Recent weeks have been all a go-go with all sorts of exciting things. First, the elusive author of W&P (me) was delighted to be asked to appear on the terrifying-but-brilliant Neil Prendeville show on Ireland’s 96fm. Happily, and in spite of all the fear, I managed not to give away to the 100,000+ listeners that I was basically bricking it. Hurray! I’m not sure if there is a podcast. I will try to post it if so, although it gives away my real identity in a big way. Oh, well. It was probably the worst kept secret in the Alps anyway!

Then I was chuffed to be invited to blog about my experiences as an author on whatsyourlifelike.com. Here’s the interview I gave to the What’s Your Life Like founders, Warren and Nick:

Tell us about you, and what it is you exactly do?

I’m never sure how to answer that question. I am a writer, though what I write varies a lot. Sometimes it is humourous fiction, sometimes non-fiction, occsionally script things, sometimes very serious stuff. The book I am working on at the moment (under my real name) is an academic history of humanitarian intervention in nineteenth century West Africa. I’m spending quite a lot of time reading and writing about some of the most horrific crimes against humanity imaginable. Very dark stuff, and quite a departure from the season misadventures of War & Piste!

I also do a bit of editorial work with a London publisher, the odd random lecture, some sports photography and am not averse to the occasional ski season. Bit of a mix, really – including ‘notoriously intermittent blogger’…I’m working on sorting out that last one.

Tell us a bit about your recent book? What was the inspiration behind the book?

War & Piste is the story of a winter season in a fictional Austrian resort. It’s a diary of life in a small town, perched on the side of an Alp, getting into all sorts of ski and non-ski related scrapes with a bunch of complete lunatics, which I think for anyone who has ever spent time in the Alps will sound familiar. It was inspired by my own love story with the Alps. I went out for one season many years ago, expecting to go back to ‘real’ life soon after. Those five months changed all my priorities and led to some of the most lasting and important friendships of my life.

I decided in 2008 that it was time to stop trying and failing to explain the magic and misery of season life to my friends back home. It was time to show them. War & Piste was the result.

What inspired you too take the plunge and decide to go through with writing it?

I’d been thinking for ages about writing something season-related – a blog, a newspaper column maybe – and I had a moment of clarity one evening in a pub in St Anton.

‘I’m going to write a novel about all this,’ I told Poppy, waving vaguely at the room, the baggy-trousered snowboarders lining up Jager shots on the bar and the snowy trees just visible through the window and the smoky haze.

‘Brilliant plan,’ she said. ‘Please call the main character after me?’

She’s regretting that now, because she got a whole novel’s worth of seasonaire shenanigans attributed to her!

Deciding to write a novel and going through with it were very different things. I was lucky in that I had an eight-month window from the end of that season in April to the beginning of a long-term contract in October, so I used that time to write the first draft. I had committed to it, so I never really doubted that I would see it through. But I had my moments of wondering if I was up to the challenge, that is for sure. I think most writers do, certainly all the ones I have ever spoken to.

Tell us a bit about what its like to actually write a novel?

It’s daunting, then exciting, then hard work, then brilliant fun, then incredibly frustrating, then horribly daunting and intimidating, then suddenly brilliant fun again… It goes on like this for some time.

I can’t speak for all authors, but I can tell you about my story-creating technique. The kind of fiction that I want to write is character-driven, so I always work on my characters first. I really put a lot of thought into these people that I will write my story around. I don’t rush this part, because I want to give them whole personalities and that means slowly fusing personality traits together into something quite real.

At this stage, I spend a lot of time mumbling to myself – this is possibly a sign of being a nutter, but it is also vital to the process. Knowing how each character speaks it vital – their accent and attitude, the sorts of words they choose to make a point. Dialogue between characters is often where you win or lose in the battle to make your reader forget they are reading a story. If you get it right, they are immersed in your world. Get it wrong, and the novel is totally crap.

Then I make a skeleton outline of the whole story, then go into each section, then each chapter outline, reworking and adding until I am pretty sure I know what will happen in every scene. I think my visual imagination works faster than my composing brain does. The feel and imagery of the story come so much faster than I can select the ‘right’ words to convey it to a reader, so I try to scribble and sketch the essence of things into an outline before I begin work on actual sentences. I see an imagined-but-as-yet-unwritten story like a huge block of wood. As the writer, you know that there is a complex and vivid sculture waiting inside the block. You know exactly what you want it to look and feel like, and so you use your words like a chisel to reveal it.

What about the timing, how long from putting the first words down to having it finished did it all take?

Probably a total of about 12 months, but that was spread out between 2008, when I wrote the first draft, and early 2011 when I realised it was going to get published and needed to be redrafted, re-edited, tidied up and made less crap.

One of the most important lessons I learned in the process of publishing this book was how much better than the first draft a final version novel can be. A good editor and a good chunk of time between writing and editing are your best friends as an author.

What’s the plan now? Straight onto another book?

Yes. Novel Two is all laid out and ready for action once I have finished my history book. The screenplay of War & Piste is on the cards too.

What advice you give someone writing a first novel?

There is a lot of advice out there for aspiring authors – lots of things you can get from a blog post. So I will skip to a piece of ‘nuts and bolts’ advice. In my experience, the time to start ‘Writing’ with a capital ‘W’ is when you have a clear and compelling story you want to tell. Now this doesn’t mean don’t write anything until then – on the contrary, get scribbling character sketches and scene ideas and bits and pieces of dialogue ALL THE TIME. But don’t put pressure on yourself to Write A Novel until you have laid the foundations, first by creating your characters so completely in your mind that they are like real people, and second by imagining or re-imagining your settings and locations very, very clearly indeed. Why? Because it will save you from Peril 1 of novel writing – over-description. Instead you will have the confidence them to paint both people and places with a few expert brushstrokes. By the time you sit down to ‘Write’, you will have notes to refer to – a real help when you lose your way or have a crisis of confidence. You don’t have to have planned out the whole story – I do that but loads of authors don’t. You can change things, adapt thing, go nuts. But to avoid getting frustrated and disillusioned early on, I would suggest starting with some really clear ideas.

A lot of people say you should write about what you know, because writing a first novel is hard. I say it doesn’t have to be autobiographical –write what you know by making the imagined as real as possible before you begin.

But it will never feel like you are 100% ready to start. So prepare well and when you start to get excited at the prospect of untangling it all and sharing your story with people, you’re probably ready. Good luck!

What’s your life been like since your book came out?

Hectic! I was lucky in that I was involved in all the stages of preparing the book for publication – decisions surrounding the cover art, website, promotional plan etc., but this meant that the run-up to the book launch was very, very busy. Lots of early mornings and late nights. But it was more than worth it. The launch events that the PR team put together were great fun, not least the promo book tour we did in the Alps in December. Nice to have a work-related reason to visit six ski resorts in waist-deep snow!

 The best aspect of the experience has been the people who have contacted me from all over the world to say how much they enjoyed the book, asking about the sequel and the film adaptation (which the team are working on now) and thanking me for writing a story that they loved. It’s kind of hard to describe how it feels to think of people on five continents reading and loving my story – ‘pretty amazing’ doesn’t really do it justice, but it’s a start.

Closer to home, I saw someone wandering through a London train station with their nose buried in my book. That was an incredible moment. I resisted the urge to run up to them and give them a hug. Seriously, all you readers of novels – go forth and read your books in public places. You may well make an author’s day.

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What’s next? With snow still falling in luscious quantities in the Alps, it’s hard to believe the season is over for most of us. Here’s a little something to get you in the mood for next winter, from the very lovely Candide Thovex. Perhaps by then I will have some exciting news for you, in the form of some sequel-like short stories, following the adventures of some of your favourite War & Piste characters. Get your votes in for which ones make a reappearance… Bis dann, späters potaters!