20 questions for Fanny Blake, author of The Secrets Women Keep

1) Do you come from a literary background?

I don’t, but I spent a childhood being asked if I did. My maiden name was Waugh, and I was regularly asked whether I was any relation to Evelyn Waugh. I particularly remember being asked by a piano examiner who was trying to put me at my ease, when all I wanted to do was get the exam over and done with.

2) What writers did you enjoy reading as a child?

I started off with the obvious: Beatrix Potter, Pookie by Ivy Wallace, Babar, then Enid Blyton and Noel Streatfield. I loved books about animals, so made my way through Black Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians and The Incredible Journey. When I was in my teens, I discovered crime writing and would trawl my parents’ bookcase that was full of green Penguins, pulling out writers such as Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh and Erle Stanley Gardner. I couldn’t wait to get to the library and get out the next volume in Mazo de la Roche’s Jalna series. I loved Georgette Heyer too, and of course there were the classics we read at school, with the exception of Thomas Hardy who I just didn’t get at all.

3) Did you write as a child?

I did but I can only remember a long story painstakingly written out in an exercise book about a Canada goose, and a play I wrote based on a song called ‘The Lincolnshire Poache’r. We had a garden shed that I commandeered for a while and used as the headquarters for a newspaper. I think it ran to one edition!

4) How did you get started as a writer?

I worked as a publisher for many years, acquiring and editing fiction. After that I became a journalist, writing book-related and interiors features. This led to my being asked to write some tie-in books for TV programmes such as House Doctor and Place in the Sun. After that I began to ghost various celebrity memoirs that were great fun and also gave me the confidence and some of the knowhow I needed to write a novel. I had several false starts but eventually I arrived at What Women Want.

5) Do you find writing easy?

Never easy, but some times are easier than others. It often happens that when I’ve got up a good head of steam and expect to be writing as fluently the next day, it just doesn’t happen and I spend hours staring blankly at the screen. That can be frustrating, but sometimes going for a walk helps and I can nudge it on a bit.

6) Describe your working day...

I usually follow a normal working day. I head into my room, just off the kitchen, with a cup of tea at about 9am and work through, stopping for lunch or to go for a walk maybe. Of course, I’m not always writing. I’m a dab hand at displacing on the internet and on Twitter but, despite the temptations of the biscuit tin, I stay there till I’ve done my quota of words for the day.

7) Do you do much research?

So far, I haven’t had to do an enormous amount but it depends on what the novel needs. So far I’ve only used places I’ve visited already. I always make notes when I travel so I have small details. For Women of a Dangerous Age, I had a great time visiting lots of vintage fashion fairs, talking to experts and reading up on the subject. I also spent time with a goldsmith who showed me round her studio and explained how she worked. I’d never really understood why people got so excited about gemstones until she showed me some of the things she was working on.

8) Please guide us through the stages of one of your books – the ideas, the planning, the drafts, working with an editor, etc.

I usually start with an idea. For example, with The Secrets Women Keep, I was intrigued by other people’s marriages. How many times have you wondered how on earth a couple got together at all or what makes one another tick? Then I started thinking about the interior life of marriage. Can one partner ever really know the other completely? Doesn’t everyone keep a part of themselves private? I decided to write about two marriages in which the partners have been blind to certain truths about each other. When tragedy strikes and revelations are made, their lives are changed forever.

Having got that far, I began to think about the characters, writing them as full biographies as possible, and working out their journey through the book. Where there was any obvious research to be done, into locations or characters’ careers then I did that too. So by the time I started, I knew my starting and finishing points, with some key scenes along the way. I try to write 1,000 words every day, although sometimes I end up with much less and, very occasionally, more.

When I start the day. I go over what I wrote the day before, editing, tweaking etc and then set off again. If I’m finding it hard, I remind myself of Joe Simpson’s extraordinary feat of survival that he wrote about in Touching the Void. By taking a few agonising steps at a time, then stopping, he eventually reached base camp. I.e. You’ve just got to keep going, however small each advance and however difficult, and you’ll get there in the end.

I work through a second draft, making sure it’s as good as I can make it, then I show my agent who’s a fantastic editor and tells it like it is. Then, another draft. And then, if I’ve got it right, to the publisher. One more draft to incorporate any more changes and suggestions and then it’s off to the copy-editor.

9) Do you show your work in progress to anyone?

If I’ve been stuck, I have shown it to my agent. I trust her judgment implicitly. She’s very quick at coming back to me with her comments and is extremely helpful if I need to discuss a character or plot line that’s going wrong. She boosts my confidence and encourages me to carry on. I don’t like showing the work-in-progress to anyone else because I’m scared I might lose the impetus to carry on.

10) Are you good at managing your time? How does your writing fit in with the rest of your life?

I’m absolutely rubbish at managing my time. During the week, I write as if it was a day job. But the novel and the characters are always turning over in my head, so I’m often tempted to write at weekends too. I suspect it might be better if I worked in shorter more focussed bursts, but I can’t seem to do that.

11) How do you relax?

I do two sessions of Pilates a week. I love long country walks, walking and talking – great combination. I’m a theatre junkie so go as often as I can afford and to the cinema when I can’t. I love meeting up with friends. And reading, of course.

12) Who are your favourite living writers?

Difficult, there are so many. But perhaps at the top of my list I’d put Anne Tyler, Ann Patchett, Barbara Kingsolver, William Boyd, Alison Munro and Hilary Mantel.

13) Tell us about some of the books you’ve enjoyed in the past year.

I loved so many, but among them are Edith Pearlman’s wonderful short stories in Binocular Vision, Maggie O’Farrell’s brilliant portrait of an Irish family in Instructions for a Heatwave, Curtis Sittenfeld’s Sisterland about identical twins with ‘senses’, Kate Atkinson’s exraordinary re-imagination of a life in Life After Life and The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud. I wish I had room for more…

14) Who are your favourite dead writers?

Dickens and Jane Austen have to be up there, but I also enjoy going back to Elizabeth Bowen, Nancy Mitford, Barbara Pym, Katherine Mansfield, Muriel Spark – I could go on and on. I’m ashamed to say that I’ve only just read Daphne du Maurier. How had I missed her?!

15) Are there any types of book you don’t enjoy reading?

I’ve never got the hang of science fiction, but otherwise I’ve got pretty catholic taste.

16) How did you first get published?

The magazine journalism I did led me into writing various non-fiction titles that tied in with TV programmes such as Place in the Sun and Location, Location, Location. After that I moved into ghosting autobiographies. Then I decided, that the time had come to try my hand at a novel. I had a significant birthday coming up, so set myself the date as a target. I already had an agent who liked the novel and sent it out. The first expression of interest came in on said birthday.

17) Have you ever had a work rejected?

My agent has tactfully suggested that I shelve one or two false starts before she has to try to take them any further. So I have several ‘works not in progress’ on my computer. You never know, I may try and dust them off one day.

18) Can you give any advice to someone wanting to write a book?

Read as much as you can. Then write, write, write. It’s much easier to talk about writing than it is doing it. If you only write 200 words in one day, that’s better than nothing and taking you a little nearer your goal. Then once you have something written down, you can change and polish it until you’ve made it the best you can. All that’s impossible until the words are on the page.

19) Do you hang out with other writers or stay away from the literary world?

Because I was a publisher, many of my friends are in that world. I can’t imagine my life without them.

20) Do you enjoy promoting your books and meeting your readers?

Very much indeed. It’s a very pleasant time away from writing. Without readers, novelists would be nothing, so it’s great to get an opportunity to meet them and talk.

Fanny’s latest book, The Secrets Women Keep, is available from the allaboutyoubookshop.co.uk

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