Ask the Author: Elizabeth Woodcraft
Answered Questions (7)
Elizabeth Woodcraft
If you write something that other people enjoy, it is a very satisfying experience. But sometimes, the writing itself is enough, putting down on paper feelings, experiences, ideas - it's like having a conversation with a great listener!
Elizabeth Woodcraft
Who is my favourite fictional couple? That's a tricky question. First off I would say Dinah's husband in The Echoing Grove by Rosamond Lehmann, because their story is based in the politics of the Spanish Civil War, which chimes with my own political views. Unfortunately that relationship doesn't get much of a look-in in the book itself. But I suppose my favourite romantic fictional couple is to be found in Precious Bane by Mary Webb - Prue Sarn and Kester Woodseaves. In an area where few people can read and write Prue and Kester help another couple conduct a relationship through love-letters, and in those love-letters they develop a relationship of their own. Mary Webb constructs the letters so skilfully you almost laugh out loud at how clever and romantic they are!
Elizabeth Woodcraft
I grew up in Chelmsford, and in my teens I was a mod. It seemed to me that working class mod girls and their lives and their friendships had had a pretty raw deal in fiction, so I thought I would make a story of some of the things that happened to me. And the result is Beyond the Beehive.
Elizabeth Woodcraft
Sometimes something odd or quirky happens and you have to sit down somewhere and make a note of it. I was in a boulangerie in Paris recently and when I asked the man serving what bread he had he began to dance along the counters, singing about each type of loaf on sale. So I went home and put it in a story. It could have been a story on its own really. Other times it's just something you think you must put down on paper because it feels important. Or funny.
Elizabeth Woodcraft
I'm just about to publish Beyond the Beehive, which is a continuation of the stories of two of the girls in my last book A Sense of Occasion. It's all about female friendship in the 60s with a backdrop of some great music. I'm thinking of writing a playlist - perfect for any party. The list would start with Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs. If you don't know the record, listen to the latest Aldi advert! It's there.
Elizabeth Woodcraft
Just do it. Write, write, write. Then read what you've written and see if you can improve on it - or if, as sometimes happens - you think 'That's really good!'
Join a writing group or a class, not to be taught to write particularly, but to give yourself the space and the permission to write.
Join a writing group or a class, not to be taught to write particularly, but to give yourself the space and the permission to write.
Elizabeth Woodcraft
I usually do a Sudoku! But sometimes I make myself write, a word or a sentence and I find I have an idea - a character or a situation.
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