Andrew Crofts

How did you become a writer?

When I left school at 17 I wanted to be freelance and I wanted to have as many different experiences as possible. I wanted to be able to follow my interests, ask a lot of questions, learn a lot, meet a lot of different people and hear a lot of stories. I also wanted to spend a lot of time on my own, thinking and writing. So I did every sort of writing work I could find, earning money wherever I could. I wrote begging letters to every editor and publisher whose address I could find, and submitted my own speculative work at the same time. Eventually people started to respond and eventually they stopped sending rejection letters.

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

I learnt to read with the Paddington Bear books. For comedy I was influenced by P.G. Wodehouse, for lifestyle by Lord Byron. I learnt about the rich from Scott Fitzgerald and the poor from George Orwell and it was the books of Graham Greene, Jan Morris and Paul Theroux that made me want to travel.

When and where do you write?

My study at home is a converted game larder with windows on three sides looking out over the gardens. I work best from lunch time to dinner time.

What are you working on now?

I am working on an American billionaire's business book/biography and am about to start the memoir of a young man who survived the genocide in the Rwanda as a small child after seeing 80 members of his family slaughtered with hammers and machetes. 

I am putting the final touches to a manuscript for a spiritual leader based in Paris and the biography of an Australian who has built an enormously successful company in Saigon. (Graham Greene-land again.) At the same time I am promoting the newly published paperback version of my novella "Secrets of the Italian Gardener".  

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

No, never. My theory is that if you get blocked you are not ready to write that book and simply need to do some more thinking or some more research. I always have several projects on the go at any one time anyway.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

"Kill your darlings" - i.e. cut out most of what you write to make sure it is as tight as it can be.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Learn about marketing and how it works. You need to be able to sell yourself and your work - or you will starve.

Andrew Crofts is a ghostwriter and author who has published more than eighty books, a dozen of which were Sunday Times number one bestsellers. He has also guided a number of international clients successfully through the minefield of independent publishing.

Andrew’s name first became known to publishers for the stories he brought them by the otherwise disenfranchised. Travelling all over the world he worked with victims of enforced marriages in North Africa and the Middle East, sex workers in the Far East, orphans in war-torn areas like Croatia and dictatorships like Romania, victims of crimes and abused children everywhere.

The enormous success of these books brought many very different people to his door; first came the celebrities from the worlds of film, music, television and sport, and then the real elite in the form of world leaders and the mysterious, powerful people who finance them, arm them and, in some cases, control them. 

As well as using traditional publishers to reach readers, he has also published his own fiction, most recently “Secrets of the Italian Gardener”, which draws on his experience among the powerful and wealthy.

His books on writing include “Ghostwriting”, (A&C Black) and “The Freelance Writer’s Handbook”, (Piatkus), which has been reprinted eight times over twenty years and “Confessions of a Ghostwriter” (Friday Project)..

Throughout his bestseller, “The Ghost”, Robert Harris quotes Andrew’s book, “Ghostwriting”. Harris’s book went on to become a major movie by the same name, directed by Roman Polanski and starring Ewan McGregor as the eponymous ghost.

Andrew was on the Management Committee of the Society of Authors from 2012 to 2015. He lectures on the subject of making a living from writing at Kingston University and frequently guests at writing workshops, literary festivals and in the media. He blogs regularly on matters pertaining to publishing, self-publishing and writing.

K.M. WEILAND

How did you become a writer?

I started writing when I was twelve and published a small newsletter throughout high school. I independently published my first novel, the western A Man Called Outlaw when I was twenty. But I didn’t really take it seriously as a business until my next book, the medieval historical Behold the Dawn, came out three years later. And now, here I am having published my fourth novel! Storming, my action-adventure aviation novel about a barnstorming pilot in 1920 came out over a year ago.

Stories are like breathing. Life without a story in my head is one-dimensional, stagnant, vapid. I love the life God has given me, but I think I love it better because I’m able to live out so many other lives on the page. I’m more content to be who I am because I’m not trapped in that identity. When I sit down at my computer and put my fingers on the keys, I can be anyone or anything, at any time in history. I write because it’s freedom.

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

As a novelist, I am inspired by countless excellent authors and filmmakers. Specifically, Brent Weeks’s epicness, Margaret Atwood’s prose, and Patrick O’Brian’s sheer genius speak to me and urge me on. As a blogger, I’m inspired by the professionalism and creativity of people such as Joanna Penn, Porter Anderson, and Jody Hedlund.

I love reading authors who are masters of characterization, adept with subtext, and players with their prose. Authors who can put all the puzzle pieces of a story together seamlessly always have something to teach me.

When and where do you write?

It depends on what part of the process I’m immersed in. When I’m outlining, I work longhand in a notebook, which means I can go on the run, away from my computer. Weather permitting, I will go outside.

Right now, I’m in the middle of drafting, so I stay close to the computer, where I can use Scrivener.

Generally, late afternoons are my go-to writing time—from 4-6. I like to save writing until the end of my day to give me something to look forward to.

What are you working on now?

I’m currently in the editing stage on a historical superhero novel called Wayfarer, which is set in Regency England. Having a lot of fun with that!

I’ve also just started the first draft for the sequel to my portal fantasy Dreamlander. It will be called Dreambreaker and goes into what happens as the veil between our world and the world of dreams begins to rupture, and the former “Gifted” Chris Redston, now shorn of his abilities, must struggle back to his lost love, the fierce and conflicted Queen Allara, to help her overcome dangerous international intrigue and discover the truth about their still intertwined destinies—before a mysterious heretic can commit the ultimate abomination of permanently fusing the worlds.

I’m also getting ready to publish a workbook companion to my book Creating Character Arcs.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

I like to say I don’t believe in writer’s block—but that is, of course, a bit disingenuous. We all get blocked—either on small plot problems from day to day or majorly when burnout hits. The trick is not making a monster of it. It’s just a mental (and sometimes emotional) challenge to be worked through.

I’ve never experienced long-term writer’s block. I get burned out occasionally, but I accept those times as opportunities to take a break and pamper my brain. It’s all part of the cycle of inspiration.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

If you can not write, don’t. Writing is a rich and rewarding lifestyle, but it can also be full of frustration and depression. If you don’t love what you’re doing so much that you’d do it even no one ever read you, much less pay you, then you may want to rethink subjecting yourself to the rigors of the lifestyle.

What’s your advice to new writers?

So many misconceptions surround the idea of plotting/outlining, and so many writers are afraid it will take the fun right out of writing. But outlining is a valuable and exciting part of the writing process. By planning the story ahead of time, we’re actually paving the way for an easier first draft, which helps us save time, which helps us write with less fear and stress, which helps us produce a better story. Outlining is about exploring everything from character backstory to theme to conflict to plot structure.

K.M. Weiland lives in make-believe worlds, talks to imaginary friends, and survives primarily on chocolate truffles and espresso. She is the IPPY, NIEA, and Lyra Award-winning and internationally published author of Outlining Your Novel, Structuring Your Novel, and Creating Character Arcs. She writes historical and speculative fiction from her home in western Nebraska and mentors authors on her award-winning website Helping Writers Become Authors.

Karen Dunak

How did you become a writer?

I’m a historian – so writing is a fundamental part of my trade. But writing has been natural to me since I was a child, in part, I think, because I’ve been a voracious reader since I could read. When I first went to college, I thought I would enter into journalism because I aspired to be a writer, but as I took history courses, I realized I could combine my interest in the past with my penchant for writing. I liked the idea of story-telling – and particularly if I could tell stories from an unconsidered or overlooked angle.

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

I was fortunate to have remarkable teachers who shared their views with me at each stage of my educational development. In my New Jersey high school, I had an excellent English teacher, Judy LaVigne, in 10th and 12th grades who assigned writing that aimed to develop both understanding of content as well as test students’ ability as writers. She would sometimes assign just individual paragraphs but with the stipulation that each sentence had to begin in a different way. Or I remember very clearly an assignment where sentences could be no more than seven words each. That kind of judiciousness is something my best writing guides continued emphasize as I moved forward. As an undergraduate at American University, one of my Communications professors, Lenny Steinhorn, insisted that each sentence should prove its usefulness, that every sentence – really, every word – should move your argument forward. He advised reading essays aloud to consider what was absolutely necessary and what could be removed, and as a way of ensuring that one idea led fluidly to another. And then when I was a graduate student at Indiana University, my advisor, Michael McGerr, all but rejected the concept of compound sentences. Each sentence should be allowed its own idea. All of this has led to me a very clear mantra about writing: shorter sentences = clearer sentences. And this is something I repeat nonstop to my students as I attempt to help them improve their writing. My other mantra: you become a better writer by writing more, so keep writing.

When it comes to professional writers who’ve inspired me: Stephen King (On Writing), Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird), and Ann Patchett (This is the Story of a Happy Marriage) are some of my favorite writers for talking about writing. All of them are great for emphasizing the kind of *work* writing requires, the discipline of sitting down and grinding out but also the understanding of when to walk away and return to the page if you find yourself stuck.

Historians whose writing I love are Jill Lepore (Book of Ages) and Danielle McGuire (At the Dark End of the Street). They are exceptional historians AND exceptional writers. Their prose is as elegant as their construction of argument is masterful. They prove that good history and good writing are not mutually exclusive – and also show what good writing can do to make academic texts extremely readable.

When and where do you write? 

Whenever I can, I write in the morning. When I first wake up, I’m freshest, so I like to get right to work. Sometimes that’s evaluating evidence. Sometimes it’s editing. As often as possible, though, I attempt to do my fresh, first-draft writing early in the day. And then as the day continues, I’ll do more reading and note-taking, more consideration of how what I’ve just written fits with what I’ve already done. I have a home office that I use, or I’ll go to the library of my home institution, Muskingum University. It’s big and beautiful and (during the summer) quiet and flooded with sunlight.

What are you working on now? 

I’m writing a book about media representations of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis over the course of her public life. As the most famous woman in the world for consecutive decades, Onassis was a constant point of emphasis across publications and mediums. As such, she served as a kind of barometer for views about American womanhood at a time when conceptions of womanhood were undergoing fundamental shifts.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

Not really. And that may well be linked to the kind of writing I do. If I feel stymied in my building of argument, it’s probably more of an intellectual problem than a writing problem. I need to revisit my evidence or mine new sources or reconsider my argument. I think there are always ways to jumpstart your writing. For me, I might take a source I want to use eventually and write 250 words about why I think it’s important. Maybe I’ll use some part of that analysis later and maybe I won’t, but the act of writing is important for keeping me focused and moving forward with the project.

I just wrote an essay about Shirley Jackson, author of “The Lottery,” and I was so struck by her insistence that writing is not merely about sitting down and putting words on the page. As she balanced her domestic responsibilities with her professional commitments, she crafted stories and ruminated on plotlines and developed characters while grocery shopping or doing the dishes or vacuuming the carpet. The act of getting words on a page was only the physical element of an ongoing mental labor. Thinking about writing in that way can help, I think, from feeling defeated when the words aren’t coming at the pace you wish they would.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Start writing. And I don’t think this is specific to historians or even people writing non-fiction. There’s a temptation to wait until you “have enough” or “are ready.” More evidence, a better sense of argument, a clearer idea of the story you want to tell, etc. But I think the best way to see *what* evidence you need or *how* your argument or story is going to develop is by doing the writing. From there, you can strengthen and advance whatever the project is you’re working on.

What’s your advice to new writers?

The advice above is right on. Write. And then rewrite. I love having a first draft, largely because I find revising to be easier than the crafting of the original material. And I’m borrowing this, I think, from Stephen King, but READ. Seeing what good writers do, understanding how they communicate, considering their form, all of that is fundamental to developing a model and providing a starting point.

Karen Dunak is Associate Professor of History at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio where she teaches courses on a range of topics in Modern US History. She is author of As Long as We Both Shall Love: The White Wedding in Postwar America (New York University Press, 2013) and is a contributing author to Oxford University’s Press’s Of the People: A History of the United States. Her work has appeared in Gender & History, The Journal of American Culture, The Journal of American History, Salon, PublicBooks.org, and as part of the Popular Romance Project. Her current project examines mass media’s representations of and responses to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. You can follow her on Twitter @karendunak.