Joy Lynn Fielding

Average Rating:

Joy Lynn Fielding is a sucker for happy endings. She believes, however, that if characters don’t suffer along the way, they won’t fully appreciate being happy. Not all of her characters thank her for this viewpoint, but what do they know?

Joy lives in a small English market town, but also inhabits a number of fictional worlds at any one time, reflecting what she's writing and what she's reading. She has a tendency to share enthusiastically with anyone who will listen the latest fascinating facts she’s stumbled across in her research for books. Thankfully she has a very patient Labrador, who has a gift for looking as though he’s interested in what she’s saying while he waits for the food to arrive.

Visit her website at: http://joyfielding.wordpress.com/

Email her at: [email protected]

Q: What are your worst writing habits?

A: Excessive use of semi-colons and breathtaking levels of procrastination.

Q: Do you have a favorite writer?

A: Too many to name, and all for different reasons. But when I’m in the throes of editing, it’s always Oscar Wilde, because of this quote:

“I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.”

Q: Do the characters or the plot come to you first?

A: It’s difficult to explain satisfactorily, but they seem to emerge at the same time. The plot arises from the characters, but the characters don’t come to me in a plotless vacuum. I’d love to know just how the whole process of inspiration works!

Q: Do you plot a story out beforehand or do you write by the seat of your pants?

A: I always have the overall plot sketched out before I begin to write. I find that when I start writing and get to know the characters better, they often have their own idea about what they’re going to do, regardless of my opinion on the matter. This means that elements of my plot fall by the wayside while new ones arise. It also means I have to remember not to argue out loud with my characters in case anyone's listening…

Q: Pirates or Ninjas?

A: Pirates. You have to love a man in a billowy white shirt.

Read more
Books Series
Recently Added 30 Day Bestsellers All-Time Bestsellers