Amy Huberman is an Irish actress and author. Her second novel, I Wished For You, is released on Friday, and she was kind enough to answer some questions for us.
Can you tell us a little about your average writing day?
No matter how much I would love to
inject routine into my day and not live like a vampire, I always feel far more creative
at night and really enjoy writing when the world has gone quiet. My general goal is to write 2,000 words a day
which I’m quite good at sticking to but there have been some days I’ll have reached
‘7’ on the word count, and felt somewhat of an underachiever.
When you are writing, do you use any famous people or people you know as
inspiration?
No not really. I love the freedom of building your own characters
and letting them live and breath in a world you’ve created just for them. Of course you draw on the real world a bit to
make things relatable to people; but the joy in writing fiction is using your own
imagination!
What is your favourite Women’s Fiction book of all time and why?
I know it’s a classic, and perhaps
you could class it in Women’s Fiction too but I’ve always adored Wuthering Heights. It was the greatest love story I had ever read;
so visceral and engaging. It has left a lasting
imprint on me.
What is your writing process? Do you plan first or dive in? How many drafts
do you do?
I don’t really plan too far in advance. I might start out with a skeleton (of a human)
and end up with the skeleton or a rhinoceros. I thought I Wished For You was going to have an entirely different ending,
but as the characters developed and came
to life, I felt it organically needed to take another path. It’s good to have some sort of a plan, perhaps
chapter blocks of what you know you need to hit on, but for me I love the freedom
of this symbiotic little cycle I always end up in where the characters sort of lead
me to the story even though I’m the one writing it! Does that sound completely bonkers? Perhaps all these late nights are catching up
with me!
What was your journey to being a published author?
Well I was an actor before I was a
writer and I wrote in between jobs to keep busy and satisfy a creative hunger I
had when I wasn’t working. So I wrote my
first novel without anyone really knowing I was writing as I was almost sure it
would never get published. I sent it to my
publishers Penguin and they offered me a deal a few months later. Even when I say that now, I feel like I’m taking
about someone else! I still have to pinch
myself sometimes
What do you think is the biggest myth about being a novelist?
That you have to be a literary genius
with a PHD in English! Of which I’m sure
there are many. I on the other hand am still
winging it all somehow!
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m tinkering around with a few ideas at the moment!
What advice can you give to our readers who want to write a novel of their
own?
Stop convincing yourself of all the
reasons you should not write and why it would never work and just sit down and write.
Thanks, Amy!