Author interviews, Why I Write

Why I Write – Elisabeth Carpenter

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It’s my great pleasure today to welcome one of my first writing friends, Elisabeth Carpenter, to my blog to talk about her writing journey.

As I child, I’d devour the Sweet Valley High books and immerse myself totally in that world, but being a writer seemed so unattainable to someone like me. It didn’t even enter my head that I could write a story that would ever be published, so I was never one of those writers who created stories from an early age.

Years later, I saw an advert for a writing course in a newspaper two years after my eldest child was born in the late nineties. Funnily enough, I recently found the first assignment, which was to describe why I wanted to write. The first line I’d written was: ‘I want to write because I enjoy reading.’ It was hardly dazzling prose, but it pretty much summed it up!

Embarrassingly, I didn’t finish this course; life got in the way. I was so impatient, then – I wanted to be a brilliant writer straight away. I wasn’t, of course, so it went on the backburner. Instead, I enrolled with the Open University to study towards an English Literature and Language degree. This was a huge turning point for me. The courses didn’t teach the prescriptive semantics of grammar, but how the use of language can tell you so much about a person: where they come from, what they think.

Studying some of the great novels in such detail was a revelation and totally transformed the way I thought. I realised that there wasn’t some kind of unattainable magic required to write a book – it was perfectly accessible. So, a few years later, after having my second child, I began writing my first manuscript – scribbling in notebooks whenever I got the chance. I worked on it for two years and it was never published, but writing it taught me so much. I think with each manuscript, a writer improves, hones their voice.

In writing this post, I’ve realised that my initial spark of desire to write came soon after having each of my children – that strange time when they’re new-borns and you don’t feel like yourself; the real world seems so far away. Writing is a fantastic way of connecting with yourself and to other people, exploring what it means to be human. I don’t know what I’d do without it.

About the Author:

Elisabeth lives in Preston, Lancashire with her family. She loves the north of England, setting most of her stories in the area – including the novel she is writing at the moment.

www.elisabethcarpenter.co.uk

http://www.twitter.com/libbycpt

https://www.facebook.com/ElisabethCarpenterAuthor

https://www.instagram.com/libbycpt/

 

Book links:

99 Red Balloons: An absolutely gripping psychological thriller with a twist you won’t see coming eBook: Carpenter, Elisabeth: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

11 Missed Calls: A gripping psychological thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat: Amazon.co.uk: Carpenter, Elisabeth: 9780008223540: Books

Only a Mother: A gripping psychological thriller with a shocking twist eBook: Carpenter, Elisabeth: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

The Woman Downstairs: The brand new psychological suspense thriller that will have you gripped: Amazon.co.uk: Carpenter, Elisabeth: 9781409181491: Books

 

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