Literary Birthday – 9 February – Claire Fuller

Happy Birthday, Claire Fuller, born 9 February 1967.

Claire Fuller Quotes

1. I find the act of writing really difficult. I write almost so I that I can edit because editing is the bit I enjoy. It’s the creation that I find really very hard. (Curtis Brown Creative)
2. My advice would be to get your manuscript as polished as you can before sending it out to agents and then follow their submission guidelines closely. (Curtis Brown Creative)
3. Try not to compare yourself to other writers. And keep a writing diary! I write a short note in my diary at the end of every writing session, including the word count and a line on how it’s gone and any major thoughts, and I’ve found it so useful to look back at when I’m on subsequent novels. (Curtis Brown Creative)
4. One way a skilled writer can create suspense is to make us–the readers–develop it in our own minds. Leave just enough unsaid, and we will fill in the gaps. And the images in our heads are always worse than the reality. That’s why a writer or a screenwriter should never actually show the monster. (Claire Fuller’s Blog)
5. Another way to create suspense is to not allow the reader inside the head of the character who is able to provide the answers, and instead show us only glimpses through the eyes of others. Or alternatively, have the reader so close inside the protagonist’s head we experience their confusion and are kept in the dark for as long as they are. (Claire Fuller’s Blog)
6. Advice for writing sex scenes? Firstly, I’d say, unless you’re writing in a particular genre which doesn’t call for it, try and write sex with all its funny and awkward, messiness. Make it real. Make the characters behave in character. And use the same kind of language that you’ve used in the rest of the novel, don’t start using fancy metaphors about fountains and volcanoes unless the rest of the novel is written like that. And thirdly, consider whether you’re writing the scene with too much of a male gaze. This is not so much to do with point of view, but what happens during the sex scene and what you allow the reader to see. (Interview with Bookanista)
7. I read while I have breakfast (and often take a picture of my book for Instagram) and then I’m at my desk at 9am. I always try to start writing immediately, but I find myself answering emails, sorting out my diary and my day, and sometimes don’t open the manuscript until about three or four in the afternoon. Then I work until about six. (Famous Writing Routines)
   
8. If I’m revising or editing a novel, then I’ll do this from 9am until 6pm because I love it. (Famous Writing Routines)
9. The writing does take over. I think because it’s a passion as well, because it’s something I love doing; it does consume me. When you’re in the middle of something, you’re thinking about it all the time, even if you’re doing as little writing as possible. (Winchester Interview)
10. I never start with a theme, or issues or a bigger subject, so I didn’t know that was what the book was going to be about. I start with a character in a place and write without a plan. (Winchester Interview)

Claire Fuller is an English novelist and short fiction writer who began writing at the age of 40. Her books have been described as literary mysteries. She has written six novels: The Memory of Animals, Our Endless Numbered Days, Swimming Lessons, Bitter Orange, Unsettled Ground (Winner of the 2021 Costa Novel Award), and the forthcoming, Hunger and Thirst. She has a Masters in Creative and Critical Writing from The University of Winchester. Visit her website and follow her on Instagram @writerclairefuller

Source for image: Vlschpmn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Claire_Fuller_01_Portrait_Colour_hi-res.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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