An Unexpected Destination by Stuart White

In 2009, I decided that I wanted to finally write my first great novel. Something epic, along the lines of Lord of the Rings.

But, like Jon Snow, I knew nothing. (Some would argue I still don’t!).

It took me a couple of years to finish that first masterpiece, literally learning how to use dialogue tags and if it should be ” or ‘ when someone speaks, and other basics of grammar I really should have known from school. (Reader, I still don’t know them!).

The final result was a 120,000 word novel, aimed at middle-grade readers (though I didn’t know that term, or even that books were pitched at particular age groups, back then!) that resembled a mashup of all my own favourite novels.

As one reader noted, ‘you may as well have called the wizard Gandalf and the main character Harry’. I’m afraid it was that bad. My one redeeming feature that readers noted was my humorous meerkat side character.

After the monumental failure of submitting that book to agents, with all the rookie errors such as telling them when I liked to write and telling them I didn’t want representation, but simply that they would enjoy my work, I moved onto a new book.

It was better, but I was still weak in some fundamental areas like structure. My novels meandered and had some fun scenes but often didn’t really have a point.

So, I enrolled in a Masters course at Glasgow University (remote, as I work full-time as a secondary school biology teacher) and did my degree in a year, reading and writing by night harder than I ever have in my life potentially. But I did it, and learned so much in the process. I also did a few other creative writing courses, fuelled by this advancement in novel craft and finally feeling like my writing was getting to a point where someone might consider my stories.

And I queried the next novel, a YA Dystopian, to about 50 agents in late 2015. After much excitement and many full requests of the manuscript, it didn’t materialise into an offer. But I had finally got the attention of many agents, and several of them asked for my next book. Perhaps I could do this thing after all?

I wrote my next book, a YA Fantasy, and got lots more excitement, including an agent offer and then a publisher offer. I was close to what I’d been chasing for about 8 years by this point. But the experience wasn’t what I expected. The reality is light years from the fantasy. And I decided to part ways with both the agent and publisher.

I’ve spent the 5 years since then writing more novels, but the focus on traditional publishing was waning. There is only so much waiting, rejection, waiting, rejection that a person can take. I did query a few more times, and even got an exciting offer of representation from a literary agent who wanted to showcase my work at the London Book Fair. That was a test of my resolve.

But I was wary of previous disappointments, and very aware of how the industry works by this point, and the experiences of friends and writers made me stare at this opportunity with a magnifying glass, and I decided it wasn’t for me.

I had already been exploring the opportunities that self-publishing offers for a while by then, and decided to take the plunge. This was my new direction. And to be clear, it wasn’t an easy decision. Self-publishing has many, many drawbacks, but the advantages over the alternative path outweigh those. So I ploughed headlong into it.

The last 18 months have been non-stop work – I’ve had to learn how to market, liaise and negotiate with agents, advertise, format, distribute and package my work, as well as the writing and editing, and I’m essentially doing the equivalent of 6 or 7 people’s jobs at a mainstream publisher. I’ve released 3 books this year, and plan for several more next year and many, many beyond that.

But I have arrived at an unexpected destination, and it’s something that I think all of us need to remember as we pass through this life, in all aspects of it, that we simply never can predict what is ahead for us, but if we keep our eyes open and remain receptive to the opportunities that do appear, we can find ourselves somewhere unexpected, but ultimately, perfect for us.