Guest post

Start Writing Commercial Fiction: an honest review from a writer scared of the blank page

Christine Modafferi is a published children’s author who signed up to PageOne’s Start Writing Commercial Fiction course when she wanted to follow her dream of writing adult contemporary romance fiction. Here she reviews her experience of how the course helped her push through the initial fear of staring at an empty page to having a finished chapter plan, the first draft of her novel's opening and a routine to keep writing until the end.

I love writing, but I’ve always been quite terrified of the blank page. There’s a lot of excitement in daydreaming a new story – don’t get me wrong! – but there’s also that crippling fear of not getting the words right, the uncertainty of ‘How do I start?’ and ‘What should happen next?’ Sitting in front of a new document is quite the humbling experience.
 
I’ve also never been very compatible with writing courses. With a busy, demanding life, I need to learn at my own pace, which some weeks can be rather speedy but other weeks is pretty stop-start. A self-paced writing course that would be flexible alongside both pressure from work and family commitments was a non-negotiable for me. I needed a place to learn from without additional frills. I needed practical tips that would actually improve my writing in a fail-safe way. I also knew I wanted to break into commercial fiction, as an avid romance reader myself, and needed a course led by experts in my genre.

The moment I enrolled in PageOne’s Start Writing Commercial Fiction course, things started to change for me. (Spoiler alert: for the better!)

Firstly, all PageOne’s courses are accessible for a full year since the moment they’re bought (at an unbeatable price, may I add!), meaning that when life is doing its thing, you can press pause and start again right where you left off when ready. Surprisingly, once I started the course, I couldn’t put it down despite the business of life – and that’s all down to how it’s built. 

The author videos are not only a treat but a true pick-me-up. Each module contained helpful videos featuring real-life bestselling authors and their take on the various stages of planning their books. Whenever I was overthinking a part of my outline, one of these videos would pop up to save the day for me, providing perspective, problem-solving and empathy. The written portions of the modules also include hot takes, insights and quick tips that help break information into bite-size pieces.

This beginner’s course broke down all the most daunting bits of writing a book into one, very small first step: finding my hook. The rest of the lessons build on that first step, layering onto my story plan until it was fully fleshed and ready to be written. I had author videos and supporting material each step of the way, plus a community of other writers and even webinars for extra learning that I could watch on my own time. Before I knew it, four weeks had flown by, and I had a pages-long chapter plan! I also had a market overview of my book, a fleshed-out setting, a five-point plan, full synopsis, character profiles, and the first draft of my opening chapters. For someone who had always struggled to get words on the page, I’d written a whole lot… and didn’t want to stop.

But most importantly, I now have a planning method that sets me up for success every time I come up with a new book idea. The course prides itself on the importance of planning, and it streamlined the process for me in such a way that I not only got to understand more about story structure, but I also built confidence as a writer. The cherry on top was getting to see actual edits from a publishing house and how a chapter changes from draft one to the final piece.

What am I doing now? I’m writing the book! And I am also planning my next big project. The blank page once felt scary, but now I like to see it as page one.

Meet the author

Christine Modafferi

Chris Modafferi was born in Philadelphia, USA, where she learned to appreciate the beauty and magic of nature on long walks through Pennypack Park with her dad and sister, inspiring her first two children's books: Earth’s New Animals, published by Hachette, and A Year in the Forest, published by Big Picture Press. She loves writing for children, but the more she writes, the more she wishes to turn her pen to her favourite genre to read: romance. PageOne’s course Start Writing Commercial Fiction is her first attempt at learning to write for adult readers. She is currently working on her rom-com inspired by her Italian roots, with much help from her two cats, Frodo and Dracula.

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