Hey guys, and happy Monday! Welcome back to my Day In The Life of an Author feature - I'm so pleased with how popular it is so far, and can't thank the wonderful authors so far for writing fantastic pieces and detailing their daily lives for us :)On the blog today we have the brilliant author/sister duo Katharine and Elizabeth Corr, author of fantastic YA books including The Witch's Kiss, The Witch's Tears, and The Witch's Blood, which is due to come out in March next year.
And here is Katharine talking about her day-to-day life as an author!
My day usually starts at 7; my daughters don’t need me to take them to school anymore, but they wouldn’t make the bus on time without a certain amount of “encouragement” (e.g., being reminded about the time at five minute intervals), so in theory I can start writing as soon as they’ve left, at 8am.
In theory.
In practice, the first thing I do is have a strong coffee and check my Twitter and Instagram feeds. I also usually put a load of washing in the machine (I swear it’s coming through a black hole from somewhere, there’s so much of it!) and tidy up the kitchen. I know – the glamour, right?
Anyway, once I’m finally ready to start work, the exact shape of the day depends on where we are in the writing / editing process. I write with my sister; early on, we don’t need to be writing at the same time or in the same place. We always start with a detailed outline; although this outline changes as we go along, it does mean that we can get on with stuff independently. When we’re on the first draft stage – or working on structural edits – a typical day might involve writing part of a new chapter and reading over something Liz has written or reviewing some changes she’s suggested.
It’s different when we’re further along. Last week, for example, we were finishing line edits on our third novel, The Witch’s Blood. With line edits, a lot of changes depend on exactly how a paragraph, or a line, or even an individual word, sounds, when read as part of the whole. So, last Monday – after the coffee, washing, housework, etc., on my part, and after the school run on her part – Liz came to my house in the morning. We sat at my desk with our latest draft open on the screen and read aloud as much of the manuscript as we could get through. (Of course, working in the same room as your sibling always comes with risks. Occasionally we argue about plot or killing off a character. More frequently we start messing around, reading bits of dialogue in strange accents, mashing up our narrative with scenes from Star Wars or LOTR until it all gets too much and we collapse into hysterical laughter. Just as well our editor can’t see us…) After Liz left I got on with other tasks. Some were writing related: I sent some emails about school visits, talked to a librarian about a potential YA festival, and spent a bit more time on one of our proto-novels. Some, sadly, were not: I went to the supermarket, booked a plumber and spent a fair amount of time standing with the kitchen door open waiting for the cat to decide whether she wanted to go out.
Very unreasonably, my family always seem to want some attention (and feeding!) when they get back home from school / work, so it’s difficult to get much done after 5pm or so (unless I can plead a solid, I’m-going-to-be-working-all-night editing crisis). Still, with my laptop and my various (badly organised) notebooks, I do sometimes manage to fit in a little bit more writing just before bed. Left to my own devices I’d stay up late working every night, and get up later in the morning. But as it is, I have that 7a.m. start looming…Thank you so much, Kate and Liz, for appearing on my blog! Make sure you guys check back next Monday for another Day In The Life of an Author feature <3
Check out The Witch's Kiss here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Witchs-Kiss-Trilogy-Book/dp/0008182981/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1508882204&sr=8-1&keywords=the+witch%27s+kiss
Check out Kate and Liz Corr here: http://www.corrsisters.com
Until next time :)
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