Following on from the RNA article in Frost last week I’m delighted to welcome Jane Wenham-Jones – novelist, columnist and presenter – to Sister Scribes today. Thank you, Jane, for answering our many and varied questions.
First off the blocks. Plotter or pantser? Or does it vary by what you are writing (short story, novel, ‘how to’ book etc)?
I started off as a Pantser, but I am now – through bitter experience ha! – a plotter. I plotted my last novel – The Big Five O – fairly forensically as it follows the stories of four different women and I needed to make sure it was balanced and the timeline worked. When I wrote a weekly column, however, I would often just begin writing and see what came out… And I tend to write articles with just a vague idea of the content. I am on my tenth book as we speak and I have a one-sentence description for each chapter on a sheet beside me, but whether the novel will end up like that is another matter…
What, for you, is the very hardest part of writing?
Getting started. I am such a procrastinator. My son used to say he could always tell when the novel wasn’t flowing because even HIS shelf of the airing cupboard had been tidied…
And what is the most rewarding?
Writing “The End” (There’s nothing like it!!)
Photo credit Bill Harris
What do you see as the greatest success of your writing career? And what was the deepest disappointment?
One came from the other. When the publishing house that took my first two novels didn’t want the third (“too many serious issues”) it felt like the end of the world. I really thought it was all over. But this led indirectly to my writing Wannabe a Writer?, which in turn has led to many opportunities and has apparently, and gratifyingly, helped lots of writers (many of them now more successful than I am!) get published. I now have a patchwork ‘career’ which I love, and all the interviewing I do – I’ve done events with hundreds of top authors and celebs – which brings me great joy, started from one event for that small publisher who took me on for my third novel. As one door closes etc …
As you know, Sister Scribes is all about women writers supporting each other through their writing journeys. Do you have a ‘go to’ bunch of fellow female writers you value and rely on? If so, how did you meet them and how do you support each other?
The RNA (Romantic Novelists’ Association) is a wonderful institution and I have made many terrific friends through it, who have been wonderfully supportive. I email often with Katie Fforde, Judy Astley, Janie Millman, and others and it is good to have someone at the end of a screen who knows what it’s like when one is only capable of pairing the socks…
What are your wishes and ambitions for this year and this decade?
My own chat show anyone?
And finally. I LOVED the Big 50. So funny and warm. How do you celebrate big birthdays yourself?
Ah thank you so much x It was fun to write. I love a party but I tend to cower when it comes to big birthdays. I spent 40 in a darkened room and ran away for my 50th. But now – having lost people far too young and had a life-threatening illness myself, I think how ridiculous that all was. If I haven’t been crushed by a passing bus by the time I’m sixty, I shall have a ball!
The Big Five-O by Jane Wenham-Jones is published by Harper Collins in paperback and in e-book formats. www.janewenham-jones.com @JaneWenhamJones