Novelicious Chats To...Belinda Jones

This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.

Belinda Jones is the bestselling author of many awesome books including our personal favourites Divas Las Vegas and I Love Capri. The latest is Winter Wonderland and it's out now. We're so excited to have Belinda on the site!

1. Can you tell us a little about your average writing day?

There’s very little method in my madness! I’d write around the clock if I could. A few years ago I used to wake up, pull my laptop onto the bed and write til 3am but now I have a husband that gets up at 4am for work those days are gone! I try and psyche myself up for whichever scene I'm writing while I walk the dog in the morning. It usually begins with the dialogue so I amble around having imaginary conversations, learning the lines and then typing them up when I get home. I've avoided social media until WINTER WONDERLAND and now that's a shocking distraction. All too enjoyable and engrossing. I like writing best when I have several days to get thoroughly immersed and I always think night-time is best because, while everyone else is sleeping, your imagination can really come out to play!!

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2. When you are writing, do you use any celebrities or people you know as inspiration?

The majority of my characters are conjured from the ether but it can be extremely helpful to have a precise visual or personality type in mind. The dog-sledding champion Jacques in WINTER WONDERLAND was entirely modelled on Nick Wechsler who plays bar-owner Jack in the TV show Revenge. I saw this picture of him wearing a pale blue check shirt with this dreamy-distant look in his eyes and he looked the perfect combination of outdoorsy rugged and cosy. And I have a character in my next book – THE TRAVELLING TEA SHOP – who is a woman in her 80s and whenever I write her dialogue I picture Maggie Smith delivering the lines! (Slight tangent but for those of you who enjoy her in Downton Abbey, try and see her turn with Michael Caine in California Suite, it’s just genius.)

3. What is your favourite Women’s Fiction book of all time and why?

I loved RACHEL'S HOLIDAY by Marian Keyes. Until that point I’d read almost exclusively movie star biographies and travel literature but this book grabbed me from the first line: ‘They said I was a drug addict.’ Not your typical chick lit! A first-person account of rehab! This may be a tie with MISADVENTURES IN THE 213 by Dennis Hensley. I adored this LA-set story of loopy Tinseltown wannabes, rang so true! I actually met the author unexpectedly at a lunch with my friend Matt Mueller (former editor of Total Film magazine.) This guy joined us and when Matt said his name my jaw dropped and I said, 'You didn't write Misadventures in the 213?' And he said yes and carried on talking to Matt. I don't think I said a word the whole time, just stared at him, trying to peer into his brain where all these amazing characters lived!!

4. What is your writing process? Do you plan first of dive in? How many drafts do you do?

I’m a dive-in kinda gal! Once I’ve got a concept and done my research on the destination, I mostly rely on the characters to tell me the story! I always think ‘next time’ I’ll write sequentially and smoothly and it’ll feel all neat and ordered but it never happens. I write whichever scene I’m in the mood for, the dialogue leads the way and I go back and polish all the scenic descriptions because one little paragraph might take me a couple of days, as ridiculous as that sounds.

5. What was your journey to being a published author?

I was a magazine journalist (for more!, New Woman, Empire etc) for ten years before I wrote DIVAS LAS VEGAS. My original pitch was for ON THE ROAD TO MR RIGHT but my agent was insistent about me trying Chick Lit so I gave it a whirl and after three novels Random House/Arrow gave in and let me publish MR RIGHT. It made the Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller list in the non-fiction chart alongside my hero Bill Bryson so that was a massive thrill! You certainly have to be patient in publishing – it's not a game of instant gratification!!

6. What do you think is the biggest myth about being a novelist?

That it’s a relaxing way to earn a living! And that you sit beaming at the words you’ve written while sipping at a steaming mug of tea! It’s not that way for me, anyway! I basically feel in an anxious tangle for the majority of the year. It’s like combing knots out of your hair month after month! Of course the research element to my book is an absolute dream so I suppose it's a form of payback!! The other myth is probably to do with the money – I remember doing a signing at a WHSmith in Wiltshire when I was starting out and my Dad was with me and one of the staff said, 'Wow, you actually wrote this book? You must be a millionaire!' And my Dad just burst out laughing and chipped in, 'She's no JK Rowling!'

7. What advice can you give to our readers who want to write a novel of their own?

You have to be prepared to be in this for the long haul! It's easy to get excited about writing the first few chapters and then get impatient to see your work with a sparkly cover but the secret is in the sustaining! As I've hinted, I'm not the most methodical, ordered human being and I would actual advise writing whatever scene you are in the mood for as opposed to slogging away in a linear fashion. As long as you are writing something, it doesn't need to be precisely in sequence. This can lead to a fair bit of revising and tweaking later but it's better than getting stuck and thinking this just isn't for you! I've lost count of the times that I have thought, 'I should probably give up writing and work in a doggie daycare.' But I'm on book 12 now. You can push through! Keep going, kiddo!

8. What are you working on at the moment?

I’ve got two projects on the go: the first – THE TRAVELLING TEA SHOP – is a cake-themed caper around New England that involves a group of women trading recipes for British classics like Victoria Sponge and Battenburg for American treats like Red Velvet Cake and Boston Cream Pie, all on location where the cake originated! I even went to the remote wilds of Maine to learn more about Whoopie Pie, because how can you resist a line about 'making whoopie'?! That will be published September 2013. Provided I get a move on writing it! The second – BODIE ON THE ROAD – is a dog-themed road trip from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon. It's a heart-warmer with quirky pit-stops, including a small town outside San Francisco where a dog was elected mayor! They even have an animatronic replica of the Rottweiler mix behind the local bar – lift his back leg and he pees beer! Only in America, right?!

Thanks, Belinda!