Writing is not just about putting words on a page. Ideas have to cook first.

Fiona Barton

Categorized in : Just Words Ideas Writing

Barbecue is to North Carolina as the hot dog is to New York.

new barbecue dog hot

The unsaid is a powerful tool. It invites the reader into the narrative, filling in gaps, interpreting silences and half-finished sentences, and seeing the hidden fear in someone's eye.

someone powerful eye fear

It is a sad truth that apprenticeships fell out of favour in Britain in the Seventies and Eighties, when the manufacturing industries shed jobs and the construction industry went into decline.

construction industry sad truth

The emotions, responsibilities - and the pain - of motherhood are unique to each of us with children. Ask any woman, and she will have her own story to tell.

woman motherhood pain children

The righting of historic wrongs has chimed with something fundamental in me since I was a young reader. I love the forensic skills, the psychological insights, and the sheer bloody-mindedness of various detectives - professional or accidental - inching toward the truth of a long-buried secret.

professional me truth love

I know I love a novel with an unreliable narrator, and I think many readers do as well.

well think know love

Mental health is something that I'm very interested in.

mental something mental-health health

For most of us, our protective lies or omissions are so insignificant that being found out would be only mildly embarrassing. But for some of us, our secret may threaten to destroy everything. And that is food and drink to a novelist.

everything being drink food

The success of 'The Widow' meant there were expectations for the second book from the first word, and it has created a completely different writing experience. Not to say I haven't enjoyed writing 'The Child,' but I confess there were times when I felt as if I was wrenching it out of my body with bloodied fingernails!

child experience success book

As a reporter, I spent a great deal of time in court. During brief breaks in testimony, I would often look at the spouse, usually the wife, of the accused. I began to wonder how listening to the details of a crime purportedly committed by your spouse would affect that person's view of her husband.

great look wife time

When you think about it, psychological thrillers often involve extraordinary events happening to ordinary people.

think you events people

It's a wonderful experience to be reading a story and think you've got things all figured out, and then suddenly, it all goes upside-down on you.

think you experience reading

I can't think whether I've actually interviewed the widow of a crime suspect. Obviously, I've interviewed members of the families of people who've been accused of things.

things think crime people

Since reading 'Sophie's Choice,' I have been haunted by the agonizing idea of choosing between two children.

choice reading two children

When you are a journalist, you are always looking for the next story. It might come from a phone call from a contact or an unanswered question you spot in someone else's article.

phone-call phone looking you

I chose to write from different perspectives despite its complexity because it is what I have always done as a journalist.

write always different done

Once you write a book, you hand it over to the readers, and it's their book then. They're so involved. They ask questions about details that I haven't even thought about.

thought you details book

It's amazing to me that journalists are held in such low esteem.

journalists low amazing me

When you start writing fiction, you have to learn to invent, and it's very hard at the beginning to stop relying on facts and what you've heard.

beginning start you facts

The imagination is such as powerful tool: suggestion is all you need. People fill in gaps.

you powerful imagination people