Ask the Author: Kerensa Jennings
Answered Questions (4)
Kerensa Jennings
I'd say the best thing you can do is read. Then read some more. Then carry on reading. Pay attention to the world. Learn to notice things. Become finely tuned to the things people don't say as well as the things they do.
Voraciously consume art in all its forms - the stuff you are naturally drawn to and the stuff that you feel might be boring or not quite your 'thing'. Hone your sixth sense for story and develop your Perception Superpower.
Say less and listen more. Be happy in your own company. Learn to appreciate silence and stillness.
Let your ideas flow into you and jot things down as and when they occur to you. Not everything you write has to be your masterpiece. Collect the things you notice and scribble them down and notice what makes them special.
Start to join the dots on themes and thoughts.
Live life mindfully, allowing quiet moments to become brain nourishment. Feed your soul with beauty and light. Enjoy the company of others and where you don't, extract what you can for a character in the future, or an emotion you can draw on as you write.
Bit by bit, your scribblings and your musings will start to percolate into something more substantial. I think writers are born to write... you can learn technique and you can get better - mostly by reading great writers and noticing what makes them great. But you either need to write, or you don't.
When you are writing, you are creating something where nothing was. Be proud. Be brave. Find your truth. Discover your voice. Let it happen.
A good technique for anyone stuck is to see what you have around you and use an object, a photograph, a view as a starting point. Start making stuff up.
Gracie and Billy (from Seas of Snow) arrived fully formed in my head - and I realised I had seen them before. A delightful black and white 1950s photograph by the extraordinary American photographer W Eugene Smith - a little girl dressed in a smock holding hands with a little boy. Walking off into woodlands together, slightly silhouetted from the back; haloed in light but embarking into darkness. A whisper of evil lurking over them as the voyeuristic viewer sees their innocence clinging precariously between them, the picture of sweetness possibly soon to be tainted by who knew what horror... I even place the photograph itself into Seas of Snow, as Gracie's Ma takes a picture of Gracie and Billy when they head out to play one day...
That's the kind of thing I would advise. All of that.
And did I mention... read!
Voraciously consume art in all its forms - the stuff you are naturally drawn to and the stuff that you feel might be boring or not quite your 'thing'. Hone your sixth sense for story and develop your Perception Superpower.
Say less and listen more. Be happy in your own company. Learn to appreciate silence and stillness.
Let your ideas flow into you and jot things down as and when they occur to you. Not everything you write has to be your masterpiece. Collect the things you notice and scribble them down and notice what makes them special.
Start to join the dots on themes and thoughts.
Live life mindfully, allowing quiet moments to become brain nourishment. Feed your soul with beauty and light. Enjoy the company of others and where you don't, extract what you can for a character in the future, or an emotion you can draw on as you write.
Bit by bit, your scribblings and your musings will start to percolate into something more substantial. I think writers are born to write... you can learn technique and you can get better - mostly by reading great writers and noticing what makes them great. But you either need to write, or you don't.
When you are writing, you are creating something where nothing was. Be proud. Be brave. Find your truth. Discover your voice. Let it happen.
A good technique for anyone stuck is to see what you have around you and use an object, a photograph, a view as a starting point. Start making stuff up.
Gracie and Billy (from Seas of Snow) arrived fully formed in my head - and I realised I had seen them before. A delightful black and white 1950s photograph by the extraordinary American photographer W Eugene Smith - a little girl dressed in a smock holding hands with a little boy. Walking off into woodlands together, slightly silhouetted from the back; haloed in light but embarking into darkness. A whisper of evil lurking over them as the voyeuristic viewer sees their innocence clinging precariously between them, the picture of sweetness possibly soon to be tainted by who knew what horror... I even place the photograph itself into Seas of Snow, as Gracie's Ma takes a picture of Gracie and Billy when they head out to play one day...
That's the kind of thing I would advise. All of that.
And did I mention... read!
Kerensa Jennings
Gosh - from anything and everything! I think the best answer I can offer is to share the text from my professorial lecture. Entitled '"Orchids were the repository of her dreams" - a critical analysis of the creative process', this is the lecture I gave in 2015 on the occasion of being made Visiting Professor of Media, Strategy and Communications at the award winning University of Huddersfield.
I have just published this lecture into a blog post here on GoodReads for anyone interested. If it's of use to you to get hold of the slides and visuals from the lecture, please get in touch.
I have just published this lecture into a blog post here on GoodReads for anyone interested. If it's of use to you to get hold of the slides and visuals from the lecture, please get in touch.
Kerensa Jennings
I am not sure I experience writer's block as such, but my own version of it... which is that if I am not in the mood to write, I don't.
I use writing to process anything and everything that happens to me - I write bits and pieces and poems every day. Mostly brief aperçus and poems of 40 lines or less.
Throughout my career I have had endless deadlines to work to. In news and current affairs you simply have to make transmission. There is no other choice. So I am very disciplined and can turn things around in a very efficient and effective way. I simply would not have been able to do my job if I couldn't. So many times I was writing a changing headline as the introduction music to a TV programme had started... but I always, always made it.
I started my professional media life at ITN, where I was one of the founding team at Five News; went on to Sky News where I worked on rolling news programmes then as Editor of Sunday with Adam Boulton; then became Programme Editor of Breakfast with Frost at the BBC. From there I went on to head up News Specials (where one of the pieces I led was the BBC News coverage of the Soham case); then was the BBC's Election Results Editor, made an eight part series on palaeontology for the BBC's Natural History Unit; then segued into strategy via the Colleges of Journalism and Production. I was the BBC's Head of Strategic Delivery for a number of years.
In all these jobs, making deadlines was a pre-requisite. When it comes to writing for pleasure, I just do it when I want to and I don't when I don't.
With fiction writing, I build my scaffoding and know where I am heading in terms of plot and structure, but the characters arrive fully formed in my head with names and attributes. I find it incredibly exciting as my typing enables the story to be born, my fingers breathing life into unfolding scenes. As a TV producer, I do tend to write in quite cinematic scenes, so my chapters are short and punchy. The process of writing itself is a flow that organically emerges... it is my pleasure to read along as I write and discover what is happening. I find the honing and refining far harder... I have been known to work on perfecting a sentence for an entire afternoon...
Writing Seas of Snow was a labour of love - I did it in all my holidays over several years. I would not have had the time or headspace to simply sit down and write it in between the stresses and responsibilities of my working life.
Time is such a precious commodity... the hardest thing now is choosing whether to do something on social media to help people discover Seas of Snow, or carry on writing! I try to make my times on social media personally enriching and inspiring so that in turn that nourishes my soul and sets me up for writing when I get to that.
I use writing to process anything and everything that happens to me - I write bits and pieces and poems every day. Mostly brief aperçus and poems of 40 lines or less.
Throughout my career I have had endless deadlines to work to. In news and current affairs you simply have to make transmission. There is no other choice. So I am very disciplined and can turn things around in a very efficient and effective way. I simply would not have been able to do my job if I couldn't. So many times I was writing a changing headline as the introduction music to a TV programme had started... but I always, always made it.
I started my professional media life at ITN, where I was one of the founding team at Five News; went on to Sky News where I worked on rolling news programmes then as Editor of Sunday with Adam Boulton; then became Programme Editor of Breakfast with Frost at the BBC. From there I went on to head up News Specials (where one of the pieces I led was the BBC News coverage of the Soham case); then was the BBC's Election Results Editor, made an eight part series on palaeontology for the BBC's Natural History Unit; then segued into strategy via the Colleges of Journalism and Production. I was the BBC's Head of Strategic Delivery for a number of years.
In all these jobs, making deadlines was a pre-requisite. When it comes to writing for pleasure, I just do it when I want to and I don't when I don't.
With fiction writing, I build my scaffoding and know where I am heading in terms of plot and structure, but the characters arrive fully formed in my head with names and attributes. I find it incredibly exciting as my typing enables the story to be born, my fingers breathing life into unfolding scenes. As a TV producer, I do tend to write in quite cinematic scenes, so my chapters are short and punchy. The process of writing itself is a flow that organically emerges... it is my pleasure to read along as I write and discover what is happening. I find the honing and refining far harder... I have been known to work on perfecting a sentence for an entire afternoon...
Writing Seas of Snow was a labour of love - I did it in all my holidays over several years. I would not have had the time or headspace to simply sit down and write it in between the stresses and responsibilities of my working life.
Time is such a precious commodity... the hardest thing now is choosing whether to do something on social media to help people discover Seas of Snow, or carry on writing! I try to make my times on social media personally enriching and inspiring so that in turn that nourishes my soul and sets me up for writing when I get to that.
Kerensa Jennings
The original inspiration for Seas of Snow started many years ago when I was leading the BBC News coverage of the Soham case. I worked closely with the Cambridgeshire Police and through the twists and turns of the investigation, became fascinated by the question of whether evil was born or made. Getting an insight in the mind and motives of a psychopath was profoundly affecting, and as the story of what happened in that case horrified the nation, it touched and horrified me.
Mulling over the way our minds work led me to want better to understand our psychological make-up. So I went on to train and qualify as an Executive Coach. The coursework covered research and practical work in differing fields of psychology. I found it so intriguing I went on to qualify as an MBTI practitioner and also an Executive Coach Supervisor.
So the seed at the start of Seas of Snow was a process of catharsis, wanting to find closure in some way for the emotional impact working on that case for so many months had on me. I wanted to investigate whether evil was born or made, which is the question at the heart of Seas of Snow.
My story takes places in the 1950s and there is a very bad man - Uncle Joe; and a little girl - Gracie.
It's a story of trust, friendship, love... and what happens when that trust is broken. The shattered dreams. The consequences.
It's also a story about the transformational effect reading and writing can have on a person. Being able to escape into flights of fantasy, immerse yourself in a whole different world, learn to process your feelings and the behaviours of others... the power of literature as the best self-help on the planet. Gracie falls in love with poetry and it is her passion for diving into the depths of words - their meaning, their sounds, the way they interplay and weave - this passion which sustains her through heartbreaking torments in her life.
There are numerous other inspirations and inputs from a whole array of experiences and observations throughout my life. I was a journalist and TV producer for many years. I have always been a curious person, fascinated by the world around me.
I am also someone who writes every day, and always have done. For decades I have been writing words for others (I have written for and directed a wide range of people from Sir David Frost to the actor James Nesbitt to Sir David Attenborough and singers Alex James and Billy Bragg). Now I am emerging as a writer in my own right. I hope readers will find my work touching and thought provoking.
Mulling over the way our minds work led me to want better to understand our psychological make-up. So I went on to train and qualify as an Executive Coach. The coursework covered research and practical work in differing fields of psychology. I found it so intriguing I went on to qualify as an MBTI practitioner and also an Executive Coach Supervisor.
So the seed at the start of Seas of Snow was a process of catharsis, wanting to find closure in some way for the emotional impact working on that case for so many months had on me. I wanted to investigate whether evil was born or made, which is the question at the heart of Seas of Snow.
My story takes places in the 1950s and there is a very bad man - Uncle Joe; and a little girl - Gracie.
It's a story of trust, friendship, love... and what happens when that trust is broken. The shattered dreams. The consequences.
It's also a story about the transformational effect reading and writing can have on a person. Being able to escape into flights of fantasy, immerse yourself in a whole different world, learn to process your feelings and the behaviours of others... the power of literature as the best self-help on the planet. Gracie falls in love with poetry and it is her passion for diving into the depths of words - their meaning, their sounds, the way they interplay and weave - this passion which sustains her through heartbreaking torments in her life.
There are numerous other inspirations and inputs from a whole array of experiences and observations throughout my life. I was a journalist and TV producer for many years. I have always been a curious person, fascinated by the world around me.
I am also someone who writes every day, and always have done. For decades I have been writing words for others (I have written for and directed a wide range of people from Sir David Frost to the actor James Nesbitt to Sir David Attenborough and singers Alex James and Billy Bragg). Now I am emerging as a writer in my own right. I hope readers will find my work touching and thought provoking.
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