This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
1. Can you tell us a little about your average writing day?
I’ve got two young children (3 and 5), so my average writing day is short. At the moment, I feel lucky; my son has started school, and my daughter goes to preschool 5 mornings a week, so every weekday morning I have two and a half hours of unadulterated bliss in which to write. But they go so very, very fast! Two cups of tea, a bit of clattering at my computer and they’ve gone! I then spend the rest of the day in a state of frustration – hoping I’ll get a quiet half hour in which to write some more, but never, ever finding it!
At about 5 o’clock, I’ll give up hoping, and resolve to write once the kids are in bed. But by the time they’re asleep, I’ve eaten, made tomorrows’ packed lunches and got everything ready for the next day, I’m practically dead on my feet! So I give up and wait for tomorrow’s brief hiatus of ecstasy before the inevitable frustration returns!
2. When you are writing, do you use any celebrities or people you know as inspiration?
I get inspired by bits of people. It could be anything; someone’s hair, their jewellery, their mannerisms, a phrase they say, a face they pull. The thought of using the whole of one person doesn’t work for me. I’d rather just take their flared nostril or outlandish shoes and use it to imagine the rest of what they might be like. Making things up is much more fun.
3. What is your favourite Women’s Fiction book of all time and why?
To me, ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ is still the best. When I first read Bridget Jones – as a hard-drinking, big pant-wearing, spectacularly unsuccessful singleton in my mid-twenties – it felt like the book had been written specifically for me and my friends! It was such a relief to know we weren’t the only Bridgets out there!
4. What is your writing process? Do you plan first of dive in? How many drafts do you do?
I’m a planner, but not a researcher.
I know who my main characters are before I start, and I will have an excel spread sheet listing all the chapters and what happens in each. I find that invaluable. Writing a novel is such a huge and complicated process that if I didn’t have every plot development listed out, I’d completely forget what I was supposed to write next.
But when it comes to research I’m lazy and I wing it.
5. What was your journey to being a published author?
I was really, really lucky (and my husband is a flirt).
Prior to writing, I used to work in PR – and the last PR job I did was for a book award ceremony (The Melissa Nathan Award For Comedy Romance). My friend brought me in on the job specifically because she knew I’d always wanted to write, and she hoped this would be the kick I needed. And it was! I was one of a huge team of people who volunteered to read the submissions so the organisers could work out the shortlist. As I ploughed through dozens of rom-coms – some of which were excellent, and some of which weren’t – I thought to myself that it was now or never; I had to give it a try!
On the night of the Awards themselves we were short-handed, so my husband came along to help out. Half way through the evening I was stood at the back of the auditorium and noticed how he kept going to the bar and returning with two glasses of champagne, which he was steadily plying to an attractive blonde in a very short dress. I remember thinking ‘is this a pivotal moment in my marriage that I should really do something about?’ But I was too busy working to intervene. When I eventually made it over, I discovered that the blonde was a publisher and my husband had been bending her ear for over an hour about the book I was writing, insisting she give it a read. I almost died of embarrassment. But a few years later, the blonde is my very wonderful editor (and my husband is well and truly forgiven!).
6. What do you think is the biggest myth about being a novelist?
Well, I’m new to all this, so I’m not really sure! I’m hoping all the myths will be true!
7. What advice can you give to our readers who want to write a novel of their own?
There’s never the right time to start. If you wait for the perfect moment when you’re less busy/more inspired/I’m A Celeb is over, you’ll never do it. Just give it a go… and keep on giving it a go. Don’t be put off if what you’re writing seems rubbish. Keep writing. It will get better. Nobody’s good without practice.
8. What are you working on at the moment?
I’m trying to finish the last few chapters of my second novel… and it’s taking me forever! The novel is about a group of people who used to be famous but are now finding it hard to cope with life as regular civilians. It’s coming out next year.
More about Alice Brown's Lessons in the Curious Art of Dating