This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
British author Emylia Hall, whose second novel A Heart Bent Out of Shape was published last week. Emylia's debut, The Book of Summers, was a Richard & Judy pick last summer, and was voted the best of the summer reads by voters on the Richard & Judy website.
Can you tell us a little
about your average writing day?
I’m usually at my desk by 9am. I tend to do my ‘new’ writing in the morning, fuelled by several mugs of good strong coffee. I often like to break the day with a lunchtime swim or walk, then spend the afternoon editing, and doing admin bits and pieces. I have quite a methodical approach to writing, I’m a great one for timing plans, word counts, to-do lists. It’s probably a throw-back to my days working in an advertising agency when I had to be really organised, but it actually comes in handy as, generally, I feel on top of things. On starting a new novel, if I was staring into an abyss of 100,000 words I’d probably feel that was an insurmountable task, but breaking it down into bite-size pieces, setting myself a series of small targets, it feels achievable. That said, I’m all for the romance of writing too, and I do my fair share of scribbling in notebooks tucked in the corners of coffee shops, and love taking myself off to write in remote places on my own.
When you are writing, do you use any famous people or people you know as inspiration?
Stephen King’s excellent book, On Writing, is a continual source of inspiration. He talks about writing as a job like any other – like laying pipe or driving a truck – you just need to turn up at the page and get on with it. I subscribe to that idea – you need to submit to the daily grind of writing, roll up your sleeves and get on with it even when you think you’re not in the mood. If you do that, the magical moments will come. In 2008 I took an Arvon course and my tutors that week, Louise Dean and Patrick Neate, inspire me still; that Arvon course really marked a turning point in how I approached my writing. My husband, the comic book writer and children’s author Robin Etherington, plays an essential part in my writing process too. He’s always the first person to read my work, and despite occasional swells of, um, ‘creative differences’, I trust his opinion implicitly.
What is your favourite Women’s Fiction book of all time and why?
I’m going to say Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. My mum introduced me to du Maurier when I was a teenager and I’ve loved her ever since. I admire the youthful spirit of the novel, I love the conjuring of the Riviera and sedate Manderley, and the sense of menace. When I was younger I had a crush on Maxim de Winter but now I see him rather differently… Back in May I went to Fowey for the first time, appearing at the Fowey Festival, and it was amazing to be in the corner of the world that so influenced du Maurier. I found it really affecting.
What is your writing process? Do you plan first or dive in? How many drafts do you do?
I’m a planner. For me a story begins first with place, and the atmosphere I want to create there, the ‘heart’ of the story. Once I feel I have that, I like the security of a sketched outline, solidifying a sense of where the story is ultimately going. That said, I do believe in the organic process of writing, the twists and turns that you don’t see coming until they’re happening, characters surprising you on the page. I think that’s when you know a story is really coming alive – when it moves on seemingly of its own accord and as the writer you just try desperately to keep up, typing frantically. I generally do about four or five drafts. I actually really enjoy the process of reworking and rewriting. I have trusted Early Readers, and am lucky to have really great editors and an involved agent, so the last stages of writing sometimes feel like the most pleasurable.
What was your journey to being a published author?
In 2005 I quit my hectic job in a London advertising agency and spent two winters snowboarding and working in the French Alps. There, away from the responsibilities of my old life, I began to write. I returned to the UK in 2007 with the sole ambition of writing a novel and working as hard as I could to get it published. I wrote The Book of Summers over the course of the next four years, while working part-time in a marketing agency in Bristol. In 2010 I took most of the year off in order to dedicate myself to ‘the final push’. I lived on a shoe-string budget, burnt through my savings, and worked as a Christmas temp in a bookshop, but it never felt like I was taking a risk; I just knew it was the right thing to do. That last burst of dedication and focus made all the difference. In the spring of 2011 I found an agent, Rowan Lawton of Furniss Lawton, then pretty quickly afterwards an editor and publisher, Leah Woodburn at Headline. The day I got the call, the book deal moment, was one of the very best of my life.
What do you think is the biggest myth about being a novelist?
That it’s the Life of Riley. It has its highs and lows like any other job. It comes with much uncertainty, and vulnerability, and you need to have tremendous self-motivation, thick skin, and determination. But there’s nothing I’d rather be or do. Sometimes I have to pinch myself that it’s actually happened – books on a shelf, an agent, editors, that I can wake up and the most important thing I have to do that day is make up stories. I mean… wow.
What advice can you give to our readers who want to write a novel of their own?
I used to think that in order to start writing a novel, you had to wait for that one big idea to land in your imagination. That’s a paralysing notion. The truth is, I think you can feel your way into a story, little by little, bit by bit. Start with something you really care about – a place, a person, a moment in time – and see where it takes you. But the ‘really care about’ is key. You’re going to have to spend a lot of time with your manuscript before anyone else even comes close to being interested it. In order to make that a pleasurable and enriching experience, write about something you love.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m in the early stages of writing my third novel. It’s set in Cornwall, so I’m always looking for excuses to spend time there. I’m a big believer in first hand inspiration, experiencing the feel of a place for yourself. My first two novels, The Book of Summers and A Heart Bent Out of Shape were set in exotic climes, Hungary and Switzerland, and usually I am drawn to the foreign. But for me, Cornwall feels like a wild and unknown place, at the ends of the earth, and that’s what I want to tap into.
Thanks, Emylia!