Spotlight on: C.C. MacDonald
Photo Credit: Gemma Day
Hello, my name is C.C. MacDonald and I'm a novelist who also works as an actor and screenwriter. I'm juggling a few different things at the moment. I've just finished some edits on my second book The Family Friend. I've plotted and written the first chunk of my third book. I'm working on the TV adaptation of my first novel Happy Ever After. And finally, I'm writing a gentrification horror movie - though I'm a bit stuck on that one. Horror is hard! I love having lots of projects on the go at one time because you're often waiting for feedback and notes and thus it means you always have something to be getting on with. Likewise, I find that they can all feed into each other in surprising ways and that helps to keep me enthusiastic about all of them.
What was the first book you ever completed?
The first novel I completed was Happy Ever After which was also the first book I had published. I began writing it on the Faber Academy novel writing course and I wrote the first draft fairly quickly in about 9 months in total and then it didn't need much revision. Work on the second book was far less smooth so I realise I got pretty lucky with how things came together on Happy Ever After. That being said, I had seven or eight years of writing plays and screenplays that I never managed to get off the ground, so I was well practiced in rejection by the time I started writing books. When it happens, you just have to jump back on the horse and do it again, safe in the knowledge that everything you write makes you a better writer.
Any advice for potential authors on submitting to agents?
If I had to give advice to authors submitting to agents, it would be to practice writing your elevator pitch and loglines. Screenwriting, books and websites have lots of advice for this and although it's not all directly transferable, the principles of story are the same. Practice, practice, practice. If you watch a film, try and write a three line synopsis of it, once you've finished a novel, think how you would try and sell that. Your cover letter is very important. It gives the agent a very quick hook and sets the cogs of how they'd sell your book whirring in their head.
What has been a highlight of the publishing process so far?
The publishing process has been so lovely for me since I got my deal. I love editing so working with someone on my book has been great and I'm really lucky to have joined my favourite publisher and I'm constantly impressed with how on it everyone at Vintage is. But my favourite part of the process was the querying and then subsequent sale of the book. I was lucky enough to have interest from multiple agents and publishers and it was a really really exciting time. My advice would be to try and enjoy it because, for me, as soon as it was over, the anxiety about whether or not anyone would buy my book crept in and I imagine that will be with me for as long as I'm writing.
What are you writing next?
The next thing I'm writing will be my third book. Its working title is 'The Work' and it's inspired by my time studying at a cultish method acting drama school. The novel takes place over two timelines covering two productions of Measure for Measure ten years apart. It asks questions about how far artists should be pushed to achieve greatness. It has undercurrents of #MeToo and complicity with such behaviour, how creativity interplays with mental health, and the responsibility, or lack of it, that educational institutions hold towards their young, idealistic wards. I'm very very excited about it.
Happy Ever After is out in hardback and comes out in paperback on 23rd July. The Family Friend comes out in hardback on 8th February 2021.