And now it's my turn to answer four questions.
1. What am I working on?
Firstly a script of my novel Excluded, which is currently available as an ebook on Kindle. I began this last autumn as part of a Writing For Television workshop held at The Waterside Arts Centre in Sale, Manchester and run by Ric Michael, Head of Development at Baby Cow Productions. Rik encouraged me to continue working on my script, and I entered the draft first episode to the BBC Writers' Room Drama shout-out earlier this year. It reached the top 5% of entries, beating more than 1,250 other scripts, and received a full read-through and critique which were positive and constructive enough for me to believe it definitely worth pursuing.
Secondly a new psychological thriller, Hurt, about the damage we do to others and the potential for sparking destruction and tragedy in other people's lives. This is very much in the planning stage at the moment, and I'm hoping to make real headway with it over the summer.
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I struggle with this, because I always thought I was writing about relationships and then my agent told me I was writing crime fiction, and she was going to sell my book about relationships as a psychological thriller. Which I suppose would make sense, as I do enjoy reading psychological thrillers and feel that every novel should contain some element of suspense. I'm chiefly interested in writing strong, realistic characters in demanding or stressful situations and discovering how they cope, and I think this encompasses a range of genres.
3. Why do I write what I do?
I write the sort of books I'd like to read, so I guess I think they must be entertaining, or absorbing, or suspenseful - preferably all three! I'm very interested in exploring the discrepancy between what people say and what they think or do, in their relationships and sense of self, and in what pushes an otherwise reasonable person to take extreme action. I've often taken a real situation several steps further to fictionalise it, so I'm certainly inspired by people and the world in which I live. I also hope that something in what I've written strikes a chord with others, that it's about communicating and sharing experience.
4. How does my writing process work?
Ideas churn and evolve in my head for quite a long time before I actually write anything. In fact, I've discovered that I need this to happen before I can write, though it usually feels like failure and not getting anything done. When the story has grown enough to need to occupy more than my thoughts, I begin working on the structure and plot details. I never need to work very much on the characters - they either turn up fully-formed or develop all by themselves in entirely unexpected ways. Once I've started writing, I find it hard to continue with the story until I'm completely happy with the last thing I wrote, so a first draft is never actually a first draft - it's already been revised a dozen times.
Read more about my writing at catherine-marshall.co.uk
Questions answered! Now over to another highly recommended writer: Kieron Moore at http://thisisgood-isntit.blogspot.co.uk/
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