Naomi Heartbreak

#PennedPossibilities 953 What author(s) did you dislike at first but grew to enjoy reading?

Jane Austen. I tried to read Mansfield Park when I was 18 and just didn't get what was interesting about a bunch of rich people, their clothes and little dogs. Subsequently I kind of got the point of all the subtle social things going on. But I haven't read any of those books for ages so I can't really remember.

#WritersCoffeeClub 9/3: Do you prefer to write complex, intricate plots, or more straightforward ones?

The more complex the better usually.

#WordWeavers 2/3: Do you write scenes out of order?

No. That does not work for me. When I write it's all about the story developing and growing as it unfolds - one thing leads to another, or rather multiple things intertwine and interrelate, the story grows in many directions. I did once write a scene way ahead of where I was in the story because it was to be pivotal and I was obsessed with it, but when the story caught up, that prewritten scene was flat and dead and did not fit at all.

#ScribesAndMakers 2/3: Do you know your story ahead of time?

Yes and no? I know the kind of POINT of the story - like why I'm writing it, the idea I aim to express through it - but I couldn't possibly know the whole story. That's way too big to know. And I have learned from writing a bunch of books that you need to leave space for the story to become itself while writing. At this stage I want to not know the story because the ideas I have as I go along will make it so much greater.

#PennedPossibilities 944 — Have you ever written anything while inebriated that you later ended up keeping in your WIP?

I gave up inebriating substances in 1996, long before I completed any books, so, no.

#WritersCoffeeClub 28/2: How well did this short month go for you, in terms of writing?

Pretty good. I wrote 14 songs and 'won' FAWM. But there is still one day of February left, so I might even write a 15th...

#FAWM #ScribesAndMakers

#WordWeavers 27/2: Which of your characters do you find especially interesting? Why?

Oh dear. I can't get on with the writers' questions today! If I find one of my characters especially interesting, does that mean the others are less interesting? If any character I write is uninteresting, then my job as the writer is to fix that! All characters are interesting. They have to be.

#WritersCoffeeClub 27:2: Do you edit while you write? What are the pros and cons?

I don't understand any other way of writing. Before we write we think about what we are going to write - that's planning - and after writing we read it and check we actually wrote what we hoped to, change as necessary. When writing something big, like a fiction book, you have to read what you previously wrote so the next bit works with it, and you might have to change the old to fit the new. There are no cons.

#WordWeavers 26/2: Who in your book is most like a real person you’ve loved irl?

Lucy's husband Maciej is mostly conconcted from parts of my partner, but not the most endearing parts. It's more an idea of 'what if?' Her son Patryk is quite a lot like my daughter, but also very different. I can only write about people based on my experience of people, and my own feelings, occupations and observations. So all my characters are drawn from my impressions of real people.

#ScribesAndMakers 26/2: Do you abandon creative projects? If so, how do determine when to abandon them?

I prefer not to but I have given up on things, more usually experimental things I'm trying out - things I don't normally do. I can definitely give up on a song I'm trying to write if it's not working, cos songs are little - you can just come up with another. But I have never not finished a book. That's kind of a policy.

#WritersCoffeeClub 26/2: Does your current WIP have an antagonist? Why or why not?

Nope. I have never thought about story in that way. I wish more people would talk about other ways to think of story than those they seem to teach in American schools (?). I never learned about writing in any school, but from reading loads and loads of stories. I think the interest in stories comes from a constant imbalance that tips the characters on to the next thing. It's not much to do with opposing forces.

#WritersCoffeeClub 25/2: What’s a unique habit you have while writing?

Well I don't actually know if any of my habits are unique - it seems unlikely - but I take as much care over word/language finding for a first draft as any and I read everything I write (sentence, but also paragraph, scene, chapter) as soon as I've written it. And revise/edit. A lot of this ends up getting chopped/changed in later revisions but that does not matter. I can't think the story unless the language is right.

#WritersCoffeeClub 24/2: What’s your greatest challenge in fleshing out your setting?

As a writer, I can't even with 'fleshing out'. Metaphors are meant to make you imagine things that help you get the idea of something. That 'fleshing out' thing is not something I want to imagine. It's gnarly, and it does not in the slightest help. Get past that, and I'd say the hard part is the geography, or topography - like how does the character get from here to there? Where is that in relation to this?

#WordWeavers 22/2: Have you ever created a character that you really didn’t enjoy writing?

No, but I found writing Malcolm in Rum very difficult because he is in the role of 'bad guy' some of the time and he is kind of the opposite of me. I rewrote those parts of the story the most because it was so hard to get that character right.

#WordWeavers 21/2: What part of editing is the hardest for you?

I love revision and editing. I guess the hardest part is the final stage of spotting the tiny errors. You never get them all, the little devils! I don't really mind doing that part though because it's an excuse to read the book again (and again).

#WordWeavers 20/2: What tropes are in your current project?

I don't really know anything about tropes. Maybe when I've written some more of the book I might spot some, but I probably won't cos I'll just be focusing on the story and how well it's working. As I understand it, some people choose tropes deliberately to fit with their genre, and some avoid tropes so as not to be predictable or naff. This book doesn't really have a genre and it might be naff but it definitely won't be predictable.

#ScribesAndMakers 20/02: What's a misconception that bothers you in popular media?

A thing I disagree with is the idea that some people are born better than others and therefore 'deserve' a 'better' life. This is called meritocracy and the ruling classes use it as a way of justifying their humungous greed and their great disdain for the poor. In literature it manifests as the 'chosen one' thing of which I steer completely clear in my books.

#WritersCoffeeClub 19/2: What's your biggest challenge when crafting a satisfying ending?

I've never had any trouble with endings. They tend to find themselves without much effort. The ending that arrives is usually much better than I could have planned at the start. Beginnings though. It's so important for the beginning to be right and there are many different angles to choose between. I usually kind of go into it with reckless abandon and rewrite entirely (several times) in revision.

#ScribesAndMakers 19/2: Our featured creator is an avid gamer. Does gaming affect your creativity?

Not really. I don't do any, though I have in the past, a little. I did write a song about candy crush once, and one of my books has video games in it. The Cliffhangers. I come from a generation where computers and gaming were incredibly gendered - almost exclusively boys gamed, girls pretended to be interested, or that was my experience. I find video games basically very boring.

#PennedPossibilities 935 — What are your writing goals for 2026?

Get my book written or on its way to written. There are some other things I might do if I feel like it - don't want to say 'goals' at this point. Like republishing my books, getting a new website, going to book fairs, or preparing to do that next year. Plenty of stuff. And the next book...

#PennedPossibilities 934 — Do you have a book cover for your WIP?

Nope. I have an idea in mind though. The book is called Grace and Grace is a horse, so it will most likely be a picture (probably a photoshopped photo) of a suitable horse.

#ScribesAndMakers 18/2: Our next featured creator has done her own book covers. Have you ever or would you ever do your own cover?

I have done all my covers. If I were a very successful author I would pay loads of money for amazing cover art, but as it is I reckon I can do them well enough. I'm OK at design.

#WordWeavers 18/2: Can your MC carry a tune?

No idea. I mean, she's a primary school teacher, so she ought to be able to (primary school teachers teach music and ought to be singing with the kids regularly, but lots of them don't). It's not going to be relevant to the story (probably) so we will never know.

#WritersCoffeeClub 18/2: How balanced are your finished works? What do you do to achieve that balance?

As balanced as they can be. Balancing is what revision is about. I do a LOT of revision. I read and revise all the time while writing, but you can't get the balance right until the draft is complete. I read and revise the whole thing 20 or 30 times - I've never actually counted. And there are many, many things to balance, depends entirely on the story.

#WritersCoffeeClub 14/2: Share a short paragraph (3-5 sentences) of raw prose: the more unpolished, the better. Everyone: What’s the most prominent signature in this draft?

This is an interesting way to think about writing. That we begin with something 'raw' and then 'polish' it sentence by sentence. I don't think many people write this way. 3-5 sentences of my 70,000 word story would never contain any kind of 'signature'. One hopes. It would be completely meaningless out of context.