Liminal Spaces: Michelle Barraclough
This month’s blog features Michelle Barraclough. Many of you will know Michelle as the website designer extraordinaire, but Michelle is also a writer. I wanted to speak to Michelle about her writing endeavours and hear her thoughts about the struggles of getting published. I hope you enjoy reading this and learning more about Michelle.
DESCRIBE YOUR WRITING JOURNEY SO FAR
All I ever wanted to do was write a novel but, like many wannabe authors, I rarely got past the first few pages. The muse was a fickle wench who barely deigned to show up and my inner editor was way too bossy, like that canteen lady we've all been on duty with, who insists the tomatoes be sliced against the pith, never with!
Surprisingly, an Arts degree in Literature didn’t seem to help either. Analysing fiction is very different to writing it, although I suppose all that reading gave me an inherent sense of story.
In 2009 I completed a creative writing course with Pamela Freeman at the Australian Writer’s Centre which gave me a much better understanding of the fundamentals of fiction writing. I also embarked on NaNoWriMo and what a revelation! In that month of writing 1667 words a day, I learned to completely let go and just WRITE. THE. WORDS.
So I wrote those 50,000 words and then? I found myself sobbing in my active wear because I realised I’d always wanted a second child. Twelve months later I was a 42-year-old with a newborn and half a novel in a drawer.
I didn't pick up the novel again until February 2014 and that’s when I decided to get serious. I finished As I Am. Now I am working on my second novel The Tangled Green.
TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR TWO MANUSCRIPTS
As I Am is a contemporary drama about a couple dealing with grief in very different ways. My second novel, The Tangled Green is also a contemporary drama but with crime vibes. I’m about 58,000 words into it.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED WITH YOUR COMPLETED MANUSCRIPT TO DATE?
I submitted my first novel, As I Am, to the Richell Prize in 2017 and was delighted to receive a Highly Commended award. As runner-up, I won a twelve-month mentorship with Robert Watkins at Hachette. I was also lucky enough to secure representation with agent Tara Wynne at Curtis Brown, who shopped that manuscript around to several publishers. Sadly, it didn’t get across the line. Talk about the highs and lows! As I Am continues to sit in Scrivener, a forgotten prom queen with a lopsided tiara who’s not quite sure how to straighten it.
WHEN YOUR MANUSCRIPT DIDN’T GET PICKED UP FOR PUBLICATION, HOW DID YOU RESPOND?
After As I Am was rejected by six publishers, my agent and I decided to take a break from submitting and give the novel some time and space. I’m not usually one to cry but I must admit I got a little teary in a phone call to my husband. His strategy was to immediately take me out for lunch, ply with me with pasta and pinot noir and tell me what a wonderful writer I am, which was curiously fortifying! It’s amazing what carbohydrates and a little faith can do. I decided the only way forward was to put that novel away and start a new one.
The problem with writing your way out of rejection is that there is now a little devil called Self Doubt sitting on your shoulder. It takes a huge amount of bum glue and mental fortitude to push through and get new words down, but it’s really the only way. Because if you want to write, if you love writing, then giving up isn’t an option.
WHAT MAKES YOU RETURN TO THE PAGE DESPITE THE CHALLENGES IN GETTING PUBLISHED?
I return to the page because I have things I want to say about love and loss and friendship and marriage, and fiction allows me to hide the truth in plain sight, because I want to hold my book in my hands, because I want to prove something to myself (and, if I’m honest, to others) and because I want to reassure my jittery, anxious 3am self that it’s not too late for me.
WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE BENEFITS OF GETTING PUBLISHED?
There are wonderful benefits to being published – validation and acknowledgement of your ideas and creativity, potential income, the legacy of a physical book, the opportunity to play a more integral role in the writing community and connecting with readers.
DO YOU HAVE A SENSE OF WHEN TO GIVE UP TRYING TO GET A MANUSCRIPT PUBLISHED?
After those six rejections of my first novel, I decided that, rather than give up, I’d give it a rest instead. I still feel that novel has legs. So no, I don’t have a sense of when to give up. Yet!
WHAT HAS WRITING (AND TRYING TO GET PUBLISHED) TAUGHT YOU?
I’ve learned that you have to have the hide of a rhino who ate her rose-coloured glasses, that you must keep moving forward (even when the writing is shit), that writing begets writing, the muse is a myth and that bum glue is essential. Oh, and that writers and publishers are, for the most part, the most delightful, warm, generous bunch of people.
ONE PIECE OF ADVICE YOU WOULD GIVE TO OTHERS TRYING TO GET PUBLISHED?
While writing is an act of creativity, submitting the thing you’ve written is an act of business. As difficult as it is to follow this advice, this means you can’t take rejection personally. I reckon the novel I’ve written is pretty good but for the publishers I submitted to, it was too similar to something else on their list or they couldn’t see where it would fit on a bookstore shelf or they liked the writing but the story didn’t capture them or [insert other subjective or business-related reason here.] I try to think of each ‘no’ as a ‘not for them’ or a ‘not now.’ This helps me recognise that there may still be a publisher out there for whom my novel is exactly what they’re looking for at exactly the right time. I just have to find them and to do that, I can’t give up.
FINALLY, WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?
I’ve just finished The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell. She is one of my favourite writers – I’d honestly read her shopping list – and this did not disappoint. Maggie has the most wonderful ability to teleport you into the interior world of her characters. Her eye for detail is exquisite and, even though this novel is very character-driven and she essentially foreshadows the ending, you can’t help but want to know how the subtle plot plays out and are rewarded with the most delightful twist.
Michelle Barraclough is a writer and podcaster whose first novel was highly commended in the 2017 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers. She is currently working on her second novel in between deep dive interviews with authors about writing craft and process on her monthly podcast Writers Book Club. In her day job, Michelle designs gorgeous websites for authors at Fresh Web Design. You can find Michelle at www.michellebarraclough.com and on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.