To think about writing a book around my crazy life?!

It wasn’t just the cracker of “feesable”

the OP’s posts are littered with poor grammar, an absence of punctuation and appalling sentence structure.

a copywriter?

My thoughts exactly. Her basic standard of writing doesn't say English degrees to me.

But hey, what do I know? I'm just an uneducated peasant who left school at 13 with no qualifications whatsoever. In fact, come to think of it, perhaps I should write a book about my amazing life with a bi-polar addict mother, bullied at school, breakdown at 13, abusive relationship...only to be saved by the love of a good dog... I could thinly disguise it as fiction. Could be a bestseller, made into a movie...🤔

But nah, I don't have the qualifications to be a good writer.

Nope, you need a completed manuscript, which will have needed multiple drafts and possibly several years of work, and an agent.

You don't just email a couple of chapters to Penguin on a whim.

Hmm, I think these days the same true stories are all over the Internet. TikTok is full of people with similar stories. Morning Telly, online and printed newspapers, Chat magazine (does that still exist 🤔)

I would skim read an online account of someone's story (try DM on a Thursday especially, it's full of these accounts ) but I wouldn't give it more than a few free minutes over a coffee. ☕

Its god forbid. Not god for it.

And you're making this subsequent error, on a post which is defending the mis spelling of feasible.

Sorry I know it sounds like im just a total bitch, but you really dont seem cut out for writing with this lack of attention to detail. A publisher would just not have it.

Your posts dont even read well, so I wouldn't quit your day job.

Also, whilst we're on that- are you quite certain colleagues weren't saying that "you should write a book" to shut you up? I see that as a sort of awkward attempt to finish the conversation/stop you going on.

I wouldn’t buy it as I’m terrible for never deviating from fiction, in particular thrillers 😳
However I wish you the best with it. Hopefully it will help you and others.

If your escaped your ex by brutally murdering him, I might read that. Even if you didn't, you could write it that way, and how you stayed one step ahead of the police investigation. Police cat and mouse chases are popular.

But just escaping from a controlling ex, not unique enough. Could you set it in a different country or culture? Then the exotic setting becomes the USP. We've all read hundreds of threads about women in the UK escaping by squirreling a bit of money away, and snooping on her husband's phone, ringing Women's Aid etc, but if you made the protagonist a women in Mongolia, in a family living in gers in the Gobi Desert, that would be something new. Mind you, it takes a fair bit of research.

I think of quite successful authors in interviews mostly saying people told them not to bother writing their book. One finance guy is huge in Australia and he has multiple best sellers but never expected to sell many copies. I say try it, what’s to lose. If you love writing, write. Find out what you need to put before a potential publisher - I’m guessing a plan, a few starting chapters. What’s the harm if it’s rejected if you enjoyed the process. If you believe in it, keep trying. Many have said it might be comforting to others. My favourite genre is books by former SAS soldiers and I have no interest in the army or special forces but they are great for me to read. Give it a try x

In your previous post: "it wouldn't occur to me to be a bitch."

In this one: "I just hope you don't have children."

Congrats on learning a new skill, you've taken to it like a duck to water.

I would perhaps read some new novels that are similar in content first OP for inspiration

The three writers that spring to my mind
Zadie Smith
Leanne Moriaty
Sally Rooney

very different in style and tone but writes novels about characters whom have had traumatic experiences

just to get a feel for what is already out there

Yeah. It's pretty cringe. And everyone who thinks their life is fascinating because they get laughs down the pub with their anecdotes will be disappointed in how few want to read about it in detail. And pay for the privilege.

Also how difficult it is and how long it takes to write a readable book of any kind.

Harsh maybe but true.

There's been some decent bits of advice about writing on here, @itsokayokay, but you've not responded to it. Instead choosing to bicker with snarky posters. I know it's easy to get sucked in, but to write a book you seriously need to adjust your focus.

Things that happen to people in life are upsetting, traumatic, amazing, surprising, incredible growth opportunities. They are powerful to live through, and sometimes to hear about, when they happen to our friends.

What makes a great book - fiction or biography - isn't actually the plot itself. In fact there are very few fundamental plots. 'Woman escapes traumatic relationships' isn't even really one of them, in itself, it would need more.

What makes a book worth reading, (as you'll know as a copy editor), is the way it is written. The style, the characterisation, the structure, the way the plot has been deftly unfolded at just the right pace. The way it fits its genre, yet surprises. The way it references, in subtle ways, other works of art like other novels or music.

Having an idea is the piss easy bit of writing a book. Everyone has 'em. On a daily basis.

Writing is what writing a book is. Sustained periods of actually doing it, wrestling with it and seeing what comes out and critiquing it just enough to hone it but without losing your love for it.

Deciding to run a marathon isn’t running a marathon. Drawing a picture of a house isn't building a house.

indeed

We never know what somebody is going through.

well she’d told me

And your colleagues now know too!

Thank you!

It was the truth, I would have preferred toe nail consumption!

op all I have said is that your colleagues were likely just wanting to wrap the conversation up sharpish. Indeed I’d done exactly the same.

If you're referring to me, I never wrote anything about anyone's toenails...

We never know what somebody is going through. yes, we do!

But either way it isn’t the responsibility of anyone to listen indefinitely to endless navel gazing tbh.

I just can’t understand why you’re proud of the fact you stopped her from doing something she perhaps wanted to do

This makes no sense, OP. What was she stopped from doing except oversharing personal information with a virtual stranger at close to midnight? There's a time, place, and right person for sharing details of your life. This was a misfire on all three.