I hope you are all keeping well in this strangest of times. I’ve been thinking wistfully about last month’s salon, Parallel Worlds: writing recurring characters and serial fiction with the novelist, critic and journalist, Amanda Craig. The salon took place on the 9th March before the lockdown came into effect here in the UK. While there was a rising sense of anxiety in the air that night I don’t think any of us then quite grasped the enormity of what was about to happen on a global scale. A fortnight later and we could not have gathered in the same way. Amanda spoke brilliantly about her writing process, the trials and tribulations of the publishing industry and what it takes to sustain a successful writing career.
With Amanda Craig (R) and Emma Darwin (L).
Amanda’s published numerous novels including A Vicious Circle, Hearts and Minds and The Lie of The Land. Her new novel The Golden Rule will be published this June. Each of her novels can be read on its own - but they are also part of an inter-related series about contemporary life in which minor characters become major ones and vice versa. Amanda knew from the beginning of her career that she wanted to write about modern life in Britain and after university she worked as a cleaner and a freelance journalist before finally landing a job in Fleet Street. Her fascination with serial fiction began when she discovered the novels of Balzac, starting with Lost Illusions, one of an enormous series of interconnected books about French society in the nineteenth century. The novels struck a chord with Amanda. Readers are less interested in novels about life at the bottom of society, she said, but are attracted to reading about life at the top. Her novels explore the places where the two worlds meet or intersect. Amanda takes the idea of money very seriously; what things cost, the effects of poverty on a society and the dreadful things people do when they don’t have enough. She approaches her research like an investigative journalist and shared with us that “the truth is always more fascinating than you can imagine yourself.” The things that are most horrible, dramatic and violent in her books have actually happened.
We talked about the importance of setting as a way into character and plot.“Address is destiny,” said Amanda quoting from her novel, A Vicious Circle. “Certain things happen to you because you’re living in a specific place or working at a specific address.” Place acts like the lens of a magnifying glass. It distorts some things and magnifies others. A strong sense of place can act like a character in the novel and deepens the reader’s appreciation of what they’re seeing. It’s more interesting for a reader to see a place through a character’s eyes, it becomes a part of the drama.
Amanda Craig reading an extract from The Lie of the Land
Amanda’s stories are imbued with a strong narrative presence and the role of the omniscient narrator, i.e. an all-knowing third person narrator, was a talking point. (For more on point of view and narration see the link to Emma’s blog below.) We touched on general reasons why omniscient narration might have fallen out of fashion over the last century - with people not believing in God anymore and the idea of authority making people nervous. Amanda understands why people have lost faith after the horrors of the past, the holocaust, slavery and World War One, for example, but there are stories that show that there’s a capacity for mercy, compassion and courage and “that’s this kind of story that interest me.” If you endlessly focus on the bad in human nature you’re going to get very depressed. You have to give people hope. Amanda said, “the world of my books is like this one but it’s a bit better because the bad get punished and the good triumph.” It is her universe - she controls it,
We asked Amanda how she managed her big cast of characters. She likened it to weaving a French plait and begins a novel knowing the big bones of the plot but works out the rest along the way. Her books usually feature five main characters. She writes chapters of around 3000 words or 8 tight pages - enough to create suspense, and sometimes with a hook at the end, but not too long to be boring. The editing stage takes as long as the writing stage, if the word count is under she’ll expand or if it’s over she’ll cut ruthlessly! She learned to plot from reading PG Wodehouse’s Sunset at Blandings; take two pages, make a list numbered 1 to 30 and write 3 sentences for each chapter. The goal is to tell a story and keep the reader’s interest. You’re there to entertain the reader. Story means something has happened and as a result of it people change. Amanda’s characters, she said, are not very nice people in the beginning. But she makes sure that stuff will happen to them to make them change in some way.
Amanda’s advice on first drafts is to just write it and get to the end. Develop a burning determination that you are not going to be stopped. Don’t worry about it being ‘bad”. Once you’ve got a manuscript you can go back and make it better (again and again). Amanda likened her books to something that’s been through the stomach of a cow, albeit a cow with a hundred stomachs rather than four. She writes her stories chronologically and organically. Expect that life will get in the way of the writing sometimes - be it through illness, financial pressures or family problems. Everyone gets blocked. If she gets stuck she’ll stop working on that chapter and go on to the next one.
Amanda’s forthcoming novel The Golden Rule will be published this June
We heard about Amanda’s cracking new book The Golden Rule, about two strangers, women, who meet on a train to Cornwall. Both are unhappily married and agree to murder each other’s husband’s. The novel draws on two classic stories, Patricia Highsmith’s, Strangers On A Train and the fairytale of Beauty and The Beast, itself a version of the Greek myth Cupid and Psyche.
Amanda’s parting advice to aspiring writer’s is don’t give up! Wonderful debut books are published by people in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Don’t lose hope - ultimately you have to entertain the reader so put them first.
Thank you to Amanda Craig for sharing her writing life with us and to Emma Darwin for her brilliant co-hosting. Thanks too to our lovely audience - I miss the community of people who have supported our events over the last few years. Once this storm passes and it’s safe for us to all meet again it’s my hope that Words Away will pick up where we left off. In the meantime I’m very happy to refund tickets for postponed events - I am intending to put on the Salons/workshops as soon as we are allowed, just drop me a line if you would like me to refund you.
Thanks for reading and take care. Time to walk my dog (again).
Kellie
References & Links
Amanda Craig, Honoré de Balzac, Lost Illusions, Émile Zola, Guy de Maupssaunt, Charles Dickens, PG Wodehouse, Sunset at Blandings, Being Edited and Being Published salon with Richard Beswick, Hilary Mantel, Patricia Highsmith, Strangers On A Train, Beauty and the Beast, Cupid and Psyche, Point of View & Narrators: the basics from the fab writing resource This Itch of Writing by Emma Darwin
Psyche and Amor also known as Psych Receiving Cupid’s First Kiss by Francois Gérard