My Writing Process – Blog Tour
March 5 · by Marilyn Chapman
The Valentine's Day publication of my debut novel Baggy Pants and Bootees marked the end - and the beginning - of a long-held dream. It also made me realise that the only thing I like better than writing is, well, talking about writing! So thanks go to fellow
Safkhet Publishing author Suzie Tullet for asking me to join her in the
My Writing Process – Blog Tour #mywritingprocess
Suzie, who writes fun-packed romantic fiction, is the author of Going Underground and Little White Lies and Butterflies which was short listed for the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize in 2013. You can read all about Suzie
here
Meanwhile, I've been asked some interesting questions as part of this blog tour, so here goes:
1 What am I working on?
As a former
journalist my attitude to novel writing is rather unconventional; I work on
instinct rather than planning before I begin the actual manuscript.
Mystery, heartbreak, drama - all of these things describe my work in progress - another time-slip novel. Why do I favour time-slip? With two separate stories
going on at the same time – beautifully demonstrated
in Rosamund Pilcher’s acclaimed novel The Shell Seekers – the reader can see how the
protagonist has been influenced by past events.
I prefer not to give away the plot , partly because I’m
superstitious, but also because it is evolving - ie the characters are still deciding what they want to do
next!
2 How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I still write
my dialogue a bit like a journalist – it’s hard to break the habit – but then I
love dialogue as it makes the story so much more realistic. I want to make the reader laugh, even when I
am ultimately telling a sad story, because I think we all need a sense of humour
to survive. In short, I like to face real issues.
When my second
daughter was born she had a port wine birthmark on her forehead. Keen to make contact with others in the same situation, I wrote an article about how I dealt with this in
Parents Magazine. The magazine kindly
sent on to me all the responses they received from readers and I was amazed how
many people my story had touched.
3 Why do I write what I do?
Over the years my tastes have changed a great deal; A level English
literature taught me to appreciate J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and the books
of Stan Barstow, George Orwell
Later, my husband introduced me to the works of Ibsen, Dostoyevsky,
Chekhov etc and though I enjoyed these
(particularly Ibsen’s the Master Builder) I could only stand back and admire the skill involved in such works.
Later I began to read books such as Other People's Marriages by Rosie Thomas and Erin Pizey's The Watershed and finally realised that these were the kind of novels I wanted to write.
As a reader I want a good plot, poignancy and realism, but I want to learn something too -– it’s not enough for me to just be
entertained. I hope this comes over in
my writing.
How does my writing process work?
My writing begins with flashes of inspiration
which can arrive at any time – even in the middle of the night. I always have a pen with me to jot down my
thoughts. Sometimes an idea will come from
a chance conversation. For instance, I
was talking to …..oh no, I can’t tell you that…there’s always the chance the
lady in question will read my next book!
For a time slip novel I write the two stories separately then
integrate them at the end so there is a consistency and flow for the reader. I much prefer to write the initial chapters
by hand – this means I can do it whenever the mood takes me, but always transfer
it to my laptop when it has begun to take shape.
I write because I want to and, now that I’ve had my debut
novel published, I hope that more people will continue to read what I
write. But if they didn’t, I would still write. It's a simple as that.
And now I'd like to welcome my two guests - Peter Kenny and Jack Barrow, who will be taking part in the tour next time.
For Peter Kenny, variety is essential. He's written everything from TV ads, junk mail, journalism, poetry, plays, lyrics, stories, libretti
and more. His thought provoking blog peter kenny: the notebook can be
found here: http://copywriter-freelance-peter-kenny.blogspot.co.uk
Peter was born in Guernsey and I was lucky enough to meet him at the first ever Guernsey Literary Festival where he read some haunting poems about his island home.
Meanwhile, Jack Barrow is known for his controversial views. Jack, who lives in Hertfordshire, England, writes about popular philosophy in modern life. He says: 'I have a particular interest in the way people are rejecting mainstream religion and creating their own philosophies from the bottom up. These ideas cannot really be described as theological in the way that western religions are and they seem closer to eastern mysticism, such as Buddhism or Zen, while being dressed up with symbolism drawn from folkloric sources.
Jack's first novel, The Hidden Masters and the Unspeakable Evil is now available worldwide after receiving excellent reviews in the UK. He is currently working on a travelogue, 'which is distracting me from working on the second novel about an end of the world religious cult, Morris Men practised in the martial arts and the accidental destruction of a literary festival...' Find out more about Jack on:
http://jackbarrowuk.wordpress.com/about/
.
