'Wasn't every writer, like every Jew, an eternal alien? Didn't it constitute their very state of being? '

Wasn't every writer, like every Jew, an eternal alien? Didn't it constitute their very state of being? I would always be an outsider wherever I went. I might as well be one in beautiful countryside.

The post Tamar Yellin appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.

'Baring my soul had not been easy. I'd consoled myself with the certainty that such a finely crafted novel would be an inspiration...'

Baring my soul had not been easy. I'd consoled myself with the certainty that such a finely crafted novel would be an inspiration; others would gain from my amazing strength and fortitude...

The post Linda Hoy appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.

'Like a sculptor who feels that the statue is inside the stone, the writer has a feeling that the whole story exists already in the mind.'

Like a sculptor who feels that the statue is already inside the block of stone waiting to be released, the writer sometimes has a feeling that the whole story exists already in the mind.

The post Judith Allnatt appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.

'This divorcee with three small boys in a two-bedroom flat, supported by Tax Credits... cannot afford to waste any more time not writing.'

This divorcee with three small boys in a two-bedroom flat, supported by Tax Credits, making seventy pounds a week first as a waitress, then an office temp, cannot afford to waste any more time not writing.

The post Ros Barber appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.

'If I'm not able to write; if I'm too busy, or too sick, or on holiday being obliged not to write, I'm even more miserable.'

If I'm not able to write; if I'm too busy, or too sick, or on holiday being obliged not to write, I'm even more miserable. I mean, really very grouchy. And despondent.

The post Fraser Grace appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.

'I've posed with my elbows atop a pile of my own books, grinning unreliably like a disastrous QVC presenter.'

I've posed with my elbows atop a pile of my own books, grinning unreliably like a disastrous QVC presenter; I've been listed on a menu as the starter, main course and desert to be served at three adjacent tables of indifferent US journalists.

The post Catherine O’Flynn appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.

'My default reading is old thrillers, especially the novels of Simenon, of which there are a lot. '

My default reading is old thrillers, specially the novels of Simenon, of which there are a lot. I particularly like thrillers dating from the seventies.

The post Andrew Martin appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.

'Far from home, in a new language, I could reinvent myself and write myself into the land. '

Far from home, in a new language, I could reinvent myself and write myself into the land. A decade later when my first novel was accepted for publication, some people found it odd I wasn't writing in my mother tongue.

The post Karin Altenberg appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.

'Eight-thirty every weekday, I train. On the best of bad days, I'm back at the computer, just writing; if it goes well, I can be there until 1.00am. '

Eight-thirty every weekday, I train. On the best of bad days, I'm back at the computer, just writing; if it goes well, I can be there until 1.00am. Then it's back along the canal.

The post David Spencer appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.

'During a year of crisis and darkness, I had a revelation. What if life works this way too? What if, what happens is nothing more than plot?'

During a year of crisis and darkness, I had a revelation. What if life works this way too? What if, what happens is nothing more than plot, and, as with fiction, there isn't just one story that we can wrap around it?

The post Tania Hershman appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.