My books are not autobiographical…
Sometimes when you’re reading a book, it’s tempting to think that the characters on the page are expressing the same opinions as those of the author. Except they aren’t - otherwise all my characters would be identical and that would make for a rubbish story.
Non Pratt
…and yet they also are!
While I mostly just make stuff up, I also steal from real life – very frequently my own. If you’ve known me for a long time, there are tiny little flashes of real-life references littered throughout. In Second Best Friend, Jade experiences a lot of the same things that I have (someone complimenting your best friend on their necklace, when you’ve worn it a million times and no one has ever said anything), all of which brings her insecurities to the surface. The difference is, I reacted very differently in real life to how Jade acts in the book.
My favourite words are ‘globule’, ‘kitchen’ and ‘bellicose’.
I do not like the word ‘nipple’.
If someone asks me what my favourite colour is, I have to ask them to be more specific.
Do you mean to write with? (Turquoise) To paint my walls? (Ultramarine… but not on all of them) To wear? (Maroon) On a book cover? (Dark purple, which is very convenient this time round) The list goes on. And then I say, “Actually, it’s fluorescent orange. For everything.”
When I write, I am writing for the fourteen-year-old version of myself that really craved books about teenagers who were doing all the really exciting things that she couldn’t.
She would definitely fancy Nick, the flirtation interest in Second Best Friend. Actually she’d fancy all the love interests in all the books. She wasn’t very fussy.
My favourite mug says ‘Writer Girl’ on it and I won’t let anyone else use it.
Not even other writers.
Although I write in the real world, I like to read in another.
My favourite authors all write something with a little ‘otherness’ to the setting – Frances Hardinge, Patrick Ness, Jonathan Stroud. I’d quite like to write something like that one day.
My typing happens at the computer.
On a very modern sit/stand desk, but my planning happens at a beautiful wooden desk that once belonged to my grandad.
I really like horses.
Love them. When I was little horses were the only animals I ever drew and they featured in everything I wrote. I’m a bit sad that they don’t any more.
I’m a thief.
Sort of. Whenever anyone asks me to sign a book to them, I go home and write it in my Notebook of Names so that when I’m looking for names for characters in my books, I have a list there ready and waiting…
