Ask the Author: Sheena Lambert
Answered Questions (3)
Sheena Lambert
Hi Nicole!
It took me approximately a year to write each of my novels. From first picking up a pen, to having a final draft I am happy to show an editor, the process has been a 12 month one for me. But you can add months to that if you include all the time spent dreaming up the story and characters before I ever wrote a line.
I know from other writers' experiences that it can also be months (or years!) from the time you show your script to your agent/editor before seeing your novel on bookshelves - thankfully because THE LAKE was a HarperCollins digital first publication, I only had to wait less than six months, but that was fast!
Good luck with your own writing, and Happy New Year!
Sheena Lambert x
It took me approximately a year to write each of my novels. From first picking up a pen, to having a final draft I am happy to show an editor, the process has been a 12 month one for me. But you can add months to that if you include all the time spent dreaming up the story and characters before I ever wrote a line.
I know from other writers' experiences that it can also be months (or years!) from the time you show your script to your agent/editor before seeing your novel on bookshelves - thankfully because THE LAKE was a HarperCollins digital first publication, I only had to wait less than six months, but that was fast!
Good luck with your own writing, and Happy New Year!
Sheena Lambert x
Sheena Lambert
I have long been fascinated by the many manmade lakes that resulted from dams being built across the world in the last century particularly, and the drowned villages that lie beneath them.
In my home country of Ireland, a number of valleys were flooded to provide drinking water and electricity to urban areas in the mid 1900s. Having read accounts of the locals who had been forcibly uprooted from their homes and livelihoods in those valleys, I knew I wanted to set a novel in a similar landscape.
My characters were already living in my head - four adult siblings left to manage a family business after the death of their parents, and the setting and the story came together for me very easily.
In my home country of Ireland, a number of valleys were flooded to provide drinking water and electricity to urban areas in the mid 1900s. Having read accounts of the locals who had been forcibly uprooted from their homes and livelihoods in those valleys, I knew I wanted to set a novel in a similar landscape.
My characters were already living in my head - four adult siblings left to manage a family business after the death of their parents, and the setting and the story came together for me very easily.
Sheena Lambert
I have 3 ways to deal with writer's block.
If it's a small, plotting problem, I engage in some mind-numbing activity like ironing, or a treadmill work-out and usually the solution presents itself while my mind is free to wander.
If it's a bigger issue, I find that it helps to take a break from writing for a few days, and spending that time reading instead. Reading time is never time wasted for a writer.
But if whatever I am working on is simply not working at all, then the best advice I have is to try writing something completely different. This is why I like to have two, very different, writing projects on-the-go concurrently. In my case, it is most likely to be a play and a novel, but it might also be a short story or a screenplay. If one just isn't working for me, I'll change tack and write the other. I find that the very different approach required for plays and prose mean that the problems I'm experiencing with one don't usually leak into the other.
If it's a small, plotting problem, I engage in some mind-numbing activity like ironing, or a treadmill work-out and usually the solution presents itself while my mind is free to wander.
If it's a bigger issue, I find that it helps to take a break from writing for a few days, and spending that time reading instead. Reading time is never time wasted for a writer.
But if whatever I am working on is simply not working at all, then the best advice I have is to try writing something completely different. This is why I like to have two, very different, writing projects on-the-go concurrently. In my case, it is most likely to be a play and a novel, but it might also be a short story or a screenplay. If one just isn't working for me, I'll change tack and write the other. I find that the very different approach required for plays and prose mean that the problems I'm experiencing with one don't usually leak into the other.
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