Tell us about your latest book.
It is a romantic comedy
called Crazy Little Thing Called Love.
It takes place over the course of a year and follows the lives of three
sisters. Leila, the main character, has had a disastrous love life and swears
off men for a year. She starts a blog charting her twelve months of celibacy,
which snowballs into a hugely popular all-female community, empowering women
and celebrating single life. But only a few months into her self-imposed man
ban, she falls in love. I wanted to write about a relationship that had to be
kept secret, and to explore the tug of war between the feeling of duty, and
love.
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| http://amzn.to/2yJpGYD |
What advice do you have for other writers?
Find a writing style that comes easy
to you, and stick with it. The industry is still in love with intense domestic
dramas, and I once tried my hand at writing a couple of chapters of one,
thinking, ‘I’m a writer, therefore surely I can write anything’. Well I
couldn’t. I was itching to make the angst better, for one of the dark and
brooding characters to crack a joke, or at the very least a smile, and I was
miserable writing about misery. As soon as I realised this and allowed my
fingers to type what came naturally, I was so much happier and my writing was
so much better. I know that many industry insiders look down on chick lit and
romantic comedies, but I also know that I couldn’t write anything else.
What's the best thing about being a writer?
The freedom to invent
happy endings. So many times in life you mentally beat yourself up after an
encounter or situation thinking, ‘Oh God, I wish I’d said…’ but in your book
you can. You can revisit conversations and make them wittier, pithier, more
honest, and you are completely in control of how your cast of characters reacts.
How long did it take
you to write your book?
I can usually write a first draft of the
manuscript in about three months, as long as the children are at school and I
turn off notifications for twitter, facebook and emails! I work for about four
or five hours each day, with quite a few coffee breaks, but I try to write
3,000 words a day. I get annoyed with myself if it’s less than 2,000 and I
celebrate above 4,000 with a massive glass of wine in the evening.
When and where
do you write?
We live in a countryside suburb just
outside of Rome in Italy
Do you believe
in writers block?
I do. Writing romantic comedy is an
uplifting job, it’s happy and joyful and funny. Which means that I need to feel
that way too. If I’m feeling a bit stressed or had bad news, it’s sometimes
tricky to put that to one side and be upbeat and comical, so if I’m nearing
deadline and really can’t afford to waste a day’s writing, I’ll often skip
ahead to a chapter in the book where there’s more angst and drama, and then
revert to the skipping through life scenes when I’m in a better mood. Although,
I have to say that writing about love and romance and happiness is a great
antidote to feeling stressed!
What is your
work in progress? Tell us about it.
I’ve just finished my third book about
a wedding journalist whose day job writing about hearts and flowers is
completely at odds with her rather cynical view on life and love. This should
be out in Spring 2018. I’m now plotting my fourth and fifth books, which I’m
thinking about setting in Italy, as that’s where I’m living now, and I think it
could make a fantastic setting for a romantic comedy.
What are your
thoughts on self-publishing verses traditional publishing?
I actually self-published my very first
book, Very Nearly Perfect. I’d written it as a bit of a challenge to myself.
I’d been a journalist for fourteen years, and like many writers, thought I had
a novel in me. Once I’d written it, the box was ticked for me, I didn’t want to
go through the endless search for an agent and elusive publishing deal, so I self-published
on Amazon and CreateSpace. I found it a really easy route to getting your book
out there, and it was really heartening to see good reviews come in, and
earning revenue every time someone downloaded it. On a bit of a whim, and
buoyed up by the positive reviews, I entered it for a writing competition at
the Emirates Lit Fest in Dubai, where I was living at the time, and I came
second. I then got signed by an agent, and the book was bought by Harper
Impulse, and I got a book deal for more books. So for me, it was a great
decision to self publish to test the water, to gain confidence, and to lead me
to a publisher.
Who or what inspired
you to become a writer?
I have never wanted to be anything else. At
seven, I used to write stories that my Dad would photocopy, staple together and
I would sell at school for five pence. I did English at university, then became
a journalist. There was never anything else I wanted to be.
Does your family
support you in your writing career? How?
Absolutely. My parents and sisters
always knew that this is what I wanted to do, and my Mum even carries around a
couple of copies of my books at all times to give to random strangers that she
meets! My husband is a former journalist too, and despite chick lit not being
his thing at all, he dutifully puts his copy editor hat on once I’ve finished
my manuscripts and gets out the red pen. My children think it’s great that
Mummy writes books, although my nine year old daughter is very impatient to
turn fifteen, which is the age I told her that she can read them!
author interview
authors
books
Charlotte Butterfield
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Harper Collins
Interview
interview feature
Jo Linsdell
writers
writing
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