Ask the Author: Lisa de Nikolits
Answered Questions (11)
Lisa de Nikolits
The floor is dissolving beneath me. The sea of concrete will engulf me as surely as I know the maw of terror that awaits.
Lisa de Nikolits
I just read The Lying Game by Ruth Ware and I would visit the Salten Boarding School for girls - I'm not sure it exists and I've tried to find it but I can't! So I'd go there, and to the Salten Marshes!
Lisa de Nikolits
In my case, I think the question should be "which mystery in your own life has been a plot for a book" and the answer would be The Nearly Girl!
I'm constantly geographically lost and directionally challenged. I nearly get a recipe right but then I veer off into my own version, convinced it will work better. I hop on a bus thinking, well, it's going south, I should be fine. I thought popcorn chicken actually was popcorn with chicken! So I started making popcorn salads and popcorn pancakes and popcorn broccoli. My husband pointed out the error of my ways but I still think my interpretation had potential!
And it's always been a mystery to me why I'm like this, why I can get things nearly correct but then they go oh, so wrong!
But I am boring and my mistakes are not interesting - failed recipes and learning the hard way that dish detergent really doesn't work to clean a bathtub and that NyQuill doesn't cure a migraine aren't things readers are interested in.
So I took my nearly-proneness and turned it into a disorder that leads to murder and mayhem.
Amelia is much more interesting that I will ever be and I am not ashamed to say that of all my books, I love The Nearly Girl the most because of the characters' eccentricities. Dr. Carroll is just nuts and he was huge fun to write. And I just love Henry, Amelia's father.
So a 'mystery' in my own life led me to write my favourite book and I am grateful for that!
Thank you very much for asking this question!
I'm constantly geographically lost and directionally challenged. I nearly get a recipe right but then I veer off into my own version, convinced it will work better. I hop on a bus thinking, well, it's going south, I should be fine. I thought popcorn chicken actually was popcorn with chicken! So I started making popcorn salads and popcorn pancakes and popcorn broccoli. My husband pointed out the error of my ways but I still think my interpretation had potential!
And it's always been a mystery to me why I'm like this, why I can get things nearly correct but then they go oh, so wrong!
But I am boring and my mistakes are not interesting - failed recipes and learning the hard way that dish detergent really doesn't work to clean a bathtub and that NyQuill doesn't cure a migraine aren't things readers are interested in.
So I took my nearly-proneness and turned it into a disorder that leads to murder and mayhem.
Amelia is much more interesting that I will ever be and I am not ashamed to say that of all my books, I love The Nearly Girl the most because of the characters' eccentricities. Dr. Carroll is just nuts and he was huge fun to write. And I just love Henry, Amelia's father.
So a 'mystery' in my own life led me to write my favourite book and I am grateful for that!
Thank you very much for asking this question!
Lisa de Nikolits
Absolutely! But sometimes I know that what I'm looking for is in there but it isn't coming to me, and so I go digging… I can't wait and let it come to me in its time, I put on my miner's hat, pick up my tools and go hunting for it! It's not that I'm impatient, I just know it's there and I want to find it. It's like treasure hunting!
Lisa de Nikolits
Dear Sheila, thank you for this question!
I'm a voracious reader of all kinds of novels and I always hope that the good ones will influence me – to become a better writer!
I never worry that I will come across an idea that I wanted to write about and find that it has already been written about, because each author's voice is so unique, we all bring a different perspective to the same idea.
I don't think there is any one writer I'd say who absolutely mirrors the genre I write, so I get to glean inspiration from all kinds of writers. I can relate to a bit of what one author did in one book and then to another thing, from a different book.
For example, I have recently been inspired by Jussi Alder-Olsen's work (I read all of his books that I could lay my hands on, I love the way he crafts a plot), I loved the nastiness and craziness of the characterization and plotting in Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and I also loved (most of) The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.
I'd say that those books were the nudging voices at the back of my mind while I wrote this first draft of Purgatory. I do find that different books speak to me when I am writing different books - my inspiration when writing The Witchdoctor's Bones was very different to these books listed above. (I posted a blog with the list pertaining to The Witchdoctor's Bones, here on Goodreads), in case you're interested.
It's sometimes frustrating, being such a stand-alone author, and have such different books - when people ask me what I write about, I can never sum it up in one sentence because each book is so different.
But on the plus side, I get to be inspired by all sorts of different writers and genres, from John Irving to Harry Crews to John Steinbeck to Annie Proulx and let's not forget Stephen King! I loved his earlier works more than I do his current ones but I still very much enjoy anything he writes.
Thank you very much for your question and I apologize that the answer is so long - I guess that's why I am a novelist and not the writer of poems or novellas!
I'm a voracious reader of all kinds of novels and I always hope that the good ones will influence me – to become a better writer!
I never worry that I will come across an idea that I wanted to write about and find that it has already been written about, because each author's voice is so unique, we all bring a different perspective to the same idea.
I don't think there is any one writer I'd say who absolutely mirrors the genre I write, so I get to glean inspiration from all kinds of writers. I can relate to a bit of what one author did in one book and then to another thing, from a different book.
For example, I have recently been inspired by Jussi Alder-Olsen's work (I read all of his books that I could lay my hands on, I love the way he crafts a plot), I loved the nastiness and craziness of the characterization and plotting in Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and I also loved (most of) The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.
I'd say that those books were the nudging voices at the back of my mind while I wrote this first draft of Purgatory. I do find that different books speak to me when I am writing different books - my inspiration when writing The Witchdoctor's Bones was very different to these books listed above. (I posted a blog with the list pertaining to The Witchdoctor's Bones, here on Goodreads), in case you're interested.
It's sometimes frustrating, being such a stand-alone author, and have such different books - when people ask me what I write about, I can never sum it up in one sentence because each book is so different.
But on the plus side, I get to be inspired by all sorts of different writers and genres, from John Irving to Harry Crews to John Steinbeck to Annie Proulx and let's not forget Stephen King! I loved his earlier works more than I do his current ones but I still very much enjoy anything he writes.
Thank you very much for your question and I apologize that the answer is so long - I guess that's why I am a novelist and not the writer of poems or novellas!
Lisa de Nikolits
I just keep writing! If I don't have a big idea to work on, then I write sentences, fragments (observations/poems) that I may or may not use later. My motto is 'write one thing a day' and I do - sometimes that thing is thousands of words, other times it's only a sentence. 'Just one thing a day' is how I do it, and I don't look beyond that or stress because I haven't written more. After all, novels are made up of one sentence after another!
Lisa de Nikolits
I love living in the fantasy land of make-believe! And when a story starts to really gel and come together, it's one of the best feelings in the world! And when people like (or even hate) your characters, they are relating to them in a real way, as if they were real people, and it doesn't get better than that! I love entertaining people too. I know, for me, that escaping into a good book is one of life's greatest pleasures and that I can offer that to a reader, is such an incredible gift. I know how much books mean to me, so to be part of the crowd who helps create them, well, I feel truly blessed.
Lisa de Nikolits
Study form and style. Find a mentor you trust. Don't be afraid to try an idea from a completely different angle, even if it means abandoning a beloved concept. You'll always have your first love in your heart, but you may find a relationship that is more fulfilling, when you try something new!
Lisa de Nikolits
I am working on a number of short stories and two novels. One of the novels is complete and I am revising the draft for the third time, and the other one is in the fledgling stages; I've only got a rough idea for the plot and I am crafting the characters and letting them 'come' to me! I love this bit! It's tremendously exciting because you really don't know what might happen or who might feature. I like to say that my door is always open to ideas and characters!
Lisa de Nikolits
I am inspired by dreams, by conversations I hear around me, by newspaper articles, by poems, by books that I read, by real life fiascos (real life is much stranger than fiction!). I get inspired travelling on busses or the subway or by travelling in a new country. I get inspired by daily life, by the boring things - I like to imagine boring situations going crazy!
Lisa de Nikolits
I went on an overland bus tour from Cape Town to Namibia and we came across a very poisonous bush and I immediately thought it would make an excellent murder weapon in a story! My initial plot has changed a lot since I first had the idea but that's where it all started.
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