Edinburgh-based Jennifer Young is a writer of contemporary fiction. She is also a freelance writer for the Geoscience section of Decoded Science, a contributor to the professional travel magazine, BucketTripper, and a freelance proofreader and copywriter. Her debut novel Thank you for the Music has recently been published by Tirgearr Publishing.
How long have you been writing for?
For ever; or at least, that’s how it seems. The first piece I remember writing was in a tiny spiral bound notebook. It was called The Battle of the Black Watch and featured my teddy bear. But I think I was probably writing poems, if not stories, long before then.
What locations/situations inspire your writing?
To answer this I have to go back a long way, to childhood when I loved long car journeys because I could sit and look out of the window for hours; and I used to hope that we’d detour by a different route in case there was more to see. A sense of place has always been fundamental to my writing and I suspect it always will be.
As to individual locations, that’s a little more difficult. It’s safe to say that I’ve never visited a new place without - even if only briefly - considering it as a location for a story. I tend to write about the more glamorous places partly because I think they’re more accessible to my readers (and they give me a good excuse to visit). But only yesterday I was on a train as it rumbled through Wolverhampton, looking down on the jumble of tiny brick-built Victorian workshops in the back streets and thinking: “those look the perfect place to set a thriller”.
How did you teach yourself to write fiction?
I’m not aware that I ever did - certainly not in the way that I tried to teach myself to cook, or learn German (both failures, incidentally). I suppose I must have learned along the way but I expect it was from reading. There was certainly no conscious effort on my part.
These days I do make much more of an effort to learn. As I get older I become increasingly aware of how much knowledge of the craft I still have to acquire - and I love going to writing classes because even if I’m being taught things for a second or third time I still benefit from a refresher. I never turn my nose up at a writing tip. I must have been writing for several decades and I still regard myself as a novice.
What do you consider are the hardest parts of the craft to learn?
None if it’s easy, is it? I think there are some areas where you can take tips - things like character and plot, for example. But the thing that I’d most like to be able to do is write a page turner. I don’t think that’s something you can teach and I find it very frustrating because it’s not a logical trick. Some people write according to all the rules and turn in something solid and dull. Others write things that are quite shockingly poor in literary terms and the readers keep turning the pages. Which is better? Hmm…not prepared to say.
Which published writers have influenced you?
I honestly don’t think I can answer that question. How many books have I read in my life? How many authors? My literary tastes are highly catholic - I read the classics and the anything-but-classics. I read romance and although I don’t read thrillers much these days I used to read them a lot. I read contemporary fiction and I love Joseph Conrad. But I wouldn’t say any of them have influenced me, as far as I’m aware.
Of course there are writers I’d like to emulate. At the moment I’m enjoying dipping my toe into the pool of romantic suspense, so as far as that’s concerned I think I’d like to be able to write like Mary Stewart. But at the end of the day my problem as a writer has always been that nobody quite writes the stuff I want to read. So I’ve always written it myself; and it never quite fits anyone’s criteria!
Do you have a routine where your writing is concerned?
Not really: I’m a feast-or-famine kind of person. At different stages different things take priority. At the moment my Masters with the Open University is my priority, along with my science writing. As long as those are on the list the fiction comes third. But I fully expect that there will be times - as there have been in the past - when fiction takes top spot.
Nor do I have a routine when I am writing; I’m still scratching around to try and find something that works but I suspect the truth is that, for me, there is no best way of doing it. Sometimes I just write. Sometimes I plan it in detail. Sometimes I start with my characters and sometimes I start with my plot. Sometimes I make notes on the backs of receipts and sometimes I just let whatever I’m thinking disappear. Sometimes I sit down and make myself write for an afternoon and sometimes I decide I’ll have more fun cleaning out the fridge. No; creatively, I don’t do routine!
What are the pitfalls of writing?
Hmm… one way streets, I suppose. You know - the ideas you have, the plots you create that end up just not working. and the problem is that I usually have to get quite a long way before I realise that there’s no hope. Now that’s frustrating.
Even then I don’t know if that’s really a pitfall. My most recent piece features two characters who must have spent the best part of 20 years sitting in a cul de sac waiting for me to come back and fetch them to put them in the right plot. But they're there now!
Tell me a bit about Thank you for the MusicIt’s a light romance set on Majorca, the story of Abby Mortimer, ditched by her boyfriend days after her father’s funeral. Abby has a lot of healing to do and it seems that her sister’s hotel in Majorca is the place to do it. Only things don’t turn out to be quite as simple as she thinks.
Where did the idea come from?
Do you want the truth? That extra glass of wine in a seafront bar in Majorca. A loved-up couple wandering past. A sunset. And the sound of a piano drifting out of an open window….
How do you plan to promote it?
Social media is the main way, although I’m naive enough to hope that enough people will read it, like it and tell their friends!
What are you working on now?
My current work in progress is in a drawer waiting for me to come back and polish it. It’s my first foray into romantic suspense. Megan McLeod is working in a university field centre in Majorca when a figure from her past appears. He’s a geologist, a man driven by a need to know the answers to all his questions. And it doesn’t take long before those questions lead him and Megan into some very dangerous situations….
What advice would you give a new writer?
I’ll repeat advice I’ve given elsewhere. Find other writers. There’s an idea floating about that writers are self-obsessed and jealous of others; it may apply to some but I’ve never found it to be true. My experience is that writers are the people who know what you’re going through - good and bad - and know how to help. Whether I’m in rejects’ corner or on top of the world, other writers have been there too.
Where can we buy your book?
It’s available form Amazon (US and UK) and Smashwords.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00I9G169G
How can readers connect with you?
I have a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/jenniferyoungauthor) and I’m also on Twitter (@JYnovelist) and LinkedIn.
Hi Jennifer - This is a great interview. I see you wear many hats.
ReplyDeleteA Masters takes dedication and I see you've dabbled in German too.
Also a successful writer.
Well done. 'Thank you For the Music', has a nice ring to it.
Best of luck.
An interesting interview, Jane and Jennifer. Best of luck with your sales of Thank You for the Music. I'm enjoying reading it at the moment.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cathy and Joan...maybe too many hats, though, I sometimes think!
ReplyDeleteJennifer I love the sound of The Battle of The Black Watch fought by teddy bears! I haven't started your book yet, but it's on my kindle. Good luck with sales and everything else in your giddily busy life, Anne Stenhouse
ReplyDeleteThanks Anne!
ReplyDelete