A few months ago I reviewed longtime expat Apple Gidley’s terrific memoir Expat Life Slice by Slice. I knew many readers would find it interesting to hear about how a newly published author goes about her writing. Our interview follows.
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I asked Apple to start by sharing when she first realized she had a story within her begging to be told, her vision of the book and how it developed.
“I thought about it for three years,” she explained. “Comments I received after delivering the closing keynote speech at the Families in Global Transition conference a couple of years ago gave me the confidence to have a go. My husband’s impatience at the talking and not doing finally galvanized me.”
“I wanted to tell a story and give a little background into some of the lessons I have learned along the global path. I don’t particularly like reading memoirs filled with angst, though do appreciate I have been very lucky. I wanted Expat Life Slice by Slice to be a mixture of light-hearted and serious, hopefully without sounding preachy.”
She’s been writing for several years: personal writing, writing and editing a regional magazine for an Asian charitable organization, and her ‘Expat Apple’ column for the Telegraph. I asked how she chose her blog topics, and if she approached writing book differently than her columns.
“Sometimes a blog idea transferred to the book and vice versa. Expat life is just life lived in a foreign country; many of the issues we face are the same no matter where we live, like finding the right doctor or school. Some things can of course be more complicated overseas, but I do think we can make it more so than necessary sometimes.”
“Topics tend to choose me,” she offered. “I overhear a conversation, or a hoarding (British English for a sign or billboard) might tweak a nerve, maybe a newspaper article, a current event or public holiday. Lots to talk about, lots to write about!”
All writers are intrigued by the process others use to write, and I’m no different.
“I have absolutely no writing routine, though I do try to write something every day even if it’s only to jot ideas down,” Apple shared. “I always have a note pad – the old fashioned kind that comes with a pen – because an idea can float out just as easily as it floated in.”
“I love my desk so it’s always a pleasure to sit at it, but occasionally the solitude unnerves me so I head off to my local coffee shop. If my husband is away I might write late at night, but normally I work in ‘office’ hours. I write a story or topic at a time. Sometimes I realize I’ve written 3000 words, others only 500. I’ve stopped worrying about it. Some days it is just easier than others.”
Writers usually struggle to silence our inner critic. For some of us, it’s learning to not simultaneously edit (or edit as much) as we go along. For others, it really is a matter of shutting up that d@mn inner voice! So where does Apple fall on this?
“I am very self-critical but am learning to realize you just have to stop at some point, otherwise you never get anything out. I write and simultaneously edit, I can’t stop myself even though the experts say you shouldn’t. Then I’ll put a piece away for a day or two unless it’s time sensitive, and go back and edit again. Then at the end of a chapter I’ll edit again. And again, and again. And then the editor edits! I think my style has evolved over the years and become firmer, though I hope easy to read. I’ve lost my fear of dialogue, which I think has helped enormously.”
Most writers are avid readers, and Apple is no different.
“I love losing myself in a book – over a movie any day. I like biography, travel, history and general novels, and I do like to learn something. Poetry is something I have always loved though can never remember lines and certainly can’t write it!”
“I have eclectic tastes and invariably have two or three books on the go at once and read them according to my mood,” she continued. “For example, I recently read a wonderful book about the North West Frontier called “The Savage Border” by Jules Stewart. I have always been fascinated by the Pakistan/Afghanistan region due no doubt to being a fed a steady diet of derring-do by my father who was stationed there before and after Partition in 1947. I have just finished reading “Sarah’s Key”, a novel by Tatiana de Rosnay, which I thought evoked the terror of occupation in Nazi-occupied France, decisions we make and the consequences we have to live with incredibly well. Oh yes, and I recently finished “People of the Book” by Geraldine Brooks – another fabulous read.”
One of the interesting aspects of Expat Life Slice by Slice is Apple’s moving between storytelling and personal reflection on a wide range of topics in expatriate life. I was intrigued to know whether she tended to write the stories first and then address key themes or topics involved, or the other way around.
“I suppose the short answer is I did a bit of both! When I wrote Expat Life: Slice by Slice I worked to a rough guideline of topics I wanted to cover. Some I had already touched on in my blog, and then as I got deeper into each slice other stories and incidents came flooding back, which in turn provoked reflection. I also had diaries and photos to help jog my memory.”
“I think I write how I speak. I think our speech is often peppered with stories, interspersed with thoughts. I tend to write randomly – I think my blog probably defines me best. There are, though, several issues that appear consistently – women and education for girls, the need for cultural and religious tolerance, expatriation.”
I wondered what Apple has found to be the most difficult part of writing a book (e.g., conceptual planning, the actual writing of the manuscript, the editing/publishing process, launching the book, promoting it). And like any great storyteller, she included an anecdote in her response.
“Promoting it. Without a doubt. I was rather naïve about that and didn’t realize quite how much is involved in book promotion. It is probably the British side of my nature coming to the fore but I do not particularly like tooting my own trumpet. The best example I can give is when I went into The British Isles Store here in Houston.”
“Good morning, my name is Apple Gidley and my first book has just been published. I wondered whether you’d be interested in selling it?” I said to the bearded chap behind the till, and whom I knew owned the store.
“What’s it about? Did you self publish?” he asked.
“No, Summertime Publishing in The Hague picked it up. It’s about life as an expatriate.”
“Give me a look then,” he said, running his hands over the cover. It was most disconcerting to see my life flicker past me like an old movie, as he shuffled through the pages. “Rightho,” he said. “I like the feel of it. The cover’s great. I like the photos. I think I’m going to enjoy reading it. I’ll take five.”
“Bloody hell,” I said, “Oh God I’m sorry. Thank you so much. You’re the first place I’ve tried to flog them.”
Thankfully he and a number of his patrons, whose heads were tilted our way as they browsed the cards, jams, crystal and bone china pretending not to listen, laughed.
“Writing the manuscript was great fun and really a very happy experience, even in the sad bits, as I could hear so many people’s voices as I wrote. Editing and publishing were made easy by Jane Dean and Jo Parfitt (Summertime Publishing). Launching was scary and fun in equal doses but I had wonderful support from everyone involved.”
Another popular question posed to newly published authors is whether publication changes their perception of themselves.
“Yes, people take me more seriously as a writer,” Apple replied. “I take myself more seriously as a writer and don’t mumble when I tell people what I do. It always seemed a rather nebulous description of myself before being published.”
What new projects does Apple have in store?
“I love short stories and have written them for years but never done anything with them. One, “The Sparrows,” I am turning into a novel – something my husband suggested when he read it a couple of years ago, saying he wanted to know more about the women involved and why they made the decision they did.”
“I should finish it this year and then comes the painful process of finding a publisher. Expat writing is definitely a niche market and I was very lucky that Summertime Publishing took me on. I’m confident it will be a lot harder with a novel, though it does have an expat thread.”
“I will then write a novel based on my mother’s early life. It has been simmering for years and by then I hope I will be able to do it justice. I’d also like to publish a book of short stories. So lots on the horizon, all very exciting.”
I enjoy hearing what authors would tell aspiring authors, and Apple’s advice was both practical and encouraging.
“As a new author myself I would say keep practicing. I look back at some pieces I wrote a few years ago and cringe. They really weren’t very good at all. Don’t be afraid to edit, edit and then edit some more, even though it kills you to cut some things out. Save them, or the notion of them, and use it somewhere else. People want you to write your best so listen to your critics, whether they are editors or friends. My husband is my toughest critic but most things he suggests, and I hate to admit it, are right.”
As for budding expat authors, she had this to share:
“Yes, have a go but try not to preach. We all run the gamut of emotions when we expatriate, and repatriate, and we all deal with them in different ways, and of course we can all learn from other people’s experiences, happy or sad.”
“Laura J Stephens recently published her memoir, An Inconvenient Posting, [reviewed here] which tells of her struggle with depression while showing a ‘happy’ public face. We don’t all sail through expatriation on the ‘good ship Lollipop’. I appreciate I have been very lucky and have loved my life, a few hiccups along the way notwithstanding. I hope Expat Life Slice by Slice reflects that.”
As someone grappling with writing her first book, I really appreciated hearing Apple’s advice and experiences in this interview. Great to know I’m not the only one whose inner editor refuses to wait for me to finish! I’d love to know more about the conceptual planning stage though; what steps did you take to help you get it all laid out – storyboard? organisation by theme? This, for me, is proving difficult – it’s all so nebulous and barely formed and my lack of experience means any certainty I feel about a path to take is easily dispelled when another idea presents itself.
Hi Aisha, I’m a list kind of person so I made one of all the topics I thought might be interesting to cover, then added stories, incidents, thoughts under the headings. Some of course were discarded as I went along but it gave me a framework, particularly as Expat Life Slice by Slice isn’t written chronologically. I think we overthink sometimes and at some stage we just have to sit down and write.
Good luck!
Apple
I would also put reading other memoirs at the top of the list. Not only will you encounter some fascinating individuals, you’ll see firsthand what does and doesn’t work. I did a read-through of a memoir manuscript at the request of one expat. Despite having lived a relatively interesting life, it was devoid of emotion and boring as he!!. I focused on emphasizing the technical changes he could make that would address those concerns; turns out he’d been given the same feedback from a publisher and others. He just didn’t want to make changes – he considered his first draft as the book being done. Sad, as it could have been so much more…
The writer writes, the editor edits and the publisher publishes. Pretty self-evident but to get a book ‘out there’ it takes more than the writer.
What professional feedback brings to the mix is an overview/ experience of what does and doesn’t work and how to take the writers voice/ words and make them the best they can be. The writer can often be too close to the writing to see the bigger picture.
The editing/ production side is usually an eye-opener to a writer publishing for the first time. The temptation to self-publish is very attractive, but is not something I would do – you need the support, back up and professional input from people who are on your side but will tell you when something doesn’t work, help you get the perfect design (even if you have one in mind) and advise on proven marketing.
The most important thing to do as a writer? Write till you bleed the muse dry. Easy to say but true – get everything down on paper, make notes, catch the ideas as they float out half-formed, then find someone you trust to make the leap from first draft (there will be many) to the moment you hold that published book in your hands.
And then you realise you’re only at the end of the beginning stage of getting your book out there into the world.
Thanks for sharing Apple and good luck Aisha!
And Linda, as someone at the draft/ publication stage of your own book, it’ll be interesting to read YOUR insights into the process!
Good luck to all aspiring writers
Jane Dean
And THAT, folks, is why she is my editor. Well, that and she knows my writer’s voice, understands my vision, and has my complete and utter trust. Well said Jane!
Some valuable advice here – Thanks Apple, Jane & Linda for your thoughts. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been guilty of overthinking… 😉
Absolutely nothing wrong with overthinking Aisha, it has held you in good stead. Just never let it get in the way of writing. It’s amazing how you can write something thinking it goes here and then realize months later it fits better there. As long as you’re writing, you’ve got stuff to work with 🙂
I really enjoyed reading this interview. I have had the privilege of meeting Apple Gidley here in Den Haag. Great to read the story behind the writing. By the way not only are you an expat Apple but you grew up as a TCK too. I have added a link to this post in my latest blog post.
I too feel this strong desire to write a book. I’m keen to learn and read all I can on the subject. Like Linda suggested, and like Apple does, I just love reading. I’m reading different memoirs at the moment.
Thanks to Jane Dean from Wordgeyser for all the tips. Linda we want to read your story about the writing of your book too! When’s the book due?
Thanks, Janneke, we’re close. I don’t want to post about it until it’s done editing and goes to layout before print. I find myself surprisingly superstitious! And yes, you should definitely write your story.
Wonderful interview Linda. I love this discussion!
Apple, thanks for sharing your journey. I’m thoroughly enjoying reading your book 🙂
When I write I sometimes start with just a mental dump onto the screen and sometimes with an outline BUT… I always consider even the outline a work in progress. As Linda says, sometimes you write something that seems to fit perfectly and then weeks or months down the road you find a better place for it. Apple’s notepad suggestion is a must so you don’t lose any ideas!
Happy writing everyone!
Anne
As Jane @Wordgeyser reminds us, as long as you bleed on the page, it’s all good 🙂 Thanks Anne
Always fascinating to see how writing processes differ from person to person. Thanks for setting up this interview, Linda, and thanks for sharing your experiences, Apple. Very interesting.
Your welcome Russell. Apple’s memoir reflects the exciting, varied life she’s led.
I’m so glad I came across this, as I read Apple’s book myself and loved it, for the way it’s set up as well as all the ideas I could glean from it. One piece of advice I can give (though I’m guilty of not following it) is to keep working on your book every single day or at least continually enough so that you don’t lose the thread. I started mine full of enthusiasm after coming back from a Botswana trip (and having time because the kids were elsewhere for 2 weeks) but have since lost the thread. The problem is also writing a blog, because whenever I do have time, and because I always collect a million ideas along the way, I write a blog post instead of working on the book. I used to argue that I need to keep the blog because that is where my stories come from, and in the end you can just sort of collect them all into a book, but of course, as everyone who’s tried it knows, it’s not that simple. So my question to Apple: Did you put your blog on hold while writing the book, sort of going on “book leave?” Or did you just write a whole lot more, keeping up with your blog as well?
Great interview, especially timely as I’m finishing my first memoir!