Sophie King on Creative Writing

Shall we start with the oldest book? Tell us about the "Dorothea Brande".

This is probably my favorite book on the theme. It might seem slightly old fashioned but it is actually very quietly clever. For example, it describes things that many writers feel and its not until you actually read about them that you realise these are not feelings unique to yourself. When you’re a writer you’ve the feeling you’re someone who lives in your own world. Every now and then you come across someone who thinks the same way as you and it’s very illuminating. One of the things that really struck me about this book is what Brande says about writing and the morning, which is when I write best. I do a few things like getting my son up and sort of obvious practical stuff and then I’m not always able to sit and write as I’d like because I have other writing jobs, some of which are out of the home. But Dorothea describes this almost hypnotic state that writers are in during the morning. She says this is the time that many people write best. When you’re in this slightly trance like state, if you have to answer a phone call or do something else first thing, it can take that away. Another of the chapters I like very much is about reading as a writer. She says you’ll often find that at first the only way to read as a writer is to go over everything twice. She says to first: ‘Read as you did in the days when you had no responsibility to a book but to enjoy it.’ When you’ve finished she advises putting the book aside for a while and then writing a synopsis of what you’ve just read. Next say what you did and didn’t like. This will help you work out what you can do with your own book. So obviously not plagiarising but looking at the way that it’s constructed and seeing whether any scenes stand out in your mind. It’ll help you recognise some of your own weaknesses.


In the book Brande listed particular writers to read to improve your own writing. It was published in 1934. Would you add anyone to that list today? Perhaps someone you feel has helped you?

I used to love Fay Weldon’s early books and Maeve Binchy books but to be honest I’m an eclectic reader and I wouldn’t say any of them have a huge influence on me now.

Let’s move on to the Binchy book then.

It’s a bit like the Brande book in that it is a very easy book to read and it has a voice that reaches out to the writer. But what I like about it is that Maeve Binchy wrote it because she teaches students and I teach students myself. The book was inspired by a course run by the National College of Ireland and it’s made up of 20 letters from her offering advice and tips to writers. It’s got contributions from other writers, including well known ones like Marian Keyes, and publishers and editors too, so there’s really practical advice such as how to submit your manuscript. It also gives emotional advice on how to find your voice which is something that perplexes students. A writer discovering how to make their own writing stand out so that it is different from anybody else’s isn’t something that happens immediately. It can take three years of honing the way you write and then one day you might sit down and write something completely different. You realise that actually that’s what you feel most comfortable in and that’s what makes your writing stand out. That’s what’s called finding your voice. Binchy has some lovely tips on it. The thing I like about it very much is it’s divided into extremely short chapters such as ‘Where to Begin’, ‘How to Keep Going’ and ‘The Road to Success’. It talks about writing short stories as well as novels, how to cope when you get rejections and how to befriend publishers. It’s a very easy one to read. I like this very much –it’s practical and emotional.

Sounds useful. Which book would you like to talk about next?

“Wannabe a Writer” by Jane Wenham-Jones. Jane’s a friend of mine and there’s a foreword by Katie Fforde, another friend. We all know each other through something called the Romantic Novelists’ Association where published authors give advice to those who are not published. So Jane is well-versed in sharing her knowledge. She talks about what it was like for her to become a writer and how it might be for other people and if people think they’ve got a book in them how to know if it’s a good book. She goes into good discipline, how to write when there’s no time, plotting, whether to plan or not, growing a novel in a folder, all this sort of stuff, so it’s very, very practical.