I was recently part of a psychology
survey that was trying to establish links between personality type
and reading preferences. Although I know this research was not about
any one individual but about group tendencies, it got me thinking (a
miracle in itself at this pre-Christmas time of year) not just about
our reading choices but about what we choose to write and why we've
made those choices. That will be one of the things I consider in
these blogs and I will be discussing with those writing friends who
are kind enough to be my guests. Aside from interviews with fellow
writers, future blogs will include book reviews, short articles on
writers and writing, information and tips about self-publishing and
even the odd suggestions for writing exercises.
Back to the question of why we write
what we do. Is it nature or nurture? I suspect that, in my case, it's
both. I learned to read long before I went to school and my mother
once told me that I was making up stories before I could physically
write with any fluency. What one writes must surely have a basis in
what one reads and my early reading was typical of a girl in the
1950s: What Katy Did, Little Women, school stories and Enid Blyton' s
Famous Five. Being a girl, I was not allowed to read boys' adventure
books and, to this day, I feel a tingle of guilt and an impulse to
look over my shoulder when I see a Biggles book. This is not because
of the much complained of sexism or racial prejudice but because I
had to surreptitiously 'borrow' my male cousin's books, read them in
secret and return them with equal stealth. The glamour of rebellion
still surrounds Biggles and his adventures, along with a subconscious
fear of being found out.
In my early teens I again conformed to
my gender and generation by moving on to Georgette Heyer, but even
there I preferred books like The Quiet Gentleman and The Reluctant
Widow, where there was a crime involved. Inevitably, this was the
point at which I wrote reams of Regency adventure stories; some of
them may still be lurking in a box in my attic, at that is where
they'll stay. Soon after this I discovered Agatha Christie and many
of the other great writers of the Golden Age of Crime, and also Mary
Stewart, another writer who mixes romance with mystery and crime. At
this point everything I wrote was for my own pleasure, not intended
for anybody else. My writing was dictated by Nature and I was writing
what I wanted just for my own pleasure.
It was after University, when I was
married with young children, that the Nurture side took sway. I wrote
stories for my children (don't we all?) and, looking back at them,
some aren't too bad. With a lot of editing, they might, one day, see
the light of publication. Also I fancied adding a small amount of
cash to our tight budget and started writing short stories for
women's magazines. I wasn't, at any point, an overwhelming success,
but I did sell quite a few, and learned some valuable lessons along
the way. The most valuable lesson of this long apprenticeship was
that discovered the joy of writing for an audience, and, along with
that, the pleasure of maintaining professional standards.
I could keep my magazine short stories
under control, but as soon as I attempted a novel, despite my initial
intentions, I always turned to crime. I've tried to work out why and
keep coming back to the basic statement that violent crime matters in
the most fundamental way and writing through it helps to make sense
of it. Added to which it's a way of facing my deepest, darkest fears.
On a lighter note, I love making patterns and laying a trail and it's
great that other people want to follow it. Ridiculous though it
seems, perhaps, somewhere deep down, I'm continuing that childhood
rebellion.
Just as the scales tip towards Nature,
regarding my writing choices, I consider my childhood and Nurture
kicks back in. I was brought up in a North London flat, directly
opposite the main police station. As I lay in bed, I could see,
through the closed curtains, the blue flashing lights as police cars
pulled away. I always wondered where they were going and what was
happening. Now I can decide where they're heading and how it will all
work out. I have the power to write my own answers. But whether
Nature or Nurture informs my writing, the jury is still out.
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