Helen Douglas

Author Interview:

When and how did you start writing?

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t write. Even as a young child, I used to head off to my room to write stories. The first time I attempted to write ‘the novel’ I was a student at university. Since then, I’ve always had a project on the go.

Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? Who were your childhood storytelling heroes?

As a young child, I was a huge Enid Blyton fan. I loved THE FARAWAY TREE and all the magical lands at the top of the tree. And the MALLORY TOWERS books made me long to go to boarding school. There weren’t many books for teens back then, so at about twelve I moved on to accessible ‘grown-up’ writers such as Daphne Du Maurier and John Wyndham. As an older teen, the books that made the strongest impression on me were Sylvia Plath’s THE BELL JAR, LESS THAN ZERO by Bret Easton Ellis and BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY by Jay McInerney.

Can you talk us through your career so far? What were the key moments?

I collected several rejection slips in my twenties. One agent told me that she loved my characterization and style, but ‘in a work of this length, readers usually expect a plot’. Fair comment: there was no plot. So I went on to read everything I could about plotting. The second effort was a murder mystery with a lot of plot, but far too many words. For me it was third time lucky.

The idea for EDEN came to me suddenly and I knew I had to write this story. Another key moment was finishing the first draft. It took three months and although I knew it needed a lot of work, I felt I’d written something I really liked. Signing with Julia was a very exciting milestone, especially since The Greenhouse was my first choice of literary agency.

Getting my first offer was probably the most exciting moment of all. I was on the M5 with a coach full of teenagers heading back to Cornwall after a theatre trip to London. I missed a call from Julia telling me I had an offer and that she had emailed me the details. I had no email access and the battery on my mobile was very low, so I had to wait several agonizing hours to get the details. And signing with Bloomsbury of course, because that was when I knew that EDEN would one day be read by more than family and friends.

Describe your writing day. Where do you write? How do you organise your time? Where do you look for inspiration?

I’m definitely a morning person. A writing day begins at 5am. I write from then until 6:30 which is when the rest of the household wakes up. I need absolute silence, so I write in my tiny office with the door shut. I’d love to be able to write to music, but I can’t, though I often listen to a track before writing a scene. Inspiration never comes when I’m looking for it; it’s always unexpected. It might be a line in a book I’m reading. Something someone says on the radio. An image. A lyric in a song. The way the light falls over a landscape.

Are there any tips you could give aspiring writers who are looking to get published?

Live a full and interesting life. Finish a draft before you start rewriting or you’ll probably end up with a very polished first chapter, but no book. Read a lot. Write a book you’d love to read. Oh – stick to ‘said’ for speech tags.

Can you describe three aspects of writing craft that have been most important as you’ve developed as an author?

1.  Outlining. In the past, I loved the voyage of discovery that you get when you start with an image or a character and you just write and see where it takes you. But that’s why my earlier efforts had unwieldy word counts and scenes that didn’t go anywhere. Outlining really does help with pace and plot.

2.  Cutting. It’s painful cutting away thousands of words and hours of work. But if you suspect a scene is a bit boring or not one of the most exciting parts of the book, you’re probably right!

3.  Getting the first draft written quickly. Earlier novels took me two or three years to complete and I lost my enthusiasm for them. I think the reason I enjoyed writing EDEN so much was because it only took a few months and the story and characters remained fresh.

Which favourite authors would you invite to a dinner party?

Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Lord Byron. Shakespeare. Jon Krakauer. Enid Blyton. Suzanne Collins. And Jay McInerney because he’d probably bring a fantastic bottle of wine.

What fictional character do you wish you’d invented?

Bunny from THE SECRET HISTORY by Donna Tartt. He’s such an entertaining, clever and obnoxious character. And Mrs. Danvers from REBECCA by Daphne DuMaurier because she’s super scary.