Kate Harrison

Published August 6, 2009 | By Laura

Kate Harrison is the author of five books, her latest The Secret Shopper’s Revenge was recently nominated for a ‘Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance.’ We caught up with Kate to find out about her life as a writer and what advice she had for anyone who was thinking of becoming one…

As an author, what’s your inspiration?

I’m inspired by the things that make me laugh or make me stop and think – conversations with friends, encounters or people I see on the street, the questions that keep me awake sometimes – but mainly by the privilege of being able to imagine other people’s lives and loves and thoughts.   

Describe your writing style.

It’s hard to be unbiased but I’d say ‘bittersweet’ (which is also how I like my chocolate!): I write about sad events and comic events alongside each other, because that’s how life is.  

When starting a new novel, what is your planning process?  

I’m much more into planning now, at book 8, than I was when I wrote my first novel. I even have my own special grid that I designed, as a Word document, so I can plot out what happens at certain points, keep track of the dates/times (so no one ends up pregnant for eleven months, for example), and see where I’m going. I brainstorm at that stage so I can feel I have the basics in place, which reduces ‘blank page’ phobia, but of course new ideas come right through that first draft, and then in later drafts after feedback from my agent and editor. I might write four, five, six drafts before the final version.

Describe your typical writing day.

It’s all changed lately because we’ve just moved to Spain! But usually I’d take my coffee up to my laptop fairly early, have a surf around the internet, answer emails, go on forums, then FINALLY get down to work. I try to write between 1,000 and 1,500 words a day – sometimes that comes out in a wonderful rush, but more often it takes the morning, or into the afternoon. Alternatively, I might be at the ‘boring’ stage – looking at the proofs of books I have finished and want to forget about. In fact, that’s where I am now – I have proofs due any day of both my next book, The Secret Shopper Unwrapped, and my first book, Old School Ties (which I have tweaked…OK, overhauled, because it’s going back into print). Proof-reading is frustrating because it’s too late to change anything much and yet you always see more flaws you wish you’d put right.

I go to the gym because writer’s bum is a major drawback to sitting at a desk all day, and then I tend to work on other projects, like organising creative writing workshops or events, and also The New Romantics, which is a group of seven writers of women’s fiction – I designed the website at www.thenewromantics.org and we launched in February 2009, to campaign for feelgood books!

Here in Spain it’s a little different as so far I don’t have the web, so we come out to a cafe to surf etc. It’s good for productivity but I know I will want to be online again soon as it helps me feel less deskbound.

If I’m not in the middle of a book, I’ll also meet friends for coffee, go on research trips, and enjoy the fun bits of self-employment.

What, for you, is the best part of being a writer?

The writing! To be more precise, it’s creating worlds and situations and people, and then being able to see what happens next. It’s also the pleasure of writing a sentence that says exactly what I wanted it to say…  

Is there a published novel by another writer that you wished you’d written? Why?

Most of the books by Lisa Jewell and Anthony Capella make me feel that way – Lisa’s books for the warmth and fallibility of her characters, and Anthony Capella’s for his gorgeous settings and amazing descriptions of food and love.  

Do you have any advice for budding writers?

Write little and often – every day if you can, even just for a few minutes or a few hundred words – but also accept it’s a learning process. You can only learn to write creatively by doing it, rather like an apprentice carpenter will only learn his craft by working with wood. There’s a theory that you only master something – whether it’s music, sport or writing – after putting in ten thousand hours of work. OK, some writers have a gift that bypasses the apprenticeship, but for the rest of us, it’s about putting the hours in. That also has the advantage of giving you time to explore what you want to write – theme, genre, voice – so that when the publisher or agent calls, you have more than one book and idea to offer them!

Find out more about Kate via her website: http://www.kate-harrison.com

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Laura

I'm Laura. I started Novel Kicks back in 2009 as I wanted a place to discuss books and writing - two loves of my life. As someone who has anxiety, these two things give me, and I am sure countless others, a much needed escape.
There is a monthly book club, writing exercises, prompts, reviews, author interviews, competitions and guest posts. I cover many genres and I hope there is something for everyone.
I grew up by the sea in Dorset and currently live in Poole with my husband, Chris and three cats. I love writing and have a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from Falmouth University. I am writing my first book. If only I could stop pressing delete. Chris has threatened to stop it from working. Haha.
I have always loved creative writing since I was in first school and would very much like to meet my teacher, Miss Sayers, to say thank you for all the encouragement she gave me then.
When not writing, I love reading, cats, Disney, singing (I can't sing but this doesn't stop me,) and falling into a good TV show or film. If I could step into any fictional world, it would be amongst the characters in ABC's Once Upon a Time.
I love reading many genres and discovering new authors.

Kate Harrison

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