April 2010
Writers have one thing in common – something to say and a compulsion to communicate through the written word.
Children with literary parents and good school influence are fortunate but many from humble backgrounds, often with little education, have later become prolific and very successful writers.
Many declare that one has to have experienced personal tragedy and heartbreak to become a good actor or writer and those who draw on such occasions can undoubtedly bring a further dimension to their work, whilst some who have endured unspeakable horrors can turn aside from such memories and write with great warmth and humour.
Childhood deserves a whole book to itself and some writers speak of an irresistible urge to break from their absorbing work to embark upon their autobiography. For some it has been their first book.
But where to start? Once the decision is made memories come flooding with bewildering abundance. As with fiction, the most arresting opening can be far from the beginning of a saga and the moment to plunge in can be when the impact of a particular memory is so strong that it knocks the author sideways. Flashbacks, if not indulged in too frequently, can be very effective in holding the reader’s interest. The excitement of researching as old haunts are re-visited and the help of relatives and friends enlisted, can be heady stuff. Photographs and newspaper cuttings will yield much invaluable information. Of course memories and research may bring pain but the biographer will first have had the compulsion to embark on the work and, hopefully, will have found the completion has brought relief and satisfaction.
Fiction writers able to choose any background, real or imaginary, in which to set their story, have abundant freedom.
Characters are invariably an embodiment of persons known, seen or heard on whom are embroidered mannerisms and personalities. Some may take over, not surprisingly, for when they have been well developed by the author, they will act out compulsively the natures given to them. Cardboard characters never come alive on the page for their creator must know the whole person in his mind, even though only about one third will appear.
One of Britain’s popular exports is the murder mystery. An additional mystery is how a crop of respectable English women have become some of the best and most successful writers in this field. Their lack of first-hand experience of violent crime and little training in forensic science or knowledge of the crime underworld proves to be no handicap as each creator finds her own way through the maze.
The science fiction writer must find plotting increasingly difficult for the impossible of today is tomorrow’s normality.
But writers have always been adept at surmounting obstacles and will, of course, continue to delight their readers with their books, audio books, scripts and adaptations.