Ask the Author: Melanie Phillips
Answered Questions (6)
Melanie Phillips
Ah, now this is a very difficult question for me because I had GREAT difficulty with writers' block when I was writing my first novel, The Legacy. I think the problem was a chronic lack of self-belief: I didn't think I could write a novel, and this had a paralysing effect. I was only kept going by my wonderful literary agent, Luigi Bonomi, who had total faith in me and my story and encouraged me to take the psychological leap of simply getting words onto the page – and not instantly deleting them! I hope I won't have quite that problem again, for the rather wonderful reason that people who have read The Legacy are telling me they "couldn't put it down". So I seem to have done something right in the end.
Melanie Phillips
Finishing the book!!
Melanie Phillips
Just get writing! Don't wait for the perfectly developed plot or characters. Just start getting words down on the page – you can always change them at any time – and keep going.
Melanie Phillips
An idea or a character floats into my mind and takes up residence there. Then it kind of starts to ferment, a bit like wine! The secret, I have found, is not to fret about it but to be patient while it grows in my subconscious. Then it gradually resolves itself into a more defined shape and starts to take on a life of its own.
Melanie Phillips
I'm starting work on my second novel – about which I don't want to say anything other than that it will be rather different from my first, The Legacy.
Melanie Phillips
To be frank, I started writing it so long ago I've forgotten! My novel, The Legacy, has at the core of the plot a mystery about the discovery of an ancient manuscript. I once followed the discovery of a historical manuscript and I think that must have been lodged somewhere in my mind.
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