Last year’s winner: How the Mail changed my life for ever
EXACTLY 12 months ago Amy Lloyd was a frustrated writer, desperate to find the incentive and time to finish her novel and find a publisher. Bullied at school, she’d left at 16 with just four GCSEs and worked in coffee shops before finally taking a course at university. Now Amy, 31, is gearing up for the publication of Red River, the winner of last year’s competition. It’s a nail-biting thriller about a British teacher who falls in love with a U.S. serial killer on Death Row. ‘My life has changed beyond recognition. The £20,000 advance has helped me pay off my debts, so for the first time I can see a brighter future. ‘I no longer work for the Inland Revenue but have a part-time job at the University of Cardiff, which I’m sure came about because I won this competition. All sorts of possibilities have opened up and writing is now my future. And I have made my family proud — my mum especially.’ Amy promised herself one treat if she won — a Montblanc rollerball pen. ‘I use it to sign my contracts now!’ Working with Luigi as her agent and Selina as her editor was extremely helpful. ‘It’s been a joy to work in a team. The first edit helped iron out big issues with the plot and character but the second, line by line edit, really forced me to focus on the writing and finally brought out the book I know was in there all along. ‘The main thing I learned was that I was writing too much, saying the same thing again and again. When you put so much effort and time into the story it’s really hard to just get rid of whole chunks but if you are struggling with something and it isn’t working, maybe it just needs to be dropped. ‘That’s when you need someone you trust, preferably someone who also writes, to read it and be honest — and you need to accept the criticism. It felt quite personal at first but as soon as you understand it’s about the book, it’s easy to toughen up. ‘I’m now writing my second novel which is based in the UK and, without giving anything away, involves child killers.’
AMY’S TOP TIPS FOR ASPIRING NOVELISTS
1. Don’t expect ideas to just come like a lightbulb moment — you have to force them. While writing Red River I pounded the streets trying to work out what would happen next. 2. Write every day. Even if it’s only 15 minutes, feels like agony, and you delete it next day — but keep the flow of words coming. 3. Accept that sometimes your characters will surprise you — you learn more about them as the book progresses.