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 buy now Suzy Greaves new book The Big Peace: How to Find Yourself without Going Anywhere is out September 2009. She talks to The London Writers' Club about her style of writing and the tips that get her through. Suzy will be speaking live at the London Writers' Club on September 15. Suzy, where do you write? Everywhere. On the bus, on the train, while the kettle is boiling. My greatest challenge is finding all the bits I’ve written on backs of envelopes/in 987 different notebooks.. What time of day do you write? I write whenever I have 5 minutes but I do my serious editing in the evenings. I’m not a morning person but a night owl. Before children, I would stay up all through the night and finish articles. Now, I tend to nap in the afternoon and write up ‘til midnight. Who is your favourite writer? Novelist: I love Sarah Waters (Fingersmith) Self Help; Martha Beck (Steering my Starlight) makes me laugh out loud. And Roald Dahl and his kid’s stories. I love his quirky, funny stories. The one book I really wish that I had written is, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. It’s my all-time favourite book. What are you writing now? Now that I've finished the Big Peace I’m doing a re-write of my first book Making The Big Leap with new steps/new case histories – I’m relaunching it in March. What was the best advice someone has given you about writing? Shah Husain, oscar nominated screenwriter (www.narrativesonline.com) was my writing guru for a while and she told me to write whenever I had 5 minutes versus waiting ‘til I had an hour/day free. What’s the best thing about being a writer? Finishing an article or a book. I find writing very, very hard. I’m an arch procrastinator so when I actually finish something, I’m amazed, I actually managed to write something at all with all my cunning ways of getting out of it. My house is never cleaner than when I have a deadline. What’s the worst thing about being a writer? Being shut in a room with my inner pessimist who tells me I’m no good/can’t write for toffee/that people will laugh and point when they read it. What inspires you to write? There is so much brilliant stuff out there – inspirational/life changing. I just want to share it all. I can get a bit over enthusiastic at times but really, I truly believe that a self help book can really change your life. It certainly has mine. What are your secret writing rituals? Clean the house, tidy out all my cupboards, bath the dog, make a cup of tea, make another cup of tea, do some weeding, do anything other than write until the pressure of not doing it becomes worse than actually sitting down and writing. Then I write long hand standing up and pretend I’m not really doing any writing until I’ve got into a flow and then I’ll get on to the computer and type. I often work using an egg timer. I persuade myself that I will only sit down for 15 minutes until the egg timer rings. Often I will go on to write for longer but it’s gets me writing. The other secret is creating a structure. Once I have a structure – I work more quickly and easily. I use index cards and stick them up on my wall and when I come to write a section of the book, I’m not just writing random chunks and I know where they are going to go. What did you most love about writing The Big Peace? I got to interview some of my all-time real heroes and self development gurus - from Marianne Williamson to Byron Katie. It was also amazing to be inspired to live and 'find' my own Big Peace - which feels like the only journey for me to be on right now. And the hardest stuff? I always find writing hard. I'm locked in a room with my inner pessimist who sneers at every word - 'who will want to read this stuff? Why would anyone be interested in what you have to say?' He says. Especially as I'm interviewing all these amazing self help legends. But I take my own advice, and just write another paragraph. And do it anyway. I think that's the key - it's no good just reading about it, you have to do the practices, live it as well as just read about it. We spend years at college and university to 'earn' our qualifications, we spent hours in a gym to get a buff body, why shouldn't we spend some time working on practices that keep our minds and soul happy and healthy too? |
| Posted: 09/09/2009 13:46:34 Last Updated: 09/09/2009 14:52:02 |
Chick Lit > Non-Fiction :: Suzy Greaves