Writing a Novel for a Friend

A few years ago I once again undertook the monumental task of completely clearing out my garage. I should start by saying most British size home garages, in comparison to American size garages, are like very small sheds. I'm pretty sure British garages were built back when cars were minuscule in this country, due to the roads being super narrow and winding. Well, they didn't improve on garage sizes and still to this day new houses are built that won't hold a compact car, let alone the 4x4s / SUVs that are now popular to drive in the UK. Also, the roads have not been widened either, so fitting huge vehicles on winding country lanes is still a wonder as to why? Just why?!

So anyway, there I was clearing out my garage with my eldest daughter. It was packed with stuff all the way to the door that would barely close. It took a whole week to clear out and at one point my daughter came across an A4 plastic envelope folder, from which she pulled out a manuscript and told me that during her final year of secondary school, a friend of hers wrote her a book. A whole entire book. Her friend had asked what my daughter's favourite fictional theme was, and then just went with it.

And there it was. An entire book written just for her.

I was amazed by that. And yet I was also inspired. I thought to myself, that's how to do it. For the love of writing. That's how I write. I just sit down and write whatever I want. While I'm writing I'm in the zone and I'm just creating a story. My writing has nothing to do with what anyone else will ever think of reading it.

I just love to create fiction.

So a few years after that I was sitting with a friend of mine at a cafe in Worcester and she was chatting to me about needing to earn a bit of extra cash. It was then I thought back to the girl who wrote a book for my daughter, and I told my friend I could do that for her too. I asked her for a book idea that I'd write as a novel and then publish it for her under a pen name. So my friend showed me an idea she'd had based on a true story in America.

Over the next year I did my own writing, but I also researched the idea my friend mentioned. It had to do with a cannibal in the 1800s in Colorado. I could see why my friend would be majorly horrified by the thought of a cannibal, she's a vegan!

So I wrote a novel for her loosely based on the Colorado cannibal by reading Wikipedia pages. It enabled me to gain some practice at writing a historical thriller. It was so enthralling to write and the final result was this book called Forsaken. It's available in audiobook only (not paperback or ebook) at the moment, by a really great narrator. I'm not sure what I'll do with the book in future. I might publish it under a new pen name as this one is the name created by my friend.

Available on Audible

And that's how I describe my writing style. I'm productive and prolific because I write for myself while I'm writing. I get more practice in the more I write. Writing is an art. And the best way to improve an art is to keep doing it more and more. Obviously. And I wrote for someone else on a whim, because I could! A lot of new writers think they have to agonise over their writing. But that's just not the case. The whole point is to enjoy what you do. Else why write?

Things I learned from writing a book for someone else:

1. How to write historical thrillers / new genres that I'm not familiar with.

2. Researched and discovered loads about the Colorado gold rush of the 1800s.

3. That I can write anything if given an idea and I go for it.

4. That ghost writing for a fee in future is possible.