Ask the Author: Tracey Scott-Townsend
Answered Questions (8)
Tracey Scott-Townsend
I sit down at my desk and dig about in my mind. I haven't really suffered from writers block since I developed discipline in my practice. But sometimes it's harder than others.
Tracey Scott-Townsend
It means you can be who you are. You can use every experience you have. That helps me to cope with life.
Tracey Scott-Townsend
Everything inspires me to write. Things I see, feel or hear and things I've experienced.
Tracey Scott-Townsend
Just write. Write anything. If you're stuck, sit and look around you and describe what you see. Get it down and keep going until it's finished. Don't try to make it perfect until the first draft is completely finished, and then go back to the beginning and edit. Then go back to the beginning and edit again, and then do the same again. Show it to lots of people and accept their feedback. Don't be too 'precious' about your own words.
Tracey Scott-Townsend
I'm currently working with my editor on my fifth novel, The Foam of the Sea. It's the story of a woman who meets her former lover on a ferry to the Outer Hebrides, 30 years after they split up. The idea was inspired by an online video of two artists meeting again after a similar period of time, in a performance during which they had to sit and stare at each other without speaking for a full 60 seconds. I was originally going to call my novel Sixty Seconds and I carry this theme through the whole novel. The theme of The Foam of the Sea is refugees- of one kind and another, and the idea of parallel possibilities.
Tracey Scott-Townsend
My roughly-drafted WIP is called The Vagabond Mother. It's inspired by my son who has been living as a modern day tramp - by choice - for the past several years. In my book a mother searches for her son and also takes up his low-impact, homeless way of living. In doing so she discovers her true self. This is something I'd kind of like to do myself but don't think I'd have the courage. The novel is heavily informed by accounts of this alternative lifestyle by all three of my sons, who have each travelled extensively.
Tracey Scott-Townsend
Hi Susannah,
I'm so sorry that I've only just seen this message - terrible, I know! The answer would have been yes, definitely yes! I'm disappointed that I missed it. If the question is still relevant, pleas do use the review.
Thanks for asking,
Best,
Tracey
I'm so sorry that I've only just seen this message - terrible, I know! The answer would have been yes, definitely yes! I'm disappointed that I missed it. If the question is still relevant, pleas do use the review.
Thanks for asking,
Best,
Tracey
Tracey Scott-Townsend
Thanks for this question, JS.
I feel my writing style in Another Rebecca is consistent with that in The Last Time We Saw Marion in terms of settings and environment. I pay close attention to elements that I hope will bring the reader right into the situation with the character.
But in this book I employ first person narratives in the present tense for my three main characters. That holds the reader within their mindset immediately as things happen, and I think it makes the experience sharper.
In The Last Time We Saw Marion, Sarah is a first person narrator, but tells us of events mainly in the past tense. And I tried to hold the character of Marianne at arms' length because she was so dissociated from herself and I wanted the reader to feel like that too.
The tone of Another Rebecca is more vulgar than that of The Last Time We Saw Marion, because two of the main characters are constantly at each other's throats. There's a lot of bitterness and anger. I was actually quite shocked at the constant swearing of the characters when I read it through for the final proof-read. But it feels good that it did shock me because, to me at least, the characters did come across as real. They're like something off the Jeremy Kyle show!
I hope the young Rebecca balances this out though, with her naivety and simple honesty.
I hope the atmosphere of the book is as successful as reviews and comments about The Last Time We Saw Marion suggest that was. I try to use words like brush-strokes of paint, in an impressionist style, to conjure up a sense of place and the feeling of being in that place. I try to go by the 'less is more' model for putting across emotion.
One of the best examples of this I ever read was from 'Brother of the more famous Jack' by Barbara Trapido. "My baby had a mob cap," says a character whose baby has died. That was all she needed to say. I try to keep that in mind whenever I'm writing about something sad. And I do write about a lot of sad things.
I feel my writing style in Another Rebecca is consistent with that in The Last Time We Saw Marion in terms of settings and environment. I pay close attention to elements that I hope will bring the reader right into the situation with the character.
But in this book I employ first person narratives in the present tense for my three main characters. That holds the reader within their mindset immediately as things happen, and I think it makes the experience sharper.
In The Last Time We Saw Marion, Sarah is a first person narrator, but tells us of events mainly in the past tense. And I tried to hold the character of Marianne at arms' length because she was so dissociated from herself and I wanted the reader to feel like that too.
The tone of Another Rebecca is more vulgar than that of The Last Time We Saw Marion, because two of the main characters are constantly at each other's throats. There's a lot of bitterness and anger. I was actually quite shocked at the constant swearing of the characters when I read it through for the final proof-read. But it feels good that it did shock me because, to me at least, the characters did come across as real. They're like something off the Jeremy Kyle show!
I hope the young Rebecca balances this out though, with her naivety and simple honesty.
I hope the atmosphere of the book is as successful as reviews and comments about The Last Time We Saw Marion suggest that was. I try to use words like brush-strokes of paint, in an impressionist style, to conjure up a sense of place and the feeling of being in that place. I try to go by the 'less is more' model for putting across emotion.
One of the best examples of this I ever read was from 'Brother of the more famous Jack' by Barbara Trapido. "My baby had a mob cap," says a character whose baby has died. That was all she needed to say. I try to keep that in mind whenever I'm writing about something sad. And I do write about a lot of sad things.
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