If you’re a writer, how did you do it? Creative writing MA

[Lazysummersundayafternoon]

How did you get published? Did you send your work ‘cold’, or did you get an agent?

Also, what do writers think of creative writing MA programmes? Do they give you useful contacts?

Finally, these days do you think you need to be active and popular on social media to do well as a writer?

Lots of questions but would be interested in any thoughts!

You may also be interested in the #publishingpaidme discussion on Twitter. It's causing quite a stir by exposing the discrepancies in what authors are paid.

I've been following that, @shamalidacdak, and there's a huge problem because an editor will pay based on how much they think you will earn in the first year or so. They simply can't pay all authors the same - some will sell a lot more books than others because they're appealing to a broader range of people.

I think male writers get paid more than female writers because women will read books by male authors while the opposite generally isn't true.

#publishingpaidme is about the difference between what a black writer gets paid and what a white writer gets paid - I've always noticed there are very very few books where most of the cast are black. And then people say that reading isn't a popular pastime for black people - well, why would it be if they're not represented in the books that are available? It seems pretty obvious that something should be done about that but here we are in 2020 and nothing has been done.

I've thought this about lesbians too - I can't remember the last time I read a non-literary novel where any of the characters were gay. If you were gay and wanted to read a romance or a thriller involving someone like you, what would you read? Yes, there are self-published novels, but where are the traditionally published novels?

Thanks @TheoneandObi and @Lazysummersundayafternoon!

I wrote my first draft of the first book in about 45 days. The less said about some of the scenes the better, and as for the character introductions - eugh.

But the fundamental flow of the plot is the same now, even though radical edits have been made to the plot.

I keep a separate side doc with notes in chapter order, and if there's something irrelevant that needs to be right (like a date or eye colour) I just leave empty brackets to fill in later.

It's very alien to me to think of trying to write perfectly first go! I don't even write in order. I started with a chapter from the middle of the third book. I write whatever character or scene is speaking to me on any given day. It means mostly writing starting points and end points for each character, and filling in getting from one to the other.

Means some awful writing, but for me it's a real shortcut to the good stuff, because I never get "stuck" - I'm always writing something I feel like writing. So I never edit until I'm done.

First edit is to work out any big plot problems - read through, does it all make sense? Is some crucial bit of information missing? Do all the plot bits line up? I correct those things first so that the next phases of editing are based on the right info.

Second edit for me is about storytelling and the writing - taking out the horrible cringe stuff and writing chapters as well as I can. This is the biggest job, as some will be crap and need rewriting. Sometimes even piss poor chapters can be wholly rewritten very quickly once you know what you're doing with them.

Third/fourth are about making it briefer, more concise and perfecting the SPAG.

I'd been writing from the age of thirteen until recently and have several unpublished 'books' locked away in my cupboard upstairs. I did try and get one published but felt my novel wasn't ready, so spent a lot of time trying to make it better but was always unsure if it was up to the mark and couldn't find anyone who would read it and I doubted myself too much to try again.

I also did two creative writing courses with the Open University a few years ago and enjoyed them. They were useful in terms of coming up with new ideas and helped get the imaginative juices going but not sure about the rest of it.

Self doubt has taken its toll on me in the past two years and I am desperately trying to overcome that as the urge to put pen to paper is still there but can't bring myself to write anything in case it is rubbish.

I wrote a novel, and revised it for years, sent it out to four agents, three requested a full MS, I signed with one — I had never taken any form of creative writing course, and had no industry connections.

Read "The Getaway Car", an essay by US writer Ann Patchett. She wrote it as a clearinghouse of all she knew about writing, doing courses and getting published. There's an excerpt here or you can read the full version in her book of essays, This Is The Story Of A Happy Marriage. (I prefer her non-fiction to her novels, so I loved this book.)
PPs have mentioned the Guardian course. I'm in Australia, and a writer here, Jane Harper, did this course and had a huge hit with her debut novel The Dry. If you can get into the course, it might give you a good grounding.
I'm a journalist/copywriter studying screenwriting, and my first teacher lamented "The world is full of writers who don't write". Don't be that person. Open up a blank page and stare at it until you get so bored you have to write something!

I would suggest buying a copy of The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook. Invaluable advice about getting an agent and being published