Today on Write Smarter I am delighted to welcome Roxie Key, a crime thriller author from Northampton. She has always been a writer, although the stories she wrote as a child about her pets will never see the light of day. From a young age, she knew that one day she wanted to see her name on a book cover. She studied Creative & Media Writing at Middlesex University before becoming a copywriter for a global brand, and is now a freelance writer and designer.
My best piece of advice for writers is simply this: write what sets your creativity on fire, and gets you sitting at that keyboard, day after day. Write for yourself, and not according to trends. Writing what fascinates you is far more sustainable than trying to predict what the market might want several years from now.
If you’ve never been published before, you might not realise that traditional publishing often moves at a glacial pace, and what might have been trending when you wrote that first draft, may well be old news by the time you come to publish your book. For example, it was around five years from finishing my first draft and finding an agent, to publication day. Even if you take out the delay caused by my pregnancy, it still would have been three years, thanks to publishing schedules and the work that goes on behind the scenes.
Trends can also be risky. If many authors latch onto a trend at the same time, they run the risk of oversaturating the inboxes of agents and editors with the same ideas, meaning everyone has to work seriously hard to stand out in a sea of similarities.
I’m not saying to ignore trends completely – if the story you’re passionate about telling happens to be hot right now, then absolutely go for it! Your enthusiasm is sure to shine through. But don’t let it be the reason you’re writing – it’ll be obvious to your readers.
And you don’t necessarily need to ‘write what you know’ – to stick only to subjects you’re already clued up on and locations you know well. Of course, this does have the benefit of authenticity, but it might not excite you as a writer. There was no way I was going to write a novel about a marketing assistant living in Northamptonshire. I’m not, and have never been, a detective (or criminal!), yet the first book I wrote was a psychological suspense novel with a detective at its heart – and it was picked up by a major publisher.
My research, I must admit, was minimal at best, and I have never visited one of the main locations in the book (although, that’s primarily down to 2020 lockdown rules). Research has its place, but imagination, voice and emotional truth matter just as much. I read all my reviews and I rarely find negative comments about accuracy or errors, which only reassures me that I was right to spend the majority of my time writing, not researching. Writers don’t need to have lived every detail of their stories, but they do need to understand the emotions beneath them.
My debut was driven by my love for detective stories and psychological thrillers, and drew inspiration from my own phobia of fire, fuelled by the excitement I felt about the plot twist I’d imagined. When I’d come up with a plot idea that felt impossible to ignore, I knew I’d landed on something good. And when the writing became difficult? It was my enthusiasm that kept me going, fixing plot holes and wading through editorial comments.
Passion is what drives writing forward – it can be the difference between a page-turner and a story that falls flat. Readers are clever – they can tell when a story has real heart – and also when that heart is lacking. Authenticity is what stands the test of time. And ultimately, writing rooted in excitement, curiosity and personal investment will always have more energy than books written purely to fit the market.
www.roxiekey.com
[ About The Deadly Spark ]
‘Perfect holiday reading’ Clare Mackintosh
‘A gripping story’ Jane Casey
‘An original, compelling and heart-pounding thriller’ Nadine Matheson
Once secrets catch, they spread.
Deadly fires are lighting up Brighton, and the latest case is alarmingly close to home for DC Eve Starling. The blaze was deliberately set, and a mother and daughter didn’t make it out of the smoke.
Eve’s investigation takes her deep into her own uncomfortable past. When her key witness disappears, and with the killer always one step ahead, Eve is desperate to solve the case – whatever the cost.
But Eve has no idea how close she is to the flames, and playing with fire can get you burned…
