Ask the Author: Claire Watts
Answered Questions (8)
Claire Watts
The publisher asked me to write Natural Disasters. It's an interesting subject and there are so many stories to tell so the research was very interesting.
Claire Watts
Elizabeth and Darcy are top of the pile for me because they're so real and so flawed that you know they're going to carry on having and interesting life together long after you've read the last page.
Claire Watts
A boy knocked on my front door once, a long, long time ago, when I was seventeen. He asked if he could film our garage door. I was dressed up in a green silk mini dress belonging to my mother and I hid behind the door, said “yes” and shut the door. That's more or less what happens to my two characters, Kate and Joe, in chapter one of my book. It always seemed like it should have been the beginning of something.
Claire Watts
I fill my head with stories! I read a lot and I let my mind wander, particularly when I'm walking my dogs or if I'm lying awake at night.
Claire Watts
I currently have one book at a second draft stage, one ready to send away to prospective publishers/agents and I'm about to start plotting something completely different from anything I've written before. I'm not going to give anything away, as it's still forming in my head, but I'm going supernatural this time.
Claire Watts
Write! And finish what you're writing. I spent far too long starting things, getting bored or disillusioned and moving onto something new. I don't think you can really call yourself a writer until you have a whole thing, poem, song, novel, short story, whatever, complete, polished and satisfying. The real problem is actually letting go, being able to say, 'Right. That's it. It's finished.'
Claire Watts
Writers sometimes say that an idea has just come to them, they didn't think it up, they simply snatched it out of the ether. Sometimes it does seem like this, as if the story is leading you. It's a meditative thing, I suppose. You've delved deep into your subconscious and something unexpected has turned up. It's magic!
Claire Watts
I find the best way to deal with getting stuck is to stop writing and go and do something completely different. Taking my two dogs for a walk often works. Theoretically I suppose I could take paper or a recording device with me in case a solution presents itself, but I don't, I just let my mind wander and sometimes don't think about the problem at all. When I get back to my desk the answer has often come to me.
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