Q6 - What kind of process do you use to write? Any advice for struggling writers?

A - Final Witness(The Stepmother) is my second novel . My first remains unpublished. It's a black comedy, and it suffers from having been written with little or no pre-planning. Its rejection led me to spend many months plotting Final Witness before I began any actual writing. Planning is essential for a suspense drama but it also makes for a much better book. I don't want to be in the middle of writing a book waiting for inspiration, wondering what is going to happen next. I do less work on nailing down the characters in the planning stage. I know what they have to do, but I want to let them develop their personalities as I write. I also now make sure that I have created very detailed location plans and timelines before I begin writing. I write with a pen longhand, and periodically send chapters to my wonderful typist to type up for me. I try to ensure that I write at least 800 words each day, and get discouraged if I haven't reached this target. I found with Final Witness that my daily work always turned out to be better than I thought it had been when I came to correct it in the evenings under the stars in my garden. The rejection of my first novel by a succession of literary agents was a terrible experience for me, and getting back on my feet to write Final Witness was in some ways the most difficult thing I have ever had to do. I am sure that talent alone is not enough for a writer, - you also need extraordinary amounts of luck, determination, endurance and what the English call bloody-mindedness