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The Best Life Advice I Ever Had Came From A Character I Created: Prove Them Wrong, A Mantra For Misfits

~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

This article was previously published on Medium!

It’s probably a bit weird to take life tips from a character you created yourself, but hey, I’m a writer, and we all know how weird they are. Besides, my characters are real to me. I talk to them every day, play their scenes like movies in my head at night, and yes, I take life advice from them. Why? Because they’re the best friends I never had and they’re right.  

Let’s jump back to the beginning.

Back to me, aged twelve: painfully shy, chubby; always the odd one out, at home, at school, or even just walking down the street. I was already addicted to writing and much preferred it to real life. Every day I’d run home from school, dash up to my bedroom, put on my favourite music and start writing.

At aged twelve, I had this one story I was totally obsessed with.

You know what it’s like when you’re a kid of that age and you really fall in love with a band? Or a song? Or an actor on TV? You obsess over them, paste their posters to your bedroom wall, watch everything they’re in or buy every album they release? They’re all you can think about?

Well, that was me and this story.

And I was kind of ashamed of it. My family and friends knew I loved writing and some of them vaguely knew what sort of stuff I was working on, but the gist of it, the details and, more importantly, the characters, were all mine. I felt very protective of them, like they were my guilty secret. The extent of my obsession was embarrassing to me.

I wrote the story aged twelve and it was the longest story I’d written so far. It was hand-written at the first, scribbled onto lined notepaper and held in a ring-binder folder. I showed it to my English teacher at school and got a merit certificate in assembly. I was very, very proud of it. When I saved up and bought my electric typewriter, I painstakingly rewrote it again and printed it out.

Oh boy, did I feel like a real author then!

I rewrote that book again and again. I just couldn’t leave it alone. I’d start other stories, sometimes very similar ones, but I’d always go back to that one. Every night I’d watch my characters in my head, listen to them talk and come up with more scenes. I did a big rewrite aged sixteen and another aged nineteen and finally, when I was in my thirties, I realised time was running out and I needed to get it done.

I rewrote it again, published it and before I knew it, it had grown into a five-book series which now has a spin-off book on the way. The series is also part of a bigger universe of inter-connected books.

So, you can probably see by now how obsessed I was with these characters and this story.

I guess, as a lonely, awkward, introverted weirdo of a kid, I found a way to belong. I built my own world and filled it with friends.

Anyway, on to the life advice.

There is a scene in the first book where my main character, Danny, is feeling defeated and negative. It’s partly because of his home-life and it’s partly because he and his friends have been stereotyped as bad kids and troublemakers in their town. Because of this, when he and best friend Michael try to secure lawn-mowing work to make their home-lives easier, they are refused by everyone they ask.

Both boys have a rough time at home. Both struggle at school. Both are obsessed with the music of the time. (Early nineties.) They are the best of friends and throughout the series they go through some incredibly difficult, scary and dark times together.

Through it all, Michael is always the positive one. The optimist. Danny suffers from darker thoughts and is drawn to self-destruction.

When complaining about his life, his family, and the posh people in town who won’t let them cut their lawns, Danny is at a very low ebb. He is feeling miserable and thwarted by everything.

Michael teases him, laughs at him and tells him to stop complaining.

‘Prove them wrong,’ he says.

Three simple words but they have stuck with me ever since. Three simple words that I wish someone had said to me when I was a confused and troubled teenager. Three simple words I put into the mouth of a fictional character created in my own mind. Three words I live by every day.

Prove them wrong.

In many ways, those three words form the main theme of the books. I didn’t know that at the time, aged twelve. They were just the type of words that Michael would say to cheer Danny up. But throughout the books, Michael stays true to his advice and refuses to give up on Danny until he believes it too. If they think you’re a troublemaker, he says to Danny, prove them wrong. If your mother thinks you are stupid, prove her wrong. If this town thinks you will never amount to anything, prove the whole damn place wrong. 

Prove them wrong. I think about those words all the time. Its not about revenge or holding grudges, it’s about holding your head up high and sticking to your values, your beliefs and your dreams.

When I was a kid, people tried to talk me out of being a writer. People laughed at me, ridiculed me and didn’t believe in me. I was an extremely sensitive child and by the time I entered my twenties, I had given up on writing. My dreams had been eroded by real life and the pressure to be sensible and get a real job.

I didn’t allow myself to think much about writing, but every time I did, I felt so sad and hollow inside, like a chunk of what made me who I was had been clawed out.

It took a while, but Michael’s words, his advice, eventually won me over. He was right all along, after all. When people think badly of you, look down on you, judge you or laugh at you, the very best thing you can do is prove them wrong.

Do it anyway.

Do it for you, so that you can smile when you think of the thing that you love, the thing that defines you, the thing you would always rather be doing, the thing that makes you, you.

Do it anyway and prove them wrong.

Throughout my life that has been the perfect mantra for a misfit like me.

Thanks for reading! If you are interested in Michael’s advice and the story behind it, here is a link to the first book in the series. Please note that I am currently revamping this series and adding fresh front matter to the books with a suggested reading order for the connected books in this universe. That should not impact your enjoyment should you read them now though!

https://amzn.eu/d/cYlh2AQ: The Best Life Advice I Ever Had Came From A Character I Created: Prove Them Wrong, A Mantra For Misfits

10 Types Of Writers: A Tongue-In-Cheek Analysis of Different Types of Writers

~ ChanAtkins ~ 3 Comments

This is an article previously published in The Honest Perspective publication on Medium.

Image by tookapic from Pixabay

I’ve been writing and publishing for over ten years now, and during that time I’ve also worked with adult writers when I’ve run writing groups, workshops and projects. Added to that I’ve always found the indie writing community a particularly friendly and supportive community — so I feel like I’ve come across many different types of writers and I often pause to consider what type of writer I am. Like everything, although we all write, not all writers are the same. Far from it. Here is a little tongue-in-cheek run down of the ten different types of writer I’ve noticed over the years. Which one do you think is like you? Or can you think of any other types to add to the list?

  1. The Would-Be-If-I-Had-Time-Writer: I came across this one a lot when I first started getting my work out there. It usually comes from people who’ve never mentioned wanting to write before, but when you tell them that you do, they sigh longingly, roll their eyes in barely disguised envy and lament the fact that as much as they would love to write a book, they just don’t have the time. They are simply far too busy. Their life is without a doubt, a million times busier than yours. They can assert without any doubt that they will simply never ever have the time to write a book and they’ll look at you rather accusingly and say things like, ‘You’re so lucky you have the time for that! Wow, I wish I had the time to sit around writing all day.’
  2. The-Wanna-Be-Who-Won’t-Ever-Do-It-Writer:This one is similar to the one above but they don’t moan about not having enough time, not as much anyway, and they don’t passively-aggressively suggest you have way more time on your hands than them either… This writer wants to write; this writer has great ideas and natural talent. I came across this writer all the time when I ran my evening writing group. They were great at quick writing prompts in session but week after week, they’d come back saying they hadn’t written anything else. They wanted to, but something kept getting in the way. I assume a mix of things: lack of time, lack of support, lack of confidence for starters. Some of them get past this eventually and don’t look back but far too many never do and they never do get around to writing that thing in their head.
  3. The-Write-But-Never-Finish-Because-The First-Draft-Has-To-Be-Perfect-Writer: I know a few writers like this. They’ve got ideas, they can write, they can plot, they can commit to the process of putting pen to paper but they are too much of a perfectionist to ever get it finished. They’ll write a chapter and go back over it, again and again and years later they are still working on the same piece. Often these writers are committed planners too. They’ve more than likely either got a spreadsheet or a notice board covering in linked up post-it notes. They’ll have intricate character bios and tons of research on the go. No stone will be left unturned for this meticulous scribe. But they can’t let go of perfection and ultimately that gets in their way.
  4. The-Finish-But-Never-Publish-Because-They’re-Too-Scared-Of-Rejection-Writer: Ouch. This used to be me. I’ve written stories since I was a child and I wrote my first full length book at aged 12. I wrote obsessively all through my teens and my twenties but it wasn’t until I reached my mid-thirties that I felt brave enough to share my work. I feel for these writers, the sensitive types. They’ve probably been belittled or ridiculed by someone at some point. They compare themselves to others far too much. They’re scared to try in case they fail and have to deal with the humiliation of not ‘making it’, whatever that might mean.
  5. The-One-Idea-Only-Writer: There are two types of this kind of writer. The writer who has one amazing book idea once in their life and goes all out to write it, perfect it and publish it and then never does it again. They don’t really want to be a writer. They just had that one good idea they couldn’t let go. They probably rolled it around in their heads for years before they took the plunge and got it done. They’re happy with that, more than happy, but they never want to do it again. The other type is similar but they do want to do it again. That one idea leads them to another idea, and before they know it, they are off again. It’s still just the one idea at a time though, which is something I envy, to be honest.
  6. The-Takes-Years-And-Years-To-Write-Each-Book-Writer: This writer is similar to the perfectionist writer mentioned above. They are very meticulous, and very into the planning process. They may very well spend years researching their book before they ever start writing it. They probably go on road trips to all their locations and spend hours searching books and the internet for accurate research. There is nothing wrong with this at all — the finished product is usually worth the wait. These writers are problematic for impatient readers though as they often have to wait a very long time for the next book to land.
  7. The-Has-Millions-Of-Ideas-But-Never-Finish-Any-Writer: I think we’ve all been this writer at some point, right? Especially when we were younger? It’s the most common thing I notice in working with young writers and it seems the younger they are, the less likely they are to finish a story before a new idea hijacks them. There’s nothing wrong with this. I think its just a phase writers go through to figure out their own style and voice and eventually they find the story they’ll stick with, the one they’ll get addicted to.
  8. The-Writes-Only-Occasionally-Writer: In some ways you could narrow this list down to just two types of writer: the one who writes constantly, (see below) and the one who just writes every now and then when they feel like it. They still get the job done but they’ll have months off between projects and not write a single, solitary thing. I presume these writers find the act of writing a bit like self-imposed homework. They know they’ve got to put the work in to get a book written, but they’d like a break from it every now and then.
  9. The-Writes-Obsessively-And-Constantly-Writer: This writer has really got it bad; like a full on addiction. They don’t need to be advised to write every day because they’d write all day and night if they could. There is nothing this writer would rather do than write. They think about it all the time. They’re probably a mal-adaptive daydreamer. They’re in their own little world and always have been but don’t try to find them, they won’t like that. This writer suffers if they are kept away from their writing. They’re sad without it; they don’t feel like them. They have to write. Writing is everything. They look forward to their writing time and guard it ferociously. They have far too many ideas for books and not enough life to write them all, so they write, write, write. Publishing and marketing are on the agenda for this obsessive creature but they come second to the actually writing. They would still write even if no one else ever read it.
  10. The-Snobbish-Only-Traditional-Publishing-Counts-Writer: Often, these types started as the ‘suddenly had a good book idea’ type. They never considered writing before but they’ve got such a good idea, they’ve just got to try. They do everything right, this writer. They join a writing group, maybe even do a few courses. They follow all the advice and tips out there. They get it done. They put the work in. And for them, only a traditional publishing deal will do. Yes, yes, they’ve heard all about self-publishing but don’t mention it again, please. It’s not for them. They’re doing things properly, thanks very much. Self-publishing is for rejects only, right? They shudder at the thought.

Personally, I’m number 9 these days but I have been a few of the others in the past and I think most writers probably shift from one type to another in time.

What about you? Are you any of these types? Do you think there are more types to add to this list?

Please remember, it’s just a bit of fun and is not intended to cause any offence.

My 2024 Goals

~ ChanAtkins ~ 4 Comments
Image by Quốc Hùng Hầu from Pixabay

It’s hard to believe it, but here we are again, tumbling wearily towards the end of yet another year with a brand new one just peeking over the horizon. The world does not seem to be getting better sadly – there seems to be more at stake than ever. But I will distract myself from that for now by following my yearly tradition of setting out my goals for the year ahead. I find it keeps me on track, feels good to write them down and it is fun to revisit them a year later and see how many I achieved! In my last post I wrote about my 2023 goals vs the reality. I achieved 6 out of 8, which I’m happy with. https://chantelleatkins.com/2023/12/09/my-2023-goals-vs-the-reality/

Here is what I hope to achieve in 2024, writing related and otherwise:

  1. Publish the next two books in The Day The Earth Turned Series – with the first two books ‘Summer’ and ‘Autumn’ already available, it will be perfectly doable to stick with my plan of releasing book 3 ‘Winter’ in January and book 4 ‘Spring’ in April.
  2. Publish At Night We Played In The Road – this spin off from The Boy With The Thorn In His Side series has been a long time coming. I first got the idea about four years ago, when enjoying the shows Supernatural and Breaking Bad. Those two shows gave me the idea of two co-dependant brothers (Supernatural!) trying to navigate and survive the criminal drug world they are growing up in. (Breaking Bad.) At the time I was working on The Boy With The Thorn In His side series and suddenly figured out a way I could add these characters, Alfie and Tom Lane to the series. I thought that might be the end of their story and introduced them in book 5 of the series where they find themselves entangled in main character Danny’s fight to escape the clutches of his own criminal past. However, I fell so in love with Alfie and Tom, I had to know more about them, and started writing notes in a notebook, even whole chapters, in order to explore their back story. The book was a tricky one to write, especially because towards the end the timeline crosses over with book 5 of The Boy series and I had to make sure the scenes were not too repetitive for anyone who has read that series. My editor has played a huge part in helping sculpt this book into something I am really excited about. I will be tackling her final edits in the new year and plan to release the book around June/July 2024.
  3. Publish The Mess Of Us – This sequel to my 2013 debut novel The Mess Of Me has just come back from my wonderful beta readers. They’ve been tremendously helpful and overwhelmingly positive and I can’t wait to dive in and do another edit of the book with their valuable feedback in mind. I’ll get to this once I’ve gone through my editor’s comments for At Night They Played In The Road and once that is done I’ll send it to her, bringing it one step closer to publication. I don’t foresee any structural edits for this one, so hopefully it will be minor edits and I can plan to get it published for autumn/winter 2024.
  4. Republish The Mess Of Me with updates and new cover – Before I started The Mess Of Us I reread and updated The Mess Of Me and arranged a new cover. I would have set it up for an update but I have not had the time this year, however waiting to coincide its update with the release of its sequel is probably a good idea!
  5. Send The Dark Finds You to beta readers – this book is now ready for beta reader feedback. This book wasn’t meant to happen, but writing The Mess Of Us, and At Night We Played In The Road gave me ideas for a crossover book and I just couldn’t resist. Many of my books are linked in the same universe, with characters and places reappearing in different books, and writing these two books which link up with previous books, led me to an idea that would neatly tie up everyone’s stories. Bill Robinson from The Holds End trilogy was already linked to Elliot Pie from Elliot Pie’s Guide To Human Nature as they are neighbours on the same estate and are briefly mentioned in each other’s books. In The Dark Finds You, Elliot’s mum is now with Bill’s dad and they are expecting a baby together, making Elliot and Bill almost brothers. The main story-line involves Elliot’s best friend Finn being missing. Leah (Elliot’s other friend) and Laura (Elliot’s mother) are also in the book and have chapters from their points of view. Bill is on a downwards spiral as his addiction problems from The Holds End trilogy are still an issue, but he cares about Elliot and promises to help him find Finn. Bill’s band have a regular slot at Chaos, a nightclub owned and run by Danny, from The Boy With The Thorn In His Side series… He also makes a small appearance in the Holds End trilogy and gets drawn into the search for the missing Finn, as a favour to Bill, who he has a lot in common with. Meanwhile, at the end of The Mess of Us, Leon (the main antagonist in The Mess of Me) has somewhat redeemed himself but is in debt to the drug dealers he used to work for. His brother Joe joins Bill’s band, and Leon is instructed to circulate drugs at Chaos, putting all these characters together in one book. It was so addictive to write because I knew all the characters so well! I don’t plan to publish it in 2024 but hope to at the start of 2025. It will be the final book in that universe.
  6. Continue to publish and grow on Medium – I joined Medium in April and I am so glad I did. I am extremely pleased with the earnings I’ve made from this writing platform and I find it to be a very warm, friendly and inspiring place. At the moment I am trying to submit 3-4 pieces a week and I’ll aim to keep that up in 2024.
  7. Launch the website for Chasing Driftwood Books – Chasing Driftwood Books is an indie collective started by myself and Sim Alec Sansford. It’s basically our own publisher! We published our Fortune’s Well trilogy under it plus our collaborative lockdown book, Stay Home. At the moment there are eight of us in the collective. Our plan is to support and promote each other and eventually let other authors join if they’re a good fit. The website will have all our books available to buy on author pages for each of us. I really hope 2024 is the year we push this forward as its been a long time coming!
  8. Tackle the third draft of Black Hare Valley – this won’t be a priority and will only happen if and when I get gaps between editors and beta readers getting back to me on the books mentioned above. Black Hare Valley was an idea I got about five or six years ago. My son helped me design the town with a huge map we drew together. I wrote some ideas and some character bios and that was it. Then, almost two years ago, we had a long power cut and an even longer time without the internet so I couldn’t work on the books on my laptop. I suddenly had the opening chapter to Black Hare Valley so grabbed a notebook and wrote it. Of course, this led to the next chapter, and the next and so on. I ended up writing the whole thing into five notebooks by hand and then put is aside to go back to the other books close to publication. Just recently, I was waiting for feedback from beta readers and my editor so decided to type up Black Hare Valley. This was technically the second draft but didn’t feel like it as I didn’t make too many changes. I just finished this a few days ago and will now leave it alone while I get all the other books ready for release. I have had some extra ideas for the plot though, so I added them to the end in note form and I am so excited to get back to this at some point!
  9. Add paid and free writing resources to the Chasing Driftwood Writing Group website – The site is now split between my writing group which provides writing opportunities to young people, and Chasing Driftwood Books which aims to support our group of indie authors. I’d like to add free resources to the writing group side. Regular prompts and challenges, as well as blog posts and tips and advice. I’d also like to add some paid resources such as some notebooks we have designed and some non-fiction books we are working on to encourage writing. I’m not sure if I will get time for this but I had to add it to the list to try and keep me on track!
  10. Get into hiking – We recently bought a caravan in Ilfracombe, Devon, which is close to the South West Salt path and Exmoor. It’s a beautifully wild and rugged coastal environment and I’ve had a strong urge to get into hiking for a while now. I just bought myself hiking boots with some Christmas money and I am so excited to get started! I am longing for adventures and keen to explore the area more as its just so beautiful.

That is a challenging list and I might not achieve them all but I always find it helps me to write my goals down so that I can refer back to them and try to stay on track. I’m excited about all of them and looking forward to a brand new year of writing, publishing and adventures.

What about you? Any hopes for the year ahead? Are you setting yourself any goals?

My 2023 Goals Vs The Reality

~ ChanAtkins ~ 4 Comments

It’s a yearly tradition for me to lay out my goals for the year ahead just before New Years Eve, and then almost a year later, refer to each goal and see how well I did!

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

So, here are the 8 goals I set myself for 2023 and the results.

  1. Start releasing ‘The Day The Earth Turned’ series – Achieved! As planned I released book 1: Summer in June, and book 2: Autumn in October. Book 3: Winter is all set up and ready to be released in January, hopefully followed by book 4: Spring in March or April.
  2. Finish ‘At Night They Played In The Road’ (working title, I still can’t quite decide) and send to editor – Achieved! In fact, I recently received the edits from my wonderful editor and will start working on them very soon. I hope to release it around June 2024.
  3. Publish ‘Days End’, the third book in the Fortune’s Well trilogy – Achieved! The whole trilogy is now published and available in ebook, paperback and hardback!
  4. Keep adding to my new short story and poetry collection – Achieved! I haven’t added a lot and this collection is nowhere near ready for publication but I have managed to add a few new poems to it this year.
  5. Launch Chasing Driftwood Books – Achieved! (Sort of) While we are not ready for any kind of official launch, Chasing Driftwood Books is a thing in motion. There are now eight authors in our indie collective and we are currently taking part in a Christmas calendar countdown together. The website is in progress and our mission is clear. Hopefully this time next year we will have fully launched!
  6. Keep improving my vegetable plot and self-sufficiency in general – Failed! Well, mostly. Unfortunately, my vegetable plot ended up being very neglected this year, despite my good intentions. I have realised and accepted that I just don’t have time for it. I made the decision to take down the fence and start clearing it all away at the end of the season. I felt too sad looking at it. I’m not giving up entirely and I still plan to grow things out there. I am just going to be a bit more realistic about what I have time for.
  7. Keep Up with dog training –Achieved! I had no choice, really. A year ago Ada was a sweet little puppy who was only just starting to go for walks after her jabs. It soon became very obvious that she had a deeply ingrained fear and mistrust of the outside world and just about everything in it! Her reactivity as a puppy was absolutely terrible and I was truly stunned, wondering what on earth I had done wrong. We have done constant training since then, at home, on all our walks and with our wonderful dog trainer. She has been enjoying Hoopers, Trick Training and more recently Future Stars which is teaching her the basics for agility later on. She adores training. She is desperate to learn and please you; she just finds a lot of things very worrying. She is a lot less reactive now, thankfully. She generally won’t react anymore to previous triggers, such as cars, bikes, motorbikes, scooters, children, buggies, men in hi-vis jackets, men in helmets… It was a lot! Now it is mostly just other dogs and not all of them. Just the ones that worry her!
  8. Get fitter and stronger – Failed! I haven’t gotten worse, I just wasn’t able to keep up the pilates. I’m happy with my body and my fitness but its hiking I really want to get into next year!

I think six out of eight is not too bad and the two I didn’t achieve were not total fails. All in all it has been a good year in terms of writing and family life. Look out for next week’s post where I will set out my goals for 2024!