Survival Island

Guest Post:

For some reason I have always tended to write with a female lead character. It was never anything that I set out to do but my voice tends to be female for some reason. I am always conscious to never write a perfect character. I think that female characters (much like male ones) always have to have flaws, there is nothing duller in a thriller than a flawless character as there is no sense of jeopardy if the reader knows that they are the strongest/smartest/toughest/most resourceful person in the room.

I treat writing like any other job. I clock in first thing and stay disciplined throughout the week. I set myself a 10,000 word target for the week and usually hit that over four days. On average I usually have a first draft of a novel in around 3-4 months. I always work with the TV on in my office, I cannot stand silence when I am doing anything at all, if I am hanging washing out I will have headphones on and music blasting even if it is just for a couple of minutes.