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Comment from the book world in August 2017

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August 2017

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Actor to writer

28 August 2017

‘To begin with, the novelist does not rely on someone to give them a job. They can pick up their pen, or add to a document, whenever they like. They can squeeze it around the day job, the nappy changes, the school day, the boiling of potatoes. There's no immediate pressure to "get it right" as there is with an audition. If a sentence or paragraph or chapter doesn't work, no one has to know. Best of all, the world they create belongs only to them. That is, of course, until the time comes to share; just as an audience can transform a theatrical evening, so a reader can take a book and make of it what they will.

For all of the ways the roles of actor and writer seemingly overlap, it strikes me they are as diametrically opposed as the two fish in the Piscean zodiac. However much an actor loves to research the world of the play, ultimately the time comes for them to think rather more specifically about their character. At this point, they have to become selfish about pursuing their character's persona. To be convincing, they need to sink deeply into the skin, the mannerisms, the psyche of another person. When they do that, their cares for the external universe necessarily shrink as awareness of their internal world increases. Not so the writer, for they may start with the smallest nugget and from that grow an entire planet. Their ideas expand and keep on expanding - the creation of every book is the Big Bang in miniature - forever spiralling outward, until deadlines, or word count, or reaching that magical (mythical?) satisfaction allows them to stop. Speaking of which...'

P K Lynch, author of just-published Wildest of All, in Bookbrunch

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'It either works out or not'

14 August 2017

‘The Woman in Black was my greatest piece of pure luck. I wrote it one summer when my daughter was five. I had childcare for five weeks so carved out time each morning, and wrote it very fast. I thought it was nothing special. It probably would have sunk had it not been picked up by BBC Radio 4's Storytime.

I wasn't involved in the film of The Woman in Black but I loved it all, and Daniel Radcliffe was superb. It is different from the book, but that's as it should be - no writer should expect an adaptation to slavishly stick to the letter...

When I begin a book, I think a lot, make a few notes, then start writing. I could never plot it out, chapter by chapter, as I'd go crazy with boredom. I don't know how creative writing students do so many drafts, I'd run screaming round the room, I usually do one draft, then tidy it up. It either works out or not. If not, I start something else.

Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black and many other books in The Sunday Telegraph's Stella. Her new book Jacob's Room is Full of Books, is out in October 2017. susanhill.org.uk/

'I want to entertain you'

7 August 2017

‘The basic challenge for the writer can be very simply explained - it is to create an imaginary world and then draw the reader into that imaginary world.

All novelists are trying to do that. Once we get there, different writers may have different concerns. Personally, I want to entertain you. I want you to be thrilled or moved to tears or scared and I definitely want you to be on the edge of your seat all the time, wondering what is going to happen next.

Ken Follett, author of The Kingsbridge Series and The Century Trilogy, latest novel Edge of Eternity, in the Introduction to his helpful online Masterclass