22/05/2015
Event report ('s Guildford last week), courtesy of Bernadette Porteous! ...
I went to hear David Nicholls, the successful novelist and screen writer ( Far From The Madding Crowds, Starter for Ten, Cold Feet, among others) speak about his working life yesterday. He was a lovely, warm, funny man who remains grounded and humble, despite his considerable success.
I came away with these nuggets:
1. He writes around four drafts for his novels and they take as long as they take-some faster than others. He did not get on with the one book a year deal. Usually the first and last of these are the finished novel.
2. He prints out a hard copy to edit his work and then re-types the changes from scratch, to ensure that every word counts.
3. He started out as a script editor and then moved into writing for TV and finally into films with his own novel, Starter for Ten, and now the very latest one (Madding Crowd).
4. Screen writing takes years and there are many more people involved in the editing. Madding Crowd has taken eight years and about 25 re-writes to get to the screen. You cannot be too possessive about your writing in this medium.
5.He treats it like any job and works 9-5pm, mainly writing in the morning and then doing related admin in the afternoons.
6. He often has someone in mind to play the parts in the film of his novels, but does not tell anyone, so it does not restrict the reader, allowing them to imagine their own version of the person.
7. He advises aspiring writers to read and watch a lot of other novels, films etc. for ideas.
8. He challenges the notion of only writing about what you know and deliberately set out to write about what he didn't know for the latest novel (very successfully as "Us" was long-listed for the Man Booker prize).
9. I would add that he doesn't take himself too seriously and is self-deprecating. All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening. Thank you to Waterstones, Guildford, for hosting the event.
