"Sometimes what you get up to in your spare time is as authentic and significant to your writing development as what you do professionally."
Starting her career in the IT Department, Sally Hinchcliffe opens up about how she wrote her two books and built her second chapter with writing and editing at the core.
Hare House was my Rare Birds Book Club pick in late 2023. Based in the Scottish Borders with an element of witchcraft and secrets, it’s the comfy fall or winter read that makes you feel the foggy air on your skin and goosebumps rise on your arms as if someone is watching you.
That type of setting can be hard to feel through words, but Sally Hinchcliffe is a master. When asked about how she made her own Second Chapter, Sally reveals how important life interests are for your writing, a technique that kept her writing, and what you can do to help hone your craft. Read on below to find out!
Let’s start in the past. Tell us about your pre-author career journey.
Like many writers, I have wanted to write books since I was a child, but it took me a long time to realise I needed to take the idea of writing seriously in order to make it happen. I also felt that I needed a bit more life experience under my belt first, which may well be true.
But perhaps I overshot a bit! I ended up working at Kew Gardens, developing IT systems for the scientists there, a job I really loved and found fascinating but I never let go of the idea of becoming a writer. I even wrote one, probably terrible, novel but I never really committed myself to the work.
Finally, after coming back from a two-year sabbatical in Eswatini I saw an advert for a Creative Writing MA at Birkbeck, which I could combine with going back to work at Kew and I took the plunge. Spending a year intensively reading, writing and critiquing my own and other people's work gave me the kick start I needed to develop my writing and be more ambitious about it.
Juggling anything with a day job is hard work, especially something as in-depth as writing a book. Can you set the scene for what your life looked like when you started writing?
I was working full time, commuting an hour each way across London, although at least this was at a time (early 2000s) when you weren't expected to be reading work emails outside work so my evenings and weekends were my own. The MA was quite stressful, and took up all my free time but after I had finished it I used the time that I'd devoted to that to keeping on going with my writing, so I'd already developed that discipline. And Kew was a really flexible employer, so I was able to work compressed hours and take a day off every other week. I was probably more disciplined then about combining working with writing than I am now, working freelance.
Did you have any preconceived notions / myths about becoming a writer? How did you overcome those?
As I said, mainly the idea that you need to have had a bit of an interesting life first, and I'm not sure that's entirely a myth. It's good to have a hinterland, although maybe don't wait until your mid thirties to start! Even if you don't feel you're ready for publication, it's important to develop your writing and build up the habit.
I also felt that it was somehow embarrassing to be an unpublished author even though that is how all authors start out! Doing the MA meant that I had admitted to myself that this was something I wanted to do (although even then, I kept it really quiet). Getting a few short stories published also helped overcome the hesitation about saying I wanted to be a writer.
Did your first career help in your writing at all?
I suppose it gave me that life experience I felt was important. I didn't mine it explicitly for subject matter, although I did make the protagonist of my first novel, Manda (in Out of a Clear Sky), an IT worker in an academic setting because I didn't have to do any research about what that would be like. What I did use much more directly was my non-work interest in bird watching, which forms the background to that book. I had spent a decade birding and spending time with other birders and I knew I could write about that world authentically. To a lesser extent, I put some of my cycling activities into Hare House. Sometimes what you get up to in your spare time is as authentic and significant to your writing development as what you do professionally.
One of the best pieces of practical advice I got when starting out as a writer was not to give up the day job if you have a professional career because it's much easier to save money or earn enough while working part time than if you're trying to support yourself doing less well-paid work.
Did you employ any tips and tricks to help you write? If so, what were they?
I'm the world's slowest and least productive writer so I could probably have used some more tips and tricks! The Pomodoro technique (25 minutes on, five minutes break) is the one I turn to when I really have to push myself into doing something, especially rewriting. For Out of a Clear Sky I had a spreadsheet with my daily word count which was a useful motivator for the first draft. I also had a go at doing NaNoWriMo to try and kick start a novel idea I had but I found that actually just killed the idea stone dead. I cranked out the requisite 50,000 words and then just canned it. Perhaps it wasn't a very good idea.
A huge element of writing and the path to publishing comes from a cultivated community. What is your writing community like and how did you find it?
The MA gave me a ready-made community and that was hugely helpful. A small group of us put together an anthology for the course, and by working together as editors we got used to each others' critiquing style and built the trust you need to share early work. When I moved up to Scotland after Out of a Clear Sky came out, I rather lost that and it took me a while to find other writers. I am now part of a writing group which is great for keeping myself honest and sharing ideas and learning new techniques, but I no longer really have someone who can be a first reader, other than my agent. That's a bit of a gap.
Out of a Clear Sky and Hare House are published by Macmillan. Could you tell us about your path to publishing?
I had a couple of short stories published during my MA, including one which was broadcast on Radio 4, and then I was shortlisted for the Asham Award with another short story. I used that modest track record, plus the draft of Out of A Clear Sky which formed the 'dissertation' element of my MA, to approach agents. This was back in the day, when you physically printed out samples of your work and sent them by post. I had the 2003 edition of the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook (I just checked and I actually still have it on my bookshelf!) and I sent out query letters in batches of three, working my way alphabetically through it. So it probably tells you something about how many I tried that my first agency was Conville and Walsh. It can take ages for agents to reply to query letters, especially cold queries, so about the time that I knew the rejections would be coming back in I'd send out another batch, so there was always something to hope for.
The whole process took about two years, by which time I'd done a lot of rewriting so it was a much stronger book by the time it was picked up. Once I'd found an agent, the agency then spent a bit of time working with me to strengthen the book further before it went out for consideration to editors. From there it was pretty straightforward, and I had two offers for the book. Maria Rejt at Macmillan got what the book was about, and I knew she was an excellent and incisive editor who would help me sharpen the book still further.
The much harder part was writing my second book, which took ages. Never mind second careers, second novels are a whole new area of pain! In fact, Hare House was my third serious attempt and I was close to giving up by the time I finally had something book shaped. My first agent was moving on in his career so we parted ways by mutual agreement and I'm now with Euan Thorneycroft at AM Heath. Again, I chose him because it was clear he really 'got' Hare House but was also clear eyed about where it didn't work.
By this time Hare House was on about its fifth draft and I did another two or three rewrites tightening it up with lots of good feedback from different people in the agency. I was really lucky that Maria and Macmillan loved the book enough to take another punt on me despite the long gap since they'd published my first book. It came out under the Mantle imprint, which was the perfect home for it, and they really supported it with signed copies and a tie in with Waterstones, who then made the paperback their Scottish book of the month, complete with a beautiful special edition with 'spreadges' which ended up selling out completely. At one point it was actually an official bestseller in the Sunday Times list, which was an incredible feeling. It was all the more sweet because it had taken me so long and been so painful at times to write.
What would you recommend to others who are considering traditional publishing?
Definitely get an agent if you can and find someone who understands what you're trying to achieve with the book. I don't think people realise how much difference there is between the sort of critiquing and feedback you get from your fellow writers or writing groups, and the editorial input of a really good agent. They understand the market you're writing for and as long as they're not trying to push your writing into a box where it doesn't fit, then their feeback is invaluable. The same goes with your publisher. If they have a different vision for the book to your own, then that's going to be a painful relationship. Don't necessarily take up the highest offer if you think they don't get the book you've written.
To be able to pivot any career, there’s usually a supporting financial element tied to it. Did you have any financial support that helped you on your journey? Could you share what that looked like?
Moving to rural Scotland helps! My husband and I knew after we'd come back from Africa that we didn't want to stay in London long term so we made an escape fund - basically saving as much money as we could and salting it away so we could downshift. That bought us time as long as we lived frugally, which we naturally tend to do anyway. It helps not having any dependents. I also had some part time freelance work I was doing for Kew which helped with the transition. I think that would be harder to do now, as rents in London are so out of control.
There’s ao a blackhole when it comes to how much authors make, enabling a myth that once you’re a published author you can write full-time as the only source of income. But it's not always that simple or linear! Could you tell us a bit more about how this is working for you financially?ls
My main day-to-day income comes from freelance editing work. I write so slowly that I couldn't live on the advances I got for my two novels. I try and schedule in breaks from the editing work to carve myself out time to write, which works better for me than trying to combine writing with a full-on editing job. Freelance work can be quite pressured but now I'm established I can turn work down and block book myself to write instead. I basically hire myself to write. We're fortunate to live in a part of the world (Dumfries and Galloway) where house prices and rents are low, which helps take the pressure off, financially.
Time to put on your wise Hindsight Glasses. What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Probably just to get on with it. Write. Take your writing seriously, and carve out time to do it. Advice I could do well to take myself. Writing short stories are great for developing your craft, and a good way to build up a publishing record as well.
What did you learn about yourself during this process?
That I am a terrible procrastinator when it comes to writing. In all other areas of my life I get on with things pretty efficiently but I end up putting my writing last. I think there's something about the fact that it's so important to me, that I have all sorts of mental barriers to getting on and doing it.
Are there other Second Chapter authors that inspired you? If yes, who are they?
Anyone who's managed to make a career writing late in life. I do remember scouring writers' biographies to see when they were first published and comparing that to my own age. Now it's authors with long gaps between books - thank God for Donna Tartt!
Thanks very much for appearing on Second Chapter, Sally!
I really loved how Sally integrates her hobbies and passions into her writing, something I think makes stories that much richer. Also, her advice to “just get on with it” is honestly the kick in the bum I need to hear every day!
Add Out of a Clear Sky and Hare House to your TBR pile. You can follow Sally on X for more!
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