Ask the Author: Ruth Estevez
Answered Questions (6)
Ruth Estevez
The best thing about being a writer is being in another world and being another person. I can live a different life and explore different ways of living and being.
I can also use my brain when trying to work out the plot.
And I can work from home.
Oops...there are many great things about being a writer and I'm beginning a list!
Just thought. The best thing about being a writer is when a reader loves the world and people you create.
I can also use my brain when trying to work out the plot.
And I can work from home.
Oops...there are many great things about being a writer and I'm beginning a list!
Just thought. The best thing about being a writer is when a reader loves the world and people you create.
Ruth Estevez
Ideas, people and places inspire me.
It's like being a detective, whatever the genre you're writing in and you want to work things out. If they do this, why does someone else do that? If she says that, what does her friend say? What does her enemy say?
I suppose, questions inspire me. The basic ones - Who? What? Where? When? Why?
On a daily basis, as I said in another question, writing is my job. I'm thinking about my characters and the story every day. They inspire me to write!
It's like being a detective, whatever the genre you're writing in and you want to work things out. If they do this, why does someone else do that? If she says that, what does her friend say? What does her enemy say?
I suppose, questions inspire me. The basic ones - Who? What? Where? When? Why?
On a daily basis, as I said in another question, writing is my job. I'm thinking about my characters and the story every day. They inspire me to write!
Ruth Estevez
I got the idea for Jiddy Vardy in a bookshop in Robin Hood's Bay. A friend lived there, and I used to visit her there loads. There was a second hand bookshop with piles of books on the floor, shelves like a maze. On a rainy day, you could spend hours in picking out books. There was a section of local history books and leaflets bye the cafe. I bought, 'A Rum Do!' by a local writer, Patricia Labistour. It was all about smuggling in the area. There were three pages on a female smuggler called Jiddy Vardy. It caught my imagination and my book is very loosely based on her. She wasn't a local girl and the idea of 'fitting in' and 'belonging' as well as smuggling fired me up.
Ruth Estevez
Read all sorts of books, in and out of your comfort zone. Take note of what you like and don't like in the writing.
Keep a notebook for bits of conversation you hear, thoughts you have, ideas, places. Any bits of inspiration.
Join a writers' group for support and for learning about what is out there - competitions, workshops, who is looking for what, where and when. Listen to the critiques on your work without responding. Think about what is said afterwards and whether you agree or not. Remember, you are the expert on your writing but others can help. Just don't lose your voice in all the other voices.
See the world, whether it is the world on your doorstep, or across the planet. Breathe in smells, hear sounds, taste food, touch walls and grass and tables and use it all in your writing.
Write. If nothing else. Write.
Keep a notebook for bits of conversation you hear, thoughts you have, ideas, places. Any bits of inspiration.
Join a writers' group for support and for learning about what is out there - competitions, workshops, who is looking for what, where and when. Listen to the critiques on your work without responding. Think about what is said afterwards and whether you agree or not. Remember, you are the expert on your writing but others can help. Just don't lose your voice in all the other voices.
See the world, whether it is the world on your doorstep, or across the planet. Breathe in smells, hear sounds, taste food, touch walls and grass and tables and use it all in your writing.
Write. If nothing else. Write.
Ruth Estevez
I've just been asked if I'm writing a sequel to Jiddy Vardy. I have the idea for a prequel about Jiddy's mother, Maria, so I am in the research stage of that as it is historical YA and will be set in Italy and France.
However, right now, I am in the middle of writing 'The Monster Belt,' a completely different story, set on the Balearic Island of Formentera, just south of Ibiza and a village in Yorkshire. Harris is desperate to find a sea monster and Dee is desperate to get away from all the weird things that she constantly runs into. Might be something to do with the fact that she lives within The Monster Belt and Harris doesn't. Problem is, they're difficult to confine. If they're in your head, will you take them wherever you go?
However, right now, I am in the middle of writing 'The Monster Belt,' a completely different story, set on the Balearic Island of Formentera, just south of Ibiza and a village in Yorkshire. Harris is desperate to find a sea monster and Dee is desperate to get away from all the weird things that she constantly runs into. Might be something to do with the fact that she lives within The Monster Belt and Harris doesn't. Problem is, they're difficult to confine. If they're in your head, will you take them wherever you go?
Ruth Estevez
I treat writing as a job. If I don't feel creative, I do research, re-look at structure or I edit chapters I have already written. They are jobs that require different skills to the creative writing and so I can do them when I have a 'block.'
If I work on character, write a descriptive piece about setting or describing a character, then that usually brings back inspiration.
Some people say, 'oh, stop whinging and just get your bum in the chair and write!' That can work too. It's about stopping your judgmental, anxious head and just getting on with it!
So, I don't class myself as every having a 'block' because there is always something I can do.
And for those times when I just don't know where it's going, I head off for a walk or have a bath. Amazing the way problems are solved when you relax!
If I work on character, write a descriptive piece about setting or describing a character, then that usually brings back inspiration.
Some people say, 'oh, stop whinging and just get your bum in the chair and write!' That can work too. It's about stopping your judgmental, anxious head and just getting on with it!
So, I don't class myself as every having a 'block' because there is always something I can do.
And for those times when I just don't know where it's going, I head off for a walk or have a bath. Amazing the way problems are solved when you relax!
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