Sarah Lean

Author Interview:

When and how did you start writing?

My mum brought home a typewriter to type up scripts for the amateur dramatic society.  I was about ten years old at the time.  I remember standing by her shoulder and asking her if she would type my stories and made up some there and then.  I had a feeling that I cannot describe, a word that doesn’t exist in the dictionary.  It’s related to shiver, excitement, surprise, possibility, dawn, home, and love. I wrote stories now and then, hid them, sometimes showed Mum. 

Eight years ago I decided to attend University to study English because I wanted to be a teacher.  At the first session for creative writing our tutor asked us why we wanted to write.  I said, ‘Because my junior school headmaster said he hoped to see me in print one day’.  I suppose it was always there, I’d just forgotten. 

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

I read Andersen’s Fairy Stories – I still have the book; it’s very old and beautifully illustrated.  Enid Blyton, especially THE FARAWAY TREE. 

There’s an old fable that stands out to me, about a king with three daughters who couldn’t decide which one to pass his kingdom to.  He asked them to bring him a gift to show how much they loved him, to help him choose.  The youngest daughter brought salt, and he banished her until he realised its importance.  I have no idea why that stands out.

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

After studying English I stayed at University for another year to start an MA before teaching for two years.  It was hard, and I couldn’t forget that I still had one module and a dissertation to finish. So I went back.  Then, a character burst into life, singing and shouting that she wanted to be heard. 

A chance comment from a tutor at University.  A lucky meeting at Winchester Writer’s Conference. I wonder about coincidences and devotion. 

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

Haphazard!  I need to be more disciplined and organised. 

I write at the dining room table, because the window looks out on the garden.  It needs to be quiet, preferably with nobody else in the house, except the dog.  He often sleeps on the chair beside me (Harry’s a border terrier cross, if you’re wondering). 

If it’s warm, I’ll write in the garden because I love being outdoors. When walking or traveling I rehearse things again and again in my mind and can usually remember what I want to write about.

I often leave the house without my notebook and have to write notes on receipts and scraps of paper, questions about the characters and plot, phrases, speech that stands out.  It often surprises me when I come across the notes again, or when the dog has found them and chewed them.  I could definitely be more organised.

Inspiration is everywhere, just like stories.  For me, the key is to just look, just listen, wherever I am.  I watch people.  I listen to their vocabulary, try to understand what it tells me about them. 

Can you tell us about what’s coming next from you?

ANGEL’S FARM.  It’s still brewing.  I’m looking forward to having some time to really get cracking on it and inevitably it will change once it’s down.  Essentially the story is about what it means to be good. 

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

Don’t listen to that voice in your head which is convincing you that you’re not in the right mood to write, that other things are more pressing, that you’re not ready, the weather needs to be better.  Just keep going. 

Expect to get it wrong, again and again.  Practice is paramount, expect to learn, love learning. 

Don’t worry about where you are going.  It’s what you are doing right now that matters.  Trust your guts. 

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

Alvarez wrote, be ‘…alert to the false notes’.

Egri wrote, know the ‘…tri-dimensional character bone structure’.

Julia Churchill said, ‘Focus’.  Point that arrow and tuck in the sides (that’s my own translation, it makes sense to me). 

Which favourite authors would you invite to a dinner party? What fictional character do you wish you’d invented?

David Almond, so I could be in awe (no line has ever moved me more than one from HEAVEN EYES: ‘She must have come across the waste land above the river…’).  Somerset Maugham, so I could listen to him talk about a different era of society (I know some of these people are dead). 

How many am I allowed? 

Rachel Trezise (I love the Welsh accent – assuming she has one), Maya Angelou, Shakespeare (Let’s clear this up once and for all – you did write them, didn’t you?), Ted Hughes, Tolkein (we share a birthday), Harper Lee (Did you write anything else?  Did you just not let us see it?).  I’d probably be horribly gushy, so could I be a fly on the wall instead? 

I wish I’d invented either Gollum or Skellig; no, both.