listen carefully to the feedback you
receive, and if changes are suggested
that would improve the story, make
those changes; but at the end of the
day, only you can decide if you have
something you believe is working.
Treat your story as a living thing that
must be allowed to grow and develop.
From time to time all writers,
whether new or experienced, get
stuck. Angie believes that the best
way of dealing with this is to put
your story away for a few days or
even weeks. You can then go back
to it with a clearer head and breathe
new life into it. You might decide
to shake things up and take the
story in a new direction. One way
of doing this is to send in a new
and unexpected character, perhaps
one who arrives in a dramatic way
and challenges the existing set-up.
Another is the sudden introduction
of bad weather – thunderstorms,
flooding, snow – that totally changes
the atmosphere of the story. Another
technique is to move away from the
existing landscape and into a new
setting which has a different feel- and presents different problems.
Or, if you’re getting really fed up
with one (or more) of your existing
characters, you could simply decide
to get rid of them. There are plenty
of ways you could do that.
BEAT THE BESTSELLERS
http://www.writers-online.co.uk NOVEMBER 2019the newly opened Café La Gringe
(Proprietor: Mrs Theodore Gringe.
Location: Small, draughty lean-to at
the side of the North Gate gatehouse.
Service: Serve yourself. Three pots of
stew kept warm (just) over a small fire.
Specialities: Stew. Menu: Brown stew,
dark brown stew and very dark brown
stew. We ate: stew. Comments: Sharp
knives are provided to cut up the stew.
You will need them.)
The inventive humour is one of the
keys to the success of the Septimus
Heap series; another is the warmth
and strength of the Heap family. ‘I like
their chaotic acceptance of life,’ Sage
said in one interview, ‘and the fact
that they don’t do what they are told
by authority if they think it is wrong.
Stuff happens to them that makes
their life difficult at times but they
don’t moan about things, they just get
on and sort it out as best they can.’
How she writes
Angie can write anywhere, but she
needs silence. She has to be very
quiet, with nothing else going on
around her. She sees her laptop, on
which she does all her writing, as
her home; she takes it everywhere.
When creating a new story, she
always begins by thinking of the
place where it is to be set. Places, and
the different atmospheres they can
have, stimulate her imagination and
give her ideas. Often a small scene
or an image will come to mind; if
this interests and inspires her, she lets
her imagination take over and puts
herself into that scene, wandering
around and meeting the people, and
working out what is happening to
them. Then she begins to write – and
the actual process of writing helps to
keep the ideas coming.
She admits that a lot of what
happens in her books is ‘just wish
fulfilment, written for
the eleven-year-old me.
I’ve always wanted to be
able to fly... even now,
I still fly in my dreams.
It’s wonderful, soaring
through the sky; I never
crash, but I do have to
work hard to stay aloft.’Writing tips
She believes that writing
begins with reading, and advises
any aspiring writer to ‘read lots
and lots and lots... and to write
about something that you are really
interested in.’ Her number one tip
is to be adventurous. As she says,
when you write you can create any
world you want to and be anyone
you want to be. ‘Go for it!’ is her
advice. She believes that the key is
to find your own world – which can
take a lot of time and involve a lot
of daydreaming.
She says that beginning is often
the hardest part of any story; her
own method is to begin with the
place where it is set. You can then
put characters into that landscape.
These need not be human, but they
do need to have sufficient human
characteristics for the reader to be
able to identify with them. Getting
to know these characters is the next- very important – step, and Angie
suggests treating them as friends who
will guide you through your story.
Writing a few sentences every day,
and reading these out to yourself, is
a good discipline that Angie believes
helps to keep the story fresh in your
mind. Once you’re comfortable with
what you’re writing and excited by
it, she advises sharing what you have
written, perhaps with a friend whose
judgement you trust or, better still,
with a writing group. You should
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