Another week, another lovely guest blog. I actually discovered Fiona or F.C.Malby as she writes under, on Twitter. She always posted such interesting and well written blogs, so when I conceived the idea of having guest bloggers, she was one of the first people I contacted. I also wrote a blog for her page which you can see here: http://fcmalby.wordpress.com/.
Thank you Fiona for writing such a wonderful blog for me about your writing style and inspiration. Please everyone check out her novel, Take Me To The Castle, it's actually free this week on Amazon, so do pop along and snag your FREE copy while you can!
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| F.C.Malby |
Author Bio
F.C. Malby is the author of Take Me to the Castle. Born in East Anglia in the UK, she left the University of Reading with a degree in Geography and Education and went on to teach and work as a wedding photographer. She spend time teaching English in the Czech Republic, the Philippines and London before moving to central Europe. She enjoys art, photography, travel and skiing.
Writing Style and Inspiration
Thank you to Jon for hosting today
and for allowing me to write a guest post on his fun-packed website. If you
haven’t read Jon’s timeline, do! It’s brilliantly written and hugely
entertaining. I’m happy to see that Matt Dunn has paved the way for me today!
Readers often ask where you get your
ideas from as a writer and how you begin. ‘How
do you think of a scene?’ ‘Do you write about your own experiences?’ ‘Do you
have the whole book mapped out in your head?’ I have been met with these
questions on many occasions.
Like Jon, I’m less of a planner and
more of a ‘let’s see how the characters flesh out the story’ kind of writer.
The idea of meticulously mapping out each chapter fills me with horror. I don’t
work that way, some do but it’s not for me. I start with the characters and the hook, the core tension or
issue/s in the story, and build from there. Sometimes an idea strikes and it’s
all there ready to go, and sometimes it starts with something I’ve seen – an
incident or a conversation, maybe a film. Then
it builds with time, slowly, and it gathers enough momentum to be written
down.
I think many writers do use their
own experiences to a certain extent but the
art of fiction is to be able to weave elements of reality into a believable
story. You need to be able to pour emotion into the characters in a way
that doesn’t sound awkward. It has to come naturally, especially if it’s humourous.
Writers also use their outside passions to inspire their work,
whether it’s sport, travel, music. I am an artist and a photographer as well as
a writer, I’m highly visual and I like to use images to start ideas. I also
create boards
on Pinterest of far flung destinations to help with detail. I have written
short stories set in Marrakesh and India so I created boards for these to help
with scene setting, clothing, and fine detail.
I also find inspiration in film and
music and when I write I try to imagine
each scene as a film. It helps you to see the points of view from the
perspectives of different characters, to imagine how the scene will work, and
to think about the detail of the surroundings and the body language of each
character, especially in a high tension scene. The aim is to show how the
character is feeling or reacting to a situation, either through dialogue or
through what they are doing or how they are reacting with their body – arms
folded, turning away, moving to another room (or sitting in the shed with the
cocktail collection!)
So for me, writing is a fairly
organic process, developing out of a theme or an idea and then it evolves. I
learned a great deal from writing Take Me to the Castle and I am now writing
short stories. These are a great way of experimenting with different themes and
styles and I like the impact that you can create in a short piece of narrative.
Blurb
Arriving in Letovice, Jana is trying to escape a personal loss and come to terms with the changes in her country and in her own life. She stays with the Martineks and meets their son, Miloš. When he leaves Letovice and she travels back to Prague, she encounters a deep and shocking betrayal. Jana meets Lukas, a conservator working on the restoration of a mosaic at the Cathedral of St Vitus, Prague. But who is he and what is he hiding?
Take Me to the Castle has been nominated for The People’s Book Awards and is currently free to download this week until 1 March.
Connect
with F.C. Malby:
Website fcmalby.com
Twitter @fcmalby
Facebook FC
Malby Author Page
Goodreads FC
Malby
