The Literary Sofa
Writing
The Writing Process – My Interview on Ruth Hunt’s blog
As promised, for those not on Twitter or who missed it there (easily done!) here’s the link to an interview I’ve just done for Ruth Hunt’s series on The Writing Process. Thanks to Ruth for inviting me to take part and for asking such great questions – the other posts in the series are very illuminating. Ruth … Continue reading
My First Five Years as a Writer
It’s five years to the day since I started writing fiction (for someone so terrible with numbers, I am surprisingly good with dates). By that I mean actually doing it. Not thinking about it. Not talking about it. I’d been doing that for years. During the period leading up to me signing with my agent … Continue reading
6⅔ Things I Learnt from Rewriting my Book
Last week it was a real pleasure to be asked to write a guest post for Writers’ Workshop on the much hoped-for outcome of my rewriting mission – getting an agent. Literary Sofa regulars have followed the process, given me invaluable support and shared their own experiences here (see Writing section), but the WW post … Continue reading
Guest Author – Sanjida O’Connell on Editing her Novels
I’m very grateful to this week’s guest, the multi-talented Sanjida O’Connell, for offering to step in and keep the Literary Sofa warm. It’s fitting that she has chosen to share her extensive and varied experience of editing novels since that’s precisely what’s keeping me so busy as crunch time approaches for my own manuscript. Sanjida … Continue reading
I Remember
Following the excitement of the York Festival of Writing, I am spending every possible moment polishing my manuscript but I don’t want to neglect the Literary Sofa. So for this week’s blogpost, I decided to cheat and use a fantastic writing exercise from the York mini-course led by editor Andrew Wille on the Four Elements … Continue reading
The York Effect – Festival of Writing 2013
I first attended the Festival of Writing organised by Writers’ Workshop in 2012. If you’d told me then that I’d end up going two years in a row, I would have been surprised, not least that I could spare the money or the time away from home. I would have been frankly appalled to think … Continue reading
Everything looks different now – the final rewrite post
I never planned three posts about my big rewrite but having talked about it at the start and the halfway point, I feel I should sign off. At the same time, it slightly feels like cheating, because this should have been the triumphant post saying it’s finished. I wanted to have it done by now, but … Continue reading
Lionel Shriver at The Society Club
I’ve attended many author events and have been lucky to hear/meet some of the big name novelists who’ve inspired me: Alan Hollinghurst, Linda Grant, Richard Ford, Marilynne Robinson. There’s a new addition to that list: Lionel Shriver, who read at an intimate salon at the Society Club on Saturday. I’ve never written up an author … Continue reading
Things I hate about my writing and other people’s
OK, hate is too strong a word, but even blogposts need a good title… I’ve been in hypercritical mode lately and I’m hoping this will get it out of my system. It’s happened before. At university I spent four years overanalysing and pulling to pieces the greats of French and German literature. Parts of this I loved, … Continue reading
A Solitary Writing Week
As you may recall, at the start of 2013 I set myself the challenge of re-writing my oft-rejected-but-apparently-not-that-bad novel after calling in the professionals. I spent weeks messing around with coloured pens, stickers and Post-It notes re-structuring the story and when (I thought) I had it right, I pinned them on a board so they couldn’t … Continue reading
My new novel SCENT – out in paperback on 19 May 2022
The Literary Sofa 