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Next up is Natasha Farrant, author of the Pride & Prejudice-inspired Lydia: The Wild Girl of Pride & Prejudice, sharing her top tips for writers!

What would be your five top tips to budding writers?

1. Read extensively. Other writers are your best teachers.

2. Always have pen and paper (or other note taking device) handy. You never know when inspiration will strike.

3. That said, writing is a discipline. Sitting around waiting for inspiration never finished a novel. You need to put in the hours. It also helps to develop a routine.

4. Leave some time – at least a week, preferably a month – between finishing and re-reading. When you do re-read, be prepared to be ruthless. Accept that you will never get it right first go.

5. Read what you have written out loud. You will be amazed how much it helps.

For those hoping to take part in NaNoWriMo or enter the Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition, what would be your best tip for writing something every day?

Be disciplined.  Set yourself a target number of words every day, and stick to it. Even when it feels like you’re writing rubbish, stick to it. Bad words are better than no words at all and anyway, this is just the beginning of the process: the real work starts with the rewrites!

Enter the Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition to be in with a chance of winning a £10,000 publishing contract! 

It seems like only last week we announced that we’d bought superstar author Natasha Farrant’s Pride & Prejudice-inspired Lydia: The Wild Girl of Pride & Prejudice – and today it’s published! (more…)

Natasha Farrant is the author of The Things We Did For Love and the Bluebell Gadsby series, as well as two novels for grownups. Her books have been nominated for the Branford Boase Award, the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian book prize and the Queen of Teen. The eldest of four siblings, she grew up in London, where she still lives with her husband, daughters and a large tortoiseshell cat. She can frequently be spotted wearing a hat, but has yet to don a bonnet.

A spirited, witty and fresh reimagining of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, from the perspective of the youngest and wildest Bennet sister, Lydia.

Lydia is the youngest Bennet sister and she’s sick to death of country life – instead of sewing and reading, she longs for passion and adventure.

When a red-coated garrison arrives in Merryton, Lydia’s life turns upside down. As she falls for dashing Wickham, she’s swept into a whirlwind social circle and deposited in a seaside town, Brighton. Sea-bathing, promenades, dances and scandal await – and a pair of aristocratic twins, who offer her the life she thinks she seeks. But can Lydia find out what she really wants – and can she get it?

You may have already spotted the announcement online, but we’re very excited to share the news that we’ll be publishing Lydia: The Bad Bennet Girl by Natasha Farrant in 2016! (more…)