Elizabeth Cooke

How did you become a writer?

I wrote bad poetry as a child, a worse novel in University. But I won a short story competition in 1987. That set me off writing stories and serials for IPC magazines. I wrote hundreds, of which about a third were published. Then I wrote two novels, which were rejected - my third was accepted.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

My first love was D.H. Lawrence - thought him spectacular. I'd been brought up on the classics and here was someone so different. I cant say my teachers ever inspired me - in fact, an English teacher at school specifically told me to stop writing stories!

When and where do you write?

I have an office in town, but this is a recent (and much needed) retreat. For 20 years I wrote in a spare room at home. I start about 10am and work ’til about 6pm.

What are you working on now?

I'm just finishing a thriller and then I'm hurrying back to the third in the 'Rutherford' series. I also have another non-fiction on the back burner.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

I've suffered from lack of confidence in the early days, but never - ever - writer's block. I won't allow myself to feel that way. You just have to grip it and get on with it.

What’s your advice to new writers?

My advice to new writers is to read. See how it's done. And to listen to people. Then forget all that and let yourself off the leash in your head.

Bio: I was born in the UK (Nuneaton, Warwickshire). I travel a lot and have moved house a lot. My daughter was born in 1986. I live in Dorchester, Dorset, UK. Lots more on my web site www.elizabethcookeauthor.com.

Jason Headley

How did you become a writer?

I just started writing. That’s the beauty of it. You don’t need to ask anyone’s permission. You just sit down, start writing, start making mistakes, start learning from those mistakes. And hopefully, along the way, you get a little better at it.

The first time I ever got paid to write was as a copywriter in advertising. I had been working in the mail room and the Creative Directors took a liking to me and decided to give me a chance. So I’ve been paying the bills as a writer, of sorts, ever since.

As far as narrative writing goes, one day I just sat down and decided to try writing a novel. Then I adapted that into a screenplay. Then I wrote some more screenplays. I just keep writing. I find I learn a lot about myself and how I view the world when I force myself to really organize my thoughts around a specific story. So that keeps me coming back for more.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

Richard Russo. Kurt Vonnegut. George Carlin. David Letterman. Leonard Cohen. Monty Python. Raymond Carver. Michael Arndt.

When and where do you write?

I don’t have any real routine. When I’m working on something, I try to stay on it. Try to write every day if I can. But I also try to pay attention to when I need to step away and solve some story problems in a way other than just bashing at a keyboard. 

I have an office in my house. So I pretty exclusively write there. Almost always at night. Or in the evening, at least. I find it easier to concentrate when the phone isn’t going to ring or an email isn’t going to demand immediate attention.

What are you working on now?

I have a feature screenplay that I’m working to shoot. It’s finished, but I’ll still be poking at it here and there right up until we shoot the scenes.

I’m also working on some new versions of my “At the Bar” series that are going to be on television. Kind of an interesting sponsorship opportunity. Those are fun to write. The tone is so specific that it’s a good repository for strange ideas that pass through my mind that wouldn’t really fit anywhere else.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Writer’s block, to me, is just a story problem. If I don’t know where my story is going, or why, then I find myself having trouble writing. So I try to recognize that and get down to the core problem. Do some more outlining. Try to figure out if I’ve painted myself into a corner somewhere along the way.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Write. And finish things. Don’t let yourself get bored by an idea after the initial thrill of it passes. Writing isn’t the act of turning words into sentences. It’s the act of turning ideas into stories. Stories have a beginning, middle, and end. So go all the way to the end. Then go back and fix things and make it better. Don’t stop in the middle because you think your story is no good. You might be right. But there’s a zero percent chance it will get better if you quit.

Jason Headley's short films have been featured on NBC's TODAY Show, the front page of Reddit, the front page of Funny or Die, chosen as a Finalist for the Comedy Central/NYTVF competition, a Vimeo Staff Pick, official selections of the Mill Valley Film Festival, St. Louis Film Festival, and the Best of Shorts programs at the Carmel Arts & Film Festival. His short "It's Not About the Nail" has over 10 million views and counting.

Coming from a long line of yarn-spinners and bullshitters, Jason began his storytelling career in earnest with the publication of his novel, Small Town Odds. His screenplays have made the Quarterfinals of the Nicholl Fellowship, the second round of consideration for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and the quarter- and semifinals of other national competitions. Fun fact: Jason is more handsome in real life than he is on camera, but he's still not actually handsome.

Cressida Connolly

How did you become a writer?

Although I’d always written fragments of stories and overheard conversations in notebooks, it didn’t occur to me that these might be signs of becoming a writer until I was in my early twenties. Then I moved out of London to a farm in the countryside and began to write more purposefully.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers etc).

Poetry was my first love and if I had to choose ten books to take to a desert island, probably half of them would be poetry: Yeats, Eliot, Pound, Tennyson, Shakespeare’s sonnets. I love short stories and especially American writers of the form: Scott Fitzgerald’s beautiful clear language and lovely sentences and John Updike, too. I very much admire William Trevor and Alice Munro. I love Elizabeth Bowen. And George Orwell’s rules for writers are indispensable.

When and where do you write?

In the mornings as soon after breakfast as I can. Sometimes in my kitchen, sometimes in my study. I pace around a lot between paragraphs. A lot of my last novel was written in my car, because my sister was sick with lung cancer and I didn’t want to disturb her by clattering around downstairs.

What are you working on now?

A novel about three sisters. It’s about betrayal: the sister who you think is the nice one turns out to be the worst. They’re awful! It’s very enjoyable to write.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Well, I’ve only published three books in over twenty years. That was partly because of bringing up three children and partly down to being blocked.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Read. Read as much as you can, across as many different kinds of work as you can. When a book is especially vivid to you, take some time to consider why that is and whether it has something you’d like to incorporate into your own writing.  

I believe that artists need three things: talent, industry and self belief. If you have at least two of these, you’ll be OK. The most successful writers have all three.

Cressida Connolly is the prize-winning author of a novel, My Former Heart and a short story collection, The Happiest Days. Her acclaimed life of 1920’s Bohemians the Garman family is called The Rare and the Beautiful. Cressida also reviews extensively. She is married and lives on a farm in England.