The 'What If?' Approach

 

“If you don't have a unique voice,then you're not really a writer.” – Kate Atkinson

 

Born in York, England on Dec. 20, 1951Atkinson is three-time winner of one of Britain’s most prestigious awards– the Whitbread Book of the Year prize.  The author of 13 novels,two plays and a short story collection, she said her favorite approach to writing is to start with the “What If” factor andadvance from there..

 

“Alternate history fascinates me,”she said, “(just) as it fascinates all novelists, because 'What if?' is the bigthing.”   Honored by Queen Elizabeth for “Servicesto Literature,” she is noted for works filled with “wit, wisdom and subtlecharacterization,” and for works with “surprising twists and plotturns.”  

 

While all of her books have earnedacclaim, she is best known for her stand-alone novels Behind The Scenesat the Museum and Life After Life and her seriesfeaturing private investigator Jackson Brodie, adapted into a BBC seriescalled Case Histories.   Her latest in that series is thisyear’s Death at the Sign of the Rook.  

 

“I usually start writing a novelthat I then abandon,” she said.  “When I say abandon, I don't thinkany writer ever abandons anything that they regard as even a half-goodsentence.  So you recycle.  I mean, I can hang on to a sentence forseveral years and then put it into a book that's completely different from theone it started in.”