Literary Birthday – 17 August – Elly Griffiths

Happy Birthday, Elly Griffiths, born on 17 August 1963.

Elly Griffiths Quotes

1. I write a rough chapter plan in my notebook. Just a few lines per chapter but all the way to the end.
2. Once I start a book, I try to write at least 1,000 words a day.
3. After the first handwritten notes, I’m straight onto the keyboard.
4. I like to visit the places I write about because that gives you a feeling for the atmosphere. I also use the library and the internet. When I’m researching the 1950s books, I like to read literature from that time.
5. I always have my notebook with me. I sometimes also pin pictures on a noticeboard.
6. I only write one draft. I do edit a bit when I get to the end but what is in my first draft is usually what is in the finished book.
7. I write a bit every day rather than immersing myself so the outside world is always there. I have two children and another job so it can’t be any other way.
8. I have a writing shed at the top of my garden. It’s where I like to write, just me and the cat, but I try to tell myself that I could write anywhere, if I had to.
9. I write a rough outline (longhand, in my notebook) but I always leave room to surprise myself. Often, the story changes as I go along.
10. I love beginnings. As soon as I finish one book, I write the first line of the next. It’s about three chapters in that I start procrastinating, playing Panda Pop (never Candy Crush) and moaning to my writer friends on Facebook.
11. You can fix a bad page but you can’t fix a blank page. Start writing today.
12. I often start with half a plot and hope that the other half becomes apparent as I write. It’s always amazing to me the way that, sometimes, the plot is there without you noticing it.

Source for quotes 1-7: Rebecca Bradley and quotes 8-12: Sit Down & Write

Elly Griffiths is a British crime novelist. She read English at King’s College London and, after graduating, worked in a library, for a magazine and then as a publicity assistant at HarperCollins. She  eventually became Editorial Director for children’s books at HarperCollins. In 1998, she wrote her first novel. She is the author of the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries, the Brighton Mysteries, and the Ali Dawson Mysteries. She won the 2020 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel for The Stranger Diaries. In 2021, The Postscript Murders was shortlisted in the Gold Dagger category at the Crime Writers’ Association Awards. She also writes under the name of Domenica de Rosa. Follow her on Instagram.

Source for photograph: Author’s Website

by Amanda Patterson
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