This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Lucy Dillon is the author of Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts, which won the Romantic Novelists' Association's 'Romantic Novel of the Year Award' in 2010.
Can you tell us a
little about your average writing day?
I try to write about 2000 words a day, which I have to fit in around the eating and sleeping needs of my two dogs. I usually end up doing emails and editing the previous day’s work in the morning, then we go out for a long walk around the orchards near my house. After lunch I get down to some proper writing until 6pm, but if I haven’t stopped by then, Violet will actually stand on my right arm at the keyboard until I turn off the computer and feed her.
When you are writing, do you use any famous people or people you know as inspiration?
Ha! ‘Inspiration’. Yes. One major perk of being a writer is that you can constantly indulge secret crushes on famous people, in the name of romantic hero inspiration. I won’t tell you who the current heroes are based on, because it’s probably far too obvious already, but I’ve got at least two Youtube tabs open on my browser at any given time in case I, er, get stuck.
What is your favourite Women’s Fiction book of all time and why?
My favourite contemporary writer is Kate Atkinson, and her new book, Life After Life might end up being one of my all time favourite novels: she creates worlds so vivid that you feel as if you’re in the characters’ mind, and not the other way around. Life After Life takes the simple idea ‘what if you could re-start your life every time it went wrong, and try a different path?’, and explores it over the course of Ursula Todd’s journey through the 20th century, via two world wars, London, Germany, English meadows, love, death, illness, survival… Would your character change in new circumstances? How much would you actually do differently? And would the people you encountered be the same, or would they change too? It’s very clever and very simple at the same time, with a faintly magical atmosphere, set against some passages about the Blitz and the pastoral menace of the countryside that will haunt you for days.
Kate Atkinson’s novels feel like richly detailed collages to me; they’re so cleverly worked that I can go back to them again and again, and see new things. I love the way she plays with themes and imagery; foxes are a recurring image in this novel, for instance, right from the Todd family’s own name. She has an amazing ear for dialogue, and creates strong, interesting female characters. I can’t recommend Life After Life strongly enough. It’s one of those novels that you read, then have to force everyone else you know to read too, so you can discuss it… (@lucy_dillon on Twitter – tell me how you think it ends!)
What is your writing process? Do you plan first or dive in? How many drafts do you do?
I make a lot of notes about the opening scenes, and plan those in detail so I can start off strongly, then I work from a bare bones sketch of the story arc. I need to know where I’m going but I like to keep my mind open to ideas and characters developing as I go. I usually have the final scene in mind from the start, even if I don’t know exactly what shape it’ll take: it’s really helpful to have some sense of where the story actually finishes, so you know what you’re aiming for. (And also that there is an end in sight.)
I write a first draft, show it to my agent and editor and discuss it, then go back and rewrite quite a bit. My opening chapters can be slow, so I nearly always rewrite the opening, which is of course much easier when you know how it all ends.
What do you think is the biggest myth about being a novelist?
That (a) you have to be a genius to write a novel, or (b) that any idiot can write a novel, as long as it’s got enough sex in it. The answer’s somewhere in between. Spell checks and editors can coax a fantastic novel out of someone who can tell a story but isn’t the greatest technician, but you have to have the knack of hooking a reader’s attention. And that’s not just about throwing in sex. The most acrobatic shenanigans in the world won’t keep a reader turning the pages if they can’t even remember the names of the characters currently swinging from the chandelier/goalpost at the Millenium Stadium/Welcome to Slough sign.
What advice can you give to our readers who want to write a novel of their own?
Write the story you want to read. Find a setting, or a relationship, or a dilemma, or a style, that really interests you. You have to love your heroine, and have a crush on your hero, and really really want to know what happens next for them – because if you don’t, then why should your readers? You can always tell a novel that’s been written to cash in on a craze, because although all the boxes have been ticked, there’s no passion or curiosity running underneath, and that’s what hooks a reader.
It’s interesting how fast things have moved in the last few years, because eighteen months ago, I’d have said, ‘Don’t bother trying to copy what’s on the shelves now, because publishers are already looking two years ahead,’ but now with the advent of digital publishing, you can write your novel and have it out there almost immediately. But while it’s good to be inspired by current trends, I still think it’s important to take some time to develop your own take on it. With so much more to download now, a lot of it free, you’ve got to work even harder to stand out.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m putting the final touches to my next book, A Hundred Pieces of Me, which will be out in January 2014. It’s the story of Gina and her gradual quest to get rid of all her possessions after a divorce, until she’s left with just the essential things that make her happy, and are the true pieces of herself. It’s made me smile and cry, and also do quite a lot of sorting out of my own house.
Thanks Lucy!