Bryony's Blog

Paula Hawkins is the best-selling author of The Girl On The Train  which has sold around 11 million copies globally and been made into a blockbuster film grossing around US$24.6 million.  Here I talk to her about her interest in the best-selling novelist of all time, Agatha Christie.     BR: In a number of interviews, you’ve mentioned that you read a lot of Agatha Christie as a teenager and that this influenced your desire to be a writer. What in particular did you like about her work? PH: Agatha Christie’s books were the first real mysteries I ever read; I remember being thrilled by her plotting, by the casts of dastardly characters, the glamorous locations, and by all those shocking twists. BR: Have you a favourite? PH: And Then There Were None. It’s perfectly constructed. BR: There are some people who consider Agatha Christie a little twee and old-fashioned now.   Not gory enough, I suppose! For me, one of the most unsettling aspects of her wo

I have met many people who tell me they would love to write a book but they don’t know what to write about.   The problem as I see it is that they expect an entire story to ‘come’ to them all at once and I would be very surprised if this happens even to the most experienced of writers. It is often a chance remark or a fleeting glimpse of something that gives authors those 'Aha' moments. Here are some tips for getting started.                 OBSERVE   Being a writer requires you to be an observer. Writers are nosy people.   You watch, you record, you remember.   You yourself are probably a bit ‘odd’ or different.   You always feel as though you don’t really fit in.   You’re a loner.   You imagine what it is like to be other people - how do they think, what do they say and do. When you notice the way someone holds their coffee cup or the way they position their glasses in order to read a menu, you are writing, gathering information for some character down the line. Be