It Takes A Lot More Than One Person To Write A Book Anne Cassidy

I often say to people that one of the drawbacks of being a writer is the isolation. Essentially I make an agreement to write a book for a publisher and then for six months I am on my own in front of the computer. I am currently working on a book called MOTH GIRLS for Hot key Books. It’s going well and I am close to finishing it. But the last six or so months while I’ve been writing it has been me ALONE  facing the screen placing one word after another on the page breathing life into characters and making bad things happen.

Or so I thought…..

It occurs to me that many other people are involved when I write a book. 

Here are the ones I can think of.

Other writers: I read constantly, a book a week perhaps. In six months that’s 26 books.  26 other writers have contributed to the stuff in my head and my emotional state while I’m writing this book.

Writers who I know: people I talk to on the phone, have lunch with, email frequently. These are people who I try out ideas on.

My agent: she was the first one to hear the idea for MOTH GIRLS and she didn’t roll her eyes.

My editor: She listens with enthusiasm. Sometimes she demands too much story from me (I hate to give away secrets) but the talking about the planned book firms up ideas.

My husband: I talk to him about books, movies, box sets. We talk ‘stories’ a lot. He deals with low periods when it’s all going wrong and he waits (I like to think impatiently) to be the first reader.

My mum: I tell the stories of all my books to my mum who listens avidly.

My son: who gave me a cracking idea to use in MOTH GIRLS.

Fans who send emails: I read the things they say about my books and it reinforces what I do or it make me reassess what I do.

Reviewers and Bloggers: I take seriously the views of these people and shape my work accordingly (note to Kirkus – not more ‘awkward exposition’ from me!)

Students who I teach from time to time: I love teaching creative writing because it really makes me think about how a story is put together, what makes it work well. In order to teach them I have to work it out in my head. And the things they say teach me too.

People I see on trains and tubes: I watch their mannerisms and listen to the way they talk to each other. I try to imagine their lives and their problems. Some of them appear in my books.

School Students: I visit schools while writing my books and the students ask revealing questions and make interesting suggestions and ask me to use their name  in one of my books (sometimes I do).

So, maybe being a writer isn’t such an ‘isolated’ thing after all.

Back to MOTH GIRLS……………

That Delicate Thing Called Confidence by Ellen Renner

I knew I shouldn't do it, but I couldn't resist. 


I don't know if I'm unusual in this respect, but I tend to avoid reading fiction when writing a first draft. Partly, I don't want to be influenced by someone else's voice or ideas, swept away into someone else's world when I need to be thinking about mine. Building a story,  breathing life into a concept and creating characters, is a treacherous process, hemmed round with dangers and pitfalls. One mis-step and a shiny idea you've cherished for months or years can turn sullen and lifeless.


Also, I already have a problem with displacement activities. I don't need the seductiveness of story to provide me with yet another excuse to avoid bum on chair/fingers on keyboard/brain switched on. (The last being by far the hardest.) And because proper thinking - really digging deep - is hard work, I find that confidence (or the lack of it) makes all the difference.


So confronting someone else's utter brilliance while struggling through the thicket of angst that is my typical first draft isn't something I find helpful. But Oxford University Press had kindly arranged for me to appear at the 2012 Hay Festival earlier this month to promote CHARMED SUMMER, the first book in a series for 8-12 girls. I spent last year writing four books about friendship and mystery on a summer island. It's been a total delight working with the team at OUP and with Working Partners on the Flip Flop Club concept. I've enjoyed the collaboration, learned a great deal, and am very proud to have been involved. The books are lovingly produced by OUP and, as I'm sole author, I'm promoting them under the psuedonym Ellen Richardson, to keep them distinct from my own books.

So here I was at Hay for the first time in my life, rather in awe and very impressed. The festival was extremely well organised and they certainly look after the 'artists' beautifully. Even the porta-loos are posh! So impressive was the whole event that I found myself surprised the weather had the temerity to rain, although monsoon might be a better description. However, on the last Saturday the rain stopped and the sun almost shone. Better yet, directly following my session, I and my son were able to trundle off to hear Philip Reeve talk about his new book, GOBLINS. Which is, of course, brilliant. As was the session. I knew it would be. I shouldn't have gone but I couldn't resist.


All indulgences must be paid for in this life it seems, and I began paying the price at once. With each delightful, clever and elegantly written extract that Mr Reeve read out, a niggling little voice in the back of my head grew louder: 'You will NEVER be able to write anything half so good. Why try? Give up now.'


I think all writers, perhaps even Mr Reeve himself, have a similar goblin inhabiting the darkest recesses of their minds. One with a nasty, whining voice which takes considerable determination (or sheer stupidity?) to ignore. I tend to avoid circumstances likely to wake mine. I've been waiting ages to read FEVER CRUMB. I'm desperate to read it. I opened the book to the first page a year ago, devoured the words on it, snapped the book shut and put it carefully away. I won't open it again until my own current project has safely made the journey to that lovely, comfortable place known as editing.


My new thing is TRIBUTE, to be published by Hot Key Books in 2013. It's a young adult fantasy. It's ambitious and big and scary and I'm right in the sticky middle of the first draft. Still floundering; still finding my feet. And it's going well. I'm excited - when I let myself be - because I know it's the best thing I've yet written. But will it be good enough? Not if I listen to my own inner goblin. I couldn't write for nearly a week upon returning from Hay, but I'm not sorry I went to hear Philip Reeve. I thoroughly enjoyed his talk and will buy the book. But I won't read it. Not just yet.

So, a question to those writers brave enough to answer. Do you have your own little goblin? Do you read other writers when writing a first draft? Or like me, do you avoid?