Literary Birthday – 23 January – Cathy Hopkins

Quotes

1. There will always be people for and against you, and its pointless wasting time trying to win over some of the people who are against you. Spend time with people who are for you. Those relationships are worth it.
2. Don’t wait for your ship to come in, swim out to it.
3. My advice would be to go to your local library and borrow either the Writers’ Handbook published by MacMillan or the Writer’s and Artist’s Yearbook published by A and C Black. They can usually be found in the reference section of most libraries. Failing that you could buy a copy from a bookstore. It tells you just about everything you need to know about getting published, lists all the agents and publishers and tells you what they like to look at in the first instance: whether it be an introductory letter or the first two chapters or just an outline. I would also recommend that if you can do a creative writing course, do so, in fact do a few as there is so much to learn from all of them.
4. I sometimes do a page on them [characters] in the beginning in three parts, physical – what they look like, social: where they live, who their family is, education, work etc then lastly, psychological: what they want, their goals, dreams, ambitions, disappointments, hang ups – everything that makes them the individual they are. After that, I often go through magazines and see if I can see a picture of someone who looks like I imagine my character then I’ll cut it out and put it on the notice board.
5. [I get my dreams] anywhere and everywhere. All over the place. Talking to people, reading magazines, newspapers, dreams, and sometimes ideas just come from nowhere.

Must-Read: Cathy Hopkins’ Top 10 Writing Tips