Scribble, scribble, scribble...
By Andrea Preston
I wrote my first story when I was seven. My cousin kept tadpoles in a bowl in the garden. I wanted some; alas, Mum was not keen on frogs and that idea was strangled at birth. So, I did the next best thing. I wrote a story about them. I realised I could have anything I wanted, be anything, do anything, go anywhere I liked, if I wrote about it. Sixty years on I’m still doing it.
I’ve no idea where my writing talent comes from. I was adopted at three months and have no interest in anything that happened before December 1955 when my beloved parents collected me from a foster mother in Shrewsbury, so the source of my skill remains a mystery. However I came by this skill I am eternally grateful because it has been the backbone of my life.
From writing about tadpoles, I progressed to Gerry Anderson characters – Steve Zodiac, Troy Tempest, all the Tracy brothers…none were safe from my pen. I didn’t like having to wait a week for the next episode of Fireball XL5, Stingray or Thunderbirds but if I picked up a pen and a sheaf of paper I didn’t have to. Later it was school stories, then sagas involving favourite actors (I remember writing a novel with a main character based on Bruce Lee and my best friend reading it during a lecture then bursting into tears because I’d killed him off; fortunately, the economics tutor was a bit gormless and didn’t notice). I set novels in industrial backgrounds, wrote about my current hobby horses and used settings which included my favourite parts of Britain, especially the West Country. It was sheer indulgence, and I’ve loved every minute of it.
For many years I have written novels, and more recently also magazines, self-published them on whatever computer I had at the time and sold them to friends and neighbours to raise funds for charities: the RNLI, the Children’s Society and the Dougie Mac hospice in North Staffordshire.
When I moved to Tewkesbury in 2021, I decided I was not going to print copies anymore because the cost of cartridges and postage was silly, and I didn’t want to start taking anything from my incomings to pay expenses so now everything goes out as email attachments. I lost a few customers but gained a couple. One of my new customers is a verger at Tewkesbury Abbey.
Often, I am asked where my ideas come from. I have no idea. I don’t mean that to sound flippant, I really don’t know. They just pop into my mind. But I do everything I can to encourage them.
I’ve loved films since my student days and found them a great source of inspiration. Actors by their nature make great character crib-sheets – they have flexible faces and can be fitted into almost any scenario. I have no TV, but I recently watched back-to-back Bergerac on catch-up TV because I wanted to base a new character on John Nettles. I ended up with a Somerset man who I named Tom Priddy, and I let Mr Nettles keep his West Country accent! Sometimes a person I meet fleetingly on a train or bus will spark a character in my mind. I once pinched a bus driver, slimmed him down a bit, knocked twenty or so years off his age and set him up as an explorer with a passion for South America. I had to remember not to say, “Good morning, Chris,” when I boarded his bus (I think his name was Ken).
“Right then, muse, send me something!”
That sorts out the characters; what about the plots? I never waste an experience. Good, bad or indifferent, all can be used. Over the years my characters have experienced redundancy, bereavement and family arguments. Some have suffered hardships I know only by proxy – death threats, serious accidents and homelessness. Twenty years ago, I started writing a series of thrillers about an American cop and you wouldn’t believe what I’ve put him through over the course of a dozen novels. When I get the urge to write another novel (and I know when it happens because I become fidgety and restless) I go for a long walk and imagine opening a door in my mind then I say, “Right then, muse, send me something!” And she does. Every time.
I love books but not necessarily the most popular ones. I love music but definitely not the most popular works. By writing about characters who also read these books and listen to this music I get the company of people who share my interests; that’s a bonus.
Settings are easy. Whenever I’ve travelled round the UK, and I’ve travelled a lot believe me, I’ve carried a camera. I have six large crates of prints in my bedroom (it’s a frequent joke that I had to move to a bigger flat to accommodate all my photographs) and when I set a novel in a particular place all the background I need is there, in the room next door. If I haven’t visited a place for a while and think it might have changed, I make this an excuse to hop off for the day, or maybe a couple of nights, so I can mooch about and soak up the atmosphere, not to mention picking the brains of locals about any new aspects of the place.
Do I plan? Or just start writing and see where it leads me? That depends. I used to plan in detail, but I found I was forever crossing out my notes and scribbling in the margin, so it all became unreadable. Now I usually write a one-sentence synopsis of each chapter and take it from there. Sometimes the plot changes as I'm writing. On one occasion I discovered who the main character's mystery father was...and I hadn't known that when I started writing the story - I had intended to let him remain a mystery!
"You don't hook your reader in the first chapter, or the first paragraph, you hook them in the very first line."
Before I sit down to write I try always to have the first line in my head. It doesn't matter if I don't, though, because I discipline myself to write anyway. Anything will do, it can be changed or deleted later; the main thing is to write something. The act of putting words onto paper or screen is enough to get the creativity flowing. I once heard this remark, made by a successful writer on a radio programme - "You don't hook your reader in the first chapter, or the first paragraph, you hook them in the very first line." Now I try always to provide a beginning which makes the reader want to read on. For example, I started one novel this way: “I didn’t think Francis would have chosen to live in Cheltenham,” I said to my still lovely dark-haired wife.
That gives the reader three questions:
1. Who is Francis?
2. Why has he moved to Cheltenham?
3. Why is the narrator surprised? How well does he know Francis?
Hopefully this spurs the reader to read on.
I hope that by sharing my experiences over a sixty-plus year writing career this will interest, and possibly help, someone who has decided to start writing their own story.
While a writing course or tutor can give us the tools for the craft, they can never tell us what to write. That must come from inside. Always remember that whatever you write it will be special. It will spring from your own unique experience. Nobody else has anything like that advantage.
In the next article I will deal with being published.
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