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Sarah Dickinson, author of ‘Plenty Mango’ speaks with Jacqui Lofthouse (Part One)

by Filed Under: Authors, Books, Inspiration, Interviews, Marketing, Reading, Self-publishing, The writing coach, Writers Leave a Comment

It is with great pleasure that I introduce a new book and Audible recording, Plenty Mango: Postcards from the Caribbean by Sarah Dickinson. This is a very special one for me as Sarah was my first ever proper ‘boss’ after I graduated from University – aged 22, she offered me a role as a radio producer at her company Ladbroke Radio. The full story of how I met Sarah and what I learned from her as a female business-owner way back in the mid-eighties will form Part Two of this feature. But in the meantime, let’s dive into the interview and find out more about this tale of life on Montserrat and living through the volcano years.

 

Sarah, when I was in my early twenties, I remember working on your first book ‘How to Take on the Media’ as your researcher.  How do you remember the experience of writing that book?

And a very good researcher you were!  The abiding memory is of acute physical pain. I’d slipped a disc and could only get comfortable either by standing upright or flat on my back, so the physical act of writing was challenging, to say the least.  But the thinking, mapping and ordering of the content was exhilarating.

I knew I ran the risk of being labelled ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’, as I was revealing the tricks in a journalist’s arsenal. But I genuinely believed then, as I do still, that an interviewee has a right to know the so-called ‘rules of the game’.

Apart from being verbally mauled by Melvyn Bragg on Radio 4’s Start the Week show, the gamble paid off.

In those days, I mainly knew you as my boss, a businesswoman and a radio producer/presenter. But have you always been a writer?

From about the age of 6, I have always wanted to write.  My first favourite author was Monica Dickens (no relation sadly) whose witty series ‘One Pair of Feet’, ‘One Pair of Hands’ made a big impact.  Won a few writing prizes at college, but then had to earn a living, a need which occupied me, as well as bringing up a family, for many years.  It’s only in the last ten years that I have the luxury of time to write continuously.

Your new book ‘Plenty Mango – Postcards from the Caribbean’ tells the story of your experience of the Caribbean island of Montserrat – how did your relationship with that island begin?

As with so many things that change the course of our lives, it was serendipity.

One summer, many years ago, I was driving through Northern France with my husband John.  We were on our way to Switzerland and at one with the world.  It was one of those typical straight French country roads with white ringed poplar trees on either side.  Nothing coming the other way, I signalled to overtake two cars in front of me.  All was well until I was alongside the first driver who decided to overtake the car in front of him.  There wasn’t room for the three of us, so I ended up hitting one of the poplar trees while they drove on.  John somehow got me out just before the car exploded.  He saved my life.

Despite being grateful for being alive, come that winter, we couldn’t quite get over the enormity of what could have happened.  So, to cheer the soul and warm the body, we headed for the West Indies, unknown to both of us, eventually finding and falling in love with Montserrat.  So much so that John, who is an architect, decided to follow a dream and find some land on which he would build a group of contemporary West Indian style villas.  We did find that land, 27 acres of tropical hillside overlooking sea, beach and mountains.  We re-mortgaged everything we had to pay for it.

We only needed to build one more house to almost break even.  And then the island’s volcano re-awoke after 400 years …..

That was in 1995 wasn’t it?  I assumed everything changed for the island?

I can tell you the exact date .. Tuesday, July 18th.  I remember it was one of those glorious tropical days, bright sunshine, cooling breezes, our two teenage boys glued to their Walkmans, working on their sun tans.  I was dozing on a sun lounger when it suddenly felt as if someone was trying to tip me out of it.  I shouted at the boys to back off.  When they looked up at me from the other end of the pool, I realised my mistake.  Something very strange was happening. I learnt later that I was experiencing a tectonic earthquake, one of the indicators that a volcano is ‘waking up’.

I devote quite a few chapters in Plenty Mango to the devastation caused by the volcano and the impact that it has had on the economy and the lives of Montserratians.  Tragically 19 people lost their lives, more than half the island’s population (5,000) left and those who stayed had to endure years of uncertainty.

Today, albeit very slowly, life on Montserrat is returning.  I’d like to say ‘returning to normal’, but that wouldn’t be strictly true.  I still jump when the 12 0’clock siren rings across the valley, and the especially adapted radio tuned to the Montserrat Volcano Observatory, in case of an emergency, is never turned off.  But, and I include John and I, we’re a resilient lot and we all still say of our precious little island ‘still home, still nice, still paradise.’

Sarah Dickinson, Plenty Mango

Sarah hard at work in the Caribbean

How did ‘Plenty Mango’ come into being?

For 40 years I have written a Christmas report on the activities of the Renton family during the past 12 months.  Not surprisingly, Montserrat had a starring role.  It wasn’t until about 3 years ago, when I was invited to give a series of illustrated talks ‘Living Under a Volcano’ on one of Fred Olsen’s cruise ships, that I dug out the letters.  And what a valuable history they provided.  At the end of each talk, I read directly from some of the letters and was surprised and gratified by how well they were received.  ‘You should put them in a book’, several people suggested.  So I did!  Obviously, Plenty Mango is very special to me, but I think what gives it an added attraction are John’s wonderful, quirky illustrations.  We have this catch phrase between us ‘I do the words, he does the pictures.’

What’s the essence of the book?

I suppose Plenty Mango is a kind of love story, between two people who share a love for a tiny island in the West Indies which, despite the ructions of a volcano, is home to about 5,000 people who care about each other and are proud of their heritage.  Incidentally, it’s astonishingly beautiful.

I’ve structured the book as a series of illustrated postcards – word portraits about its history, traditions, myths and, most importantly, its people.

I believe you still live part of the year in Montserrat?  How has your experience of the volcano affected your life and relationships there over the years?

There’s that quote by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche ‘that which does not kill us, makes us stronger.’  As I think I was trying to say just now, the hardship has brought us all closer together and made us more determined to make Montserrat a real tourist destination.  John hasn’t given up on Isles Bay Plantation and hopes, one day, to build some more villas.  The British Government seems to be still hanging in there, providing much-needed aid and more and more people are returning.  Of course, we’d all like things to move much faster, but we know we’re still dependent on the whims of the volcano.

It’s the characters, of course, that we remember after reading your stories …

And they are all people I know!  I’ve changed the names of one or two, but not many.  I’m relieved that the book has been very well received on Montserrat.

I’m often asked, do you have a favourite?  Of course not, but I am forever grateful to a lovely old man, never seen without his white wellingtons, who is a dab hand at clearing storm drains.  I was waiting for John who had gone in search of a particular type of screw (no mean feat on a small island) when the old man came up to me and said ‘I jus seen your Daddy, an I tole him I clean dem drains soon.’  Who needs botox with compliments like that?

Do you see the book as journalism or creative non-fiction or short stories.  Did you think about ‘genre’ when writing?

I really dislike this pigeon-holing ‘genre’ thing but, if pushed, I suppose it would fit into ‘travel’.

What made you self-publish?

How long have you got?  Despite knowing lots of publishers and agents and receiving some very encouraging feedback to Plenty Mango, that depressing conjunction BUT kept appearing.  ‘We’d love to publish it, but travel is such a tough market’, ‘Love the text and the illustrations, but all that colour would make it expensive to publish.’  Those are from people who bothered to reply;  there were an awful lot of who didn’t.  So, self- publish it was.

What has the experience of self-publishing been like compared to traditional publishing?

It’s much harder!  You need cash, time, determination and, in my case, a technical guru.  First of all, John and I set up a small publishing company called Tamarind Press (just in case we needed it later on).  Because my media background is as a reporter/presenter, I decided, initially, to record all the stories and try and get them played on radio or on some of the airlines flying to the West Indies. It meant finding a producer and hiring a radio studio but, as I’d been in the business for some time, that wasn’t difficult.  I’d also heard of an organisation called ACX who operate as an intermediary for Amazon’s audio imprint Audible and iTunes.  There is no upfront charge and, once satisfied with the quality of your submission, will add it to their catalogue.  ‘Look no further,’ I thought.  Another lesson to be learned.  Always read the small print.

What I’d failed to notice was that Amazon won’t publish an audio version of your book until it is available either as a paperback or in Kindle – which leads me to the Kindle Direct Publishing site which urges you to ‘Self-publish e-Books and paperbacks for free with Kindle Direct Publishing, and reach million of readers on Amazon.’  Sounded good to me and because my technical guru was right by my side, I didn’t have to worry about such things as JPEGs, or page and line breaks.  My job was to proof read the final manuscript before pressing SEND.  You know, I swear I spotted every ‘typo’ and slightly confusing edit but, (there’s that but again) as I suppose is inevitable, I have spotted a few since reading the published version.

The great thing about publishing with Amazon is that it’s a ‘just in time’ outfit.  Someone orders a copy and, if it’s an e-book or audio, it’s instant, if it’s a paperback, could be with you the next day.  No remainders this way.

How have you found the marketing side?  What advice would you give to others going this route?

I compiled a data base of about 400 people and e-mailed them all INDIVIDUALLY, letting them know about Plenty Mango and the formats in which it was available.  I kept the price of the e-book very competitive.  The paperback version, which had all John’s coloured illustrations, didn’t offer me such lee-way, and Audible charges a fixed price.  I have to warn you that the royalties are pretty small.

Word of mouth is, I’ve found, the best marketing tool and, to this end, I have become very active on Facebook.  It’s quite hard work, as I’m not one of those people who post photographs of my last meal, so it tends to be news, at the moment at least, about the book.

I’ve also got a website sarahdickinson.net – which is proving to be a useful communication tool.

I’m thinking of commissioning a PR specialist as well, but haven’t as yet done so.

The book, I’m happy to say, is doing well.  Not ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ – well, you understand, but well enough.

You recently took part in a literary festival in Montserrat – what was that like?

Hard work, but great fun and it’s a wonderful experience being asked to sign copies of your book. Have written a piece for the book’s sequel

‘PLENTY MORE MANGO’.

When we met recently, you told me about your regular journaling and that was very inspiring.  How has writing regularly changed you as a writer?

It’s like exercise, the more you do, the easier it gets.  I write in Moleskines – good size for carrying around and protected by a hard cover.  Anything and everything goes into them – funny things our grandchildren say, rants about politics, the beginnings of stories.  A word of advice – always date everything.To-day’s entry will be about this interview!

‘Plenty Mango – Postcards from the Caribbean’ by Sarah Dickinson is available via either Amazon.co.uk/books or Amazon.com/books in paperback, Kindle, Audible and iTunes formats.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience Sarah – I can’t wait for our second interview about our early days, though I’m slightly nervous what you’ll say about the younger me…

‘Isn’t it terrible about Chechnya’: Jane Austen – the wartime writer

by Filed Under: Authors, Books, Inspiration, Literary Consultancy, Reading, The writing life, Writers 5 Comments

A Guest Post on Jane Austen by former writing coach client Caroline Doherty de Novoa

Jane Austen

Caroline’s book ‘Cocktails with Miss Austen’

At Jane Austen’s house, you certainly get what you came for. A tiny wooden writing desk… a view onto a rose garden… a quill. A dainty tea set… books with gold-lettered spines and peacocks emblazoned on the front… embroidery. A turquoise and gold ring… bonnets… dresses. A gold-handled, thirty-inch sword from the liberator of South America… letters… a pair of… Hang on, back up a minute. A gold-handled, thirty-inch sword? From who, again?

Wandering through the narrow rooms and creaking corridors of Jane’s home in Chawton, Hampshire—weaving between a coach group of retired American ladies on tour, a gaggle of bookish twenty-somethings on the tamest bachelorette weekend in history, and several Chinese tourists dressed in full regency outfits—one phrase was churning over and over in my mind, something a writing tutor once said to me.

‘It’s all rather domestic, isn’t it?’

That had been his reaction to a plot I’d come up with during an ideas generation exercise in class. He’d said “domestic” with clear disdain and then scrunched up his nose, like a baby eating a lemon for the first time, to really drive home his point.

At parties, when new acquaintances find out I’m a writer, they often ask what kind of books I write. There are five books on my shelf with my name on the cover—two novels and three anthologies with other writers. So you’d think, by now, I’d know how to answer the question. But I still get nervous, and I often start to mumble.

I usually wave my hand dismissively and say something like ‘just, you know, women’s commercial fiction, that’s all.’

For some, this isn’t really an answer, and they probe further. ‘Women’s fiction, what’s that? What are the books about?’

Caroliine Doherty de Novoa

Caroline Doherty de Novoa

So I try again. ‘The first novel’s a love story, but it’s also about grief. The main characters both lost their mothers at a young age and they’ve dealt with it differently. It asks the question of how much we need to confront the past before we can move on from it. And the second is about motherhood—why some women don’t want kids and others want them so desperately they’ll go to any lengths to have them, and how much that decision affects your identity.’

Usually, at this stage, the person who has asked me about my work nods politely and changes the subject.

It’s all rather domestic, I think. Who can blame them for not wanting to hear more?

I am a writer at a time when the world is seeing one of the greatest migrations of people fleeing conflict since World War Two, when climate change is threatening our planet and millions go hungry every day. In recent years, girls have been systemically kidnapped in Nigeria and shot on their way to school in Pakistan. Women still make up only one fifth of the US House of Congress. I grew up in Northern Ireland and I’ve lived in Colombia, two countries that aren’t strangers to conflict. I studied political science at university. My dissertation was a feminist critique of the criminal justice system.

So why did I spend the past three years of my life writing a book with motherhood as its central theme? It’s all rather domestic, isn’t it? Shouldn’t I have been writing about something bigger, more serious, more political with a capital P?

When I sit down to write, I sometimes feel like one of the modern derivatives of a Jane Austen character… Bridget Jones. In the first film, as she gets ready for a party, Bridget reminds herself to “circulate, oozing intelligence” and to start conversations with sentences like “Isn’t it terrible about Chechnya.”

But, thing is, whilst I care about Chechnya—right now, I care very much about the abhorrent persecution of the LGBT community there—I’ve never been drawn to write fiction about Chechnya or any “big issues” like that.

I wonder if Jane ever felt the same way.

So back to that sword. It was my hawk-eyed husband who noticed its provenance first. He’s Colombian, and so it came as a surprise to see the name of Simón Bolívar—El Libertador, the man who helped secure Colombia’s independence from Spain—on the wall in Jane Austen’s Hampshire home.

It’s an impressive piece of craftsmanship, with a finely carved hawk and cannon for a handle. It’s just a shame Jane never got to see it. Bolívar presented the sword to her brother, Charles John Austen, in March 1827, ten years after Jane’s death. Even so, it’s an interesting reminder of what others were doing, and what was happening in the world, whilst Jane sat at her desk writing.

Jane was born the same year the American War of Independence broke out. When Jane was eighteen, her cousin Eliza’s husband was guillotined during the French revolution. Her brothers, Francis and Charles, fought in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, both of which raged throughout most of Jane’s adult life, keeping them away from the family for long periods.

Virginia Woolf, writing about Austen and her contemporary, Walter Scott, noted that “neither of them in all their novels mentioned the Napoleonic wars.” Woolf goes on to claim that this shows “their model, their vision of human life, was not disturbed or agitated or changed by war. Nor were they themselves… Wars were then remote…”

Winston Churchill seemed to have the same opinion. Of Jane’s characters he remarked, “What calm lives they had… No worries about the French Revolution, or the crushing struggles of the Napoleonic wars.”

I personally don’t believe for a second Jane lived such a tranquil life or that she was oblivious to the suffering and dangers faced by those off at war. I am sure she spent plenty of tense afternoons in the drawing room with the other ladies of the house trying to occupy themselves with reading and embroidery and tea—all the while silently watching the door, wondering if the men they loved would ever return.

It’s true, as Woolf notes, Austen never heard the cannon’s roar for herself. But there are references to the military and military men throughout Austen’s novels. Of course, Austen never takes us to the battlefield in her writing. Instead, her stories are played out in the rooms and gardens of country houses, on a stage that is all rather domestic.

And yet her stories endure. It is these stories of everyday human emotion and social interaction that the British, including Woolf and Churchill, returned to during the chaos of the First and Second World Wars. It is these domestic stories that millions still turn to today.

After we left Jane Austen’s home, we walked up the country lane to Chawton House, the “Great House” where Jane socialised with her brother Edward and his friends. I imagined Jane making that same short journey following a day of writing. And I imagined her walking along the lane, steeling herself for the inevitable question, ‘So what are you writing about?’

Perhaps in such moments she prepared herself for the party in the same way Bridget did, by having an intelligent comment with which to quickly change the subject. Perhaps something like: ‘Isn’t it terrible about France?’

Caroline Doherty de Novoa is the author of the novels The Belfast Girl and Dancing with Statues  and the essay collections Was Gabo an Irishman? Tales from Gabriel García Márquez’s Colombia and Cocktails with Miss Austen – Conversations on the world’s most beloved author.

 

Carolyn Kirby triumphs in two first novel awards

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From left to right: Runner up of Bluepencilagency First Novel Award Neil McLennan; Literary agent and judge, Eve White; winner Carolyn Kirby; best selling author and judge, Saskia Sarginson (Photo by Alexander James)

We are delighted to announce that former Writing Coach client Carolyn Kirby is the winner of the inaugural Bluepencilagency First Novel Award with her historical thriller Half of You. In addition, she has also recently been awarded second place in the Daniel Goldsmith First Novel Prize.

Carolyn was one of our Founder’s earliest clients and she is delighted to see Carolyn go on to win. Jacqui Lofthouse writes:

I am so thrilled for Carolyn at her double award success. I know she has worked long and hard to become the brilliant novelist she is today – and to see this work rewarded is hugely inspiring. I’m so pleased that I was able to introduce Carolyn to her literary agent David Haviland and I know that this novel will soon find a wonderful home in the publishing world – I can’t wait to see the book!

The Bluepencilagency First Novel Award, judged by literary agent Eve White and best-selling author Saskia Sarginson, is given to previously unpublished and unrepresented writers. 20 novels were longlisted and six made the shortlist. The winner receives £1,000 in cash and an introduction to Eve White and the runner up, a writer’s retreat at Retreats for You and an editorial report from Bluepencilagency.

Since winning the first novel award, Carolyn was introduced to literary agent David Haviland at the Andrew Lownie Agency by our founder Jacqui Lofthouse and we are excited that David will be representing Carolyn for this novel

Set in 1880’s Birmingham, Half Of You follows a young woman’s search for the roots of her scarred personality amid the origins of psychiatry and new Victorian ideas about nature versus nurture. As the dark secrets of her past unravel, Cora must decide if her personality is an unalterable product of biology and her upbringing, or find the strength to change herself.

Writer Carolyn Kirby studied history at Oxford University and novel writing with The Writing Coach and at the Faber Academy. Half Of You was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize 2016 and very recently also won second place in the Daniel Goldsmith 2017 First Novel Prize. Carolyn’s previous work has been long-listed for the Mslexia Novel Competition, the Exeter Novel Prize and the Lucy Cavendish College Fiction Prize.

“The premise of genetics set in 1880’s Birmingham is interesting and Carolyn’s writing was strong.” notes Eve White. Adds Saskia Sarginson; “The setting was great and through the character of Cora, Carolyn created a strong voice. I was completely convinced by the story.”

Half of You, Carolyn Kirby, First Novel Award

Carolyn Kirby

Daniel Goldsmith First Novel Prize

Carolyn also came second in the Daniel Goldsmith 2017 First Novel Prize this year.

Of this earlier competition, she said:

How amazing it was to see my name amongst the impressive list of new writers on the First Novel Prize shortlist. And then, how completely thrilling to be placed second in such a field! Reading the distinguished judges’ glowing comments about ‘Half of You’ was a spine-tingling experience. This prize will energise my search for an agent and publisher who feel similarly enthusiastic about my Nature versus Nurture thriller. Thank you to everyone involved with the First Novel Prize which provides such a wonderful platform for new fiction writers.

You can read more about what the judges for that prize had to say about Carolyn’s work here.

If your novel is over 50,000 words and of an adult genre, do consider entering next year’s Daniel Goldsmith competition.  The First Novel Prize will open for entries again in 2018, with a First, Second and Third Prize  up for grabs.  Entries will reopen on 1st February 2018, and you can find out more here.

Good luck in next year’s competition if you choose to enter a first novel award. Carolyn is a great example of persistence and dedication paying off and we’re so proud to see this double win.

 

 

An interview with novelist Stuart Warner

by Filed Under: Authors, Books, Guest post, Inspiration, Interviews, Motivation, Self-publishing, The writing coach, The writing life, Writers 2 Comments

In this post, our Founder Jacqui Lofthouse interviews her former client, the novelist Stuart Warner,  author of The Sound of Everything. They discuss his transition from poet to novelist.

Stuart Warner

Novelist and Poet Stuart Warner

When we first met, in your writing life you were primarily a poet. What made you want to transition to novel-writing?

I recall telling friends how much I admired people who’d shown sufficient determination to write a novel. I’d written hundreds of articles, as well as the poetry, so I knew I could write fluid prose. I set out on the first draft as an adventure to see whether I could produce a story of 80,000 words or so – whether I had the persistence to do so. That was my initial goal: simply to produce a first draft.

Did you have an initial impulse that prompted you to write the story that you chose? Did you begin with a story premise or just an image or an idea for a character…?

My decision to write a novel came first. I then had to decide what to write about. Having read Stephen King’s On Writing, I’d decided not to make a detailed plan. I took a few days off work and, on day one, I sat down at my desk, fountain pen in hand, and wrote a single page of notes. It was about 300 words. Rereading it now, I’d call it a rough synopsis. It contained several ideas, which carried through to what became The Sound Of Everything. Mostly, it was about the protagonist: the pickle he’s in and what he wants instead.  After writing those 300 words, I turned to a fresh page and started chapter one. Interestingly, the first sentence I wrote had nothing to do with my initial notes, yet it drew on an image I’d been carrying round in my head for a while, a location which plays a major part in the novel.

Stuart Warner
It’s interesting to me that an image was central to your beginning – as I too, often work from images and strong hunches. I’ve noticed the importance of landscape too in your novel… what role do you think a sense of place plays in your writing?

Place is very important in the novel and it has been in my poetry, too. The Sound Of Everything is set mainly in a small town on the Welsh border, though there are also a couple of hill-top scenes. Certain locations – or types of location – seem to resonate with what’s going on inside us.  For example, someone might feel the freedom of the wide-open spaces on a beach or a mountain, or a sense of being trapped by their daily routine in an urban environment.  For someone else, I guess the opposite could be true. For me, there’s some sort of interplay between what one might think of as the magic and the mundane: what we see with our eyes, what we feel inside and, perhaps, what we experience beyond the five senses. Writing about different landscapes helps me access that interplay.

Beyond the five senses – you’ve sometimes described this, I know, as ‘spiritual fiction’?

I’d say it’s a small-town mystery with a spiritual aspect – spiritual in the sense of questions we might sometimes ask ourselves, such as ‘Who am I?’, ‘What am I doing here?’ or ‘What’s the meaning of life?’ Going back to your previous question on place, while my initial 300-word outline related to the external plot, the image that came through in the first line I wrote – sentence one, paragraph one – was concerned with the protagonist’s internal exploration. It was only when I came to working with you on the second draft that I delved down deeply into that exploration – the feelings the protagonist experiences when he starts to open to that side of himself.  It was difficult to decide what Amazon genre the finished novel fitted into, but I plumped for visionary and metaphysical. Spiritual seemed to me to be too much associated with Christian fiction, whereas the novel resonates more with Eastern ways of thinking – yoga, for example.

That’s fascinating, that the mentoring process allowed you to delve deeper into the protagonist’s inner exploration. Is that what you expected?

When I found your website, I wrote an email to you to enquire about your one year mentorship programme. Here’s what I said: ‘I’ve just finished the first draft of my debut novel and so I’m a beginner as far as novels are concerned… Completing the first draft, regardless of its merit, has given me a huge confidence boost.  I now feel ready to commit to learning the skills that I will need to become a published novelist. ’  I had no idea what to expect from working with you, but I figured it made sense to learn from someone who’d already achieved what I was setting out to do, particularly as I’d never studied creative writing.

One of the key points you made in our first meeting, having read chapter one, was that I needed to show why my protagonist acted as he did, by describing what he was experiencing from his point of view.  I’d done that in a few places but, generally, the point of view I’d used was too distant.  I know now that you were teaching me a technique to improve my writing, but you also opened a door for me, one which helped to strengthen the bridge between my writing of the novel and the way I’d approached my poetry.

I’m so glad that the new closeness in point of view has revealed a link between your fiction and your poetry. For those who might be considering working with a mentor, what in your view, have been the main benefits of the work we’ve done together?

Just to explain how it worked, I’d send you an extract – 6,000 words or so – about a week before our meeting date. You’d then read and mark up the extract before we met. In meetings, which were on the phone as we live 250 miles apart, you’d give me feedback.  We’d discuss what you said and we always ended the meeting with an action plan for the next month.  Three or four weeks later, I’d send you a new extract ready for our next meeting.  Meanwhile, you’d post the marked-up extract back to me. This went on for a year.

The regular schedule was superb because it enabled me to put in a renewed burst of activity every four or five weeks, trying to put into practice what we’d discussed.  I’d have to work hard to produce the next 6,000-word extract – sometimes, the same extract as the previous time but substantially rewritten. Then, I’d send it to you and receive almost instant feedback on how well I’d achieved my goals. Rather than slaving over a whole manuscript for a year and then sending it to a beta reader or agent, I’d get ‘mini-reviews’ of my work every month.  I believe that accelerated my learning process.

While you were always very positive in your feedback, you always encouraged me to go further.  I would usually feel that I’d made huge strides forward each time and you always liked what I’d done. But, after every meeting, I felt I could delve even deeper, because that’s what you asked me to do.  That was the bridge with the poetry.  When I wrote my poems, I was expressing my truth, as best I could, in a few short words. With the novel, your mentoring helped me to dig down to that same depth in a much longer written work.  Of course, I also learnt much in the way of technique.  Probably the most important point was the need for the protagonist and other main characters to act in a way consistent with what would be going on in their head: psychological realism you called it, I believe. Why would they act that way after what happened in the previous scene?  What was their motivation?

What has changed for you in your writing life in the last year?

The biggest change is that I’m now working on my second novel rather than my first.  This time last year – June 2016 – you were mentoring me on revisions to what would become The Sound Of Everything. A few months later, in August, I sent the manuscript to a couple of professional beta readers, followed by further edits and more beta readers in October.  Then came the publishing process and a few months brainstorming ideas for the next book. Eventually, I started to write again at the end of April and now I’m 30,000 words in.

Back in summer 2015, when I’d just completed the first draft of The Sound Of Everything, I wondered whether I’d be better to ditch that project and start a different story from scratch.  Then I read somewhere that you learn a lot more, about writing a novel, by editing rather than starting afresh.  I think that was great advice.  My whole experience with that first novel has given me a lot more confidence this time round – that my rough first draft will evolve in a way I’m happy with.

You decided to self-publish ‘The Sound of Everything’ – what was behind that decision?

When I started to read about the importance of genre, I figured I might find it difficult to find an agent. Also, I’d already been down the self-publishing route with my poetry.  When I raised the idea with you, you suggested several websites I could look at.  One of these was Joanna Penn’s.  I found her advice very useful, and I started to realise that many writers now self-publish from choice, particularly if they plan to write several books.  It’s a long-term strategy, with less emphasis on the initial book launch and more on building a following.

Can you describe ‘The Sound of Everything’? Tell us about the book…

The book involves two quests: one internal, the other external. I wanted to write a story, which was a bit of a page-turner but also had depth to it – the spiritual aspect we discussed earlier.  It’s told from a single viewpoint and includes quite a bit of internal dialogue. It starts with Jack, the protagonist, dashing into an Indian gift shop.  What happens to him there, changes the course of his life.  Below, I’ve copied extracts from two kind reviews I received on Amazon.  I’m sure the book isn’t for everyone, but the extracts are in line with the feedback I’ve received from most readers I’ve heard from.

‘You are drawn into the story from the first page.  You gradually learn more about Jack, the main character – why he has moved back to Drimpton, the town where he lived as a young child, and how he adjusts to working there and dealing with the many different characters he soon meets.  There are surprises and twists, warmth and touches of humour and wisdom – it is thought-provoking, you don’t want to reach the end, and when you do, you find your mind returning to explore the unfolding themes.’

‘It is beautifully woven from a number of threads relating to the current and past of a town and some of its people as they are discovered by the main protagonist over a few days where he is trying to work out the answers to a number of different (and interesting) issues.  It also covers the growth of that lead character as he tries to work out how to move forward from a position in life that he has arrived in because that is where he thought that he would like to be, and then isn’t 100% happy with now he’s got there.’

To find out more about Stuart Warner’s work, visit his website here.

Writing in the Dark – by Miranda Gold

by Filed Under: Authors, Books, Events, Guest post, Inspiration, Markets for your work, The writing coach, The writing life, Writers Leave a Comment

We are delighted to introduce a guest blog by Miranda Gold, novelist and author of ‘Starlings‘ – ‘Writing in the Dark’ explores her experience of working with a writing coach: our Founder Jacqui Lofthouse.

writing in the dark

Miranda Gold – Author of ‘Starlings’

I arrived at the British Library for my session with Jacqui on three hours’ sleep, carrying an embryonic first draft and unsure how this could bring any coherence to my life or my writing.

Jacqui was unperturbed. ‘I have a hunch,’ she said, ‘we might need to focus on the coaching side of things.’ It wasn’t what I wanted to hear of course and Jacqui was intuitive enough not to press the point. Instead she brought out the manuscript I’d sent her and, between offering her responses, began helping me to find way ways I could make writing part of the fabric of my life – I didn’t realise it then, but by shifting between the two she was translating her suggestion with the same precision she would bring to her reading of my work: the writing and the life can be interwoven into a seamless whole.

This has very little to do with writing from life and very much to do with writing in and with life. The impact of this may have been delayed (almost everything is with me) but it has been enduring. Since then writing has been my anchor and it seems it’s impossible to underestimate just how many influences, however apparently fleeting, have laid the foundation for my writing.

The process has been different with each new piece and the blank page becomes more terrifying, not less, but the fabric becomes stronger and more intricate; the sense of urgency to build worlds out of words supersedes the fear. It’s something of a cliché to speak of how a writer will be carried by the momentum of the story once they have breathed life into it, but it holds true. Yes there may be countless returns and revisions but at least it is alive on the page, here is a world that a reader can meet.

Jacqui also recognised that how I pieced together the novel that would become ‘Starlings’ would be inextricable from the story itself, she could read the modernist influences and see that much was being communicated by the rhythm itself, aware that this would be next to impossible to sell or fit neatly into a box but encouraging me regardless.

writing in the dark

Starlings by Miranda Gold

The point is she didn’t try to push me in any direction other than for what clarity would look and sound like for this particular novel. It would have been all too easy for her to urge me to cut away ambiguity, insist on linearity, create something that could be swallowed whole. Instead she listened to it and read it on its own terms and took me – in my blurry-eyed state – on my own terms too. Sometimes what a writer needs most is to be given license to find a the shape for a story even if it isn’t immediately comparable to whatever else might be flying (or not) off the shelves. So I stood by the risks I’d taken because the story of ‘Starlings’ might have been told any number of ways but the way it has now been told is the most honest communication of an experience of living a legacy of half-told stories that couldn’t be easily tidied up into a single meaning.

I would be several drafts into my second novel before I found a publisher for ‘Starlings’ but it now has a home and has found readers who have brought out meanings I wasn’t aware of, reminding me again that a book doesn’t end on the page. Writing is necessarily solitary but making connections is at the heart of it – not only within the book itself but with the books it may be in conversation with and the readers who engage with it.

I’m now working with the pioneering Unbound to publish my second novel, ‘A Small Dark Quiet.’ Though it may be easier to classify, I knew it was likely it might fall through the cracks. That was why Unbound appealed to me – they’re passionate about opening the door to ideas that might not fit easily on a traditional publisher’s list. They’re the first traditional publisher to work through crowd funding and I really feel they are helping to make significant changes in the literary landscape – maybe the reader can help shape the market after all. It’s going to be a challenge but there is a lot of support. I don’t know that any route to publication is easy but I’ll keep taking up the challenge as long as I have a story to tell.

Miranda Gold’s new novel ‘A Small Dark Quiet’ will be published by Unbound – you can support the novel here.

writing in the dark

Miranda Gold will be reading from her new book ‘A Small Dark Quiet’ at Hornsey Library on Saturday 23rd September from 3pm-5pm. She will be joined by fellow Unbound author Caitlin Davis and the event will include a short Unbound screening. More details of the event are here.

Words Away Salon: ‘Be Your Own Writing Coach’

by Filed Under: Authors, Community, Confidence, Events, Interviews, Motivation, Networking, Productivity, The writing coach, The writing life, Writers Leave a Comment

The Words Away salon is on Monday, July 3, 2017
7:30pm – 9:30pm at The Tea House Theatre, Vauxhall

Do you need some inspiration and motivation tips to get going and keep going this summer? What’s stopping you from finishing that book? Do you start but never quite finish? Would you like to be more confident in your approach to writing?

The Words Away Salon

This month, our Founder Jacqui Lofthouse is delighted to be the July guest at the Words Away Salon – the topic for July is ‘Be Your Own Writing Coach’.

Words Away Salon

The Tea House Theatre, Vauxhall

Words Away creative writing salons concentrate on the writing process. Run by writers Kellie Jackson and Emma Darwin, who every month invite a guest author to join you, the audience, in discussing a particular topic in writing, a genre, or a question of craft.

Emma and Kellie say:

Over tea, cake and a glass of wine, we’ll explore the challenges and opportunities, the difficulties and joys of writing, and the reality of being a writer. We hope you’ll come and join us. The Salons are held once a month on a Monday evening, 7.30pm at the Tea House Theatre, 139 Vauxhall Walk, London, SE11 5HL.

The Be your Own Writing Coach event is on Monday July 3rd and the guest is Jacqui Lofthouse, our Founder, a novelist, writing coach and literary consultant who has a wealth of experience and ideas for making the most of your writing time. The July literary salon is the last before the summer break and should equip you with some new ways to a more productive writing life.

Find out more here

on the ‘Words Away’ website

Click here

Tickets only £10

What is Words Away?

Words Away aims to bring writers together in a creative environment to explore the writing process. They hold monthly salons at the Tea House Theatre Cafe, in London and host creative writing retreats at Rathfinny Wine Estate, East Sussex. Through their Salons they offer a focused exploration on a particular topic with a chance to exchange ideas and ask questions in a friendly setting.

Jacqui Lofthouse

Jacqui Lofthouse, this month’s guest at Words Away

Be inspired. Develop and nurture your craft. Meet other writers. Please join us, all welcome.

Book for the July Salon here

on the ‘Words Away’ website

Click here

Tickets only £10

If you’re looking for other literary events in London, do take a look at our event at Waterstones, Gower Street on Wednesday 12th July: Literary Fiction, a panel discussion where Jacqui Lofthouse will be interviewing authors Roopa Farooki, Miranda Gold, Alice Jolly, Clare Morgan and Charles Palliser.

Literary Fiction – a panel discussion at Waterstones

by Filed Under: Authors, Books, Community, Events, Inspiration, Motivation, Networking, Reading, The writing coach, Writers Leave a Comment

Join us on Wednesday 12th July 2017

A panel discussion chaired by Writing Coach founder Jacqui Lofthouse on the subject of Literary Fiction at Waterstones Gower Street

Is literary fiction the antidote we need in the modern world? Redundant or more vital than ever?

We’d love to see you at this panel event, where Writing Coach founder, novelist Jacqui Lofthouse will be interviewing a number of prominent literary authors about the role of literary fiction in the contemporary publishing world.

Our panel features Charles Palliser  whose novel The Quincunx sold over a million copies worldwide, Clare Morgan, author of A Book for All and None, who is director of the MSt Creative Writing at Oxford University, Alice Jolly whose memoir Dead Babies and Seaside Towns won the PEN Ackerley Prize for memoir in 2016, Roopa Farooki, listed three times for the Orange/Baileys prize, her latest novel is The Good Children and Miranda Gold, debut literary author of Starlings – whose essay Reading as Alchemy – first published on this site – gives the event its name.

Alice Jolly and Roopa Farooki both also teach on the MSt Creative Writing at Oxford University and we’re delighted to have this link with the MSt.

Book here

via the Waterstones website for ‘Reading as Alchemy’

Literary Fiction Panel Event

Tickets only £6

Join Writing Coach Founder Jacqui Lofthouse this evening, chairing a discussion with novelists Roopa Farooki, Miranda Gold, Alice Jolly, Clare Morgan and Charles Palliser  – to explore ideas about literary fiction. How important is literary fiction today? What is its role? Is it valued? What does the term mean to each individual writer?

Literary fiction, at its best, taps in to poetry’s magic to release significance that goes beyond dictionary definitions. As Virginia Woolf said, “Words don’t live in dictionaries, they live in the mind.” They live in the body too and literary fiction can unlock some of their visceral qualities through rhythm and internal resonances.

Book here

via the Waterstones website for ‘Reading as Alchemy’

Literary Fiction Panel Event

Tickets only £6

Our venue:

literary fiction

On 12th July, our venue is one of London’s most iconic and best-known bookshops, known for its immense academic range alongside a wealth of new and used books on every imaginable subject.

Waterstones Gower Street is Europe’s largest academic/specialist range bookshop. Located in the heart of Bloomsbury, the Grade II listed building was designed by Charles Fitzroy Doll in 1908. The first bookshop on the site was the original Dillon’s, opened by Una Dillon herself in a small area of the ground floor in 1956.

About the panel:

 

literary fiction

Jacqui Lofthouse, chairing the discussion, is Founder of The Writing Coach. In 1992 she studied for her MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia under Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain. She is the author of four novels, The Temple of Hymen, Hamish Hamilton/Penguin 1995/1996, Bluethroat Morning, Bloomsbury 2000, Een Stille Verdwijning, De Bezige Bij 2005 and The Modigliani Girl. Her novels have sold over 100,000 copies in the UK, the USA and Europe. She has taught creative writing in a broad variety of settings including at City University, the Cheltenham Festival, for Artemisia holidays in Tuscany, at Richmond Adult and Community College, and at Feltham Young Offenders Institution. She is also the Founder of the small publishing imprint Nightingale Editions.

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literary fiction

Roopa Farooki has published six novels with Headline and Macmillan, which have been listed for the Orange/Baileys Prize three times and translated into 13 languages. Her last novel, The Good Children, was named “outstanding novel of the year” by the Daily Mail. She teaches on the Masters in Creative Writing at Oxford University and lives with her husband and four young children. She was awarded the John C Laurence from the Authors’ Foundation for writing which improves understanding between races. She is currently studying Medicine at St George’s University of London.

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Clare Morgan is an author, academic and literary critic, and founder and director of Oxford University’s M.St. in Creative Writing. Her most recent novel A Book for All and None (Weidenfeld and Nicholson), was shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best Novel award, and was described as ‘a spell-binding, effortlessly propulsive unity’ by the Independent; ‘written with eloquence and artistry’ by the Mail on Sunday; and ‘too tantalizing to resist’ by Time Out. She has published a collection of stories, An Affair of the Heart, and her short fiction been widely anthologized, and commissioned and broadcast by BBC Radio 4. Clare gained her M.Phil. and D.Phil. from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and an M.A. in Creative Writing from University of East Anglia, where she worked with Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain. She is former Chair of the Literature Bursaries Panel of the Arts Council of Wales, and Literary Mentor for Southern Arts and Literature Wales.   She has been engaged as a literary assessor for publications funded by the Welsh Books Council and is now an Academician for the Folio Academy.

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Alice Jolly is a novelist and playwright. She has published two novels with Simon and Schuster and has been commissioned four times by the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham. She has also written for Paines Plough and her work has been performed at The Tristan Bates Theatre in Covent Garden and The Space, East London. Her memoir Dead Babies and Seaside Towns was published by Unbound in July 2015 and won the Pen/Ackerley Prize. In 2014 one of her short stories won The Royal Society of Literature’s V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize. She teaches creative writing on the Mst at Oxford University.

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Miranda Gold

Miranda Gold is a writer currently based in London. Before turning her focus to fiction, Miranda took the Soho Theatre Course for young writers, where her play, Lucky Deck, was selected for development and performance. Her first novel Starlings was published by Karnac this year. She is now working on her second novel, A Small Dark Quiet.

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Charles Palliser‘s work has been hailed as “so compulsively absorbing that reality disappears” (New York Times). Since his extraordinary debut, The Quincunx, his works have sold over one million copies worldwide. With his new novel, Rustication, he returns to the town of Thurchester, which he evoked so hauntingly in The Unburied.

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Book here

via the Waterstones website for ‘Reading as Alchemy’

Literary Fiction Panel Event

Tickets only £6

Our Founder at The People’s Book Prize

by Filed Under: Authors, Books, Competitions, Events, Inspiration, Modiglini, Motivation, Publishing, The writing coach, Writers 2 Comments

We are delighted to announce that our Founder Jacqui Lofthouse was shortlisted in The People’s Book Prize for her novel The Modigliani Girl. Jacqui attended the prize-giving ceremony at The Stationer’s Hall, the original home of copyright, on the evening of Tuesday 23rd May.

People's Book Prize

Jacqui Lofthouse with her shortlisted novel ‘The Modigliani Girl’

People's Book Prize

Frederick Forsyth announces the winner of The People’s Book Prize

Watch the prize-giving ceremony including Frederick Forsyth’s speech here:

Jacqui writes:

It was such an honour to be shortlisted for this fantastic award, whose founding patron was Beryl Bainbridge and especially to attend with my wonderful publisher Stephanie Zia at Blackbird Books and fellow Blackbird author S.E. Lynes, author of Valentina. I am so grateful to every single person who read the book and voted for me. It was also a pleasure to meet so many other authors, agents and publishers. I particularly enjoyed meeting Avril Joy, author of Sometimes a River Song, who won a special ‘best achievement’ award, agent and publisher David Haviland, Louise Moir, author of Irreplaceable, author Catryn Power whose short stories were also shortlisted, Susan Mears, literary agent and author RJ Mitchell.

People's Book Prize

S E Lynes, Jacqui Lofthouse and Stephanie Zia

 

The fiction prize was won by Paula Wynne for The Grotto’s Secret – I’m very much looking forward to reading her novel. All prize-winners are listed here.

The People’s Book Prize is particularly known for championing independent publishers. At the launch of the prize, Beryl Bainbridge said:

Something like this, this idea – which is absolutely amazing – once it takes off, it will be of enormous importance to writers. I look forward to the time when we mention this particular prize as the greatest – and look back – and remember I was at the meeting at the London Book Fair and think where it has gone! So I wish it tremendously good luck.

Life imitating Art: The People’s Book Prize

by Filed Under: Books, Events, Inspiration, Marketing, Modiglini, Motivation, Publishing, The writing coach, The writing life, Writers Leave a Comment

Lately I feel as if I’m living in a hall of mirrors. All around me are reflections of my own imaginings – layer upon layer of slightly distorted repetitions – and I’m still trying very hard to get my head around it. The thing is: my life is imitating my art – in a very peculiar way.

Jeanne Hébuterne by Amedeo Modigliani

On Tuesday 23rd May, I’ll be heading to Stationer’s Hall, London as a finalist in the Fiction category of The People’s Book Prize for my novel The Modigliani Girl .

People's Book Prize

A satire about the vagaries of the literary world

But here’s the thing: the novel is a satire about the vagaries of the literary world. The heroine of the novel is writing a novel called The Modigliani Girl and she takes part in a televised literary competition. The prize in the novel is awarded solely on the basis of viewer votes. So here I am, about to take part in a mainstream literary competition The People’s Book Prize (last year it was filmed for Sky News) where, wait for it, the prize is awarded solely on the basis of public votes (readers have until Sunday 21st May to vote here.)

As I head to Stationer’s Hall for The People’s Book Prize ceremony on Tuesday evening, I’ll doubtless be wearing a rather posh frock. Here’s how such a prize-giving scene is imagined in my novel:

I must smile, only smile, get through it. Make sense of it later. Nobody out there can see quite how much I despise myself for being here. You’ve sold out, Anna Bright. Very soon you’ll be a public commodity with the artistic integrity of an ant. I can see the VT running, on the other side of the podium revealing highlights of the show to come. It’s showing all the usual images of me, at the many parties I’ve recently attended, leaning towards various publishing types, apparently engrossed in conversation. Again that sound: applause. But for what? How many of those who logged onto the website actually got past the pictures, soundbites and logos plastered everywhere and actually read our work? I think they are just voting for the dresses.

The heart of the story

I urge you, of course, not to vote only for the frock (I haven’t bought it yet, that’s tomorrow’s job). I hope, if you’ve read and enjoyed the novel, you will know how it explores the contrast between genuine artistic intent and the modern world of self-improvement, self-marketing and mainstream publishing.  At the heart of the book is the story of Modigliani’s muse and mother of his child, Jeanne Hébuterne. Hébuterne, aged 21 and pregnant with Modigliani’s child, committed suicide after his death by jumping from a high window.

People's Book Prize

Jeanne Hébuterne

Here’s an extract from the novel where Anna imagines Hébuterne’s reaction to her appearance in the literary competition.

This is it, Anna Bright. Sadly I don’t believe my own PR. It’s your time. What does it matter how you got here and what you feel inside? When you put on that dress, you can do exactly what she says: walk onto the stage and work the audience. You can become Fahy and Brown’s next big thing.

But even as I say these words, I am thinking of a girl standing before a high window in Paris. I can’t get her out of my mind. She has lost the only thing that matters to her and she is gazing down at the pavement far beneath, wondering if she will do it, whether the act she is about to commit is one of bravery or one of cowardice. And what would she make of me, that girl? You ar a liar and a thief.

Vote for The Modigliani Girl

Open until Sunday 21st May

Vote

Beryl Bainbridge in the mirror: Founding Patron

One of the things that I love about The People’s Book Prize is the fact that the Founding Patron was Beryl Bainbridge. A long time ago, when my novel Bluethroat Morning was published, I was invited to speak on stage with Beryl Bainbridge at a reading for Amnesty International. I met Ms Bainbridge in the cafe beforehand and of course, as a young writer, I was so in awe of her, but she put me at my ease and we shared a cigarette . On stage, I read an extract from my novel and afterwards, Beryl whispered in my ear ‘very good’. I have never forgotten that early encouragement and that incident appears in fictionalised form in The Modigliani Girl. 

James Loftus and Jacqui Lofthouse – reflection on the coaching world

I’m a great fan of Paul Auster and a couple of the things I admire about his books are his insistence on the power of coincidence and also the self-referential nature of his work. So it was that with a nod to Auster (who uses his own name in his fiction) I created James Loftus, the slippery literary guru of my novel. At the time when I wrote The Modigliani Girl, I was struggling with the idea of myself as a coach and feared the idea of the persona created by this very website, the idea that I might be setting myself up as some kind of guru – the last thing I would ever want. So what did I do? I sent myself up in the persona of the ghastly Loftus – a man whose only artistic creation is a book about how to write called How to be a Literary Genius, a man who runs writing retreats in Greece solely for profit, a trickster and a fraud. Perhaps it was only by creating Loftus that I was able to declare to myself what I never wanted to become.

The People’s Book Prize

People's Book Prize

So how do I feel now that I am asking readers of my novel to vote for The Modigliani Girl? Now that I face the mirror and it reflects my own world back at me? Does my reflection mock me? Do I feel as my heroine Anna Bright did? I was discussing the prize with writer friends this week and one of them said ‘all prizes are like this; the winners are chosen by others; any judging process is fraught with difficulty.’ And I remember too that my heroine Anna Bright is full of ambiguity about the process. I take part, as she does, because in the end, I want people to read my books, I want to say something about the literary world, I want to write about the nature of art – and I want to entertain the reader and make people laugh.

So what better prize, in the end, than The People’s Book Prize. Yes, there is irony here in the layers of repetitions, in the way I prefigured this in the competition in my novel The Lit Factor . But I remember too the spirit in which the prize was founded and Beryl Bainbridge’s words at the launch of the prize:

Something like this, this idea – which is absolutely amazing – once it takes off, it will be of enormous importance to writers. I look forward to the time when we mention this particular prize as the greatest – and look back – and remember I was at the meeting at the London Book Fair and think where it has gone! So I wish it tremendously good luck.

You can read more about the evolution of The Modigliani Girl in my post about writing the novel here.

Good luck to all the shortlisted writers, especially my fellow Blackbird author S E Lynes with Valentina. We will be supporting one another on the night. What matters, in the end, is always the work itself.

Vote for The Modigliani Girl

Open until Sunday 21st May

Vote

Hidden Stories: the story behind the story

by Filed Under: Authors, Books, Character, Guest post, Inspiration, Writers Leave a Comment

We are delighted to announce the publication of The Belfast Girl by former Writing Coach Client Caroline Doherty de Novoa. Caroline writes this guest post about hidden stories to celebrate her publication.

Hidden stories, The Belfast Girl, Caroline Doherty de Novoa, Story

The Belfast Girl by Caroline Doherty de Novoa

A lesson in journalism

Nora Ephron’s high school journalism teacher once set the class an assignment to write an article for the student newspaper, about an all day conference all faculty members were attending the following Thursday. Nora went away, interviewed the teachers, found out all the relevant facts about the conference: the times, the topics, the speakers. She wrote it up, taking care over every sentence, making sure it was well structured and clear. And she handed it in feeling quietly confident.

The following Monday, the teacher gave back the papers. Or threw them back to be more precise. Nora, the over-achieving straight-A student was horrified when the teacher, a look of disgust on his face, dumped her paper on the desk in front of her with a big red C minus scrawled across it.

The teacher walked to the front of the room and started writing something up on the board. Here is the real story:

‘Time to celebrate: there’s no class on Thursday.’

I know it was a lesson in journalism. But I think about it a lot when I’m sitting down to write a short story, a novel or, in my latest adventure, a play.

Caroliine Doherty de Novoa

Caroline Doherty de Novoa

The unseen story

Where is the unseen story that’s crouched around the edges of the obvious , perhaps only just visible in your peripheral vision, perhaps only discoverable if you lift up the obvious, take a look underneath it, or turn it around and look at it from a different angle?

I recently read Chimerica, the play by Lucy Kirkwood about ‘Tank Man’. You may not immediately recognise him by his nickname but you’ve probably seen a photo of him. Black trousers, a simple white shirt, hands at his sides holding large shopping bags, a large tank advancing towards him.

Tank Man is the nickname of the man who stood in front of a Chinese army tank on the morning of 5th June 1989—the day after the Tiananmen Square Massacre. As the tank manoeuvred to bypass him, Tank Man repeatedly put himself in front of the tank’s path, obstructing its march forward.

Chimerica by Lucy Kirkwood

Tank Man appears on the cover of Chimerica. And you’d be forgiven for thinking the play is about him. His story must be interesting, right?

The play opens at the exact moment Tank Man is staring down the tank. But the first scene isn’t set in the square. It’s in a hotel room. There’s a US photographer leaning out the window taking that famous picture. And you soon realise there is another story there beyond the one that’s immediately apparent—the story of the man behind the camera.

Later in the play, as we follow the photographer in his search for Tank Man, the man who made him famous, we realise there is, actually, a third man whose story is just as fascinating, just as important. He isn’t Tank Man. He isn’t the photographer. But the risks he took were just as great. And he’s been there, right in front of us, all along. If only we’d known how to really look—how to see the story lingering in the shadows.

Hidden stories

I’ve been thinking a lot about those hidden stories recently, ever since I published my second novel last month and started talking to people about it.

People ask, ‘what’s it about?’

‘Motherhood,’ I’ll explain, ‘the book opens in a Belfast hotel room in 1993—a couple in their late-thirties are buying a baby from a younger couple.’ And then I’ll get that look. Sometimes, I even get that question. It comes in a variety of forms:

‘Are you getting broody?’

‘Will we hear the pitter patter of tiny feet soon?’

Or, my favourite: ‘Are you guys thinking of having a family?’ (As if my husband, my parents, my sister and her kids, my many wonderful aunts, uncles and cousins I’m blessed with don’t really count.)

You see I’m a woman in my late-thirties, happily married and childless. People see me, they hear the premise for the book, and they automatically think they know what I want, they think they get my story.

They don’t stop to think about what’s going on at the periphery of that opening scene in the hotel—in the room and outside of it—about all the strands flowing from the same event, all the alternative ways of looking. Who can blame them? We so rarely do look beyond the obvious. I often don’t. Which is why, to remind me, I have a post-it note stuck next to my writing desk with the words ‘Time to celebrate: there’s no class on Thursday.’

When people ask about the note, I say, ‘Let me tell you a story. In fact, let me tell you three.’

Caroline Doherty de Novoa’s second novel, The Belfast Girl is out now. Her other work includes Dancing with Statues, a novel set in Ireland and Colombia, and the anthology of creative non-fiction Was Gabo an Irishman? Tales from Gabriel García Márquez’s Colombia, which she co-authored and edited.

To learn more about Caroline’s writing please visit www.carolinedohertydenovoa.com or find her on twitter @carolinedenovoa

You can read about Caroline’s work with The Writing Coach here.

 

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