Ask the Author: Serina Hartwell
Answered Questions (9)
Serina Hartwell
My favourite fictional couple have to be Romeo and Juliet.
Love is the most powerful emotion of them all. It can elevate you to heaven or cut you down and keeping you living in your own personal hell. Other emotions are promoted or demoted by love. Romeo and Juliet broke all the rules to be together. They denied their parent's their wish to keep the two families apart and instead brought them together through tragedy. This couple made the ultimate sacrifice to be together and that is something that I found moving and has always stayed with me.
Love is the most powerful emotion of them all. It can elevate you to heaven or cut you down and keeping you living in your own personal hell. Other emotions are promoted or demoted by love. Romeo and Juliet broke all the rules to be together. They denied their parent's their wish to keep the two families apart and instead brought them together through tragedy. This couple made the ultimate sacrifice to be together and that is something that I found moving and has always stayed with me.
Serina Hartwell
That's quite a list. Let's work through it, Saiprasad.
It never occurred to me to write until I became really sick. I made a full recovery, but it made me question what I was doing with my life. I wasn't happy at work and I had a missing piece from my life. Something that I just couldn't ever put my finger on. I'd been looking for it for 38 years and had changed jobs and careers many times in order to find it.
They always say that if you never put a racket in a child's hands then you may never find out that they were the next champion tennis player. This was the same instance for me. I had an old computer, but it was sat in an awkward place. Somewhere where I had to sit on the arm of the couch to use it. I didn't have a desk and sitting at the kitchen table with the computer was out of the question. I woke one day having just had a quite prolific dream, which left me with the overwhelming feeling that I should write. I'd just finished reading everything that Stephenie Meyer wrote and had run out of her work, leaving me hungry for something else to read, but she wasn't writing, because she was concentrating on her films. The thought occurred to me that I should write something of my own, so I borrowed my daughter's reconditioned second hand laptop and headed down to the bottom of the garden.
On that first day, I wrote the first chapter of Hidden. On the second day, I wrote the second chapter and I just kept on going. I knew immediately that I'd found the thing that was missing from my life and I haven't stopped writing everyday or doing something towards the writing since. That day was in August 2010. It turns out that I was born to be a writer. The realisation opened my life up in ways I cannot measure and I am so grateful that I finally found it.
I gain my ideas from all sorts of places. Life experience, watching people interact, I am a sucker for a documentary, so this inspires a lot for me, but I mainly take inspiration from random things that occur around me. That keeps the writing more interesting.
The hardest thing about writing is getting the work out there. As an author, my work is competing with the work of millions of other writers and it's really hard to stand out. Finding my work is like finding a needle in a haystack, so I spend more time promoting than writing these days. It's an unhealthy balance, but a necessary one, and one that I have to accept until my work is more widely known. It is a heavy burden that takes a lot of creative energy away from the writing and that's what I find hard.
I go through bouts of reading loads and then not reading at all. While I'm writing, I tend not to read, purely because I don't have time and don't want to be distracted by other people's work. Reading is always something I associated with my dad and my daughter. My dad was rarely seen without a book in his hand and his granddaughter has definitely followed in his footsteps. I never thought of myself as a reader, but I have always been one, when I think about it. When I look back to being a child, I spent all my time in the school library. I read constantly, and even went to the public library after school to do my homework. I used to walk home from school reading books and never once fell over or bumped into anyone. It's only when I thought back to these early days, I could see that it was always there. Always a part of my life.
Choosing my favourite authors is a difficult one. Having to choose between them is like choosing between your children. I would have to go with the ones who have inspired my work the most, I suppose. Stephenie Meyer taught me to create full characters. John Steinbeck taught me to be descriptive. Shakespeare taught me to be engaging and use hooks and create cliffhangers to leave your audience wanting more, while James Herbert taught me to get straight into the action. I would probably go with this list as my top favourites, not just because they influenced my writing, but because I enjoy reading their work too.
I hope I've covered all your questions there, Saiprasad. Thank you for asking them.
It never occurred to me to write until I became really sick. I made a full recovery, but it made me question what I was doing with my life. I wasn't happy at work and I had a missing piece from my life. Something that I just couldn't ever put my finger on. I'd been looking for it for 38 years and had changed jobs and careers many times in order to find it.
They always say that if you never put a racket in a child's hands then you may never find out that they were the next champion tennis player. This was the same instance for me. I had an old computer, but it was sat in an awkward place. Somewhere where I had to sit on the arm of the couch to use it. I didn't have a desk and sitting at the kitchen table with the computer was out of the question. I woke one day having just had a quite prolific dream, which left me with the overwhelming feeling that I should write. I'd just finished reading everything that Stephenie Meyer wrote and had run out of her work, leaving me hungry for something else to read, but she wasn't writing, because she was concentrating on her films. The thought occurred to me that I should write something of my own, so I borrowed my daughter's reconditioned second hand laptop and headed down to the bottom of the garden.
On that first day, I wrote the first chapter of Hidden. On the second day, I wrote the second chapter and I just kept on going. I knew immediately that I'd found the thing that was missing from my life and I haven't stopped writing everyday or doing something towards the writing since. That day was in August 2010. It turns out that I was born to be a writer. The realisation opened my life up in ways I cannot measure and I am so grateful that I finally found it.
I gain my ideas from all sorts of places. Life experience, watching people interact, I am a sucker for a documentary, so this inspires a lot for me, but I mainly take inspiration from random things that occur around me. That keeps the writing more interesting.
The hardest thing about writing is getting the work out there. As an author, my work is competing with the work of millions of other writers and it's really hard to stand out. Finding my work is like finding a needle in a haystack, so I spend more time promoting than writing these days. It's an unhealthy balance, but a necessary one, and one that I have to accept until my work is more widely known. It is a heavy burden that takes a lot of creative energy away from the writing and that's what I find hard.
I go through bouts of reading loads and then not reading at all. While I'm writing, I tend not to read, purely because I don't have time and don't want to be distracted by other people's work. Reading is always something I associated with my dad and my daughter. My dad was rarely seen without a book in his hand and his granddaughter has definitely followed in his footsteps. I never thought of myself as a reader, but I have always been one, when I think about it. When I look back to being a child, I spent all my time in the school library. I read constantly, and even went to the public library after school to do my homework. I used to walk home from school reading books and never once fell over or bumped into anyone. It's only when I thought back to these early days, I could see that it was always there. Always a part of my life.
Choosing my favourite authors is a difficult one. Having to choose between them is like choosing between your children. I would have to go with the ones who have inspired my work the most, I suppose. Stephenie Meyer taught me to create full characters. John Steinbeck taught me to be descriptive. Shakespeare taught me to be engaging and use hooks and create cliffhangers to leave your audience wanting more, while James Herbert taught me to get straight into the action. I would probably go with this list as my top favourites, not just because they influenced my writing, but because I enjoy reading their work too.
I hope I've covered all your questions there, Saiprasad. Thank you for asking them.
Serina Hartwell
Hello Adam, thank you for your question.
I only have Hidden published at the moment, however I am just in the process of getting the second book in the saga out - Trapped. I'm hoping to get this out before summer 2017.
I only have Hidden published at the moment, however I am just in the process of getting the second book in the saga out - Trapped. I'm hoping to get this out before summer 2017.
Serina Hartwell
Writers block is just an absolute part and parcel of being a writer. It's not something to be ashamed of, but is something to be accepted. There isn't just one cure for it and it varies for everyone. I usually find that it's down to outside influences like stress.
So far, I've not really run out of ideas, I've just found myself stressed out or distracted. Losing focus is the biggest problem I have to deal with. I do a number of things to get back on track.
When dealing with short term writer's block, I firstly switch off the TV. This is one of the biggest distractions for me, as I am a visual learner and so my attention is immediately taken by visual things. I switch off my social media too. Although I need social media to run my business, it can become a massive draw away from the work and hence another form of distraction. It takes a lot of my creative energy, which defeats the object of having it. I will do all my jobs before I start writing, so my mind isn't wandering off to the things I haven't done and finally, I will listen to Florence and the Machine. Her music cleanses my thoughts and takes me to the place in my mind where I write. I find using cleansing music is my most valuable tool. It enables me to block out everything else around me.
If the writer's block is caused by something more substantial, like stress, I will change my environment. Taking a break and getting more sleep is usually the best way forward for me. Changing the place where I write often helps too. Sometimes, changing around the room where I write can really help. My furniture can often be seen in different locations. A change is as good as a rest.
When all else fails, I address the source of the stress and usually take some time off from writing. I create all my own artworks, with the exception of the book covers, and find that turning my attention to these for a while will still keep me working on the project, but allows me some space to think and come back stronger. And I have some great artworks as a result as well.
So far, I've not really run out of ideas, I've just found myself stressed out or distracted. Losing focus is the biggest problem I have to deal with. I do a number of things to get back on track.
When dealing with short term writer's block, I firstly switch off the TV. This is one of the biggest distractions for me, as I am a visual learner and so my attention is immediately taken by visual things. I switch off my social media too. Although I need social media to run my business, it can become a massive draw away from the work and hence another form of distraction. It takes a lot of my creative energy, which defeats the object of having it. I will do all my jobs before I start writing, so my mind isn't wandering off to the things I haven't done and finally, I will listen to Florence and the Machine. Her music cleanses my thoughts and takes me to the place in my mind where I write. I find using cleansing music is my most valuable tool. It enables me to block out everything else around me.
If the writer's block is caused by something more substantial, like stress, I will change my environment. Taking a break and getting more sleep is usually the best way forward for me. Changing the place where I write often helps too. Sometimes, changing around the room where I write can really help. My furniture can often be seen in different locations. A change is as good as a rest.
When all else fails, I address the source of the stress and usually take some time off from writing. I create all my own artworks, with the exception of the book covers, and find that turning my attention to these for a while will still keep me working on the project, but allows me some space to think and come back stronger. And I have some great artworks as a result as well.
Serina Hartwell
The best thing is the freedom that comes with writing. To be able to take another on a journey fraught with danger, or filled with love and joy; to emotionally charge the reader and leave them wanting more is such a privilege.
Writing is the only place where I am truly in charge and to have that control is so empowering. Writing is an escape for me. It takes me to some wondrous places.
Writing is the only place where I am truly in charge and to have that control is so empowering. Writing is an escape for me. It takes me to some wondrous places.
Serina Hartwell
Don't give up.
Don't hear the word no, or listen to those who tell you that you can't.
Be the best at your craft that you can be.
If you want to be serious about writing, you have to know how to do it, so be polished with your grammar and punctuation, because they do count.
Expand your vocabulary. Start using a thesaurus.
You don't have to be the best speller in the world, but you do have to know how to use a dictionary.
As you come up with ideas, write them down.
Write everyday, or at least do something towards the writing everyday.
Don't wait to be inspired or you'll never write anything. Sit at your computer and see what comes. The writing will be freer and so will your imagination and you'll eat that way.
Don't write expecting to write the world's leading literary breakthrough, because you most likely won't, just write for yourself and enjoy it.
Pleasing yourself is the biggest thing you have to do, because we are our own worst critics, so don't be too harsh on yourself.
Listen to/read all your critique, take on board what makes sense and is constructive, but remember that critique that isn't constructive is just someone else's opinion, so decide what to take onboard and what to throw out.
Remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion. You don't have to agree with it, but you do have to respect it.
When you're running out of ideas, go do something else.
No shopping listing. We only need to know that your character is eating, not what's on the menu.
hope this helps.
Don't hear the word no, or listen to those who tell you that you can't.
Be the best at your craft that you can be.
If you want to be serious about writing, you have to know how to do it, so be polished with your grammar and punctuation, because they do count.
Expand your vocabulary. Start using a thesaurus.
You don't have to be the best speller in the world, but you do have to know how to use a dictionary.
As you come up with ideas, write them down.
Write everyday, or at least do something towards the writing everyday.
Don't wait to be inspired or you'll never write anything. Sit at your computer and see what comes. The writing will be freer and so will your imagination and you'll eat that way.
Don't write expecting to write the world's leading literary breakthrough, because you most likely won't, just write for yourself and enjoy it.
Pleasing yourself is the biggest thing you have to do, because we are our own worst critics, so don't be too harsh on yourself.
Listen to/read all your critique, take on board what makes sense and is constructive, but remember that critique that isn't constructive is just someone else's opinion, so decide what to take onboard and what to throw out.
Remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion. You don't have to agree with it, but you do have to respect it.
When you're running out of ideas, go do something else.
No shopping listing. We only need to know that your character is eating, not what's on the menu.
hope this helps.
Serina Hartwell
As writers often do and I am guilty of, I usually have more than one project on. Currently, I'm finishing up the second book in the saga - Trapped and will be looking to publish this before summer 2017. I'm also writing the ending to book 3 - The Awakening and planning and writing some of book 4 - Stay.
Serina Hartwell
Writing is something I have to do - I don't have a choice - but coming up with original ideas when you write all the time can be hard work. Inspiration is different for every writer. Some are inspired from one thing over another. I'm a little more random and instead prefer to go with whatever turns up on the day or wherever my mood takes me.
I will actively avoid seeing films or reading books if I feel that they might influence my writing at the time, because I want to create something as original as I possibly can. This is important to me. In the past, this has led me to picking random things and run with them.
I write ahead of my book releases, so I'm currently working on book 4 - Stay, but one example of using random inspiration can be seen in book 3 - The Awakening.
I like to walk part of my journey to work. Being a writer means sitting down a lot and being far too busy to exercise, so this is how I build in exercise. The advantage of walking to work is the walk itself. I live in a very small village in Yorkshire and have to walk through it to get to work. The village is very old. Some of the houses were built in the 1800's and it's clear to see where a road has been put through the village since some of the houses were originally built.
The pavement, as a consequence, is right on the boundary of some the houses, so I literally walk right outside the exterior wall of some. One day, I walked past someone's kitchen window. I do this everyday, but on this occasion the resident was inside their kitchen and I noticed that I was on the outside of the kitchen window, but literally a couple of meters away. There was nothing to stop me from standing there and watching the resident go about their business and there would have been nothing that they could do about it, because I was well within my right to stand on a public pavement. The idea that came to me inspired a whole chapter in the book and took me in a direction I never would have considered without it happening. It was a brilliant piece of inspiration and one that I'm really grateful for.
I do, like others, become inspired by music. I can listen to a song and write a complete story based on that one piece. In fact, this is my favourite way to become inspired. I use music to cleanse my distractions, to help me write action pieces or to feel emotionally charged when writing. Photography and artwork have the same effect. I can look at a picture and write a story based upon the images that come from the picture.
By not limiting my imagination and thinking outside of the proverbial box, I hope to keep my writing inspirational to others and to take my readers off in all kinds of directions.
I will actively avoid seeing films or reading books if I feel that they might influence my writing at the time, because I want to create something as original as I possibly can. This is important to me. In the past, this has led me to picking random things and run with them.
I write ahead of my book releases, so I'm currently working on book 4 - Stay, but one example of using random inspiration can be seen in book 3 - The Awakening.
I like to walk part of my journey to work. Being a writer means sitting down a lot and being far too busy to exercise, so this is how I build in exercise. The advantage of walking to work is the walk itself. I live in a very small village in Yorkshire and have to walk through it to get to work. The village is very old. Some of the houses were built in the 1800's and it's clear to see where a road has been put through the village since some of the houses were originally built.
The pavement, as a consequence, is right on the boundary of some the houses, so I literally walk right outside the exterior wall of some. One day, I walked past someone's kitchen window. I do this everyday, but on this occasion the resident was inside their kitchen and I noticed that I was on the outside of the kitchen window, but literally a couple of meters away. There was nothing to stop me from standing there and watching the resident go about their business and there would have been nothing that they could do about it, because I was well within my right to stand on a public pavement. The idea that came to me inspired a whole chapter in the book and took me in a direction I never would have considered without it happening. It was a brilliant piece of inspiration and one that I'm really grateful for.
I do, like others, become inspired by music. I can listen to a song and write a complete story based on that one piece. In fact, this is my favourite way to become inspired. I use music to cleanse my distractions, to help me write action pieces or to feel emotionally charged when writing. Photography and artwork have the same effect. I can look at a picture and write a story based upon the images that come from the picture.
By not limiting my imagination and thinking outside of the proverbial box, I hope to keep my writing inspirational to others and to take my readers off in all kinds of directions.
Serina Hartwell
As a child, I used to play in the grounds of an old mill with a group of friends. The mill was derelict and it was out of bounds, so the lure to play there was all the more attractive. I remember the broken windows and a doorway that had been bricked up. Some of the bricks had been removed where someone had broken into the mill, so when I finally decided to write my first book, I was taken back to the memories I had as a child where we would dare each other to go inside the mill.
I wasn't as brave as Bronte Hughes, however, she actually completes the dare. Although the story isn't based on me or any of my friends, it was set in a realistic setting and based on these early memories. The mill is still at the end of the street I lived on as a child and even more broken down than ever. I take my audience far beyond a dare in the mill. The journey I take the reader on conveys them on a fantasy journey to distant places. I encompass some of those childhood fantasies about the mill being haunted and I do take them into a paranormal world, but like all my work, I like to mix up genres and put a twist of my own on them.
It's hard for me to say that this is where I got the idea for my most recent book, because I visit the mill in more than one book, but the mill is the starting point for the huge unfolding adventure and it is the holder of many secrets.
I wasn't as brave as Bronte Hughes, however, she actually completes the dare. Although the story isn't based on me or any of my friends, it was set in a realistic setting and based on these early memories. The mill is still at the end of the street I lived on as a child and even more broken down than ever. I take my audience far beyond a dare in the mill. The journey I take the reader on conveys them on a fantasy journey to distant places. I encompass some of those childhood fantasies about the mill being haunted and I do take them into a paranormal world, but like all my work, I like to mix up genres and put a twist of my own on them.
It's hard for me to say that this is where I got the idea for my most recent book, because I visit the mill in more than one book, but the mill is the starting point for the huge unfolding adventure and it is the holder of many secrets.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more