Inspiration

Dear Diary

It was a great honour to have won the Booker Prize this year. I felt myself to be in very distinguished company but I know that there are many other authors who could easily have taken the prize.

It has taken me many years to reach this point, many years and much hard work. The Guardian recently published an article about my sudden and rapid rise to fame, concentrating mainly on my recent novel, ‘You Can Spill All You Like!’ The inference there being that it was based on events from my own life. This was, of course, partly true. My parents were members of the working class but a pools win enabled us to improve our lot. My early education was in a state school but private tutoring and the ‘sniff’ of money got me into a ‘fairly’ good university. An early marriage, unplanned children and divorce posed many problems but doting grandparents helped, not to mention the support given by the children’s father.

Success through adversity does have a good ring and it is, to some extent, true in my case. Trying to write whilst taking care of young children is difficult, but not impossible. I found time, and space, to write thanks to the help of the nanny employed by my ex husband. Most of my early work never amounted to much, a letter here an article there. Publishers and agents steered a very clear path away from my door.

And then I found it.
A creative writing class.
 

The tutor was fairly critical and made favourable, but not overly enthusiastic, comments about some of my pieces of work and other members of the group were quite supportive. I began to feel that the novel I knew I had in me might, at last, become a reality.

The problem was what to write about. And then I knew!
 

My first writing group was made up of very diverse characters, and each had a story to tell! And being would be writers they recreated their stories; some committed to paper and others retold over an ‘after class’ coffee. Here was my inspiration. Of course I had to change names and places but it became a real mine of ideas.

When I found the ‘muse’ deserting me an afternoon in the company of my writing friends soon solved that.
It has been said about my work that it is constantly changing. The reason? The inspiration is constantly changing!

Stories and anecdotes gleaned from my fellow writers soon became the basis for my stories. Initially short stories, some of which I shared with the class to see if any of them recognised themselves, this rarely happened. From the short stories I progressed to the novels, the latest of which is ‘You Can Spill All You Like!’.

I have enrolled for another class next term. I use my own name and not my ‘nom de plume’, just in case any one recognises my now, quite famous ‘author’ name.

I’ve even got a title, ‘The Clock Starts at One!’

Can’t wait to meet the new class.