While I’ve set my books in lots of different places, I live in rural Australia. I live in a beautiful, peaceful place, but for me, a big part of the joy of writing is imagining my characters’ lives in other countries or cities. Varying my settings is also a great excuse to travel so I can research!
The Things We Cannot Say
I told my dad I wanted to be an author way back when I was in kindergarten. My childhood was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with stories. I devoured the Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew series’, re and re-read the Narnia series, collected every Roald Dahl book I could get my hands on…and became quite obsessed with Johanna Spiri’s Heidi. Creative writing became my most beloved hobby as a child, and I continued writing just as a fun creative outlet for myself, right up until my first book was published when I was in my early-thirties.
Inspiration is everywhere. I’m never short of ideas, but identifying the good ideas is a whole other challenge! I’ve had entire books pop into my head in one crazy rush, but generally a single concept emerges from the soup of possible ideas in my mind and then niggles at me. That basic idea is often vague, but once I settle on it, I think about it constantly and the story emerges bit by bit until I have the detail down.
My writing process is messy. I plot obsessively – before I write a word I know how the entire story unfolds. But from there, things get chaotic! Some days I’ll type thousands and thousands of words in a flurry, other days I’ll dictate for hours, other days still I’ll do not much more than think and daydream as I potter around the house. Despite my careful plotting, the way I write is inefficient – my early drafts are generally far too long, so I end up with thousands of words cut out! But through all of that unpredictability, I somehow wind up with a dreadful first draft that I can spend months polishing.
I love to write in all kinds of places. Be it cafes, my local library, my kitchen or office, or even my car while I wait for the kids’ at school! Sometimes I crave silence so I’ll hide out at home, other times I need to be around hustle and bustle so I’ll head out to write somewhere public (even if I do pop in my headphones and listen to music while I’m there!).
I work on two completely different books at the same time. Some of my writer friends think I’m crazy for adopting this habit. But writing one historical or women’s fiction novel and a genre romance really suits my process. If I get stuck on a scene, I’ll switch to my “other” book. Writing in two genres is my failsafe cure for writers’ block.
I love what I do. Even when I’m not writing, I’m often thinking about my stories. My characters come to feel like beloved friends. I feel incredibly lucky that I get to call my very favourite hobby my job!