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The French House
Inspiration
The tiniest historical detail, like the fact that tape measures were made from silk in the 18th century, can spark an idea for a whole chapter. In the case of The French House, I have a scene where my heroine is measuring her vineyards and as the silky tape is wound in through her fingers, she comes face to face with her future husband, who is holding the other end.
But don’t always wait for inspiration – you’ll never finish!
There’s always a reason why not. Not the right chair or desk. When you’ve got that sorted, it’s not in the right place. Or you’re just not feeling it. You can’t, you won’t, you need some air around it. As someone with a day job and a family I could go on with a long list! Ultimately, whatever the barriers, if you don’t just sit down and write, you’ll never have a book. A quote from author Tom Wolfe summed it up for me and I often recite it to myself,
“(W)hat I write when I force myself is generally just as good as what I write when I'm feeling inspired. It's mainly a matter of forcing yourself to write.”
Writing on trains
There’s something about it. Sitting by the window, laptop propped up, the world whizzing by and a new destination to look forward to I love writing on trains. It’s the feeling of freedom, anonymity and possibilities. One of my favourite train journeys ever was the night train from Nice to Tuscany, hugging the Mediterranean coast, strings of lights stretching out to sea, then passing over the border into Italy and stopping through the night at little stations I’d never heard of. I shared a sleeper car with a family who sang opera songs to entertain us all, then in the morning we bought double espressos through the train window from a vendor with a handcart. It was one June a long time ago, and when I arrived in Tuscany, the vineyards lit up with fireflies at night. The whole thing was magical.
Cafes
I wouldn’t have written a book if it wasn’t for cafés. Every morning before work I’d walk the dog to a café (one job ticked off), write for an hour, walk home again, leave the dog and drive to work for the day. To me, it’s really important to revisit a book I’m writing every day if I can, or it takes too long to get back into it when I do have the time to sit down. If you’re time-poor it’s good to keep it in your head every day and some of it will just happen around the edges.
Let it percolate
You have a germ of an idea, or you need to make something happen in the plot but don’t know how. Give it time. It can be difficult to let yourself have what seems like the luxury of time when you only have certain hours in the week when you can write, but it works wonders. Sleep on it and your subconscious will do the rest. Like music, I sometimes think that an idea is there in the ether for the taking. You just have to recognise it and do it justice.
Make it a beautiful thing
Despite Tom Wolfe, I do my best to make it lovely. Research trips are wonderful to make your writing as rich as possible. I also work with another writer who lives in France and we speak every week for encouragement and to feed back on each other’s writing. I’m a really sociable person, so even though writing is essentially a solitary pursuit, I find ways of making it as sociable as possible. The café I go to most mornings is full of regulars – freelancers, neighbours, creatives, mums, business people. We all know each other and start the morning with a smile and a chat, which makes my day.
The magic’s in the edit
I think of the first draft as the clay, then I re-write, hone, polish and re-write again. And that’s before it even gets to my editor. The manuscript can then go through three or four more iterations before publication. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but it’s worth it in the end.
Fight your detractors
Mine are mostly in my head! There’s a saying that you should do something every day that scares you. I do that most days, both in my day job and my writing life. It’s important to overcome your fears and prove to yourself that you can. And when you take risks and get through it, it’s exhilarating. Follow your heart - you can achieve a lot more than you think you can.
Enjoy the journey
I’m quite a driven person and I always have lots of ideas on the go. Life is often what happens when you’re making other plans and I’m trying to slow down and enjoy everything along the way. Like all great train journeys, it’s not always just about the destination.
My dog is an unwilling participant
Whilst she enjoys the walk, and the crumb-hoovering possibilities under the café tables, my Labrador, Echo, refuses any further involvement in my writing endeavours. At home I have this fantasy of a snoozing dog under my desk, with my feet cosily warming on her as I write. The reality is very different. She likes her own space, and only begrudgingly allows me to cuddle her when it’s time for her food.