Ask the Author: Lisa Graham
Answered Questions (6)
Lisa Graham
Creating. With writing, like many other other arts, you start with almost nothing at all. You have just your own imagination, pen and paper, your laptop or phone. You end up with a world you’ve created, and people who live in it, people you know inside out. The process of shaping this world and these people can be a wonderful immersion in places you love, ideas which fascinate you, or issues you’re passionate about. For the time that you’re writing you escape from your day to day concerns, and when you return to them you often have a different perspective. As you describe places and people, you learn to look and think closely about them, and as you plot themes and storylines, you reflect on what’s important to you, what you want to say beneath your story. On top of all that, of course, if you’re writing you must be someone who loves reading too. The idea of capturing a reader’s imagination and bringing them even a fraction of the joy that some of your favourite stories have brought you is a wonderful thing to aim for.
Lisa Graham
Start writing. Everything starts from a few scribbled notes, so capture what’s in your head, ideas, things that interest you, however scrappy to begin with. Gather these notes and digest them for a while. If an idea or a theme won’t leave you alone you have to write it. You’ll have to overlay a story structure, get practical about how and when you’re going to write, how and when you’re going to publish, but there are ways through all that and if you love your idea and want to do it enough you’ll find them. Reading about writing, going to a local writing group or writing festival is also very helpful in the early days, to hear about the doubts and challenges all other writers face, as much as for the helpful tips and support. The more you realise everyone has their own insecurities and hurdles starting out, the more you’ll begin to feel you have a chance, just like anyone else, of realising your ambitions.
Lisa Graham
Personally I don’t find writer’s block is any different from the way we probably all feel sometimes when we’re tired, a bit low or would simply rather not go to work. Writing’s not always easy, but I love it, and I do it in my leisure time on top of my day job. I find one of the nice things about writing is it’s all in my own hands, and in other areas of life that’s not the case. If I’m struggling to write one day, I can switch to another chapter, work out part of a plot, think up titles or even about cover design, and none of it’s time wasted. My main difficulty tends to come when I’m not fully happy with a plot element, and my solution for that is to scribble down all the options I can think of, step away, and see which feels right a day or two later. Dialogue is another great way through a tough patch. Your characters can say anything, and it’s fast and free-flowing to write, so they’ll often work out the knot for you without you knowing it!
Lisa Graham
Inspiration is everywhere, I don’t have trouble finding it, the challenge is selecting from among it! Places I visit, fascinating objects, snippets of conversation or themes I see in culture around me, they can all play a role. I take a lot of photos to capture anything that inspires me and jog my memory in the future, and I keep notebooks handy at home and on holiday for idle moments. Holidays are a great time to plot a new book. Something about being away from day to day commitments and somewhere new seems to free the imagination. Writing and publishing a novel is a long process, though, so I find I need to live with a theme or an idea for a while before I begin to write. I need to be sure I like a subject enough to spend a year or two thinking, writing and re-writing about it, and some ideas, whilst lovely, don’t necessarily run as deep as others.
Lisa Graham
The Art Trip is a romcom novel based around a school trip to Rome and Florence in the late Nineties, and it draws on some favourite themes and passions of mine. Like a lot of people, I have a great love of Italy and take trips there when I can. I studied history and art history, so revisiting some of the most memorable sites and works of art through my novel was a real pleasure. My school days loom large in my life, as they do for many of us. It’s such a formative time, and as the daughter of two teachers I have a little insight into life behind the staffroom door too. A dose of Nineties nostalgia was hard to resist, being in my thirties and seeing some of the trends in music and fashion coming back around again today. Hopefully the combination of these themes brings a few smiles to my readers, whether at memories of Italy, their own school days, Nineties wardrobes or cassette collections!
Lisa Graham
Having just launched my debut romcom novel The Art Trip, I’m taking a short time out from writing, but the idea for my follow-up novel is already taking shape. Coming up with the ideas and selecting the best is one of the parts of the process I most enjoy and it’s lovely to feel that I’m doing something constructive even when I’m looking out of the window! It’ll be another romcom, most probably a contemporary story in an urban setting. There’ll be a witty female lead of course, some strong themes from today’s culture, and I expect there’ll be at least a cameo role for a cat too!
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