SueMayfield.com

Writing stories is great fun. Stories entertain us – they thrill us and surprise us, they make us laugh and cry. But they’re important too. Stories can make us ‘bigger’ – they allow us to travel to places and experiences that are beyond our real lives. They make us more compassionate. By giving us the experience of ‘putting on someone else’s skin’, stories can help us to understand what someone or something else feels like. Sometimes we recognise ourselves in stories and they make us feel understood, or we reflect on our own behaviour in the light of what we have read.

All stories need crises – characters overcoming setbacks, problems that need solving, tensions that need resolving. My stories so far – or at least my stories for older readers – have revolved around real-life difficulties. What does it feel like to be bullied? What’s it like if your mum dies when you’re young? How do you respond when you discover your girlfriend is pregnant? How do you repair a broken friendship? These are some of the questions that my fiction explores. These issues, or themes, are often my starting point.

But stories only work if they are about authentic characters – and if the reader cares enough about what happens to the characters to keep on reading!
So… getting the characters right is where the hard work starts. I spend a lot of time – in the early stages of writing a book – making sketches, in words, about what my characters are like. I ask questions like What does he care about? What does he look like? How does she spend her spare time? Who does she live with? What music does he like? What does her bedroom look like? Sometimes I draw diagrams that look like spiders so I can see a lot of information at a glance. Occasionally I have asked groups of young people to do role-plays, to explore how my characters would act and react in certain situations. That’s a good way for me to try-out fictional characters and see whether I’ve got them right or not.

For me, writing fiction is itself a bit like role-play or acting. It’s about getting inside someone else’s head and exploring how they would think or behave or speak. I often write in the first person, which is a bit like putting on someone else’s personality, like a costume. I have to try and find that person’s voice.

After the voice comes the skeleton! Once I feel I’m getting to know the characters I plan my storyline. All writers work differently and some writers plan very little in advance of starting to write. I plan quite a lot. I feel more comfortable if the ‘bones’ of my story are in place before the real writing starts. I plan the overall shape of the story and then I plot a rough outline for each scene or chapter, trying to build-in pace and contrast. Sometimes I do this in very broad terms - for example I might decide that in chapter 7 a group of friends play dares in a field in the dark. But sometimes it’s more detailed than that - for example I may decide that in chapter 11 one character will find a letter and will be halfway through reading it when another characters walks in and interrupts. I might decide that an argument will result between the two characters and I might jot down odd snatches of the dialogue that pop into my head as I’m imagining it. But it’s when I start to write each chapter that the finer details of plot and dialogue and location fall into place.
Often I begin writing a scene with only the flimsiest framework and I find it takes on a life of its own and goes in directions I wasn’t expecting. On other occasions it’s like peering through the fog trying to make out what is happening. Sometimes I struggle to find the words and ideas to make a scene work and I feel as if I’m wading through porridge! The best moments are when a scene starts to happen in my head and I find myself just watching it, like a movie. The challenge then is to find the language to recreate it so that the reader can watch it too.

I usually work on one chapter at a time. Once a chapter or scene is roughly right in the first draft I start going over it - often reading it out loud to make sure it flows and the rhythms are right. I might change words, cut unnecessary phrases, add details or alter sentence length. Then I move onto the next chapter. When I’ve written the whole book I go over it some more. This redrafting process can go on for weeks. At the point that I’m more or less satisfied with it (or when I hit my deadline!) I send my manuscript to my editor who will then read it very carefully and suggest further changes. This editorial stage can feel a bit like getting your work back from the teacher, covered in red pen! But it’s always worth it. I like the metaphor that the French writer Flaubert once used: writing is like hair – the more you comb it, the better it shines!

Writing can be a big adventure. Sometime I feel like a dream catcher, capturing ideas and stories and moods that are ‘out there’ somewhere and just need to be caught. Sometimes it’s harder work than that and I feel more like a diamond miner, digging and digging until I find something worth peddling. Just occasionally, being a writer feels like being a magician – or better still, like an alchemist. You mix together a ragbag assortment of ingredients and somehow – in some extraordinary way – they come out as gold!