Kiare Ladner

How did you become a writer?

My childhood had a lot of escape into books and imaginary worlds. Then during my tricky teenage years I didn’t read much. I decided I wanted to become an actress and went to drama school. I didn’t fit in but fell back in love with reading, signing long dead male authors as visitors into my women’s res. Around then, I decided I wanted to write. The next years alternated between burying myself in books, scribbling away every morning before work – and outward periods of wilder, exploratory times with others. Writing was at my core but I had no interest in classes or publication. Yet when I finally signed up for a writing workshop, the whole process gained an altogether different kind of momentum. 

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

Early influences were non-conformist writers, such as Bohumil Hrabal, Kathy Acker, Cookie Mueller, Herbert Selby Jr, Samuel L Delany and Tom Spanbauer. My first teacher, the late John Petherbridge, was honest, brilliantly well read and encouraging. (When I look back now at what I submitted to him, I respect him all the more.) Also Greg Keen, my first reader, who shows me again and again what I forget – how much can be cut in the interests of narrative energy. 

When and where do you write? 

At my desk at home, every morning. 

What are you working on now? 

A novel with a working title Four Clients. Except it might only be about one client. But if I say any more I’ll jinx it. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

Yes. But here’s what I’ve found. Sometimes when I get ill, nothing major, a cold, say, the first thing I feel isn’t the physical symptoms but a sense of annoyance with myself. Why are you acting so glum? Why aren’t you working harder? Etc. A few hours on I realise I’ve got a cold and, with this, my perception shifts. Since what I thought was my fault was actually a reaction to something real, I’m able to be more patient and pragmatic. Similarly, with writers block, often there’s a real reason lurking behind the frustration. Maybe the story’s premise is faulty or the plot has problems or you’re shoehorning a character into a situation that doesn’t fit…. Recognising the problem, even if it’s a major one, is a relief because then you can take small steps to move on. 

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Failing is an inherent part of writing. But it’s still tough. During my PhD, which was a story of failure until it suddenly did a U-turn, I thought of this quote a lot:

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas A. Edison.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Read, widely, diversely, as much as you can. It’ll develop your intuition about what works and you need this as much as you need the tools of the craft. 

Kiare Ladner’s debut novel NIGHTSHIFT was recently published by Picador (UK) and Harper Collins (US). Her short stories have been anthologized, commissioned for the radio and shortlisted in competitions, including the BBC National Short Story Award. She has a Creative Writing PhD and an MA from the University of East Anglia. Feel free to contact her at www.kiareladner.com.

JR Thorp

How did you become a writer?

When I was a very small child, I wanted to own a bookstore, because I was allowed to spend a remarkable amount of time in libraries and running my own bookshop seemed like the best possible future. In about fourth grade, I mentioned this ambition to an elderly teacher, who informed me with great sniffiness that "ladies don't own bookshops". With the unquestioning seamlessness of small-person logic, I thought, "Well, I'll write books instead." I've since realised that people of all stripes own bookshops and I'm not even close to being a lady, but the die was cast.  

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

I had a shelf of most beloved books for ages in Australia: Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, Ovid's Heroides, Patrick White's Voss, a complete Emily Dickinson collection, Umberto Eco, Anne Carson, Anne Michaels' Fugitive Pieces, Helen Vendler's annotations of Shakespeare's sonnets – it's a long list. My literature tutor, Gordon Shrubb, was enlisted by my parents in mid-high school to help me stop running riot in English classes, and was responsible for many of the things on those shelves, from Robert Browning to Virginia Woolf. (If it counts, Impressionist and Pointillist paintings, too.) 

When and where do you write?

Mostly in cafés with movie soundtracks, though I do have a study at home when something is proving particularly difficult and I need to be essentially trapped in one spot to get it done. Spotify informs me that in 2020, the year of editing Learwife for publication, I was the only person whose most-listened was a playlist of shrieking medieval bagpipes (I like the composer Jed Kurzel). 

What are you working on now?

I'm currently on the second draft of my second novel, which is about translators, people-smuggling, family secrets, architecture, and how the past can eat you. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

I suffered from something I think is quite common in young writers, which is consuming worry about Being A Writer rather than actually writing. I was so battered with anxiety about making every sentence worthy that I essentially wrote a novel into the ground. I had to get over it and recognise that I was in service to an audience, not to any self-concept of status, before I could work properly.  

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Try everything – every genre, every commission, whatever you've got time and space to try. My Masters at Oxford was a gift because they essentially threw you into every possible form (radio drama! prose poems! lyrics! scriptwriting!) over two years, and you had to give it a shot. If you say yes to a thing and don't know how to do it, don't be afraid to learn from others or teach yourself.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Find a philosophy of failure. (This worried my agent when I said it in my first big newspaper interview, but I continue to believe it's a valuable piece of advice.) You will fail a lot, even if you are extremely gifted/lucky/connected/have succeeded previously, and if you don't manage to detach your self-worth from your work and its reception, you will fall into a hole and won't be able to do anything. If possible, find a skilled therapist, but do have a support network to help you through. Also, don't compare yourself to anybody else if you can help it, and if you can't help it, see therapist advice above. 

JR Thorp is an Australian writer. Her first novel, Learwife (Canongate/Pegasus), was a 2021 Waterstones Book of the Year, an Apple Books and Audible pick, an Independent Fiction Book of the Month, and was longlisted for both the Walter Scott Historical Fiction Prize and the Authors Club Debut Novel Award. She is the recipient of a Markievicz Award from the Arts Council of Ireland, and lives in Cork.

Eli Cranor

How did you become a writer?

Ray Bradbury once said something like: "You're not a real writer until you've written a million words." He was probably just being facetious, but I took that line to heart. So much so, I kept up with every word I wrote in a Moleskin journal until I hit one million words. As it turns out, that's about the same time I signed with my first agent. I'm on my third agent now, and he's a keeper. But the point is I became a writer by writing. That's the only way anybody does it. 

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

Music was big for me growing up. My dad had all these old cassettes I'd listen to as I fell asleep. John Prine. Harry Chapin. Carole King. Jerry Jeff Walker. Jimmy Buffett. When I got older, guys like Jason Isbell became a huge influence on my writing. Nobody tells a better story than that dude in so few words. I was also reading Flannery O'Connor, Larry Brown, Toni Morrison, Harry Crews—more Southern literature than anything. Jordan Harper's She Rides Shotgun coupled with Michael Koryta's The Prophet were the two books that got me thinking maybe I should try my hand at crime fiction. My writing mentor is a man named Johnny Wink, and I love him with all my heart. 

When and where do you write? 

I have two kids, so I have to wake up before they do to get my work done. That usually happens around five in the morning, which gives me about two hours to write. The daily commitment to the time and place is what's important. I've given up on word counts. I used to be the hare but I'm learning to be the tortoise; slow and steady wins the publishing race. Oh, and I write longhand on unlined yellow legal pads with a blue Pilot V7 pen, a habit I picked up from Elmore Leonard. 

What are you working on now? 

I'm trying to write my version of Deliverance. 

 Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

Things get clogged up sometimes, but I always slog my way through, even if it's to my own detriment. The old football player coming out in me, I guess.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

A beautiful writer and dear friend of mine by the name of Alex Taylor once told me, "Write what you write and let the devil take the hindmost." Took me a minute to understand what he was talking about, but I'm starting to get it now. 

What’s your advice to new writers?

Write a million words then throw them all away and write a sixty to eighty thousand word manuscript. Revise the hell out of it. Send it out to at least one hundred agents. While you're waiting to hear back from those agents, start on another manuscript. Rinse and repeat until you get a book deal, or die trying. 

Eli Cranor played quarterback at every level: peewee to professional, and then coached high school football for five years. These days, he’s traded in the pigskin for a laptop, writing from Arkansas where he lives with his wife and kids. In addition to his critically acclaimed debut Don't Know Tough, Eli is also the author of the forthcoming novel, Ozark Dogs. For more information visit elicranor.com.