This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Kerry Fisher has worked as an English teacher in Corsica and Spain, an elephant riding, theme-park reviewing travel journalist and as a holiday rep and grape picker in Tuscany. Today, she writes funny books for HarperCollins from her home on the Surrey Downs. Here, she talks about her publishing journey and her new book, The School Gate Survival Guide.
Where do you find inspiration for your books?
I write about ordinary people, family relationships and marital dynamics – so my inspiration comes from conversations I listen to in my daily life. Either things people talk about directly to me or things I overhear – I’m terrifyingly nosey. If I’m ever on my own anywhere, I watch how people walk – you can tell so much about personality from how people carry themselves. I was in Prêt this week and a woman steamed in to choose her sandwich with so much attitude – chest out, hands on her hips, foot tapping – I bet all the avocados and prawns were shrinking into their cellophane.
Can you tell us a little about your average writing day?
I have a very demanding dog – a Lab/Giant Schnauzer cross – so I often go to a café to work, otherwise she keeps dropping tennis balls at my feet and barking. I drop my children at school, get to Starbucks for 8.20am then write for three hours. Then I iron out my hunched shoulders by walking the dog on the South Downs in Surrey where we live. At the moment, in the afternoon, I usually work on some aspect of publicity for The School Gate Survival Guide, especially as the launch is imminent – radio interviews, posts on Facebook and Twitter, blogs.
When you are writing, do you use any famous people or people you know as inspiration?
I often think it should be easy to take someone you know and write them as a character in a novel but I find sticking too close the truth in terms of people, events or anything at all just makes my writing stilted. I do sometimes take a little trait I observe in people I know, maybe a way of pausing, the use of a particular word or a mannerism and adapt it for one of my characters. I don’t use famous people at all as I don’t watch TV and am horribly ignorant about celebrities. At the HarperCollins publishing party this year, I was terrified someone really famous would speak to me and I would make a fool of myself by asking who they were.
What is your favourite Women’s Fiction book of all time and why?
The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I read it at a time when agents were often telling me that my novels were ‘too real’ to be funny. When I read The Help, I realised that ‘real’ didn’t have to be a negative. A skilful author can deal with a serious subject without killing the comic element. Racism. Prejudice. Difficult to get more real than that and not funny at all.
But the humour in The Help was a brilliant conduit for showing how ridiculous the white women were in their treatment of their black maids. The funny scenes didn’t undermine, rather they underlined, the serious message. Stockett doesn’t shy away from showing the worst human emotions in their rawest state. Up until then, I’d always felt slightly embarrassed to write characters with socially unacceptable opinions, as though by writing them, readers might judge them as my own.What female writer has inspired you?
Maya Angelou. When I listen to the words of ‘Still I Rise’, I want to stand on my kitchen table and cheer.
Can you give us three book recommendations?
The Lie of You by Jane Lythell, which is perfectly summed up by ‘One woman’s fear is another woman’s weapon’. The Judas Scar by Amanda Jennings, a gripping psychological drama that I couldn’t put down and A Single Breath by Lucy Clarke. I love her writing.
What is your writing process? Do you plan first or dive in? How many drafts do you do?
I know how each book starts and ends plus about ten things that happen in the middle, though not necessarily in which order. I write a good, careful first draft (with minimum planning) and then let my writing buddy read it to flag up any huge problems (Did it feel like a chore to read it? Do you care whether the characters find happiness? Did you fall asleep?). After that, I probably do a couple more drafts, then rework it as many times as my editor thinks is necessary. With The School Gate Survival Guide that was only once, so I got off very lightly!
What was your journey to being a published author?
I definitely wasn’t in the overnight success category. After three novels and several years of trying to get an agent, I decided to self-publish. I simply didn’t have the stomach for writing another book without a single one making its way out into the world. I was utterly naïve about how much work it would take to succeed with a self-published book, but I learnt, listened and networked until it became a moderate success. After eight months, HarperCollins bought it as part of a two-book deal and repackaged and republished it as The School Gate Survival Guide.
What do you think is the biggest myth about being a novelist?
That all novelists are supremely observant. I tend to notice dynamics in relationships, the way married couples interact with each other, tone of voice, gestures, that sort of thing but I rarely notice what people look like. Which makes me an astonishingly good friend if you’ve overindulged in cream cakes and never brush your hair, but not very flattering if you’ve lost two stone and had your teeth fixed.
What advice can you give to our readers who want to write a novel of their own?
Tell a select few people that you are writing a novel. It becomes a little disheartening when people say, "Aren’t you published yet?" five months after you start writing, and even more so after plugging away for five years!
In a nutshell: learn your craft through creative-writing courses, read books about how to write, read plenty of novels in your genre, commit to writing a certain amount of words a day, get feedback from sources you trust and persevere.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m working on another novel set around the same school that features in The School Gate Survival Guide. It’s not a sequel as there’s an entirely different cast of characters but some of the old favourites make cameo appearances. Having witnessed some spectacular family moments this summer, both within my own zoo and other people’s, I’m thinking I’d love to write a sitcom!
Thanks, Kerry!