Fiction Scribe

Historical fiction author Brian Wainwright, author of Within the Fetterlock and The Adventures of Alianore Audley has taken time to join us on Fiction Scribe. Mr. Wainwright became a full time author in 2006 and has more projects in the works.

I hope you enjoy what I found to be a very down-to-earth interview.

Hello and welcome to Fiction Scribe. Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m 54 years old and slowly starting to feel it. I’m married (to Christine, since 1989) and without children. My mother lives with us, as she is getting frail. In fact, she’s got frail. We’re in Bury, Lancashire, a place most people haven’t heard of; it’s on the north side of Manchester.

I’ve not been in the best of health these last 3-4 years – depression mainly – but I am sort of coming around. I’m fortunate in that I’ve been able to take early retirement from my main job, so theoretically I’m a full time author. In practice I write just a few hours a week, otherwise I’m watching the cricket, walking, reading or doing other odd bits, like cooking curries!

How did you get into writing? Did you always want to be a writer?

Hmm – well, I’ve always been very interested in books and reading, I’m not sure, when I was young, that I would have dared to think that someone like me would actually be a published author; or even imagined that I might be. We were a very ordinary working-class family in Manchester, and aspirations were not high. To get a job in an office was seen as a big thing! Authors were special people like – well, vicars, lawyers and doctors I suppose. Folk like us didn’t do that sort of thing, any more than become princes.

I remember telling stories to other children when I was very young – about 5 – and before I was much older I was inventing stuff and writing it down. I used to get good marks for my essays at primary school. However, when I went up the secondary school (grammar school in those days) the hormones kicked in, and I don’t think I lifted a mental leg until I was in the fifth year – about 16. (I was quite a rebellious little so-and-so, and must have been hell to teach; latent ability, but very lazy.)

One of my English teachers happened to say one day he thought everyone had it in them to write a book, and for some reason the idea stuck with me, so I decided to have a go at it. I remember spending hours scribbling away on a big pad, but I never showed it anyone and eventually I threw it away – it was an awful piece of work. Immature as I was, even I could see that. The only remarkable thing about it was that it was long, about 27 chapters – I must have been persistent in those days. Or maybe very bored, or something….

How did you get into writing historical in particular?

Good question. I’ve always been interested in the historical aspects of things. I’ve always wanted to know how things used to be, and how they developed. This goes a lot broader than my writing.

When I started reading novels for pleasure, the ones I enjoyed most were almost all set in the past. So I suppose it was a natural progression to start writing similar stuff. If you ask me why I focused on the 14th and 15th centuries, I’m really not sure, although even as I child I was fascinated by medieval history. It seemed so exciting and, to use an oft-misused word – romantic. Full of brave knights and beautiful women in amazing clothes. (Maybe because when I grew up the TV was full of Robin Hood, William Tell, Ivanhoe, Knights of the Round Table, Richard the Lionheart and so on. To say nothing of El Cid and The Vikings down the cinema!) The era of Richard II and Henry IV got to me first – there was so much going on there, politically and culturally, although in many ways it was a very dark era in England with a lot of brutality. Later I developed an interest in Richard III and that got me into the Wars of the Roses, and that sort of looped back to where I began. One of the aspects that particularly interested me was the origins of the House of York, and that, I suppose, is how Within the Fetterlock came to be written.

You mention on your site that the Adventures of Alianore Audley was originally written for your amusement and the amusement of a small group of friends. Is there a difference between writing for your own amusement and writing with hopes of publication in mind?

I think so. If you are writing for yourself (or friends) you can be as indulgent as you like. The minute you start thinking seriously about publication you also have to start thinking about the requirements of potential publishers and the market. I’ll be honest; I didn’t think Alianore was a commercial book. I thought it’d only appeal to the minority of Ricardians who also have a twisted sense of humour, like mine. I’ve been both pleased and surprised to find that its appeal is wider than I expected. I’m relieved as well, because I did think that some of the more serious Ricardians, and Ricardian novelists in particular, might be offended by the book. It does, after all, rather take the mickey out of some of the most sacred Ricardian shibboleths.

I think professional authors – the ones who publish regularly and make a genuine living from their work – sometimes find themselves somewhat confined, artistically speaking, by what their publishers and public expect and require. For example, Georgette Heyer was very keen on the middle ages but had to keep on pumping out Regency stuff because that was what her publishers and readers demanded from her. Conan Doyle hated Sherlock Holmes - he wanted to be remembered as an author of historical fiction – but he found he had to keep on writing Holmes because that was what the market wanted.

Of course, this sort of stuff pays the bills, and if we’re honest most authors would love to be in the position of publishing year after year and selling tons of books, even if the price of it is to write in a certain groove. However, the one advantage of being a complete amateur is that you have the freedom to write what you like – even if it’s a 3000 page, two volume work about garden gnomes that come to life. The minute you start thinking about what will sell, you lose that freedom.

You took ten years to write Within the Fetterlock. What is it like dealing with characters for that long? Is there ever a point when they stop surprising you and you know them completely?

I think it’s fair to say the original idea is even older, but I wouldn’t want you to imagine I spent ten solid years hammering away at the keyboards. I took breaks in that time where I left it alone for months and got on with other things. I think the process was more like one of rewriting, reading and rewriting. It was very inefficient and not at all the way of working I’d recommend. You could call it – how not to be a professional writer.

Towards the end of this process I got a group of people to read my final-bar-edits version as I produced it. One or two of them – one in particular! – kept pestering me for the next chapter. That was an enormous help in actually getting the project finished.

I think the characters still sometimes surprised me, even towards the end – maybe they kept subtly changing and developing as we went along? Maybe I saw aspects in them as I grew older that I wouldn’t have seen when I was those few years younger? It’s hard to explain, but Constance and Edmund Mortimer in particular did some things that I didn’t plan beforehand, and which only ‘happened’ in the very final draft. Some of these things are subtle, some are pretty spectacular in terms of the plot. More generally, I think the time I spent on it helped me get away from the black-hat/white-hat version of history and introduce a few shades of grey.

I grew really fond of all the characters in Fetterlock, even Philippa, whom most people seem to despise. If I ever get around to writing another book set in the Richard II era, there’s a fair chance it will be from Philippa’s POV, or at least that she’ll have a big role.

What is it about writing historical fiction that you love?

The bit where it all comes together. I suppose the ingredients are the basic idea – the historical background if you like – the research, and the characters, and the art is to turn these elements into a book that works. I love the feeling I get when someone who is just a name in history suddenly comes to life on the page and I can visualize his or her thoughts and ambitions, can actually see them in my head as if I’m watching a film. That’s always a great moment!

Anything about it you hate?

The sheer hard work of it; there are times when I wish that I could just magically transfer what’s in my mind into a finished book. But the process doesn’t work like that. What’s more, it doesn’t seem to get easier.

Are there any authors who inspired/inspire you in your writing?

Too many to list in total! Robert Graves was quite an early influence, as I read some of his work while I was still at school and was knocked out by it. Philip Lindsay doesn’t seem to be too well-known these days, but I devoured his books as well. Another one I remember reading at a young age was Anya Seton’s Katherine, while school introduced me to Chaucer, Thomas Hardy and L. P. Hartley.

Current writers I admire include Elizabeth Chadwick (the English one) and Sharon K Penman (the American and only one.) Among the classic writers, my favourite is Jane Austen. (As a man I’m not supposed to like Austen, but I adore her wit and also her economic style of writing, which is very modern.)

How do you do most of your research? Do you prefer the internet? Books? Interviews?

It used to be mainly books. These days I have got rather lazy and often use the internet, although one has to take some of the stuff on there with a pinch (or even a shovel) of salt. I do go back to published versions of primary sources such as government records and chronicles, and if I have a really knotty problem I might consult an academic or other specialist for advice. There is an awful lot to learn, and in fact, as you learn more you realize how much you don’t know.

Some writers seem to want to write about history without understanding it or bothering to do much research. This is an attitude that puzzles me as they are effectively setting themselves up to be shot down. It’s impossible to get everything absolutely right, but I think it’s important to put some effort in and avoid too many absurdities.

Do you travel to historic sites for inspiration and research?

Yes. Only a week or two ago I was a Greenwich, and it gave me an idea for a scene. I can’t explain why, as modern Greenwich is nothing like medieval Greenwich. It’s just that somehow being there helped me understand the geography, and how it related to London.

I visited almost all the locations in Fetterlock. I’m not entirely sure that I needed to, but it was fun while it lasted. Sometimes all you get out of it is the lie of the land, and even then you have to use your imagination, because even the countryside is greatly changed from what it was.

Do you have a muse? If so, who or what is it?

You’ll probably think me crazy, but I used to think it was Constance! I was certainly aware of her presence when I was writing about her and felt that Fetterlock was as much her project as mine. Finishing the book ended up feeling like a duty discharged!

I think there is something inside me that drives me to write, although what exactly it is I couldn’t say. I think it’s a sort of addiction, probably created by the pleasure one gets when the writing is going well and the characters are coming to life.

Do you have any guilty pleasures when it comes to writing?

I don’t write with a bottle or whisky or box of chocolates at hand, if that’s what you mean. The pleasure comes from the writing itself, when it is flowing. Sometimes (not always) I listen to classical or medieval music while writing - I find that more modern stuff disrupts my thought patterns too much

What are your dreams for your writing?

To get the next book published; simple as that. I don’t really have a long-term view of where I want to be in five or ten years, I leave it pretty much in God’s hands. If you’d told me 10 years ago that I’d have two books published by now, I’d probably have laughed at you.

Any advice for historical fiction writers?

Get the balance of research and writing correct. Research can become an end in itself, especially if you enjoy it, as I do. You’ll probably find that you don’t use half the stuff you dig out, but it is nice to have it there as a sort of reassurance. If you research for too long, though, you’ll never get the book finished. We only have one life time. It helps if you really love the period you are writing about, because that will give you a feel for it even if you’re not sure of every detail of costume or whatever. Some people seem to start with the vague idea that they want to write a historical novel and then cast around for a period and setting, even though they know nothing much about either. I think this is a mistaken approach, a way of setting yourself up to fail.

Any advice for writers in general?

Sheer persistence is important. Not giving up. Write whenever you can, and don’t despise things like writing for your club magazine or church newsletter, it’s all experience, all stuff you can add to your portfolio. Don’t overestimate your talent but on the other hand don’t underestimate it either. Get people, preferably strangers, to read your stuff and learn to accept honest criticism. (Your mother, unless she’s a rare exception, like mine, will probably think it’s great. You need to find someone who is prepared to tell you frankly when you’re writing rubbish, and who also knows enough to recognize when your work is good.) Learn from the criticism and develop your work. Be aware that writing is hard graft, long hours bashing away in solitude, and that if you’re in it for the money then (in cash per hour) you’ll probably do a lot better working on a supermarket till. You need to love writing, and want to do it.

Thank you for your time.

Thanks for having me. It’s an honour.

Do you have any questions for Brian? Let me know and I’ll post up a part two to this interview.