Marian Keyes’ writing is warm, witty and fearlessly honest with characters and relationships that are so relatable, we see them in ourselves, our friends and our own family. Sheer storytelling magic. But with 15 novels (and her long-anticipated sequel to Rachel's Holiday - Again, Rachel - is out now!), how does she seem to just get it so right time after time? Here is some insight from the woman herself.
“I actually don’t ever plot and plan. That’s just not my process. I have a vague idea of what might happen when I start a novel. Like, all my books are about interiority, emotional landscapes and getting to know a person – or several people – very, very well. So I’ll usually start with one character and gradually construct a life around them. It’s all a bit of trial and error: I’ll try out loads of things, like relationships and possible friendships. Sometimes it fits together perfectly, and other times, it’s back to the drawing board for me. So it’s very stop-start – and it absolutely suits me.
(Psst... Have you read our feature with Marian Keyes in The Penguin Post?)
“I couldn’t bear knowing from the beginning, before I’d even started, what was going to happen in what chapter and how it was all going to end. To say that my characters lead the narrative is whimsical nonsense – though I sometimes wish they did – but I do get to know them better as the book goes on, and choices I first thought they might make just don’t work anymore as the story develops.
“I’ll mostly sort of write from instinct, but at some point an actual template has to be put on a book. You know, timelines, balancing mood, making sure that every character gets the appropriate amount of page space, but it’s quite near the end of the book when I do all that kind of technical stuff. I don’t just wing it for the entire book, but I do like to go into it knowing almost nothing. It might terrify some writers, just like their way of writing might terrify me!”
WATCH: Marian Keyes speaks about her latest novel, Again, Rachel
Again, Rachel is out now. Read an extract.
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