Jon Rance

Published October 10, 2013 | By Laura

Jon Rance is the author of This Thirty Something Life. His new book, Happy Endings is available now. Jon popped in for a chat about his new book, his ideal dinner party and his favourite word.

Hi Jon, thanks for joining us. Can you tell us about your latest novel, Happy Endings?

I’d be honoured. Happy Endings is the story of Kate, Ed, Jack and Emma, four late-twentysomethings all trying to find their own version of a happy ending in modern-day London. Its four inter-connected stories about love, growing-up, and, of course, the search for happiness. It’s a novel that’s very close to my heart because it took a long time to evolve from the initial idea to its finished state. I always knew I wanted to write a novel about happiness and how we’re all trying to find it, yet not many of us actually know what it is that we need to make us happy. It’s about that journey and I’m very happy with it.

Do you plan?

A little bit. I read a quote today that said there are two types of writers, architects and gardeners. I’m definitely a gardener. I plan as little as possible really because for me the story evolves organically as I write it. It comes from the characters and how they react to situations and I don’t know the characters enough at the beginning to plan a whole novel. It’s a bit haphazard at times, but it seems to work.

How do you approach editing?

With dread. No, seriously, editing is by the far the most difficult part of writing because it’s where the real work gets done. I always find the first draft relatively easy and fun. Editing is where you have to turn that wobbly mess of a story into something brilliant and well structured. Editing for me is just reading it over again and again, making changes, re-reading, changing, reading, changing – you get the idea – until I think it’s done. Not very scientific. Of course, now I have an agent and so she will read the finished book and then come back with her suggestions and thoughts and I’ll edit again. Then the publishers come back with their ideas and its back to the editing table and so on until everyone is happy. It takes a long time.

Do you get writers block? If so, how do you deal with it?

I don’t. Fingers crossed I’ve never had it. I’ve started books that I never finished, but only because they weren’t good enough, but luckily I have so many ideas and little projects to work on that I never seem to get stuck. I think if I did get it though, I’d just take a break, do some reading, watch some TV, have a cup of tea and wait until it came back to me. One thing I do know about writing is that you can’t force it. I generally only write for about two to three hours at a time because after that I find the quality starts to wane quickly.

If you could go back to any place in history, where would you go and why?

Wow, that’s not a difficult question. It’s almost impossible to pick one. I love history so much and there’s so many eras that I’d love to experience. If I had to pick one, I suppose I’d say Paris in the late nineteenth century. I studied art history at sixth-form and I’ve always loved art and that was such an incredible time, a real cultural revolution. I recently watched the Woody Allen film, Midnight in Paris, where a man goes back and spends time with Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Henri Matisse and Paul Gauguin and it definitely made me think about that. They were extraordinary men living in an extraordinary time.

Hodder Paperbacks, Oct 2013

Which three books have made the most impact on you? Do you think being a big reader is important for a writer?

I think all writers are readers. I’ve been a big reader my whole life, although ironically since I’ve been published I’ve probably read less than ever. I hope to rectify this soon. The first book I read that really influenced my life was The Wind in the Willows. I was probably about seven or eight when I read that and I must have read it about twenty times. It started my love affair with reading. Like a lot of writers, the book that really made me want to be a writer was The Catcher in the Rye. I read it when I was about fifteen and it blew me away. It’s still does. Lastly, I’m going to have to go with Mike Gayle’s Turning Thirty because it made me realise what sort of books I wanted to write.

If you weren’t a writer, which job would you like to try for the day?

Oh, another tough one. There’s a few jobs I would like to do. Obviously we’ll have to use our imaginations and pretend that I’m fully qualified for all these jobs and brilliant at them. I would love to see what goes on inside the Houses of Parliament, so maybe an MP for the day. I quite fancied being a DJ when I was younger, so maybe a shift on Radio One. I’m really jealous of great stand-up comedians because I think it’s a ridiculously difficult thing to be good at. I wouldn’t swap any of them for being a writer though, it’s the best job in the world.

What makes you laugh?

A lot of things. I love sitcoms more than any other genre of comedy. The Office, Only Fools and Horses, Gavin and Stacey, Peep Show, Blackadder, Fresh Meat, The Inbetweeners and the list goes on. I also love good stand up and saw Ricky Gervais live and he is hilarious and thought-provoking. I love Greg Davies, Jack Whitehall and I just saw Iain Stirling on YouTube and he made me laugh a lot. My kids crack me up all the time and so does my wife. Fry and Laurie back in the ‘old days’ were brilliant, as was Ben Elton and anything by Richard Curtis. Basically, there’s just too many funny things in the world. Oh, and Monty Python, of course, probably the funniest group of people in the world, ever.

Who would your ideal dinner guests be?

Ricky Gervais, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Ben Elton, Richard Curtis, David Nicholls, Paul McCartney, Michael Palin, and I suppose because that’s a bit of a sausage fest, I’d have Dawn French, Mariella Frostrup and Kylie Minogue because who wouldn’t want to have Kylie at the table? And maybe Russell Brand just to cause a bit of a stir. And Jamie Oliver – he could cook. Happy days.

What’s your favourite word?

Love.

Your five tips for new writers?

1. Write a book. It doesn’t have to be brilliant, but it does need to be about 80,000 words with a beginning, middle and an end.

2. Then write some more. You can spend all the time in the world reading about it, thinking about it, but there’s no greater learning curve than actually writing books. Write. Write. Write.

3. Read widely in your chosen genre. I’ve read so many books in my genre and some were awful and some brilliant. Work out why and then make sure yours is brilliant and not awful.

4. Get feedback. I joined sites like Youwriteon and Goodreads and got really great feedback from other writers. Don’t get feedback from friends and family, it’s great, but ultimately worthless compared to twenty other writers you don’t know telling you your work is rubbish.

5. Don’t expect to be suddenly famous and rich. You have to write because you love it and can’t help yourself from doing it. I’ve always written and always will because I love it. If I never get another publishing contract again, I’ll still write because I have to. It’s hard work, frustrating and then when you’re done, you have reviews telling you it’s terrible. You have to love it.

Happy Endings is available to buy now in Paperback and Kindle.

For more information about Jon and his books, visit his website.