About Charlotte Bowyer:
Inspired by my love of fantasy, I wrote my debut novel, ‘His Frozen Fingertips’, at the age of fifteen.
I am a firm believer in freedom of expression and diversity, and attend Pride in London on an annual basis as well as being a vocal feminist. I hope that my works are able to represent the passion that I feel for these issues, and incite other people to get involved in the struggle for equality.
What inspires you to write?
The previous lack of diversity in Young Adult fiction is what inspires me to write. When I first started reading YA fiction in 2010, there was very little diversity of race or sexuality in the books that I was reading. As the decade has progressed, more people have started writing these characters' stories, which is a great step forwards. I wrote my debut novel, 'His Frozen Fingertips' to fill a gap that I saw in YA fantasy novels, a lack of LGBT+ protagonists.
The idea that these types of books are becoming so readily available for young people is very inspirational to me as I want to help to create equality in both real life and literature.
Tell us about your writing process.
I am a methodical writer, but I don't like to plan every single aspect of the story. When planning, I create an outline of the main plot points on a Word document and then assign them chapters, filling in the little details and minor occurrences as I write. I find that this helps to keep my writing on track without losing any of the spur-of-the-moment dynamism that unplanned pieces have.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I do not listen to or talk to my characters because I am more interested in seeing how they interact with each other when I imagine the story. As I was a sleep-deprived fifteen-year-old when I wrote my debut novel, I had little imaginative energy to spare. This led me to write from a certain distance but I still enjoy thinking about how my characters would react to certain situations, and how they would interact with various people whom I've met.
What advice would you give other writers?
I would advise other writers to stop worrying about what to write and just start to write it. It is a lot easier to cut down on a section of a novel rather than to increase the word count, and when writing mine I found myself wishing that I had used the inspiration to write whilst I had it instead of forcing myself to type later. It is rare that the perfect plot will fall right at your feet, so most writers need to invest more energy in chasing the ideas down and pinning them on paper.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I decided that I wanted to be a traditionally published author because, as a teenager with no connections to the publishing world, I felt that I needed the support and encouragement of more experienced people. This turned out to be an excellent way for me to publish, and helped me to feel independent but not alone.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
There are two new revolutions in the publishing industry in the 2010's, the rise of e-books against paper, and the increase in self-publishing authors.
It's easy to believe that the rise of the e-book will lead to the extinction of the paperback, but personally I think that this is discounting the charms of ink and paper. An e-book does not have the smell or the feel of a physical book, and despite the convenience, very few readers solely read digital novels. It seems that people do not mind the extra expense or bulk of a paperback for advantage of the experience of a real book.
However, the increase in people self-publishing is very interesting because it means that there are many more books circulating today than ever before. This overly saturated market makes it a lot harder to be noticed than in previous decades, but also means that more people get noticed, which is both good and bad for authors. A lot of self-published novels are very good and the writer takes all of the profit, so I think that the future of this industry is going to change drastically as self-publishing becomes more and more prevalent.
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer
What genres do you write?: LGBT, Fantasy, Young Adult
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Charlotte Bowyer Home Page Link
Link to Author Page on other site
Your Social Media Links
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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
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