Ask the Author: Louise Dean
Answered Questions (6)
Louise Dean
Pain. I couldn't get round it so I had to write it. Then it became not my own, and it's easier to help 'someone else' ie fictional, and when you help 'someone else' your own pain dissipates. Oh yes, and anger too. St Augustine suggests we get inspired by two daughters one is courage and the other is anger; anger at the way the world is and courage to change it. When I re-read The Grapes of Wrath this summer, it became clear to me that the novel is still and will always be a powerful means of change. if it only works at the level of one person at a time, it also works completely profoundly.
But to be honest I don't think about my reader when I write. I write for the person or people I love more than me, and for myself to make myself better to be better able to help them. It works for a bit, then it stops working, so you write another book.
The idea as in the vehicle, changes weekly for me. The need to write it, and the love part, stays so you just change from motorbike to bus, to plane to train and so on until you find a ride that's fast enough.
But to be honest I don't think about my reader when I write. I write for the person or people I love more than me, and for myself to make myself better to be better able to help them. It works for a bit, then it stops working, so you write another book.
The idea as in the vehicle, changes weekly for me. The need to write it, and the love part, stays so you just change from motorbike to bus, to plane to train and so on until you find a ride that's fast enough.
Louise Dean
A combination of sorrow and admiration. I want to put down that there was someone or something worth living for, worth dying for. I want to get that down on paper. I find a way to a story slowly and messily and clumsily. It begins with someone who needs help....
Louise Dean
Hello. I am currently writing my fifth novel 'live' and 62 writers are looking over my shoulder as I do, online. Another quite renowned writer friend told me the idea of doing it that way was 'mad'. So I thought I would. I'm working on the most difficult novel I've ever tried to write, from a female perspective to a classic novel form - prolonged suffering to eventual enlightenment - but the subject matter is hard going so I've had to make it wretchedly funny. Title still up for grabs but will be sharing at Kritikme.com when it's there. Writing 'live' keeps you focussed!
Louise Dean
That's easy! Books, books, books. But if you want to learn a trade, properly, you do an apprenticeship. It's funny people think that writing is the only craft you don't need to study and learn! I wouldn't be keen on a doctor that thought that, or a plumber. If you want to turbo-charge your learning, find a writing teacher has been writing a while, who has read a lot of books, and whose writing you like. Economize, abbreviate and elevate that process at Kritikme.com.
Louise Dean
Hello, please forgive me for my answer, but as you probably know we prefer to write as opposed to speak because we like to consider things carefully and express them carefully. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this, some twenty years, and the very best of my thoughts on this and so many other aspects of writing are all kept at Kritikme.com for the Novel in 90 Plan which you can sample, or check out the answer to this and more at www.kritikme.com/blog. Once you've read that I'd be more than happy to answer any specific questions. Briefly, though, it's occasionally and rarely being so very moved you don't know whether to laugh or cry and in moments like those life has extraordinary meaning and poignancy. You write to keep that moment in a jar.
Louise Dean
Hello, please forgive me for my answer, but as you probably know we prefer to write as opposed to speak because we like to consider things carefully and express them carefully. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this, some twenty years, and the very best of my thoughts on this and so many other aspects of writing are all kept at Kritikme.com for the Novel in 90 Plan which you can sample, or check out the answer to this and more at www.kritikme.com/blog. Once you've read that I'd be more than happy to answer any specific questions. Briefly, though let me say there is no such thing. You wait. You read. You write. Then repeat. If you're truly blocked after repeating that exercise then there are three things which may occur to you of which two might be true. 1. The idea stinks 2. The main character stinks. The third one is not true. I hope you can guess what it is. Come and check us at at kritikme.com.
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