I’m delighted to welcome writing friend Carol Drinkwater to the blog. She’s a multi-award winning actress and writer, possibly best known for her portrayal of Helen Herriot in the BBC’s original television series, All Creatures Great and Small.
Carol is the author of twenty-four books, both fiction and non-fiction. She has achieved bestselling status – over a million copies sold worldwide – with her much-loved quartet of memoirs set on her olive farm in the south of France, The Olive Farm series.
Carol’s fascination with the olive tree extended to a seventeen-month solo Mediterranean journey in search of the tree’s mythical secrets. The resulting, bestselling travel books, The Olive Route and The Olive Tree, were adapted into a five-part documentary film series, which has been screened all over the world.
Carol’s novels include The Forgotten Summer, The Lost Girl which was one of LoveReading’s Books of the Year 2017, The House on the Edge of the Cliff published in May 2019 and An Act of Love published early 2021.
In 2022/23, Channel 5 in the UK screened a six-part series titled Carol Drinkwater’s Secret Provence. It is still being screened worldwide, garnering millions of viewers internationally.
Carol’s latest novel, One Summer in Provence, published by Corvus Atlantic is out today.
I was introduced to Carol by another Carole, (with an ‘e’), the late Carole Blake, the agent’s agent, and one of the most significant figures in to publishing world until she very sadly left us in 2016. We also drank a few drams together back in the day. Anyway, I needed some advice about my olive tree and how to harvest and process the fruit. Carole put me in touch with fellow French resident Carol and we’ve remained in contact ever since.
I asked Carol D what her secret was to her long and successful writing career. Here, she generously let us into her secret…
When I take creative writing courses, I usually begin by saying that I have no secrets, no magic formulae to share. There is no magic wand, no key that will unlock that wretchedly stubborn door that leads beyond to the glorious and endless plains of ‘forever-renewable creativity’. How I wish!
The late W. Somerset Maugham, novelist, playwright and author of brilliant short stories is famously quoted as saying: “There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
Although I think this comment is as true as anything else that has been said about the craft of writing, I do believe that each of us can find and define our own personal set of pointers – pointers not rules; rules are there to be broken.
No writer will argue with the advice that to be a good writer one must read, read, read. Read anything you like, whatever you enjoy. No snobbism here. Each writer will build from the bricks of their experiences, their years of reading, their life adventures. When I was at drama school, one of our directors used to drum into us the importance of visiting museums, reading a daily newspaper, frequenting the cinema, and devouring all the books, plays, we could lay our hands on. I have tried all my life to follow this wise advice. Broaden your mind, see all points of view.
Reading allows us to see how wide – how parameterless – are the parameters.
Sit at your desk; be present. If you don’t turn up for the job you are not a writer. No one else is going to write that book. YOUR book. You cannot wait for the Muse to strike. She is far too fickle and will almost always find an excuse as to why today is not the day to begin. TODAY IS THE DAY. Sit down, open that blank page …
Now I am at my desk in front of that terrifying page. After weeks or even months of deliberation. What comes next? Personally, I begin with two important images. A character and a location. Geographical locations are very important to me. I need to SEE the places my characters inhabit. I am a woman who relates to nature, the earth, the sea, so these will regularly appear in my scene-setting.
Usually, during my period of preparation, I will have asked myself: What is exciting me right now, making me angry, elated, passionate? My principal characters are usually women. I am a woman and I’m fascinated by the emotions, the inner journeys of women: their pain, challenges, triumphs. I began my professional life as an actress; I studied at a drama school in London where we spent much of our time learning to trace the inner maps of our characters, to really KNOW the people we were attempting to portray. I have carried this advice, this method of work, forward into my writing world.
Many novelists plot their books; their narrative is built in predetermined stages; stages that are, to one degree or another, decided in advance of the writing process.
I WISH I could do that but, alas, I don’t seem able to work that way. I go into my story more or less from a place of darkness and I travel in this twilight zone for much of the journey with light flashes along the way. There are times when I have no idea where I am or where I am going. Scary! I have to trust that the characters will talk to me, to one another, to interact and lead me forward. TRUST is an imperative when writing, no matter which method you use to weave your story. There will be times of doubt and those are the times when you most need that trust.
Believe in yourself, in your characters and your unformed story.
My latest novel, One Summer in Provence (published today, 3rd July) began with the idea of visitors. One family member arrives with a companion: an unknown who doesn’t give a fig for the rules of the house, has no respect for the hosts. A stranger striding confidently into another’s life, riding roughshod. It was mid-summer when I started this novel. I live in the south of France so summer means heat, blinding light and a never-ending stream of guests to stay. Long, lazy meals al fresco.
It was post-Covid when I began One Summer in Provence. Like everyone else, my husband and I had been deprived of visitors, of travel. We’d been here for months alone on our small farm. Then, suddenly, a burst of faces, new energies. Some we knew, some we didn’t. I took all these elements into my writing room and began from there. As I said, I had no idea where I was going but I tried to allow Celia – my principal character, the novel’s protagonist – to lead me forward. I had a springboard for my departure. Sometimes a story arc begins to appear within days, with a vague conclusion at tunnel’s end.
This novel really surprised me. I had no idea that the final scenes would play out as they have. And that is part of the JOY of writing, the surprise elements. When the trust pays off.
So, here, briefly, are one or two Carol D pointers. Not rules. They are mine; you will build your own. The more you write the more the process takes form.
Keep it SIMPLE. The text doesn’t need to be ‘more intellectual’, ‘cleverer’, a display of ‘big words’. Truth and simplicity are your allies. Picasso said that it took him till the age of 90 to learn to paint like a child.
Your reader is your companion. You are on this journey together. Be kind and generous. Treat your readers as your treasured travelling companions. Laugh, cry with them, share moments together. Open your heart to them. Never try to pretend you know better.
Relish the business of writing, even when it’s tough. It will be tough more times than it’s not, and you are going to be at your desk sweating it out for the best part of every day, so be kind to yourself and cheer the goals. The pleasure you create for yourself, those moments of victory, will be embedded in the text and they will equally delight your readers.
This job is a huge privilege. If you are also earning a living at it you are blessed beyond measure. When you hold that finished manuscript, even rough draft, there’s the magic.
Bonne chance!
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Connect with Carol
Website: www.caroldrinkwater.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/olive.farm/
Bluesky: @carol4olivefarm.bsky.social
Instagram: carol4olivefarm
Mastodon: @Olivefarmbooks Mastodon.ie
Twitter/X: Carol4OliveFarm
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Carol’s new book – One Summer in Provence
Celia Grey appears to have the perfect life: married to Dominic, the man of her dreams, and living on a glorious, thriving vineyard in the south of France. To celebrate their good fortune, she decides to throw a huge party.
When she is contacted by a stranger who claims to be her long-lost son, David, the newborn she gave up at twenty and has never spoken of since, Celia impulsively invites him for the weekend of celebrations – without mentioning it to her husband.
Despite his surprise, Dominic graciously welcomes David and his unexpected companion – but secretly he harbours doubts. Is David really Celia’s son? And who is the mysterious young woman travelling with him?
Only Celia can decide how far she will go to hold everything together, to keep her perfect life from unravelling…
One Summer in Provence is a story of betrayal and belonging, and of discovering love in unexpected places. …
Buy One Summer in Provence here: https://atlantic-books.co.uk/book/one-summer-in-provence/
Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. JULIA PRIMA, Roma Nova story set in the late 4th century, starts the Foundation stories. The sequel, EXSILIUM, is now out.
Find out more about Roma Nova, its origins, stories and heroines and taste world the latest contemporary thriller Double Identity… Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email update. As a result, you’ll be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.
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