Inside the Mind - Tim Rees

I think from the moment I could read stories I began to write my own. I have always been a loner and would disappear into the woods or a hiding place and scribble down stories. Even when I was in the army, my colleagues would go out on the town and I'd stay in barracks jotting down stories.

Original Earth is an unlimited science fiction series about a girl growing up in the jungle of an alien planet. Anu is eight when the spaceship crash lands. Her mother dies due to the crash and her father goes in search of help. Anu is left alone with her five-year-old brother. The siblings are raised by a species of ape called the mantou. Anu befriends many other animals, including dolphins in the sea. When she's fifteen, she meets a alien woman called Sonri. Then she is reconnected with her father who had been held prisoner in a human community. Sonri's people, the phen, consider the planet as a sanctuary for animals humans have made extinct on their own planet, so the story builds to a confrontation. Book two is about Sonri sharing technology with Anu and their growing relationship and the human community struggle to make sense of their new environment. Book three is about Anu and Sonri experiencing other planets and the human community fracturing as they begin to pull in different directions. In book four, Anu and Sonri return to Original Earth and there will be a book five, six, seven and eight etcetera.

Before I write a word, the stories grow in my imagination and the characters grow with the story. With Original Earth I wanted a young girl because The Jungle Book had Mowgli and Edgar Rice Burroughs had already written a male character growing up in the jungle and his name is Tarzan. So Anu emerged with the story.

When I'm writing a novel, I write a thousand words a day minimum. But if I'm not writing a novel, I will be editing or adapting a novel to a script format. Every day I park my car at Freshwater West, a beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK, and begin. To oil my brain, I complete a Spanish lesson or two. I am currently on my 2007th consecutive day on Duolingo. Before Duolingo I was watching Spanish lessons on YouTube. The Spanish lessons are a habit now to get me into focus for writing, but it does come in handy when crafting a story.

Being in control. For the first Original Earth novel I was offered a traditional publishing contract, but turned it down because I was given a publishing date at the end of 2026. My memoir was traditionally published, but I had a huge row with the publisher due to really bad mistakes made by an editor, errors that, had I not spotted them when scanning the proofs, would have made fools of myself and the publisher. It was not a good experience. So, it's better to be in control. What an independent author does miss out on is the marketing expertise and the book being on the shelves of book shops.

Creating the time to write. In my life that has been a constant battle. Too many distractions and too many demands on my time. That is why I now park up and write in my car at Freshwater West. It is pretty isolated, except in the summer when the holiday makers arrive. But because I'm alone in my car, it doesn't bother me too much.

Microsoft Word. In the eighties I was writing freehand and girlfriends were typing up my material and I did enjoy some success getting work seen by drama producers in the BBC. In the nineties I had progressed to a Canon Starwriter and could save chapters onto a floppy disc. Once I had a computer and Microsoft Word, my life changed... :) Arguably, writing became too easy and I found myself in an internet wilderness...

In my experience, creating new material is a joy - it is the time when I'm at my happiest. Once the book is written, it needs to be crafted into a professional product. That can only be achieved through hard, dedicated, focused work. I do worry now that a young author will write a chapter and then rush off to post it on a forum and await comments. Everybody will have an opinion and I worry the author will never write the second chapter. My advice is to finish the novel and re-draft at least twice before you allow anyone else to look at it. The key to success, and when I use the word success, I don't mean your first bestseller, I mean completing you first novel, is self-belief. The best way to begin is by telling yourself, I'm writing this book for me and to hell with the rest of the world. Finish it first and then consider the fact it exists to entertain or inform others.

With great difficulty. An indie author has to invest in their book, but discovering the most efficient and effective investment is a nightmare and the journey of a thousand knives. Recently, Original Earth has been short-listed for the Cygnus science fiction award. Those are the sort of stepping stones the indie author has to create. Will that equate to book sales? We'll see. Also, I am pushing for a novella, The Falklands Engagement, to be made into a radio drama for BBC Radio 4. I am in the early stage of discussions. If I can get the radio drama made first (it doesn't require huge investment), then I hope to open doors to film. Indie authors are forced to look for any way they can shine the spotlight on their work.

I work everyday and currently have three projects on the go. The Original Earth series takes priority and I write a thousand words everyday, before I develop or edit another existing project and speculate with marketing.