The Hurting is her award-winning YA debut, a Nordic noir Wuthering Heights out on the 6th September 2018 with Barry Cunningham and Chicken House Books.
It’s exciting when you do get published, but since entering LSF Talent Campus, and reworking my debut novel as a script, it has led to paid script writing work.
1) ENTER COMPETITIONS. In publishing, they can get your writing noticed. Obviously, you don’t need to win – and this doesn’t work as well in film festivals which often rely on a couple of people’s opinions. But I went the competition route with my debut, The HURTING because it forced a deadline on me, the best thing ever – also, Literary agents scour Shortlists and Longlists for fresh talent, they’re queuing up to judge big competitions, like The Bath Children’s Novel Award. My agent signed me from that, and I got a two-book deal with J.K Rowling’s publisher. I can’t stress enough entering is NOT about wining, or shortlisting. Young people (my target audience) and literary editors are the early readers, so it’s less dependent on the whim of one or two judges. I know loads of writers got published after competitions. If you’re skint, some offer free entries. And if you’re BAME – pay that card, it’s a hot ticket in children’s publishing right now. They will read your work. Then NETWORK. Follow each other on social media, and network on blogs like Bang2Writes.
2) LEARN to TYPE properly. This sounds like the bleeding obvious…But my sister was the first female banker to work in The City. In those days, if you could type, you stayed a secretary. My sister made me promise to never learn. WORSE ADVICE EVER. I went into NBC News as newsdesk assistant from art school! I BLAGGED my way into that job by NETWORKING with the secretary, I saw the Exec’s PA called the shots.
3) TAKE YOUR TIME. A lot of writers FAIL because they send work out too soon. In publishing, you get ONE SHOT at an agent reading your work. Curtis Brown Agency says it takes 11 years to get published, on average! The last person standing who takes home the prize. Working on your craft, is your best bet. Don’t give up.
4) MAKE the DECISION. There’s a saying by Goethe, once you make a decision, the universe steps in behind you. Then give yourself permission to be really bad at it. On your first draft. Then edit, polish, polish, polish. Put it away. And start something else. Don’t get precious. Get professional. Rembrandt turned his paintings to face the wall for 3 months. You can’t spot mistakes when you first finish a draft You wouldn’t except to be an Olympian, just because you can jog around the Park, but many writers think they should be published, just because they’ve written their first story.
5) LISTEN to yourself. Quiet the jabbering world, until you can hear your own voice. Take a walk and get reflective. It’s how YOU think and feel about the world as a writer that counts. What do you notice? What do you like? Make mistakes. Change your mind. Above all be kind to yourself. On bad days remember you write because you love it.
More about The Hurting…
Lucy van Smit on her Award-winning YA debut novel; THE HURTING. A contemporary Nordic Noir Wuthering Heights set in the Norwegian Fjords.
The Hurting is the story of Nell, a timid British schoolgirl who wants to escape her suffocating Catholic family to become a famous songwriter but falls for young wolf whisperer only to be abandoned on his Norwegian wolf mountain with the baby they stole. In three words: Obsession. Escape. Survival.
I wanted to write an epic love story, on the lines of Dr Zhivago, where love can rip a person apart and make them do something terrible, and leave their loving, trusting family without a backwards look. ‘Romance genre’ doesn’t convey the intensity I was after, a dark love that could make the universe weep. My hard-line Catholic family didn’t do emotion when I was little, feelings got stuffed down and overruled by the intellect. Clever was our game. I drew on my Catholic upbringing for Nell’s character. I’m a lapsed Catholic, but like mystics. They seem closer to quantum mechanics than anything. Science gives us a modern mystical language for the non-physical world. Our thoughts telegraph instantly. Like emails. The Internet’s a good metaphor for being human. We send blessings, or curses, across the world. As Nell finds her own voice and sings, her words become these extraordinary vibrations; delight, terror, regret. Sacrifice. A whole roller-coaster of feeling and meaning. There’s a saying by Goethe, once you make a decision, the universe steps in behind you. Once Nell decides to save the abducted baby, she becomes a modern-day Joan of Arc and learns that No Boy is worth her Soul.
Follow Lucy van Smit on www.lucyvansmit.com Twitter. Facebook. Instagram.
Posted by a member of the London Screenwriters’ Festival team.
