Ask the Author: Sam McColl
Answered Questions (7)
Sam McColl
Good question. Without giving it much thought The Time Traveller's Wife springs to mind - it was so sad when he went, the whole thing was so clever and sad, and touching and genius. I believed in this couple, in the crazy unlikeliness of the whole thing. I believed in the way they behaved - the way they loved and fought, finally caught up with each other, the pain and joy of it all and the terrible loss - I really did. I only read it once, I'm not sure I really understood it all, but I still think about it. And I never even liked the cover. My husband and I are designing a new jacket for Shuffle and title, and bring it out in paperback - I think about how much I disliked the cover of the Time Travellers Wife and how much I loved the book, and wonder why it matters so much :) This is going to be on my mind now, so I'll be picking it up again when I think of others, but for now - I hope this is food for thought - what is yours?
Sam McColl
I don't. I force myself to sit down at my computer. I'd rather do anything else at first, but mostly once I start I'm okay. I do often have my favourite books (open at random pages) cover my desk top. I may read a few lines - think 'there you are, Sam, that's pretty simple - just write the next thing...'
Sam McColl
A new novel called Adam, which I've partly described in my first answer.
Sam McColl
Just start. One page at a time, one day at a time. Revise revise revise - the simplest sentences may well have taken the longest time to get right. Cut out all the clever stuff - just say it as it is. Show us the story...
Sam McColl
Lawd. Working in my own time. Occasionally writing something that surprises me. Always having something to do, but this also could be thought of as the worst...
Sam McColl
I don't like to label days when I might only write a few words - writing a good novel is sooo hard, I'd rather write nothing and do a bit of editing, than imagine I am blocked. I've never gone along with the 1,000 words a day - it's arbitrary - a little good, relevant writing is to me worth far far more.
Sam McColl
Ideas are a strange and wonderful thing. I tend to think about ideas as similar to finding a piece of stone I like, and then chipping away at it until it becomes mine - something I know and understand, but it starts rough. I thought I'd like to write a book in letter form. I wanted it to between two teenage boys. They had to have a reason to write, so they had to be separate some of the time. They had to write rather than email - thus 1980s. Gradually a picture began to form in my mind. Two misfits, an Indian boy and a scholarship boy meet at boarding school and form an unlikely friendship, that spans 20 years until one dies...
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