Words Away met up with novelist Evie Wyld online a few weeks back for an enjoyable chat about her work and process. The conversation touched on her love of haunted landscapes and spooky writing, the power of the subconscious and her approach to redrafting and structuring a novel. I loved Evie’s ideas to counter feeling stuck and for getting through the soupy middle. If you missed the evening and would like to hear more you can catch up on demand here.

Evie, a dual national of Australia and the UK, spoke about the impact of place on her writing. Her novels harvest childhood landscapes and experiences, be it being dragged behind an Uncle’s boat “like chum” through the shark-infested Clarence River of Northern New South Wales to the discomfort of camping mid-winter in a “horrible caravan” on the Isle of Wight. The result is beautiful evocative story telling as found in The Bass Rock, All the Birds Singing and After the Fire, a Still Small Voice. “For me,” said Evie, “writing begins with place and the place is its own character. Building that atmosphere is a thing I enjoy the most.”

She left us with some helpful advice via tutor Stephen Knight from her MA in Creative Writing days at Goldsmiths, “If we could all write what we wanted to write we’d all write best sellers. So you just have to make your peace with what you do write and not try to squash it into another shape.” With thanks to Evie for such an engaging talk! Look out for her new novel, The Echoes, to be published next year.

Words Away is taking a break as I’m planning some travel. I’ll update wordsaway.info periodically while I’m away and do the odd post on instagram. Meanwhile wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Peaceful New Year.

Thanks for reading!

Kellie

References:

Evie Wyld, The short stories of Shirley Jackson, Footrot Flats carton strip- Murray Ball, Hex - Jenny Fagin, The Manning Tree Witches - A K Blakemore, Susperia movie & Sound track by Thom Yorke, Goldsmiths Creative & Life Writing MA, In the Winter Dark, The Riders, Cloud Street -Tim Winton, Amphibian and Other Bodies by Vida Adamczewski