Katherine Webb

Katherine Webb. (Photo Credit, Andrew Morris.)

Katherine is the author of The Legacy and The Unseen. Her latest, The Misbegotten, is available now. 

Hello Katherine and thank you for joining Novel Kicks today… Hi Laura! Thanks for having me.

Can you tell us a little about your latest book, The Misbegotten?

It’s set in 1821 in Bath, and centres on a disparate group of people who find themselves drawn together – however unwillingly – by the disappearance of a young woman twelve years earlier. Some of them want to find out the truth about what happened to her, and some will go to any lengths to make sure that the truth stays buried…

How do you start a new book? Do you have any rituals? Do you plan?

No real rituals, but a strong habit – at the desk by 9AM, 2000 words minimum per day. I plan a bit. I do a lot of research for my historical settings, which results in a lot of notes, which I have next to me even if I don’t look at them that day. I have an outline of the plot – an idea of where each character and the plot will start and end up, but the way they get there tends to evolve as I’m writing. I certainly can’t write chapter plans or anything like that –I just work my way through it. Sometimes that means going back because I’ve left out something important, or because something I wanted to include doesn’t actually work, but that’s fine.

Can you describe your writing style.

Um…difficult! I like to think I write stories with vivid atmospheres – I want readers to be transported to wherever or whenever I’m writing about. I also want them to care deeply about my characters, whether they like them or not, so I think the books are always led more by character than by plot. That said, a sense of mystery in the plot is crucial to the way I write, I think.

Do you cast your characters whilst writing?

The less important ones, yes. Sometimes a character pops up that I hadn’t even known about before I started writing. But the main characters often come to me before the actual plot does – the central three or four people who will be crucial to the story. I feel I know them inside out, and they dictate the plot to me, rather than it being the other way around. [I just realised that I might be completely mis-interpreting this question, and you might be asking if I literally cast them with actors, and picture these actors as I write, rather than asking how I develop my characters… If so – no, I don’t cast them! Not at all.]

Orion, 2013.

If you could be any fictional character for a day, who would you pick?

Somebody who could travel through time. HG Wells’s Time Traveller, perhaps!

Do you edit as you go or wait for a draft?

I start each writing day by editing what I wrote the day before, which gets me back into the rhythm of it. But other than that, I like to keep a strong forward momentum until I get a finished first draft, which I can then go back and reshape.

Who would be your ideal dinner guests?

I’d like to pick out some personal heroes here – Daphne du Maurier, Gertrude Bell, Stephen Fry, John Keats, Jane Austen, Bradley Cooper (sigh!), but I’m quite shy and if they did all turn up I know I’d just sit in silence, feeling nervous and having a rubbish time! So actual friends and family are always a better bet for a dinner party, I think.

Which book had made the most impact on you? Do you think being a big reader is important for a writer?

I think being a reader is crucial to being a writer. I don’t know any authors who aren’t also voracious readers – the two go hand in hand; they’re flip sides of the same coin. It’s all passion for the written word, and for stories – our own and other people’s – and I don’t think you can have one without the other. There are so many books I’ve loved and that have had a huge impact on me over the years, it’s hard to pick out any one. Perhaps du Maurier’s Rebecca. I read it in my early teens – it was one of the first ‘grown-up’ books I’d ever read, and I was blown away by it. I’d had no idea a book could be so thrilling, so engrossing, so shocking.

What makes you laugh?

All the everyday ridiculous things I see. Life’s little ironies. Unexpected slapstick. damnyouautocorrect.com. Miranda. My friends. Prosecco!

What’s your favourite word?

Changes all the time. I’m currently obsessed with heteronyms – keep spotting them everywhere: Perfect. Appropriate. Wind. Refuse. Desert.

Five tips for new writers. 

Just do it. Whether you’re in the mood or not. 

Get your work read, and take criticism on board.

Don’t only write what you know– how dull would fiction be if authors only ever did that?

Your imagination is your only limit.

Rethink. Rewrite. Edit. – Don’t try to make every line perfect from the get-go. The empty page is your enemy. Hit your stride and get a first draft down. Then spend time improving and reshaping it.

Follow Katherine on Twitter. 

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Laura

I’m Laura. I started Novel Kicks in 2009. I wanted a place to post my writing as well as give other writers like me the opportunity to do the same. There is also a monthly book club, a writing room which features writing prompts, book reviews, competitions, author interviews and guest posts.

I grew up by the sea (my favourite place in the world) and I currently live in Hampshire. I am married to Chris, have a cat named Buddy and I would love to be a writer. I’m trying to write the novel I’ve talked so much about writing if only I could stop pressing delete. I’ve loved writing since creative writing classes in primary school. I have always wanted to see my teacher Miss Sayers again and thank her for the encouragement. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything I can get my hands on, I love reading, dancing like a loon and singing to myself very badly. My current obsession is Once Upon a Time and I would be happy to live with magic in the enchanted forest surrounded by all those wonderful stories provided that world also included Harry Potter. I love reading chick lit. contemporary fiction and novels with mystery.