My Writing Life
The perennial advice to writers to ‘write what you know’ is nonsense. You should write what excites you, whatever grabs you, for which you have a passion to communicate to others. In your planning, research and writing, be thorough and organised, not slapdash. Always check at least two sources for each fact when you write about real events. Develop perseverance in the face of numerous rejections from competitions, agents and publishers. Seek out readers and listen to their feedback. Accept all criticism with grace, reject what you genuinely deplore and assimilate that with which you agree. Join groups, attend courses and summer schools if you like; this suits some but not all. Writers can be gregarious, others solitary. Writing tutors can be inspiring, indifferent or incompetent. Choose carefully before you part with money. And never pay an agent an upfront fee. Most important of all, READ. Read the greats, know the canon. They are your masters and mistresses. Learn from them, then write something better.
Biography
Rebecca lives in North East Lincolnshire with her partner and their daughter. Her novel ‘The Visitors’ is being published by Hodder and Stoughton in January 2014. She has worked in education for over fifteen years and her first published book was ‘Teaching TV Crime Drama’ for AQA (2011).