Panel 10 Highlights

 Panel 10: Femmes Fatales

Helen Giltrow | Ava Marsh | Marnie Riches

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Selected quotes from live Q&As with readers

Ava Marsh: When I started writing fiction after being an ex-journalist, I did stick to rigid deadlines. I was so drilled into hitting deadlines to the day, that it was a hard habit to break. I remember sending a novel in to an editor, and her saying, 'Goodness, we weren't expecting it yet!' and I was flummoxed, cos that was the date in the contract.Now I'm much more relaxed. I know a few weeks either way won't make any difference.

Helen Giltrow: I couldn't agree more about the need for rounded, complex women characters…in the crime genre I think we've got a lot more leeway to write interesting and complex women characters ... ours can be damaged or troubled or scared (or even sociopathic), but provided we can deliver them in the context of an engrossing story, readers will stick around.

Marnie Riches: My fave part of the writing process is first draft, when I've got over the halfway hump. By that time, I'm flying (hopefully) and the buzz you get where the story starts to take flight is amazing.

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Notes from round table discussion between authors

On writing:

Helen: Doesn't everyone go through periods of massive self-doubt? Having said that, though, sometimes you just know something isn't working, and you're right. I think there's a trick to separating the run-of-the-mill self-doubt from the really-and-truly-you-need-to-sort-this-out responses. Not always easy... The killing-your-darlings thing is something I cherish, weirdly. I love the moment when you just KNOW something has to go, and the book will be better for it.

Ava: I think the hardest part about becoming a novelist is learning your own process: how to get from Chapter One to The End without having a nervous breakdown on the way... I think the best thing about being a writer is having the opportunity to recycle all the crap from your past and spin it into gold. It's very therapeutic.

Marnie: I agree. Many writers have had interesting and, at times, quite traumatic lives, so they've got plenty to talk about. At the very least, they're super-sensitive and excellent people watchers, so we're like magpies, aren't we? Just collecting the good bits we see and hear and hoarding them in our narrative nests.

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