Category: On Writing
A Day in the Life of a Writer: Elyssa Friedland
While I was asked to write about a typical day in my life as a novelist, it would have been more appropriate to call this piece “A Night in the Life of a Writer” because my brain becomes most active in the hour before I fall asleep. I lie in bed and think about what […]
Emotions and Creativity – the Rollercoaster of the Writing Life
Eight years ago I went down a hole called ‘my writing life’ and never came out. I’ve always been an emotional person, and the mediums of painting and writing have brought me joy and understanding in equal measure. Yet, whilst painting is an outlet that leaves me calm, writing can play havoc with my moods. […]
When the Hero’s Journey Doesn’t Pan Out The Way You Thought it Should
The main character in my historical novels—William—was a real person. He cheated on his wife, swindled his sister out of her inheritance, and left his family bankrupt. Yet somehow, after filling 900 pages of a saga about him and his family, I managed to make him likeable. So I can’t figure out why it is, […]
A Day In The Writing Life Of Carol Drinkwater
I think every writer and would-be writer knows that many of the literary giants had or have their own method of getting into the day’s work. Ernest Hemingway sharpening pencils, we all know that story. He wrote by hand. Today, we are more computer-bound. There are no rules. It is what works for you. I […]
Writing and Determination
My girlfriend, along with a very large glass of wine, had convinced me that the story of the friendship uniting our two mismatched cats needed to be told. Like I said, it was a massive glass of wine. However, with or without the wine, the story of our two cats was pretty incredible. Despite being […]
Why my Attitude To Writing Changed
I’ve always enjoyed writing and harboured dreams of being ‘a writer’ from an early age. However, becoming ‘a writer’ is easier said than done and the dream had to take second place to the real world. When my children were young I would make stories up for them and that was about as far as […]
An Author’s Search for Place from Mali to Italy
‘You crawl over. You are in Hong Kong. Outside, everything is fumy with light.’ From an early age I knew I would leave my country. Like many authors, I was bookish and removed, and a childhood tragedy made me determined to leave pain behind and head to Europe. At 21 I was a skinny shoplifter […]
My Book Club Made Me An Author
My book group formed seven years ago. A dozen busy, smart, book-obsessed women in Portland, Oregon, we’re probably not that different from most neighborhood book clubs. We struggle to make time for reading, there’s always someone who confesses that she hasn’t had time to finish the book, and there’s usually another who clearly didn’t finish, […]
Optical Research
“Of course it wasn’t a romantic getaway,” I said in 2015, after spending Valentine’s Weekend in Paris. “It was optical research!” And after tramping the Paris streets searching for wartime locations for my second book, The English Agent, I had the blisters on my feet and scribbles in my notebook to prove it (although I’ll […]
Women Inspired My Novel
All authors get asked, “What was your inspiration for writing your novel?” For me, it wasn’t so much “what,” but “who” is my inspiration. Without a doubt my answer is women. I have had the greatest honor of raising four daughters—a dream come true that mirrored a treasured Louisa May Alcott story, Little Women. Each […]
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