Learn how to write properly.

Writing courses vastly improve your writing, whether you channel or not.

(Started writing this with Hattie Crisell in her writing hour. Thanks Hattie).

The tricky thing about channelled fiction is getting people who don’t do it to understand how it works. I remember a conversation with someone a few years ago. When I tried to describe the process, they looked at me as if I had ten heads.

‘That’s how all writers do it,’ was his curt response. You’re not special, was what I heard.

Now the annoying thing about this interaction was that I wasn’t saying it because I thought I was special. I was saying it because I was struggling; I didn’t know how to work with the stories I was given. I hadn’t learned that yet, so I needed someone who understood the process and knew how to work with me. Because the person I was speaking to did not understand my writing process, I felt put down and my confidence plummeted.

When I started drafting the first book, before meeting my editor, I believed that everything had to be part of the book. (I thought it was only one, at that point, not three). Every chapter, every paragraph, every line had to be in there. I couldn’t change it in any way. I was terrified of omitting anything because I thought everything had to be included, just as I had been given it.

A Painting I did in my Egyptian Art Class.

Unfortunately, too, I didn’t know how to write a book, or about writing processes. So, to educate myself, I read many books on writing. However, I found that no matter how many I read I still felt like I was swimming in a mental sea of instructions. One book said one thing, another said something else. It was very confusing. In hindsight, I realise that a swimming pool would have been better, as I needed the structure and containment of the walls — but I didn’t know that then. I was too afraid to let go of control, to let myself write the story the way I wanted to write it. I didn’t know the rules or the permissions.

Because I had read so many books on writing, I spent a lot of time changing things, generally rewriting the first chapter, ad nauseum. But I didn’t improve in any significant way. I was still going around in circles.  Then I met an editor in Hurghada, we were part of the same art group in a café there and I remember when she first read it.

‘It needs more work,’ she said.

‘What?’ was my dismayed response.  ‘But I’ve been working on it for years!’ I felt gutted. Would this book ever be finished? I’d been working on it for so long now I was pretty sick of it. But she was right. I took it back and added more, removed chapters she said did not move the story forward, but still resisted changing it too much, just in case I took out parts that were supposed to be in it. We worked on it over a couple of years and then I ended up back in the UK, where I was instructed to Publish.

The next step was to find a cover artist. Initially, I drove myself crazy trying to design the cover, trying to learn how to create one, how to use photoshop which had changed dramatically since I had last used it. While I was still in Hurghada I had commissioned an artist to do the cover and she had painted one for me. I ended up not using that image because I read you shouldn’t design the cover around an incident in the book, it had to fit the genre. So, needing to get another one, and after weeks of self-torture, I was told to hand it over to the designer. Which I did, but I still told him what I wanted! (I was making lots of newbie mistakes).  He did a good job, but perhaps I should have let him decide what the cover should have looked like. He knows the market better than I do! Weirdly though, the Wizard image he chose looked uncannily like my younger brother, which I hadn’t noticed until family members jokingly brought it to my attention thinking I had done it on purpose. (My brother keeps sheep).

The first one was published and I began work on the sequel. Halfway through, however, I felt an urge to do a writing course. But I wanted it to be a serious one. One I trusted. I was still receiving the book chapters, but I found that one chapter often ended up as five or six. Now, instead of giving me all the chapters, they were seeding them in my psyche. I didn’t even have to get the entire chapter as often the beginning sufficed. This was more freeing and I realised that I had more control over the writing than I had at first supposed.   

I still thought of myself as a ‘pantser’, unable to plot and plan like other writers. Until I did the second course and discovered that planning was not as impossible as I’d imagined. It was just like planting a seed in the garden. I knew what that plant would look like when it was grown, I just didn’t know all the ways it would grow. I invested every penny I had on these courses, knowing as I did, that they were absolutely the right thing to do. And they were.

As a result of what I have learned, I am thinking about the writing rather than being too emotionally invested in it. I’ve lost the fear of not doing it properly, of needing to be in control of every aspect of the process. I can create the energies that need to be in the books, without losing any of the keys that need to be there. In fact, I can improve them with confidence. And I am happy to take instruction, to trust myself more.  

Initial Cover Idea.

I am now rewriting the first book and will get new covers to create the trilogy and rename it. Other people loved the first book, some thought it meant they would have to work harder at their self-development and couldn’t face the prospect, which I totally understand, others don’t understand why I am changing it, but I need to rewrite it, putting into practice what I have learned about plotting and structure, etc. The core of the book is still the same, same characters, same events, but it will be hopefully a deeper and better preparation for the following two books. I will leave the first book, parked on Amazon and available if you want to buy it. It is an easy, enjoyable read (Or so I am told, although I am horribly self-critical).

One of the things I was curious about was why I had to publish the first book if they knew I was only going to rewrite it anyway. But I can see, a year later, that it was another lesson in letting go. Of losing my fears. And, if I can teach my particular process in the future then it stands as a good example of what is possible in channelled Fiction writing and how anything can be changed and improved with guidance.

For now, it’s all still a bit daunting and I often feel like an imposter, worrying that people will judge how I work, that they will think I’m a kook, or delusional, or both. But so long as the books get written, that’s all that matters. I’m enjoying the process and learning more and if I can help other writers who channel, then all the better.

Original artwork: https://www.deviantart.com/artbysandijohnson/art/Moonlight-Sonata-in-Blue-11564867

My writing blog on Wordpress: https://ann-m-murphy.com/books/

My healing Blog: https://gaiamethod.com/