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 walk the dog in the morning then get on with some writing, on a good day I will stick at it constantly barely stopping for meals. I almost always work again in the evening until the early hours of the morning.
2. When you are writing, do you use any celebrities or people you know as inspiration?
Never celebrities! I am appalled at the thought. I don't use people I know either because I'd feel they were looking over my shoulder.
3. What is your favourite Women’s Fiction book of all time and why?
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I love the epic scale of it with the Civil war, slavery and the North and South divide in America, but most of all I just adored the characters, they are all so memorable and believable.
4. What is your writing process? Do you plan first of dive in? How many drafts do you do?
I never plan, just dive in with an idea. I don't do drafts as such either, I edit as I go along so by the time it goes to my editor it’s all but ready for publication.
5. What was journey to being a published author?
A long stony path! I wrote three books before Georgia, my first to be published, I see those three attempts as my apprenticeship. Then it took 6 years for my agent to sell Georgia, in which time I wrote Tara and Camellia.
6. What do you think is the biggest myth about being a novelist?
That it is a glamorous life. Also people think it’s a get-rich-quick thing; the truth is most authors don't earn enough to live on.
7. What advice can you give to our readers who want to write a novel of their own?
Persistence. It’s my middle name. Like most worthwhile things you have to be prepared to put the hours in, not be precious about your work and take criticism on the chin. And be ready to dump a bad book and start again.
8. What are you working on at the moment?
A present day book: in a nutshell when my heroine's mother commits suicide she is left with mysteries to unravel.
Thanks Leslie
The Promise by Lesley Pearse is out now
Read our review of The Promise