Hi everyone,
I’d drafted my blog, and then I got some news I had to share! So, before the blog properly commences:
Fyn Carter and the Agents of Eromlos has been shortlisted in the Children’s category of the Selfies Book Awards 2025! This is the most amazing news! I am so grateful, excited, and wowed. I’ve never been longlisted or shortlisted like this before, and I am super appreciative of this moment. Selfies winners are announced at the London Book Fair on 11th March. For the details, here is a link to the BookBrunch article:
https://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/free-article/selfies-awards-2025-shortlists-announced/
To the blog part 🙂
I know it’s been a strange start to the year which hasn’t necessarily been easy for everyone. I hope you’re finding smile time where you are. As per my previous blog, I’m learning more and more that self-care is important. With that in mind, I wanted to do something a bit different with this month’s blog. I thought I’d talk about some of the things which are important to me in my writing process. You’ll see that how I live and how I write are often linked. It’s a slightly longer blog than normal, but I hope you enjoy it/it helps.
When I wrote Fyn Carter and the Agents of Eromlos, for the most part, I was working full time. I would write in the evenings and on the weekends, and I’d often pop to a café with my laptop and write in my lunch breaks. It didn’t matter if I had ten minutes or several hours. I’d make the most of the time available because it adds up. If I needed a break, I’d take it because I knew I’d soon be back to writing.
The thing for me is that my day job (as grateful as I was for it) wasn’t always fun, but as challenging as writing can be, it was a nice escape that made me feel like I was working on something for me. This really helped me feel more balanced in my life. I tend to think of creative activities as ‘soul food’ and believe they are important.
When you are an aspiring writer, there are all sorts of pieces of advice flying around. It’s easy to get swept up in what you feel you should and shouldn’t do – based on the advice of others. Some of the things I’ve heard over and over:
“Write what you love”
“Write what you want to read”
“It’s important to have a writing routine”
“You should write every day”
“Look for a gap in the market”
“The middle-grade market is oversaturated. It’s all about YA now”
“Don’t write to trend because, before you know it, the market will move on”
“Write a story that is no more than (insert number here) words”
There are many more. The challenge is, when you are finding your way with writing, it takes time. I wrote many drafts of Fyn Carter 1. In part, this is because I was learning so much along the way. It’s also because I took on feedback, and I continued to adapt to try and fit what I thought I should be doing. The problem is, if you do that all the time, sometimes it’s easy to get stuck in a loop and lose focus of what you actually wanted to do in the first place.
Everyone connects with stories and writing according to their own lives, preferences, and how they feel at a given point in time. If you’re aiming to send your book to people in the publishing industry, you can easily find that by the time you’ve worked through revisions and prepared what you want to send to them, they are already looking for something different to what they might have stated weeks/months ago. It’s not always fun, so as a writer you need to enjoy the craft of writing.
I always knew that I wanted Fyn Carter to be a series. I currently plan on it being a series of six (caveat – I’m hoping to dive into sequel planning later this year which might impact this). I also knew that the series would have sci-fi vibes but balanced with family, friendship, and heart. I have a loose breakdown planned for all of the books and know what I’m aiming for overall. All of this excites me.
Response
When I sent queries to literary agents, I was lucky enough to receive some requests for the full manuscript. I’m really grateful to say that the feedback was mostly good. However, the overall message I received is that although they liked the story, characters, and writing, they believed (at that point in time) publishers to be reluctant to take on series. This is understandable. If the first books in a series don’t sell well, I imagine a publisher won’t want to feel tied in. This is one reason so many people advise to try and write something that stands on its own. Other feedback I received is that (again, at that time) sci-fi is a hard sell in the UK market because it’s seen as a cold topic. I was assured that my story negated that by including heart, but, overall, it was still seen as a hard sell for agents and so a “no”.
What to do?
I could have spent a lot of time adjusting the plan for the books, but, for me, it didn’t feel like the right thing to do. That’s not to say I can’t be flexible. It’s just, for the Fyn series, I have faith in the story and want to see it through. I know many people (children and adults) who love a box set, and my way of thinking tends to be along the lines of: If the first books don’t sell well, I will continue trying, because eventually I’ll have a complete series that could be an exciting prospect for future readers.
In terms of sci-fi being a hard sell – well, I don’t see this as a problem. I’ve always been a fan of comics and graphic novels. Some of the biggest franchises out there are sci-fi. I think it’s just a case of finding my audience, and I’ve been loving doing that because I share so many interests with them.
So what did I do with Fyn Carter? Despite the challenges and pushbacks, ultimately, I made sure that I enjoyed the process of creating it. This goes for the story, the cover, the formatting etc. I put my heart and soul into it. My hope was if I could have fun working on it, that would translate to the reader(s). When I released the book, I was excited but nervous. However, I knew I was happy with the story and hoped it was the sort of thing I’d enjoy if I discovered it as a reader. I tend to focus on “Write what you love/want to read”, because no matter how the market changes, when the story is written, I hope to have something that feels right. Side note – if you write what you love and then find that the market isn’t in that place, at least you have something for when it is!
With Fyn Carter 2, again, I’ve taken on feedback in the creative process. Sometimes this has conflicted with what I feel, so I’m paying extra care and attention to make sure that I feel good with what I am writing. It needs to be true to me and true to the story I want to tell. I need to enjoy the process.
Life and art
I really believe it’s important to try and find what you enjoy and to do it. There has been a lot of meh in the world in recent months. Things feel challenging and may do for a while. HOWEVER (and it’s a big however on purpose so please take note), to my great relief, what I’m learning is the importance of being true to you. Yes, the bad news is easy to find, but there are a lot of people in the world. Most of them are not on the news. If you look elsewhere for hope, you will also find the good deeds, the kindness, the understanding, the willingness to accept others and learn about what wasn’t understood, the sense of community, the want to help etc. It’s all out there. This is encouraging. Believe in it. Let it balance you. If you choose to, use it in your work.
I’ve seen some artists say you need to have experienced bad things to be a good artist. I believe this is an extreme view and it really depends on the type of art you want to create. One of the reasons I write is for escapism – both for my readers and for me as a writer. As per above, I believe putting joy into your work results in something that can provide joy. I want to continue to do this, or at least to ensure hope is present. In my stories, I try to use good feelings to create comfort, and tougher feelings to create challenges. I believe some of our favourite stories involve overcoming the biggest odds. Use your life. Make your own art. Write your own story.
I’ve had a lot of ‘thinky feely’ days recently. Sometimes I just switched off a bit and focused on what I love. Self-care and all that. Look after yourselves.
Thank you for reading.
Ian x
Ian Hunter Creates 