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Each Spring, budding writers and recently published authors descend on the University of Surrey for a day of inspiring talks and growing TBRs. This was my second time attending, and although I do always feel like a bit of an interloper as neither a student nor faculty, it is a brilliant day.
First up were Jenny Mustard and Michael Amherst, discussing their new books which both deal with coming-of-age themes. In Mustard’s What A Time To Be Alive twenty-one year old Sickan struggles to adjust to life at Stockholm University. Although she finds it difficult to form bonds with people she’s also determined to make a fresh start for herself, create a new version of herself. Amherst’s protagonist in The Boyhood of Cain is younger at twelve years old but he is similarly trying to find his place in the world amid upheaval and looks to others for guidance. Both authors spoke of starting with their protagonist and building the story and world around them. They also spoke of the importance of humour to counteract the darkness, something which intensifies it in its contrast. There were also similarities in the supporting characters, each having one that borders on being the enemy of our main focus, but also there being something about them which makes it appear they move through the world easily, a trait our protagonists envy and would like to emulate.
Their books may have some overlap, but their writing process couldn’t be more different. Mustard spoke about meticulously planning out the novel on a spreadsheet. Rather than finding this constricting it gave her a sense of freedom to just focus on the scene she was writing rather than worrying about where the story was going next. Amherst on the other hand falls much more into the pantser category, following the narrative as the characters guide.
Next was a discussion by mother and daughter writing duo Cressida Connolly and Nell Hudson, who discussed how coming from literary families have impacted their writing practice. Connolly’s father was also a well known author while she was growing up and it put her off the idea of writing, but she eventually succumbed to the urge. Hudson had also experienced some reluctance, turning instead to acting as an outlet for her creativity but coming back to writing for the freedom it gives.
Connolly tends to write historic fiction (although she admits it often feels contemporary to her while she writes it) and talks about the importance for authors of deciding whether they’re going to write post- or pre-technology. They talked about how technology can age a novel instantly, and how it can impact the storytelling. Many mysteries, for example, will find ways to remove technology even if it’s set more recently as they can cause plot problems. Hudson, on the other hand, writes in the contemporary world, wanting to write what she knows, although quips that she’s spent so much time acting in eighteenth century dramas she could probably write a story set then without having to do too much research.
Kicking off the afternoon panels was Ela Lee, discussing her novel Jaded, written during the Covid lockdowns. Working in law at the time, sexual misconduct had been common and had become so normalised that it was only when they shifted to working from home that Lee realised how much more relaxed she felt, how she’d been in a constant state of fight or flight in the office. Her novel explores the consequences of sexual assault and is consciously written in a way to make the reader uncomfortable, to make them question their own stance on these issues.
It also explores the experience of growing up mixed race in the UK, something Lee feels is missing in most books. Writing about such personal and sensitive topics, she spoke openly about how anxious she felt about sharing the book with the world. She researched thoroughly not just the content of the novel but also potential agents to ensure she found the right fit.
Later in the afternoon Ralf Webb and Amy Key had an interesting discussion about writing non-fiction and the authenticity of the writer in doing so, especially when working in the memoir form. They discussed whether everything included has to be 100% factually correct and whether you should put yourself in biographies of others, something editors can encourage but doesn’t always feel appropriate.
The final panel of the day saw Naomi Wood and Susannah Dickey discuss the experience of working in different forms - long-form prose, poetry, and short story. A comment that was repeated in some of the other panels was that short story publishing is not seen as viable in the long term, that you might get one collection but are generally encouraged toward novels. They spoke eloquently about their experiences of writing, respecting each other’s ability to create in forms the other felt unable to. Wood spoke about the long process that led to her being able to successfully craft short stories, and the difficulty in switching back to writing novels which takes so much longer and where you have to persist with it at the end of each chapter. It was felt that different topics sometimes feel more appropriate in different forms, that a subject might feel very personal and therefore can be expressed better in poetry, for example.
Rounding up the day was a keynote talk by Daisy Johnson, who had also recently published a short story collection but who was also not encouraged to think of it as a regularly repeatable experience. She spoke honestly about how becoming a mother had impacted her writing, and how her current work-in-progress has stalled for quite some time. She also spoke about how she doesn’t usually write to a hard deadline, but has occasionally had to and the way this impacts her approach to it. She also explored the ways the land inspires and holds hidden stories which she tries to incorporate into many of her works.