Day 5 – Michelle Harrison
Writer Workshop Week is a week of guest interviews with well-known authors who Elle and Kate have asked to share a little bit of their writing process for aspiring novelists and readers alike!
Hello, Memoirites! Today’s author is Michelle Harrison, author of the award-winning The 13 Treasures. Not only has her writing won the Waterstone’s Children’s Book prize, but the sequels The 13 Curses, The 13 Secrets, are now available and Michelle is working on her first novel for young adults entitled Unrest! Welcome, Michelle!
Elle: Hi Michelle, thanks for stopping by! Loving The 13 Treasures as I do, I’d be really interested in how difficult it is for you to weave secrets and red-herrings into your plotlines. Do you pre-plan right from the beginning or do secrets appear as you write?
Michelle: Hi – thank you for having me! Well, the process of writing each of my books was very different and so the occurrence of secrets and red herrings varies from being planned right from the start, or something that just pops into my head at the time. With The 13 Treasures I jumped straight in with only the premise of a girl who had the rare ability to see fairies, and a rough idea of the ending. The result of that was that the plot meandered all over the place and I ended up cutting and rewriting extensively – I essentially wrote two or three different books. As it turned out, this was a good thing because it was a learning process. (I found a few of my very first chapters squirreled away a couple of weeks ago, and they’re SO cringe-worthy!) About halfway through the novel I discovered that planning ahead really helped, and began to make a few bullet point notes of what I wanted to appear in a certain chapter.
When I wrote The 13 Curses I was struck through with fear that I wouldn’t be able to complete a second book. I wrote a synopsis with almost every little detail planned, which was helpful in many respects but took some of the enjoyment out of the writing. I think it was another learning curve and just gave me the confidence I needed to make it to the end. Being immersed in the first book for so long (around seven years) made me too comfortable in that story and also made it harder for me to leave – starting something new was a scary prospect.
Since then, I’ve learned that a balance works best for me when it comes to planning. My third book, The 13 Secrets, was written to an outline which was basically an extended blurb. This was exciting enough for me to want to write the book but it left room for change. The further I am into a story the more ideas I get; it’s like they feed off each other and if the story is already structured too rigidly then it doesn’t allow better ideas to surface. I’m using this ‘extended blurb’ approach for my current novel, Unrest, and it suits me well so far.
Kate: Similarly, I’m curious as to if you always knew The 13 Treasures was going to be part of a series. Is this something that made itself clear to you as you wrote, or did the characters always make it clear to you that they had more complicated plans ahead?
Michelle: When I first began The 13 TreasuresI was set on the idea of a trilogy with each book being self-contained. I had vague ideas for books two and three. Towards the end of the first book when I’d started to research getting published, much of the advice warned against trilogies for a first time writer because it was a bigger chance for a publisher to take than a stand-alone. With that in mind (and also the desire to work on something new) I began to think of the book as a single story, but with the option of continuing if there was a demand for it from a publisher. Most people are surprised to
find out that the character of Red only made it into the book in the very last draft, and obviously her story led the way for a sequel. When I eventually got an agent I mentioned the idea of a second book from Red’s point of view. She loved it, and so we decided to go for this approach when it came to meeting publishers.
When I was about halfway through The 13 Curses I started getting ideas for a potential third book in the series and luckily, that’s what my publisher asked for. So I started out wanting to write a trilogy, changed my mind, then ended up writing one anyway!
Elle: I see a theme evolving in our questions because I’d like to know how much of your characters that you discover in the process of writing versus how much you know at the outset. I feel like Tanya (The 13 Treasures) comes to know herself in the course of the books – was it planned that way?
Michelle: I usually know very little about my characters at the start. More often than not it’s just one or two things about them, and sometimes a feeling that develops into more. For instance, Warwick, the groundskeeper of Elvesden Manor, came into my head as a sullen, unfriendly
The treasure map! Click to enlarge
man but I knew there were reasons for his ways, and his back story was one of my favourites to invent. As the stories develop, characters become real to me and I end up knowing things about them that never even make it into the books.
Leading on from the previous question, it’s probably because I work in this way that the books evolved into a series. As the characters became more complex and rounded, and their motivations clearer, they drove the continuation of the story.
Kate: To break the chain: I’ve heard a lot about writer’s retreats, or authors getting together and spending a day just writing. Have you ever tried writing with a group like that? If you have, was it helpful, or distracting?
Michelle: I’ve never been on one. I’m not sure it would work for me – I can imagine getting terribly distracted by a) the other writers; there’s nothing more off-putting than hearing about the thousands of words someone is reeling off when you’re still staring at your chapter heading; and b) the location. If it was a lovely place, such as a country cottage I’d be likely to go off exploring and kid myself it was research. I tend to be a hermit, and a snappish one at that, when I write so I’m probably best left alone to get on with it!
Elle: How much research do you put into your books? Every writer gleans inspiration from somewhere different; you’ve lived in a haunted flat and you were surrounded by children’s books every day for a while, do you find that you look back and see bits and pieces of your experiences popping up in your novels?
Michelle: Definitely. I always research whatever I write about, whether it’s fairies or ghosts, but my books are riddled with other incidental things that have happened to me or people I know. My current book is about a boy who experiences sleep paralysis and out-of-body experiences, and it’s through these conditions that he connects with the spirit world. I got the idea from a family member who experiences both these things on a regular basis.
Smaller aspects include place names: I once drove through a town called Lickey End when I was lost, which I adapted into ‘Tickey End’ in the ’13 Treasures’ books. The name ‘Elvesden’ came from a postcard a friend sent me from a holiday camp, and I found the legend of the thirteen treasures in a book given to me by someone else.
Kate: How do you deal with writer’s block (or, if you don’t get true writer’s block, getting stuck)?
Michelle: Thankfully I’ve never experienced true writer’s block. I get stuck occasionally, usually when I want to move my story on and I’m trying to visualise the best way to do that, but sometimes I grind to a halt because I haven’t done enough research. If that’s the case then I’ll find out whatever it is I need to know before continuing – I’m not the sort of person who can leave part of the story and fill in the blanks later.
If I’m having trouble moving forward I’ll read through the previous few chapters to see if there’s anything that needs correcting, but most of the time an idea presents itself. If it doesn’t then I sometimes take a break and have a bit of a daydream about possibilities until I get somewhere.
Elle: Do you use a writer’s program such as Scrivener when you write or do you have some other method? Hundreds of disorganised Word documents or hundreds of notebooks and scraps of paper?
Michelle: Um, OK. I just had to Google Scrivener! It seems pretty sensible, and actually there are some similarities in how I work. I write in Word, creating one main folder for the novel. Each chapter is a separate numbered file. I’m not really sure why I started writing like this rather than one long document but I just find it easier. I can always find my place quickly and I like the feeling of completing a chapter and seeing the files build in the folder. After the final chapter is complete I’ll create one document piecing everything together.
Alongside the chapters I’ll do separate documents with my dedication, acknowledgements, research documents and if 
relevant, a list of quotes.
I keep notebooks, too. They tend to be less organised, containing partially written chapters (I only write long hand if I’m travelling somewhere and can’t be bothered to take my laptop), notes, drawings, dates, timelines, place names, chapter titles, and To Do lists. It all goes in higgledy piggledy – I might write half a chapter, stop mid-sentence and write a list of questions I need answers to. It probably wouldn’t make sense to anyone else but weirdly I know where everything is – sort of like a messy room!
I’ll also use my notebook to record chapter lengths and add up my word count every time I complete a chapter.
Kate: Sort of along the same lines, do you have any writing “must haves”, be it a favorite playlist on your iPod, a comfy chair, a tasty snack, or something else entirely?
Michelle: Not really. I tend to drink a lot of tea when I’m writing and if I’m approaching my deadline there’s usually chocolate to be found nearby, but that’s about it. I wish I could listen to music when I write but I just can’t concentrate. Increasingly during breaks I listen to the odd song which I’ll link to a certain character, so maybe play lists will develop over time.
Elle: I’m determined to ask everyone this question! Most writers are asked who their favourite writer is and which writer has influenced the most but I’d like to know which book, or books, has had the most influence on you as a person and your work?
Michelle: I suppose the books that have influenced me most are the ones that encouraged my love of reading and kept me reading. If I hadn’t had a love of books instilled into me I wouldn’t be a writer. I’ll start with the ‘Famous Five’ series by Enid Blyton. These were the first books I read by myself, and re-read many times – I loved the mystery and adventure, and of course how the children did their own thing without the adults interfering.
In my teens I became addicted to Christopher Pike’s books – I’m glad to see they’re making a comeback at the moment! In particular I loved the ‘Final Friends’ trilogy. The characters seemed so glamorous that I yearned to go to an American high school and live that kind of life. I was also a fan of Pike’s twist endings, which is probably apparent from my own work. My first attempts at fiction writing were heavily Pike inspired.
Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee was a huge influence on my ’13 Treasures’ trilogy. It contains all sorts of gems of fairy mythology and the most beautiful art work, and was the main reason I became interested in the darker side of fairies.
At the risk of sounding a bit dippy, a book which affected me personally was The Cosmic Ordering Guide by Stephen Richards. I started it feeling sceptical, and while I don’t agree with everything in it, I’m a big believer in positive thinking which is really what this amounts to.
I recently read Beautiful by Katie Piper, a model who had acid thrown in her face by an ex-boyfriend. If ever a book made me grateful for my own life and health, this is it. It’s a story that puts things into perspective, and I have nothing but admiration for the author’s courage and determination.
Kate: Finally, your website says that you knew by the time you left school that you wanted to be a writer. Was this a bolt-from-the-blue realization or did it build up over time? Did any one isolated incident make you think, Yes, absolutely, this is what I am going to do?
Michelle: It was a slow build up. I’d started writing short stories when I was about fourteen and began thinking that writing a book was something I’d like to do one day. So the ambition was there early on, but not really in a considered way.
At that time it seemed a huge thing, which it was, but not in the way I expected. Before I’d written a novel, the writing was the most daunting prospect. Only after I’d completed my first draft did I realise that there were bigger challenges ahead. The desire to become a published writer grew and evolved from there on – the more rejections I got, the more I wanted it and the harder I worked. There were a few hissy fits along the way but, looking back, I’m glad I had to earn it!
Writer Workshop Week – The Giveaway
In the spirit of the 13 Treasures series, we’re sending you on a treasure hunt through the WWW posts from this week in order to win any two books of your choice from the writers features in Writer’s Workshop Week! Fill in the form below.
Winner announced: 28/10/11
As to the hotel setting in ROOM 33, it sprang from my fascination with old hotels. The mystery of “if these walls could talk” is so compelling. I also talked to a person who’d worked in the hotel industry about the problems and challenges in refurbishing a derelict hotel. He was so-o helpful. But, truly, the internet rules for most of my research.
