Are writers obsessive-compulsive? Overly superstitious? Or do habits and rituals provide security for writers who never know where the next idea, or the words to write it, will come from?
Searching for clues to the secrets of writing, Suite 101 has an exclusive interview with Trisha Ashley who is known for her romantic comedies, such as Every Woman for Herself, Singled Out, A Winter's Tale and Wedding Tiers. A Winter's Tale was recently shortlisted for the Melissa Nathan award for romantic comedy, which was a great honour. These titles are published by Avon, Harper Collins. Trisha also currently has a paperback out with Severn House, called Happy Endings.
Trisha shares the secrets of her writing habits...
How much research and plotting do you do before you're ready to write a book?
I do a lot of research but not much plotting. My novels are character-driven and written in first person: I get to know my heroine (in fact, I become my heroine) then place her in a situation and see what she does. It isn't usually what I would do in that situation and sometimes comes as a bit of a surprise. There are lots of plot threads, of course, to be woven in and out of the narrative.
What hours do you devote to your writing and what time of day do you prefer to write?
I like to start early, about six in the morning when everything is quiet. I like to write at least one thousand words a day, but it depends on what stage I am at. It can be more like three thousand as I get into the book. I only write at night when I have a deadline to meet!
Do you take breaks, and if so, what do you do during them?
I frequently go and make a mug of coffee and catch up with friends on email, Twitter or Facebook. I chat to a novelist friend on the phone most days and meet up with another every week or so to talk 'shop'. Sometimes I go in the garden and potter round pruning things, or tidying up the pots, or I go for a walk along the seafront.
Where do you write?
Mainly in my study, which is really the little boxroom upstairs.
What do you write with?
I write straight onto the computer.
...and why is that your preference?
I got a portable typewriter for my fifteenth birthday and learned to touch type, so I have always typed in my work, it seems natural to me. I graduated to first a word processor, then a computer.
Describe what you like to keep within arm's reach while you're writing.
A mug of coffee. My reference books. A pasting table to my right, spread with chapters and the workbook relating to the novel I'm writing. Behind it is a wall on which I stick all kinds of things connected in some way to the work in progress, from postcards and recipes to snatches of conversation on post-it notes.
Describe the things you can see when you look up from your writing.
On top of my monitor sits a small stone bear from Canada, a plastic cupid, an African lucky bronze frog and a tiny pewter Steiff teddy bear. On the wall behind is a very old, foxed bookplate with hand-gilded illustrations of bishops in full medieval regalia. To my left, the window shows me a lovely bay, with Puffin Island on one side and the Great Orme on the right.
What was the first thing you wrote which was published?
A truly awful poem in the local paper, when I was eleven. My first novel was a Regency romance in the early eighties.
What is your latest book?
Wedding Tiers from Avon, HarperCollins: Josie makes weird and wonderful wedding cakes and also tries to be as self-sufficient as possible with her garden, jam and wine making. Her rural idyll is shattered, however, and peapod wine proves to be her undoing. I made one of the wedding cakes she describes for my book launch, the Elizabethan pomander, using the recipe that is included at the back of the book. You can see a picture of it on my website where you can also email me, or sign up for my quarterly newsletter, Skint Old Northern Woman News.
Trisha was born in St Helens in Lancashire in England and now lives in North Wales. She says that being a quarter Welsh, she feels very much at home there. You can find out more about Trisha and her books from her website.
Janice Hally - Janice Hally has written more than 300 broadcast hours of prime-time TV drama in the UK, as well as fiction and non-fiction books.
