[Photo by Andy Sutcliffe]
Hi Richard,
Fascinated to hear about both your websites and of course I’ll give a little nugget of advice for Struggling Authors.
When I first started out, I assumed I was doing it all wrong – because I met another author who rather pompously said “Ah Freya, today I worked on Dialogue”. I went away very insecure and for a week or two made Mondays ‘dialogue’, Tuesdays ‘description’, Wednesdays ‘character portraits’, Thursdays ‘plot thickening’, Fridays ‘rewrite the whole bloody thing’. What I came to realise is that there really is no write or wrong way to write – this in itself can be immensely liberating or utterly suffocating for the Struggling Writer.
I never plan a novel (though I know plenty of writers who do) I like the story to unfold organically – taking me by surprise too. I think if one concentrates on the characters, one soon sees how they bring their stories with them. Our job as authors is to tell their tales in as lucid and entertaining a way as possible. It’s like being a puppet-master who believes he can cut the strings and the puppets will still dance and perform. It just takes a little confidence and self belief.
Freya