​Questions

• Where do you gain your inspiration?

• How did you develop your unique style/voice? 

• What you believe makes a good engaging writer? 

• What feedback have you received for your writing style and how have you incorporated this into writing? 

• Who are your influences? And how have they impacted you?  

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Answers

INSPIRATION: ​

I’ve heard it said many times now that writers are like magpies- I certainly collect things from all different sources and hide them away - in the old days I’d tear things out of newspapers and keep a file of them (still have them in fact), these days everything is online so I take screen shots of things I read (and then forget about them often!) 

 

I’ve written mainly crime/ thrillers so keep an eye on the news for ideas.  Fact is often stranger than fiction! 

 

I use my phone notes and my voice memo app to record ideas sometimes because one thing I’ve learnt is if I don’t write it down, I’ll forget it in the next hour or 2! (and if you think of something in the middle of the night & don’t write it down, you def won’t remember in the morning!) 

 

It’s a good idea to keep a notebook in your bag or pocket, I’d say, there’s something more creative about writing notes by hand, it might get the brain to flow better!  And it’s also good for mental health, writing your thoughts down (I’m also a therapist)  

 

I listen to the radio a lot and hear things on there, sometimes I’m watching a TV show or a film and it will give me an idea.  Or go to an art gallery and look at paintings, they can be a really good source of inspiration, or photos – photojournalism or magazines. 

 

If I’m writing a book, I often have pictures stuck up around me (again out of magazines, or postcards etc) that remind me of characters or settings.  Or I’ll google a setting online, e.g. I wrote about a swanky villa in Ibiza last year, so I just looked up loads; I wrote about Oklahoma and the mountains, so I googled images. 

 

Long train journeys are good for inspiration.  Something about movement is good for the mind to get free! 

And people watching, in a café, on a bus etc: My husband says I’m nosy, but I’m just fascinated by people, and also their conversations! 

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ASTER ASKS

How do you plan your stories?  Do you usually start with characters, setting, plot or something else entirely when writing a new story? 

For thrillers, I’d usually start with the idea, which is often placed in a setting already, and that would involve a couple of the characters too: 

Eg in my book THE STREET PARTY I wanted to write about a community of mothers coming together to put on an event and then one teenager accusing another of doing something ‘bad’: did he or not? It was about the different classes in West London, ie some rich and upper-class, some working class, some middle class: how did they mix?  What were the snobberies and unconscious biases?  How did the different mums interact? 

In my book THE STEPMOTHER I loosely based it on a modern Snow White story ie are all step-mums evil, like in fairy tales? (I’m one...I’m not evil honestly!) 

So sometimes it’s the theme I’m interested in, i.e. in my book BAD FRIENDS, it’s about a TV producer who has just split from her boyfriend and is in an accident and then she starts being stalked by someone, is it someone from the TV world?  I wanted to write about the moral responsibility of TV producers & who might get angry with them. 

In a short story though, I might start with a character I want to write about. Or a historical event. 

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PLANNING:

I used to write one-page ideas and my editors would say go for it!  And then I’d just start writing. 

Now they’re more strict and make us write much longer synopses/ plans.  It’s more competitive out there these days sadly.  I do change things up as I write though, and I use a lot of post-it notes as I go along if I think of something new! 

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UNIQUE STYLE 

Hmm good question! 

I sort of hear voices in my head (I’m not completely mad though!), and I try to imagine how a character will speak.  I studied drama and read a lot of plays and watched films, and that helped. 

 

But if I’m writing in the 3rd person, I suppose I’ve just developed a style of my own over all these years of writing that has just evolved... I read loads – if you want to write, I’d say that’s VITAL!   

 

Also writing loads and chucking it away as they say  ‘Kill your darlings’ – you might think it’s great, a bit of writing you’ve done in a story, but if it doesn’t drive the action forward, you might have to bin that bit (or keep it for somewhere else!). 

 

Read other people’s voices: try writing like them, then try seeing what your own voice says…experiment!  Try different things: write short stories or just short scenes in first person voices. 

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FEEDBACK 

I was a factual TV director first off (a researcher/ assistant producer etc first). I wrote little scripts for voice-over, or for comedy sketches for Comic Relief VTs etc.  Then I also started writing features for the newspapers.  I had to edit my features with feedback from my commissioning editor, so I got used to feedback. 

 

In 2004, I did an evening class in fiction writing.  We would write exercises or our own work at home, and then read it out and feed-back to each other.   

 

It’s tough to feed back to others because people have such different tastes, so it’s important to focus on whether the piece of writing works, rather than if you like the subject matter etc.  It’s important to choose something you like as well as something you think could may be worked on/ be better.   I taught Short story writing at Greenwich University and often it would be obvious what worked and what didn’t: some students found it hard to accept any constructive criticism: if you become published, your editor will ask for edits though.  So don’t be really defensive.  Try and listen to feedback. 

 

When I first started being published in 2007, Amazon had only just started, and online / social media wasn’t a thing.  It’s got tougher and tougher as the publishers have evolved into digital publishing, and have relied heavily on online reviews - and that’s often not feedback, it can just be cruel or vicious, or people have their own agenda, or are competing writers etc; or people will give 1 star because ‘it’s not the book I ordered’ etc.  Star rating has a huge effect on sales etc. 

 

I know some writers – JoJo Moyes is one - who read all her reviews when she wasn’t selling well at all.  She started to take note that people were saying  ‘too slow to start the story’ etc and she changed her style.  Now she’s a massive best seller, so I guess it can work.   

 

However, in some genres of writing, reviewers are more harsh than others!  (psych thrillers/ crime can be very harsh, they seem to read A LOT and they have come to expect a formula etc!) 

 

I have taken notice occasionally of fiction reviews if everyone says the same thing, but I think the biggest point I notice is how one person can love a book whilst another might hate it: it’s so personal!

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GOOD ENGAGING WRITERS 

Have something to say about the world.  They don’t just subscribe to ‘tropes’ or formulas.  Or they turn them on their head. 

They might have a different outlook, maybe, on an issue, rather than the ‘typical’ outlook. 

Or are good at creating believable characters and their internal worlds: ie why someone does something; that’s important to me. To be convincing, even if it is far-fetched, are the character’s actions convincing even if they are in an extraordinary situation? 

 

Good writers don’t over-explain, the ‘less is more’ motto can be true: show, don’t tell J 

It’s hard at first to get this right, try setting a scene by describing the person’s mood being reflected by the weather, or how they’re sitting or walking, or the tension in a room etc, rather than explaining every single thing that’s going on.  Let the reader do some work! 

 

And don’t write too much, very long books often could use a good edit! 

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MY INFLUENCES 

 What is your favourite thriller story/author? And Why?

For the kinds of books I’ve written, probably Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca: a book about a new (2nd) marriage and the new wife being haunted by the idea of the husband’s dead wife, who seems to have been perfect.  Was she though?  I read it when I was 17 and stayed up all night reading it! 

 

I used to like a writer called Nicci French, who wrote books a bit like the ones I went onto write: strong female protagonists caught up in a problem / crime/ bad relationship etc. 

I like a good mystery that keeps you guessing and that is convincing when you find out the truth – as a kid, I loved Agatha Christie.  (And Scooby Doo J not sure they were convincing plots though!) 

 

I read really widely, though, across genres, and I think that’s important because it’s a cheap way of learning your craft. 

 

Nowadays my favourite thriller writers are:  

The ones mentioned above, also: 

 

I quite like Janice Hallett – she’s a screenwriter who writes her thrillers/ mysteries in a pretty original/ different way i.e. all in emails etc. 

 

 Gillian Flynn, who wrote Gone Girl -her first book: Sharp Objects (it’s now an HBO series too, but not as good as the book) 

 

Lisa Jewell is beloved in the UK crime writer family, I think it’s because she writes worlds people want to live in, rather than brilliant plots! 

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STRUCTURE

Do you use any plot theories (like save the cat) to structure your work or do you have your own process? 

Ha!  I don’t think Save the Cat existed when I started out!  So no, though I do remember a lot of talk about ‘there’s only seven stories’ in the world, or the 3-act structure. 

I would probably adhere to the Problem/ Conflict/ Resolution idea of a narrative arc. 

Having made documentaries for years, I was always big – and this might sound funny – on the idea of ‘start, middle and end’ – and how to get your viewer/ reader to come back after the advert break!  There were the cliff-hangers to do that…(you can see it in reality TV e.g. MAFS, they’ll tease you at the start and during the show with a bit of conflict etc. ) 

Editors now will talk about ‘hitting the beats’.  It’s become very formulaic in the world of psych thrillers, sadly. 

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How many drafts do you typically write before you deem your manuscript finished? 

Depends on how long I’ve got!  Sometimes I’ve had to write a book in 8 weeks under contract.  Not ideal!  Probably one or 2 if it’s commissioned, then send it to agent/ editor, then the editor will send structural edits (there’s lots of rounds of edits) but the first are the biggest usually, if something doesn’t work in the story.  So that’s the 2nd or 3rd draft…I’d always advise printing your work out and reading it on paper before doing edits/ re-drafts. It looks different on the page than on the screen. 

I’ve got another book coming out late this year, a historical spy thriller set between WWI & WWII & it took me about five years to get it to the point of my then-agent thinking it was ready to send out to publishers, and another eight years to get it to the point of publication!!  (It was much too long originally, 700 pages +!)  

What is your favourite part of writing a story? 

I have to come back to this: It’s hard!   

Off top of my head, I like a scene full of sexual tension!  I like writing dialogue I like a bit of humour too.  

I love writing family relationships: sibling rivalry etc. 

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What was the process of becoming published, what challenges did you face?            

I was really lucky I realise now, I didn’t at the time!  I wrote the book LULLABY (my first psychological thriller about a baby going missing on a day trip to the Tate Modern) in 2004-2005, and then I looked at the Writers & Artists Yearbook (now online, though think you have to subscribe).  I chose the agents who repped books in my ‘genre’ (& sadly, publishing is OBSESSED with genre and putting everyone in a pigeon-hole, or copying whoever is doing well, i.e. Richard Osman’s cosy crime, look at other covers of cosy crime, they’ll all look similar!) …and I started looking for agents in that book at A and worked my way through – originally I sent out my first 3 chapters to five agents.  2 were interested.  One wanted to read the whole lot, and I signed with her.  MY advice to myself now would have been – Stop!  Send it to more, and meet more agents!  Then decide, if there is an option! Choosing an agent, if that’s the route you go down, is like dating.  Don’t be sucked in by someone who actually hasn’t got your best interest at heart etc, or who you realise later on you don’t get on with.  Find out what they’re going to do for you, don’t just be ‘grateful!’ in theory the agent works for you i.e. they make money off your ‘product’.  That said, don’t be full of ego either!  Be humble!  

That first agent asked me to make a few changes to the manuscript.  I was happy to do that: then she sent it out, and it sold in Holland on the first day.  Then it sold to Harper Collins within 6 weeks. Now I realise that was super quick and lucky. 

Crime used to be the biggest selling genre, so I chose crime because I wanted to earn money to feed my baby!  But now it might be ‘Romantasy’, thanks to TikTok! 

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Do you have advice for new writers going through publishing for the first time? 

Stay strong! It’s hard.  Ask questions.  See if you can bring something a bit unique to the table – what people like to call a USP!  Go to the place that will publish someone like you. 

These days people self-publish a lot more, thanks to Amazon (I hate Amazon for reasons I won’t go into now!) so it’s easier to do than it was when I started.  And publishers are looking for more diverse voices these days. 

But also write what you want to write. Don’t write something completely cynically because it will probably show. 

And from Antony – who is exploring the thriller genre. 

If you like thrillers, Antony, maybe read Stephen King’s book on how to write, it’s meant to be great! (can’t remember the name of it sorry) 

Where do you typically get the inspiration for your stories and what's your method to evolve these ideas into stories?   

See above answers re inspiration... 

To evolve: do a mind map of your idea.  Write a plot line/ synopsis and break it down into scenes and acts.  Talk to your mate or your mum etc about your idea, get feedback. Sometimes my husband (or my sister!) who are teachers, not writers, will suggest something when I’m stuck and it helps! 

What do you enjoy about the Thriller Genre and why do you write it? 

I like plot!!  

I like page turners myself, and I like to be kept guessing…I want to feel like I’m working something out as a reader, so that’s what I want to do as a writer.   

I want the writing to feel urgent enough to bring the reader back to it.