Tom Wright interview

Tom Wright - the next David Almond we hope...

Each term we pop down to Nottingham Trent University and have a chat with a couple of students on the Creative Writing MA to see how they are getting on and what they’ve learnt so far. This term Tom Wright kindly agreed to join us in the studio for a podcast and a follow up interview over a pint – but not in the student bar at Clifton I hasten to add...

Tell us a little bit about yourself...
I'm in my late thirties and a part-time student in the middle of my second year on the Creative Writing MA. I did Children's and Young Adult Fiction in my first year and I'm now doing Fiction for grown-ups. I work full-time and attend lectures and workshops in the evenings. My day job isn't particularly creative and the course gives me a much-needed creative outlet. I studied English at Edinburgh and have always wanted to write, although the closest I've come to being published was when I did reviews of Edinburgh curry houses for The List magazine. It might sound like that was quite a cool job but after reviewing fifteen curry houses in four weeks, I never wanted to eat anything spicy again. There's also only so many ways you can describe a madras or a tikka masala.

Why did you decide to do the MA at Trent?
Back in 2001, I started a Masters in Creative Writing at Glasgow University but had to drop out after a term, so taking the course at Trent was really me trying to rekindle the dream of being a writer that had been pushed to one side for far too long. I got back into writing a few years ago by trying my hand at writing for children, which I really enjoyed as it wasn't too heavy. I decided that I was maybe ready to try a proper course again and spotted that Trent did a strand in Children's Writing as part of their masters. I pretty much put in my application straight away as soon as I saw that they had David Almond, who wrote Skellig, as one of the visiting professors.

Skellig has been turned into a film starring Tim Roth

It must have taken some guts to give it another shot…
I was nervous about starting the course after dropping out all those years ago – the whole experience dented my confidence and made me feel like a bit of a failure, but I was determined to stick at it this time and it looks like that's paid off so hopefully I'm on course to finish with the full Masters and with a bit of luck, I'll come out of it with something that I can develop and send off to an agent.

So getting published is your main objective?
I'm not expecting to be the next JK Rowling or Philip Pullman, but seeing something published would make me very happy. If I ever did get published then I'd love to try teaching creative writing or doing education work with kids or something similar – if I could find a way of making a living from writing then I'd be delighted.

How has the course helped so far?
It’s helped improve my writing. It makes you sit down and do it and as long as you're prepared to listen to the feedback people give you and re-work stuff then you will improve and I think I have over the last fourteen months. I'm hoping I'll improve further and I'm spending this year trying different genres like crime and horror but also writing short stories that are more about relationships and everyday life – more subtle stuff that can be difficult to get right. I've grown in confidence since I started the course and it's great trying new ways of writing and experimenting – you don't always get it right, but it's good to practice.

What area of writing do you specialise in?
So far, I think I've felt most comfortable writing fiction for teenagers.  These days, novels for 13 to 16 year olds can be very hard-hitting, tackling all sorts of difficult issues and there is something about writing for this age group that really appeals to me. I’m particularly interested in the idea of adolescence and the major changes that happen at that age as you stop being a child and start questioning your parents and breaking away from the comfortable world of childhood. It’s complex and gives rise to lots of possible scenarios across all genres.

Can a man in his ‘late thirties’ relate to teenagers still?
Being a teenager now is different to when I was one in the eighties but hopefully the emotions and the basic experiences are the same.

David Belbin runs the MA in Creative Writing at NTU

Who are your favourite authors in this area/genre?
I'm a fan of David Almond. He mixes the fantastic with the realistic in books like Skellig and Clay and that really appeals to me. There are loads of really good writers producing work for this age group which is quite daunting. Some of my favourites include Frank Cottrell Boyce who wrote Millions, Jenny Valentine (Finding Violet Park) and Siobhan Dowd, who’s latest Solace of the Road is excellent. For thrillers you can’t beat old favourites like Robert Swindells who wrote Brother in the Land about nuclear war. It's a bit dated in its subject matter but his books are such page-turners that he's always worth coming back to.

What books did you like as a kid?
There's all the stuff which is still there in your sub-conscience – Winnie-the-Pooh and the Moomins and all the Roald Dahl books. There's something about really good children's writing that stays with you – pretty much everyone can remember at least one book from their childhood that they loved even if they don't read at all as an adult. I'd love to be able to write something that stayed with someone like these books that have stayed with me.

How about fiction writers?
Since starting the main Fiction module, I’ve been reading loads of short stories and I’d recommend two writers in particular: Anne Enright and Alice Munro. Whilst they both write about similar things, their approaches are completely different. Anne Enright’s stories are raw and in your face, whilst Alice Munro’s are subtle and make you want to re-read them as soon as you’ve finished just in case you’ve missed any nuances.

What is the most difficult thing about writing?
It’s sometimes the hardest thing in the world to make yourself sit down and write when all you want to do is sup a beer and put the footie on. The other thing is keeping up your confidence and motivation. It’s so difficult getting published and the rewards are normally minimal that it’s tough sometimes to keep going at it. You need to have a lot of drive and self-belief to push yourself and make yourself do it, and then you need to come up with a great, original story, write it well with pace and good, strong characters and get the break of someone actually taking an active interest in it in order to get it published.

Many writers think that if they shout at a laptop it will create a best seller. I'll give anything a try once...

How good are you at dealing with feedback?
Taking feedback can be tough especially if you’re starting out and your writing is still quite raw. I found this hard particularly when I was younger on the MA in Glasgow. You’d come away sometimes thinking that you were the worst writer in the world and that you were just kidding yourself that you were any good, but everyone has to go through this at some point. It’s all part of getting over the idea that you need to be visited by the muse. That’s bullshit. You need to work at your writing and work hard and listen to what people tell you as that’s the only way to get better.

What is the best thing about the MA?
The peer support is possibly one of the best things. It's great going along to lectures and workshops where everyone there is passionate about writing and so eager to learn and improve. There's a really supportive atmosphere and there's a lot of respect for each other in that we're all putting ourselves out there to be criticised.

How does Trent differ to Glasgow?
Having done a similar course in Glasgow, I'd say that the other good thing about Trent is that it's not that highbrow. The focus is on writing that has a chance of getting published. Some people might question whether that's a good thing or not but for me it works. It's all well and good writing complex literary fiction but it's not the stuff that flies off the shelves. If you can learn to write gripping plots with strong characters then you've got a good chance of getting something published eventually. The course also gives you a great opportunity to meet published writers such as Alan Sillitoe. But then in Glasgow I was taught by James Kelman, who won the Booker in the nineties for How Late It was, How Late.

Alan Sillitoe regularly gives flashes of inspiration to students on the MA...

What is the worst part of the MA?
It can be dispiriting when you realise how hard it is to get published and how it's even harder to make any money out of writing. It's important to realise that you're not going to be able to give up the day job any time soon but sometimes the lecturers can make you wonder why on earth you're even trying. The fact that all the lectures and workshops are out at Trent's Clifton campus means it can be a struggle to arrange social events as there aren't that many tempting bars in and around Clifton. The beer in the student bar is also possibly some of the worst I've ever drunk. They must pipe it in from the Trent.

Would you consider doing a PhD in Creative Writing?
No. Working towards an MA whilst working full-time is hard enough. Doing a PhD is one step too far for me. I'm really not sure what you'd get from being a Doctor of Creative Writing anyway. I'd rather be published than able to call myself a Doctor.

Do you have a writing routine?
You have to have a routine although I struggle to stick to it every day. I try and do at least an hour every day. Generally the advice seems to be to write first thing in the morning but I'm not an early bird so that's never really worked for me. I try and do at least an hour every evening usually between 8.30 and 10. It's hard because you're tired after working all day but when I get into the habit of doing it regularly, I really miss it if I don't do it.

What are you working on at the moment?
I'm trying short stories for grown-ups. I'm enjoying the challenge of writing in this form – keeping stories concise and focused. It's a real challenge.

How many rejection letters do you have and what’s the funniest to date?
I've got around 10 I think. Mainly for The Haunted Underpants. Best response I had was when I rang up one children's fiction agent to ask about submitting a manuscript. She asked what the title was and when I told her she said “not more bloody underpants!” I still sent her the manuscript but surprisingly enough I got a standard rejection letter back.

Any tips for writers’ block?
If you find yourself staring at the computer screen for ages with your mind a blank, don’t think too hard about things. Just start writing. You might write some crap to start with but eventually some good stuff will come out.

Hear Tom talk on our WriteLion 3 podcast
Nottingham Trent MA website
James Walker's website

 

 

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