Writing a book is hard. I already knew this about books but knowing something and then doing it are very different experiences. In fact, one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in my career is write my book and it isn’t so much the actual writing process that’s tricky, but pushing past the feelings of imposter syndrome and not feeling good enough in order to actually sit down and write. I have deleted entire pages in the two years I’ve spent working on this book (which I found out is pretty normal when writing a book) and have gone weeks without writing a single word. The number of times I got writer’s block and wanted to throw my laptop across the room is embarrassingly high. 

So, it was refreshing and reassuring to talk to author Bella Mackie about this and her feeling a similar way with her own books.

“The second novel was a lot harder than the first because the expectations were lower for a debut – people don’t think it’s going to sell huge amounts – and so, you have a lot more freedom to just write what you want,” Mackie shared at Stylist Live. The author felt a lot more pressure with her second novel, What A Way To Go, but now that it’s been published for a couple of months, she feels as though she can “push through that anxiety for my third novel”.

With her debut novel, How To Kill Your Family, Bella Mackie brought humour and wit to the crime fiction genre and the bestselling author has done the same with her second novel, What A Way To Go. Her new book is a hilariously dark and pacey mystery that follows the aftermath of the death of one wealth-obsessed man and the lives of his remaining children and widow. And no, his death is not as it initially seems.

Writing the second novel, Mackie got a little lost in the structure and has taken on a lot of learnings for how she’s approaching the writing process for her third book. “I was tying myself in knots because I didn’t have a proper structure and kept following characters down these dead ends. But I’m doing things differently for the third novel”.

She explained that her agent gave her a key piece of advice on the last day they were working together. “A book needs three things: plot, structure and character. Structure is the scaffolding of the novel and you need it in order for the story to make sense and for the book to succeed,” she said. “I mean, I wish my agent would’ve told me this before her last day of work!”

Mackie also had some advice for myself and other debut authors about how to overcome those frustrating but ever-present feelings of imposter syndrome. “The fear doesn’t ever really go away but you have to always remember that you are the only person who’s creating that story or narrative. Nobody else can do what you do.”

Images: @shotby_farheenxo