About Lee Williams:
I am a journalist and writer living in Dorset with my wife and rampaging toddler. I write about technology, innovation, green issues and political commentary for various publications including The Independent, The Guardian, Wired, Private Eye and International Business Times. Skeryvore is my first, and hopefully not last, novel!
What inspires you to write?
A basic urge. It is all I have ever wanted to do.
Tell us about your writing process.
An idea comes to me and at first I go with it. As it begins to develop I will then starting outlining where to go next. These are usually ad hoc notes scribbled on pieces of paper that I am forever frantically searching for amidst unprintable curses!
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
No but I do find that if I'm ever stuck or want to know what will happen next, all I have to is write down the question and soon, usually almost immediately, the answer will come. It is a trick that I would definitely recommend. Writing is mostly an unconscious process so you have to work with your unconscious. Let it know what you need or else how will it know what to give you? I find simply writing it down as a question is the best way.
What advice would you give other writers?
The biggest and most valuable piece of advice I would give is – write! Do it. Don’t think about it. Don’t plan it a bit more, or do a bit more research, or finish tidying the house. Sit down and write.
Writers are people who write. Full stop. If you don’t write, you’re not a writer.
I spent years thinking about books in my head without doing anything about it. It was only when I retrained as a journalist that I actually got down to creative writing seriously – actually doing it, not just thinking about it. Journalism was a great lesson in that way because if you mess around procrastinating over articles you very soon find yourself out of a job, which is a great motivator!
Oh and one other thing – don’t go around telling everyone your idea or your plot, no matter how proud or excited you are about it. The power behind a story comes from your desire to tell it. If you go around telling it to everyone, you divert that energy away from where it should be focussed – actually writing it.
What Authors Inspire You?
Amongst the genre of my book, fantasy, it has to be Jack Vance, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Philip Pullman, JK Rowling, Tad Williams, Nikolai Tolstoy. More generally and in no particular order: John Cowper Powys, Lawrence Durrell, John Fowles, Irvine Welsh, Iain Banks, Sebastian Faulkes, Virginia Woolf, Leo Tolstoy, John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouc, Charles Bukowski, Ernest Hemingway… I could go on…
How did you decide how to publish your books?
My book was with an agent who was really enthusiastic about it for a long time – over a year – while I edited and made changes. Then she moved on and a new agent filled her place who wasn't interested. After this I became disenchanted with the traditional publishing process and decide to self publish.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think it looks bright. The rise of print on demand should keep the paperback alive, if not inspire a resurgence, and the dominance of Kindle will ensure a lively future for independent publishers. There is no better time to be an author and I think it will only get better.
What do you use?: Professional Cover Designer
What genres do you write?: YA fantasy
What formats are your books in?: eBook
Website(s)
lee williams Home Page Link
Link To lee williams Page On Amazon
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.
