Ask the Author: Guy Thomas Hibbert
Answered Questions (6)
Guy Thomas Hibbert
Hi Shirley. Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. My novel, set in south west France is at the editing stage, so watch this space!
Guy Thomas Hibbert
I enjoy writing about female characters. I'm not entirely sure why. I just find there is greater richness in the stories of women who have confronted and coped with their challenges in life. I mean that both in the everyday domestic sense as well as among those women who have achieved great things and are finally gaining the credit they deserve. I notice that many women have great inner reserves of courage which often goes unnoticed and unacknowledged in our society.
So I am using my own experiences of living in France and getting to know the intimacies of French provincial life as a backdrop for these sort of characters, (very much inspired and indebted to classics by Flaubert, Balzac, Bronte et al.)
So I am using my own experiences of living in France and getting to know the intimacies of French provincial life as a backdrop for these sort of characters, (very much inspired and indebted to classics by Flaubert, Balzac, Bronte et al.)
Guy Thomas Hibbert
I am working on a novel set in rural France which takes place over a forty year time span from WW2 to the 1980's. It is centred around a grand manoir in Southern France where the fates of two families become entwined. I have lived in a house and village like this so it makes sense for me, as I continue to learn my craft, to draw from my own experiences.
I had originally conceived and partly written it as a series of connected short stories set over a longer time-span, but as I progressed with the writing one of the central characters, a wilful and intriguing young woman, demanded my fuller attention and so I have now based the plot and events largely on her story.
I had originally conceived and partly written it as a series of connected short stories set over a longer time-span, but as I progressed with the writing one of the central characters, a wilful and intriguing young woman, demanded my fuller attention and so I have now based the plot and events largely on her story.
Guy Thomas Hibbert
I'm still aspiring so I wouldn't like to offer too much advice just yet!
Guy Thomas Hibbert
I get to play God, creating characters and scenes that interest me, then changing them when they go astray!
Seriously though, C.S.Lewis said "we read to know that we are not alone". This is one of the great truths about reading (and writing) and I try to create subtle stories and characters born out of my own experience that I hope will resonate in some way with my readers.
Seriously though, C.S.Lewis said "we read to know that we are not alone". This is one of the great truths about reading (and writing) and I try to create subtle stories and characters born out of my own experience that I hope will resonate in some way with my readers.
Guy Thomas Hibbert
I discovered the hard way that there is no such things as writers block.
Even on your bad days, your totally uninspired days, the moments you think "why am i doing this?", all you need to do is put down one word followed by another, one sentence followed by another. Just anything.
It's no different to looking at a mountain when you are down in the valley. It's easy to become despondent looking at how far you have to go or wondering whether you have the strength or courage. You just have to start by putting one foot in front of the other.
Once you do this then you will find one of two things will happen:
a) your writing is not very good that day, but hey, that's what re-writing is for.
or
b) miraculously, after the clunky stuff, sometimes the creativity kicks in and you are in the flow again
The Italians have a saying: "with food, comes appetite". I like that!
Even on your bad days, your totally uninspired days, the moments you think "why am i doing this?", all you need to do is put down one word followed by another, one sentence followed by another. Just anything.
It's no different to looking at a mountain when you are down in the valley. It's easy to become despondent looking at how far you have to go or wondering whether you have the strength or courage. You just have to start by putting one foot in front of the other.
Once you do this then you will find one of two things will happen:
a) your writing is not very good that day, but hey, that's what re-writing is for.
or
b) miraculously, after the clunky stuff, sometimes the creativity kicks in and you are in the flow again
The Italians have a saying: "with food, comes appetite". I like that!
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