WRITING FROM PERSONAL
EXPERIENCE
Novelist, Pam Fudge, reveals the secrets of where she gets ideas for stories
Novelist, Pam Fudge, reveals the secrets of where she gets ideas for stories
A lot of my published
short stories were based on my own experience: examples are one particular
short-lived romance I lived through and one about my hypochondriac mother. In
my first published novel the career of the hero came after a conversation with
my late husband. I knew little about high-powered men and was fretting about
what my hero could do for a living. My husband, a builder, said, ’Why can’t he
be a bricklayer?’ Initially I was horrified by the suggestion and then, warming
to the idea, I did indeed make Declan O’Halloran a builder. It made research
really easy for me because Eddie was on hand to answer any questions.
In my next book, I made my heroine a freelance disc jockey. Eddie’s cousin was also one, so again the research was made easy.
My novel ‘Widow on the World’ - though not my story - needed no research as I had lived through losing my husband and could draw on my own experience of the grieving process. And in ‘A Blessing in Disguise’, when the main character is told of her husband’s death, it was almost therapy as I relived how I was told of the death of my second husband.
In ‘A Change for the Better’ the main character is probably the one who is most like me. We all have times when we look in the mirror and don’t much like what we have become and are forced to ask what we are going to do about it.
Finally, in ‘Never Be Lonely’, my sister gave me the idea of setting the story in Canada, where she lives. I felt that I didn’t know enough about the day to day life of a Canadian from merely experiencing holidays over there, so I compromised and set just part of the novel in that country. Again, research was easy – my sister and niece could answer all my questions.
For more information about Pam Fudge visit www.pamfudge.co.uk
In my next book, I made my heroine a freelance disc jockey. Eddie’s cousin was also one, so again the research was made easy.
My novel ‘Widow on the World’ - though not my story - needed no research as I had lived through losing my husband and could draw on my own experience of the grieving process. And in ‘A Blessing in Disguise’, when the main character is told of her husband’s death, it was almost therapy as I relived how I was told of the death of my second husband.
In ‘A Change for the Better’ the main character is probably the one who is most like me. We all have times when we look in the mirror and don’t much like what we have become and are forced to ask what we are going to do about it.
Finally, in ‘Never Be Lonely’, my sister gave me the idea of setting the story in Canada, where she lives. I felt that I didn’t know enough about the day to day life of a Canadian from merely experiencing holidays over there, so I compromised and set just part of the novel in that country. Again, research was easy – my sister and niece could answer all my questions.
For more information about Pam Fudge visit www.pamfudge.co.uk
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