Ask the Author: Fanny Blake
Answered Questions (7)
Fanny Blake
Friendship is the central theme in With a Friend Like You. In this instance, I watched two friends of mine falling out over someting one of their children was supposed to have to another. That was the spark. In With a Friend Like You, I wanted to see how far you could push a long-term very close friendship between two women. I wanted to see if, once they had stopped speaking to each other altogether, whether it would be possible for them ever to be friends again. How would this war between the women affect their families? If they could recover from the rift, would their friendship have changed? Answer: Yes!
Fanny Blake
All sorts of things inspire me - could be a conversation with a friend, something I've read in the newspaper or a magazine, something I've seen on TV, being on holiday - anything, really. Sometime ideas just surface when I'm walking - I've no idea where they come from. The subconscious is a mysterious thing.
Fanny Blake
I've just finished a new novel, House of Dreams. It's set in southern Spain and is about a brother and two sisters who return to their family home after their mother's death. Over the course of a long weekend, all sorts of family secrets tumble into the open that will make them question themselves, the choices they've made and where their future lies. It should be out this November.
Otherwise, I'm just plotting and planning a new one but it's too soon to talk about it.
Otherwise, I'm just plotting and planning a new one but it's too soon to talk about it.
Fanny Blake
Read as much as you can. Try to analyse how novels you particularly like are put together, how scenes and characters work. And write. It may sound obvious but it's much easier to talk about writing than it is to actually do it. So it's a question of getting your bum on that seat every day and not giving up until you've got to the end of whatever you're writing. It may help to give yourself a target every day too. You don't have to write much, but you do have to write something just to keep the idea alive and the pages mounting up.
Fanny Blake
Being able to listen to other people’s overheard conversations and calling it research.
Fanny Blake
I've never had real writer's block which lasts for ages. But if I get stuck then I go for a walk. For some reason ideas float up from my subconscious that often move the story on or give me a conversation between two characters, so that by the time I get home I can inch the plot or the character forwards.
Fanny Blake
Hi Fleur, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it. Thank you. But of course I eavesdrop on public transport! Doesn't everybody?! But seriously, yes I do listen to kids talking in the street but I suppose more importantly I rely on memories of my own three children and their friends, or of other teenagers in my friends' families. And if I'm worried about getting the voice wrong then I ask one of them what they would say or which word they'd use. I also finds it helps watching TV soaps - listening to them gets my ear in too.
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