wip: karen cunningham

Today kicks off the first edition of a new #wip series on unpublished writers. The aim of this series is to explore the writing process for those still working on their first novel. Exploring success, failure and all that comes between. The first unpublished novelist up is Karen Cunningham.

I should start with a correction, Karen Cunningham is technically published. A graphic designer by day, Karen produced a picture book for kids, Jenny Spaghetti, under the pen name Karen Margaret in 2001. What started as a whim to tell a story, escalated into a full time distraction as upon finishing Karen turned her enthusiasm towards a young adult manuscript.

Karen says whilst she remains proud of Jenny Spaghetti, she soon became aware that there was more to learn, and further to grow, especially when contemplating a full-length manuscript.

“I’ve been to many workshops at writers’ festivals, and also completed online courses through the Australian College of Journalism and Writing for Success. The courses gave me the ability to work to a deadline, which I really need, otherwise I just tend to put it off all the time.”

Karen, a mother of two, says her on again off again writing habits make it difficult at times to feel like she is progressing with her manuscript. So she takes small chunks of available time, handwriting first and using the act of retyping onto a computer as an opportunity to create a first draft. “I spent a couple of years working on [Missing Sarah Harris] on and off then had my first baby and it got away. I submitted this to the Australian Society of Authors’ mentorship program and was awarded a mentorship with an editor for 12 months.”

Due to the arrival of a second baby, Karen was unable to make more than one round of edits to her manuscript during the 12 months. “My youngest is now almost two years old, and I am just beginning to find slots of time to pick this up again. Thankfully, the editor is happy for me to stay in touch and resubmit whenever I manage to complete it.”

Like many up and coming writers, Karen uses her blog to get into the writing ‘mood’ as it provides her with a feeling of progression and source of inspiration. She says although time is always ‘of the essence’ self belief is her greatest challenge. “I experience constant self-doubt. I worry that I’m not a real writer, so what business do I have in attempting to write a novel.”

Finishing a manuscript brings its own fears. “If no publisher takes it on, then that will prove that I am no good and all this effort was a waste of time. Yet if I am able to get published, then people will read the book and realise that I’m not very good.”

Karen has a current timeline of the end of 2010 to get a reworked version of her manuscript to her editor. I’ll be checking back in with Karen later in the year to see how things are progressing.

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