This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Clare Dowling is a novelist and screenwriter based in Dublin. She answered a few of our questions recently ahead of the release of her 10th novel, A Special Delivery.
Where do you find inspiration for your books?
From everyday life, often. Sometimes I find myself in situations that spark an idea, or I hear a story that gets my imagination going. A brief episode of telephone stalking in my own life years ago was the starting point of Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, for instance. You have to keep your eyes and ears open for any little nugget that you might use somewhere down the line.
Can you tell us a little about your average writing day?
I’m a mum, so I try to keep my writing day to school hours, although it doesn’t always pan out that way! I have great intentions every morning of writing solidly for five hours, but I get easily distracted, so I tend to write in short bursts and take lots of breaks. I write for television too, which can be very deadline driven, so often I pick up at night after the kids have gone to bed. I don’t work into the small hours though, as I’m pretty useless if I don’t get my sleep!
When you are writing, do you use any famous people or people you know as inspiration?
Not often, but just recently my daughter was doing a school project on successful women and she chose Jessie J. While I was helping out with the research, I was really amazed by the challenges she’s had to overcome (she had a stroke at 18), and how down to earth she is for someone so successful. I’m writing a children’s book at the moment, and I keep her at the back of my mind as a really positive role model for young girls.
What is your favourite Women’s Fiction book of all time and why?That’s a hard one because there are so many. One that has stayed with me this year is Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You. She writes about a challenging subject so well, and with such warmth and humour. And gives us such a brave but satisfying ending too. She’s a great storyteller.
What female writer has inspired you?
Maeve Binchy. Growing up I read all of her books over and over again, not just because they’re such good stories, but being a country girl myself, I could identify with a lot of the small town mindset she often wrote about.
What is your writing process? Do you plan first or dive in? How many drafts do you do?
I don’t tend to plan very much. Instead, I agonise for months over the first few chapters of a book, wondering who all these characters are, and what on earth I’m going to find to say about them for a hundred thousand words. But once the initial panic subsides, and I get the first 10K written, I motor along. My first draft tends to be pretty solid – I have a touch of the obsessional – and I’d usually only do one draft after that.
What was your journey to being a published author?
I actually trained as an actress, and began writing plays as a way of creating parts for myself and other actors my age. I went on from there to become a fully-fledged playwright, which was lovely but didn’t pay very much. By then I had sneakily sent in three chapters of my first book to a publisher, but heard nothing for about six months. I was just about to throw it all in and get a day job as a technical writer when I got a call from the publishers saying they were interested. So the world was spared my attempts at penning software instruction manuals.
What do you think is the biggest myth about being a novelist?
That it’s very easy! I used to think the same myself, before I actually tried to write one. While it’s incredibly enjoyable and fulfilling, it’s also a little terrifying to look at that first blank page and realise that you’ve got to write an entire novel. An awful lot of work goes into a book, and that’s before you even think about the publicity and promotion side of things, and how you’re going to persuade readers that yours is the one they should buy.
What advice can you give to our readers who want to write a novel of their own?
Start it. Don’t worry about agents or publishers or whether your mother thinks you’re writing about her (she won’t recognise herself anyway!). Write a little bit every day and before you know it, you’ll have the first few chapters done, and it goes on from there. If you sit and think about it for too long, it can just seem overwhelming.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’ve just finished proofreading my new novel, A Special Delivery, which is due out in February. It’s about a big Dublin family, which has lots of messy secrets, but it’s all about to come out in the wash when something totally unexpected lands on their doorstep. I had a blast writing it. Next up is to finish my children’s book, which I’m really excited about. Thanks, Clare!