Why?
Why write?
I wish I could say it is something I did since I was a child but it isn’t - although I have kept a journal since I was 12 if that counts. I started about 3 years ago. I just wanted to see if I could.
I read a book review on Goodreads recently and the reviewer quoted a creative writing lecturer who had said “Write to express, not impress.” I identified with that phrase. I also read somewhere that someone said (can’t remember who) that they write because it’s cheaper than therapy. I’m not sure about that but I agree that it can be cathartic.
Why YA?
Adolescence is such a crucial and interesting time in one's life. I look back on it fondly. I remember feeling everything so intensely - the joy and the pain. Little did I know it wouldn't last. You never get that back as a grown up. I think that's the appeal for me. The writer Mark Haddon said something similar. He said (of adolescence) 'the temperature is higher and it is often going horribly wrong'. That's worth writing about. Call me crazy but if I was given the option to travel back or forwards in time (temporarily and knowing what I know now, of course), I would probably go back to the year I turned 16.
Why Romance?
Good question.
As a teenager, I remember my best friend used to read Mills and Boon while I steered clear of anything remotely romantic - apart from the stuff I HAD to read for English Literature (i.e., Shakespeare and the usual classics). So why on earth have I chosen romance as my main subject to write about?
The first romantic novel I read by choice was a fluke. It was Twilight and, believe it or not, I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. (I thought it was going to be about vampires!) The next novel was One Day by David Nicholls. That said, (oddly) my favourite book of all time is The Passion by Jeanette Winterson, which is a lesbian romance set in Napoleonic France.
PD James, the crime writer, said that she believes a writer doesn’t choose the subject, the subject chooses the writer. She then went on to admit that she has always been fascinated (and possibly fixated) with death.
I suspect that, for human beings, all roads lead to those two destinations, anyway (love and death).
Unlike my friends, I have never dreamt of meeting Prince Charming and I have never dreamt of the white dress or ‘that’ special day. I remember a friend at school who was never seen without her glossy wedding magazine. All that was alien to me - still is. I don't fit in to 'that' world. I am someone who is on the outside looking in and I admit I am genuinely curious - fascinated even. I realise this probably makes me sound strange. Okay, makes ME strange.
I suppose what put me off romantic novels was the fluffiness. Some fluff is okay - necessary even - but too much fluff is nauseating. When I write, I do try to ease up on the fluff. That said, I write romance and my novels 'do what they say on the tin'.
Why now?
Why not?
I wish I could say it is something I did since I was a child but it isn’t - although I have kept a journal since I was 12 if that counts. I started about 3 years ago. I just wanted to see if I could.
I read a book review on Goodreads recently and the reviewer quoted a creative writing lecturer who had said “Write to express, not impress.” I identified with that phrase. I also read somewhere that someone said (can’t remember who) that they write because it’s cheaper than therapy. I’m not sure about that but I agree that it can be cathartic.
Why YA?
Adolescence is such a crucial and interesting time in one's life. I look back on it fondly. I remember feeling everything so intensely - the joy and the pain. Little did I know it wouldn't last. You never get that back as a grown up. I think that's the appeal for me. The writer Mark Haddon said something similar. He said (of adolescence) 'the temperature is higher and it is often going horribly wrong'. That's worth writing about. Call me crazy but if I was given the option to travel back or forwards in time (temporarily and knowing what I know now, of course), I would probably go back to the year I turned 16.
Why Romance?
Good question.
As a teenager, I remember my best friend used to read Mills and Boon while I steered clear of anything remotely romantic - apart from the stuff I HAD to read for English Literature (i.e., Shakespeare and the usual classics). So why on earth have I chosen romance as my main subject to write about?
The first romantic novel I read by choice was a fluke. It was Twilight and, believe it or not, I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. (I thought it was going to be about vampires!) The next novel was One Day by David Nicholls. That said, (oddly) my favourite book of all time is The Passion by Jeanette Winterson, which is a lesbian romance set in Napoleonic France.
PD James, the crime writer, said that she believes a writer doesn’t choose the subject, the subject chooses the writer. She then went on to admit that she has always been fascinated (and possibly fixated) with death.
I suspect that, for human beings, all roads lead to those two destinations, anyway (love and death).
Unlike my friends, I have never dreamt of meeting Prince Charming and I have never dreamt of the white dress or ‘that’ special day. I remember a friend at school who was never seen without her glossy wedding magazine. All that was alien to me - still is. I don't fit in to 'that' world. I am someone who is on the outside looking in and I admit I am genuinely curious - fascinated even. I realise this probably makes me sound strange. Okay, makes ME strange.
I suppose what put me off romantic novels was the fluffiness. Some fluff is okay - necessary even - but too much fluff is nauseating. When I write, I do try to ease up on the fluff. That said, I write romance and my novels 'do what they say on the tin'.
Why now?
Why not?
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