How I Write: Authors on Their Writing Process - Charlotte Young

Today I have another interview with an author from Down Under, Charlotte Young.

1.              When did you first start writing?

I’ve always scribbled in journals, reflections mostly and the odd poem here and there. I started to take myself seriously in the late 90s after studying Professional Writing and Editing. It was here that I discovered the joy of writing in a community of word lovers.

2.              What are your books about?

Ora’s Gold is my first full length novel for young adults. There are two or three unfinished manuscripts from a few years ago that have never seen the light of day. All of them have a strong female protagonist who comes of age, usually reluctantly. In the case of Ora, she certainly doesn’t want to break any rules but because she ends up living with an activist aunt, she ends up getting involved and finds herself in very deep water. My other published writing is non-fiction; a book for new mothers and a few articles for parenting magazines.

3.              What led to your love for literature? Any favorite books / teachers / writing mentors?

My English teacher, Mrs. Campbell, who taught me through the trickiest years of my adolescence and although strict and sometimes short-tempered, she fostered a genuine love of the English language and a passion for storytelling.

I find it hard to pick an all-time favorite book. Right now, the one that comes to mind is The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman but if you asked me next week, I’d give you a different answer.

4.              What's your writing process like? Do you outline? Do you write by hand / type / dictate?

The writing process for me was like an unveiling of Ora, one sitting at a time. After the initial scene, where she ‘arrived’ one day after I’d been in bed with the flu and as soon as my fever broke, I sat up and wrote a birth scene involving a very reluctant, lay midwife. Over the following weeks, a series of flashbacks followed with Ora sitting on the side of a mountain, looking back at the crazy few months she’d just spent with her aunt. This presented all sorts of problems for me later, with regard to the structure of the plot but it was a great way to get to know my main character. So I didn’t have the plot in any way, shape or form and I certainly didn’t know the ending until she took me there. Mid-way into the story, I was quite devastated at the surprising ‘wild-card’ fate threw at Ora and her beau, Jake. At the time, this turn of events didn’t fit in with my idea of what needed to happen to my heroine—it still doesn’t.

5.              What's your editing process?

I read through what I wrote the day before and tinker away at the sentences. I’m also part of a writing group so once a month, I sent my writing to my buddies and we edited each other’s work. When it felt like I had the main bulk of the story, I went away for a long weekend, on my own and payed around with the structure. It took weeks to get it right. For the (almost) final draft I employed a professional editor and for the final ‘final’ draft a proofreader. I could make changes after every reading so in the end I needed to decide to just leave it alone after a while.

6.              Who or what inspires you? Where / how do you get your book ideas?

Real life injustices or hardships inspire me. They are where I get my theme from and then I have to wait for a character to arrive who carries me along on their journey.

7.              When in the day do you usually write? For how long?

I write in the mornings for 2-3 hours and edit in the afternoons.

8.              Do you have a writing routine / schedule? Any specific rituals?

The main rule is 1000 words minimum per day. Often it’s a lots more than that, but I’m not allowed to move onto editing until I’ve got my 1000 words down.

9.              Where do you feel most inspired to write?

I’m particularly fond of my office as it looks out onto a small pool/spa that opens to the sky. But I can write anywhere as long as it’s reasonably quiet. I find it very hard to write when friends and family are around. I love it best when I’m alone in the house.

10.           Describe your desk / writing corner / favorite writing spot.

A couple of years ago I splashed out on an adjustable desk that has a small motor attached to it so at the click of a button, I can write standing up or sitting down. A few years ago I suffered from a prolapsed disc so this desk has been fabulous for my back.

11.           Do you ever get writers' block? What are some ways you get around it?

I have writer’s block at the moment! I finished Ora’s Gold a while ago and I haven’t been able to start another story. I have one cooking away and have started it a couple of times but recently, I decided to wait until I have a good chunk of time to get my teeth into it. I have another project on the go at the moment (not writing related) so I’ve been a bit distracted. Also, so much of my time has had to go into the production and marketing of Ora’s Gold recently, that I haven’t had any time left over for writing…bit of a serious confession! However, I write every day in one way or another, so I’m still keeping my mojo going…just!

12.           Do you now, or did you ever have any day jobs? Did they add to or detract from your writing?

I used to work as a doula (aka birth attendant) and this informed so much of Ora’s Gold as Ora’s aunt works illegally as an undercover midwife. One of the nicest things readers have said about the book is how visceral it is. I put this down to my direct experience of attending lots of births. Now, I work two days a week as a teacher, teaching English to overseas students. I like the balance it offers as working at home, alone get very quiet which I love but I also like the hustle and bustle of the college.

13.           What's the most fun aspect of marketing? The most challenging?

I’m trying very hard to like marketing. That’s all I can say about it at the moment!

14.           What project are you working on now?

I’m passionate about body acceptance and body awareness so I run classes and workshops relating to movement meditation for adults and puberty education for girls. I’m concentrating on expanding my business and sooner rather than later I’m going to start a blog.

15.           What books do you like to read? What are you reading now?

At the moment I’m reading The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. Before that I read Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. I like a mixture of genres from young adult, to realistic to historical to fantasy. The one common element? There has to be a strong female protagonist.

Bio:

Writing and storytelling are a big part of my life. Whether it’s telling the stories myself, or collecting them from others, words have power and I love using them.

I’ve written and edited for numerous parenting publications and was the co-publisher of Barefoot Magazine for three years. I’m the author of a non-fiction book for mothers and my debut novel for young adults, Ora’s Gold will be out in August 2016.

Website | Book Site | Facebook | Twitter 

Ora's Gold

What would you do if the authorities had control over your body?

Australia is ruled by the SIF. The Special Investigation Force controls everything. Water, food, fuel … women’s bodies. 

18-year-old Ora’s decision to move in with her aunt is a bad one. She’s landed herself in the middle of nowhere with a deluded activist who wants to change the world, one illegal birth at a time. Sooner or later someone is going to die and Ora doesn’t know where to turn.

The beach is her only sanctuary and it’s here that she meets Jake, thoughtful and experienced, who encourages her to live a little. So why is it that as soon as she starts to have some fun, everything goes dangerously wrong?

A gripping coming-of-age adventure that will leave you on the edge of your seat. 

Also, there's a book trailer! My friend's daughters made it to help me promote it. Being an indie author means trying all sorts of ways to get it out in the world.

Amazon | Ebook 

The Value of Editing

I interview authors on my blog, and ask them various questions about their writing process. Many of them mention that while they love writing, they hate editing. And after I heard this enough times, I started to wonder why. And what they really meant.

This might sound boring, but I really appreciate the editing process. Especially now that I am an author, and need to reliable write more - whether blog posts or books. And here’s why.

I find starting on a project - whether the entire work or just a piece of it - intimidating. I imagine how terrible it will be, how I won’t get it right, and I put off working on it. I even stay away from my computer, from my desk, from even opening up the document to work on it.

Now that I have written several books and other large writing projects, I realize that this is a huge obstacle in my mind. I am scared to start. Because I am scared to suck. On the page. I am scared that my work will be so terrible I will be ashamed and never again be able to write anything again. And yet I also want to write my book - very badly. So here’s my problem - how do I work on my project without being deathly afraid to screw up?

I tell myself that I can edit it.

I say to myself that this is just a rough draft. Just some initial notes. I am just adding in a quote or two. Maybe some bullet points. I jot down a paragraph. And another one. But none of this resembles an actual draft in any way. This looks nothing like a piece of finished writing. And periodically as I work, I despair that it ever will.

Always always when I am in the middle of a book or other long project, I start to doubt whether I can reach the end. I ask myself - can I really pull it off? Can I get to the end? I hate my project, I avoid it. I have a lot of coffee and chocolate.

Lately this process is becoming slightly easier. I have fewer depressing thoughts about the fate of my work. I start to believe that maybe I can get to the other side. That one day quite soon this will look almost like a finished manuscript and be ready to fly out into the world.

And this is all because of editing.

My final drafts have a lot from my first draft in them. The initial ideas, the arguments, the research. Maybe even the structure, with some alterations. But in many ways the final product is unrecognizable when compared to what it had started out as - a group of disjointed, awkward, halting paragraphs stitched together. They often missed transitions. Or the phrasing was misleading. It might have seemed that a non-native English speaker had written the piece (which technically is true).

While my final draft isn’t perfect, and may still have both big-picture flaws and small typos, it is generally quite polished and reads smoothly. Sometimes when I am going over my final draft for a chapter I am taken aback, as I remember how much I struggled with it initially, and how many times I thought that I would never finish it satisfactorily.

To me editing isn’t just fixing spelling errors and punctuation mistakes. When I am editing, once I have the structure and flow of the piece in place, I work hard to polish each sentence. I want to make sure that I haven’t left anything out or made a leap in my head that I forgot to write down. Or that I didn’t take any knowledge for granted, assuming my reader would know some specialized information that I forgot to include. Or that my phrasing isn’t awkward, or the tenses mixed up. I take multiple passes over each chapter, sometimes five or six times. I know that seems excessive, but knowing that I can make it better allows me to get through each pass, allows me to acknowledge the obvious flaws and shortcomings and focus on fixing the ones I can.

I am working on a book at the moment where I am re-learning this almost everyday. I was really struggling with a particular chapter, and told myself that it was ok if it turned out to be just mediocre, basically so I could get it done. As I kept working on it, with each iteration it got better and better and now it is of the same quality as the other chapters. To me that seems like a miracle, because only a week or so ago I was thinking I might not get the book done because I couldn’t imagine getting the chapter to where it needed to be.

If you see editing as a necessary evil, as the province of oxford commas and prepositions, then you’re missing out its true value. To me, editing allows me to take the leap of putting words on the page, even when they don’t feel right, even when I am certain my writing is absolute garbage and has no merit whatsoever. The better I get at editing, the more I trust the process, the more I can allow myself to write those crucial first drafts. Like any writer, I get ideas for books all the time. In fact, for years I had many ideas, but never allowed myself to write any of them, because every attempt at putting them onto paper looked amateurish, fell so far short that I believed I couldn’t mold it into something viable. Something good. I really regret all the years I spent not writing, for fear that my writing was terrible, that I couldn’t get the words to come out just write.

I didn’t know about editing then.

I didn’t know that I could change the words, I could polish them. That given enough patience and perseverance, I could turn a terrible draft into a finished product that although not quite as lofty as that in my imagination, was so improved from my initial scratchings as to merit a sense of wonder - I turned this pile of hay into golden thread, if not into gold.

If you are one of those writers who doesn’t like to edit, I suggest that you see editing not as an enemy to do battle with, but an old friend who is there to watch your back, to smoothen the way forward, to give you a boost up. Thank your friend. Buy him a drink. Get to know him better. He is a far more valuable friend than you have given him credit for.