desire to improve and develop as a writer That is healthy, positive. No, perfectionism is stifling, it paralyzes us.

For me, perfectionism demands that the first draft is faultless, every word must be perfect.  If they’re not, then I must be a ‘bad writer’ or maybe I’m not even ‘a real writer’ after all.

This is an impossible standard and yet the voices are loud and hard to silence.

I started looking around for some hints to get over this hurdle, to find myself the other side of the fear.  These are a few hints I have found that have helped me.

1. Be kind to yourself. “You can write, you will make mistakes, but we can sort those out later. Everyone writes crappy first drafts. It’s going to be ok.’
2. Stop calling it a first draft, call it a zero draft, or ‘a non-draft.’ The main thing is to persuade yourself that no one, not one other person, is going to read this initial draft.
3. This is weird but it works for me.  Trick yourself into writing. Put on some upbeat music, have a tasty biscuit and hot chocolate and just happen to open your laptop.. just write a few words…oh and a few more…
4. Stop getting hung up on that scary first line, the hook. Often you only really know that first line when you know the big story. For now, keep ploughing past it.
5. You are allowed to make as many mistakes as you like at this stage. A mistake is not proof of our inadequacy. Mistakes are not the enemy.
6. Remember why you started writing. Rediscover that joy and excitement you felt when you wrote your first story.
7. Also remember that writing is a creative process, it involves taking risks, experimenting.

And so, I am off to face that blank page. I’m going in.

Great advice for coping with that dreaded first draft, Mary!

Author Bio

My roots are in Wales, but I now live on the Isle of Wight.  I write murder mysteries and am published by Boldwood Books. “The House Party” was a best seller on Amazon and I am now writing my seventh classic whodunnit set on the island.

Thanks so much  for dropping by to talk to us today, Mary.  Wishing you lots of writing success.