PUTTING A BOOK TO BED

by | Feb 15, 2018 | Sarah Rayne

Finishing the writing of any book is a curiously mixed experience. There’s a sense of achievement and even a muted delight because you finally got there. But there’s also hideous doubt, because although you got there, you’re no longer sure if it’s as good as it seemed...

WRITING THE MUSIC AND COMPOSING THE PLOT

by | Aug 20, 2017 | Sarah Rayne

Music has frequently been a catalyst for me in the creating of a plot, and it seems to have found its way into a good many of my books.  There’s the eerie death lament, ‘Thaisa’s Song’ in The Bell Tower, and the music hall songs in Ghost Song.  More recently, there’s...

FROM CLAY TABLETS TO ANDROID SCREEN

by | Feb 9, 2017 | Sarah Rayne

There’s a sense of familiarity and reassurance in much-read copies of books by favourite authors.  It’s comforting to turn a page and remember that this is the part where you spilled soup on the name of the murderer because last time you read it you had flu and were...

STORY TELLING – THE ANCIENT ART

by | Dec 17, 2016 | Sarah Rayne

There are many theories as to when story-telling actually began.  In the old Arabian legends, Scheherazade was allowed to live for the following day if she told an entertaining story that night.  Which is singing for your supper with a vengeance. Our prehistoric...
LEGALIZING THE PLOT

LEGALIZING THE PLOT

by | Feb 27, 2016 | Sarah Rayne, settings for fiction

The legal profession has always been a novelists’ treasure house, and lawyers themselves are a gift to writers of fiction.  If your plot has wound itself into a hopeless tangle, you can often solve matters by allowing the family solicitor to discover old documents or...