It is my privilege to have Philippa Rae on my blog today. We are thrilled to be publishing Philippa’s Wilma’s Magic Hat
1. What do you write? Why this in particular?
I am a writer mainly of short stories and poetry. This is partly because I am an impatient type and get a buzz out of completing something quickly!
My natural instincts are also to write humorous pieces but in the future I would love to write a fantasy novel. This is a challenge to set myself for the next couple of years. I do have two half written longer books in my files so I must schedule in finishing those.
For example I have a complete three act children’s play (written for a school performance for a whole class) which I wrote in 2014 sitting in my files at home waiting to work with someone and also three fifteen minute animation scripts, one which is now honed and ready to be sent out.
2. What got you started on writing in the first place?
When I was in my last year at primary school I used to enjoy trying writing stories in my lunchtime. I remember trying to write a Lord of the Rings style piece! However my interest in dancing and the performing arts over took this and it wasn’t until I was working as part of the production team at Cbeebies Radio for the BBC that I started writing poems and stories in my scripts. Initially it was just one or two but then it developed from there.
Some people find their writer’s voice early on in the process but because I initially wrote for radio were the audience was preschool everything was dependent on using sound to stimulate the imagination. So I have suffered from a tendency to overwrite.I had to relearn a different way for print production. For example many picture books are less than 200 words and rely on much of the story being conveyed by the illustrations. They are a very specific craft and I think people outside of publishing can underestimate the skill needed in writing them.
3. Do you have a particular routine?
I write chunks in long hand and then type it up again on the computer.I like to write the basic structure first and keep adding when I return to it again and again.For a long time I was fixated on trying to find a totally original idea till I realized that it was the treatment that was the most important.Once I took that pressure off myself, I found that I enjoyed writing much more and it flowed much easier.If you aren’t enjoying what you are doing then there is much point!
I do carry a notebook as I have learned that the inspiration usually strikes when you least expect it.Story development reminds me of a pickled onion.It takes a while for things to ferment and then its great fun to peel off all the different layers as the story falls into place.
The hardest thing I found with writing longer pieces is that it is a very solitary and disciplined process whereas I come from a background of busy events and media production so I am used to working in teams with lots of people giving their opinions. Obviously the publishing team has a big input into the finished product but during the early stages it mostly a solo job!
4. When did you decide you could call yourself a writer? Do you do that in fact?
I enjoy being involved in creative projects across a range of mediums.I would probably describe myself as a Content Producer. For example I create work for magazines and on line sites both fictional and factual, media production and also content for charities such as events.
I never set out to be a writer, it was being asked to create pieces for my job that reminded me of how much I had enjoyed doing it as a child.Even when I was first published I wasn’t really thinking about writing as a full time career, it was a sideline.I enjoy entering competitions and have been quite successful and it is other people who seem to put emphasis on my writing work though it is just one part of what I am interested in. It would be nice though one day in the future to say that I was a full time writer!
Writing has been on the backburner for me for a couple of years due to the bereavement of someone close to me andthen unfortunately six months later I was diagnosed with advanced cancer in three places so I just ticked along whilst I was undergoing treatment as I wasn’t able to put in all the necessary promotional work.
I found the operation, chemotherapy and radiotherapy invasive and exhausting.I take my hat off to all the inspirational individuals who manage to achieve great things however challenging their circumstances but I am a lousy patient and certainly was not very brave!
So I am most definitely not a tortured artist toiling away – I write best and usually mostly when I’m happy!
Now Iam in remission I am grateful to be given a second chance and so I have been working on the number of half-finished projects I have accumulated and dipped in and out of over the last few years.It has turned things around for me as I realize that time is precious and to stop procrastinating.Stories don’t write themselves!
And I am not very good at writing when I am worried. So I am most definitely not very good as a tortured artist toiling away – I write best and usually mostly when I’m happy.
5. What are you most proud of in your writing?
I attended an excellent picture book class run by authors Chrisytan and Diane Fox which helped me to pin down the style needed for picture books, after having had written so many short stories for radio and magazines, this format was ingrained in me and hard to shake off.
In fact one of my books currently published, Cinderella’s Other Shoe (with wonderful cartoon drawings by Tevin Hansen) was originally written as a picture book from an exercise set in the class so I was delighted that we won the Purple Dragon Fly Awards for best humour book and also short listed at the Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards for best fiction for 6 – 8 years.
I am very pleased to have been published across the world in some brilliant magazines and collections alongside some fantastic writers and illustrators.
6. How do you get on with editing and research?
I was once told that you learn most in the editing process and this is true!I do have a bit of a blind spot as to regards typos and spelling in my work. It’s seems that however much I read something that I have written typos seem to escape through.
So far the types of work I have written haven’t required much research apart from the school assemblies where everything must be factual correct.
I know that my better pieces are usually ones that I have written and then let breathe for a couple of weeks before returning to them.Then I have put some distance between myself and the work and am able to spot any mistakes!It is quite normal for writers when they first start out to want to rush their ideas out and I have learned the hard way.
7. Which writers have inspired you?
I enjoy reading work by many different authors but people that spring to mind are the wonderful rhyming books of prolific Jeannie Willis as well as the unique picture book styles of Oliver Jeffers and Emily Gravatt.I also like the style of David Walliams’ novels – it is something about his characters and the original scenarios that I find appealing.
However I don’t really like naming favourite authors as it means singling people out. I have been writing book reviews for Kidscene for nearly seven years and in that time have read some wonderful books across all age groups.
A couple of beautiful unique picture books that I reviewed that spring to mind are Triangle and also the Wisp.
I also love animated films.Two films that I particularly enjoyed are Chicken Run and Gnomeo and Juliette!
8. Do you have any goals for the future?
I do have three books scheduled for publication in 2019 and 2020 with three more in development. In my late teens and twenties I taught dance and really enjoyed working with children so I am in the process of developing some workshops to take on the road which will be fun! So lots to look forward to.
And I have some poetry collections which are now well on the way to being finished.
I have worked with Bridge House and Gill before when I contributed to two of their anthologies. The opportunity to get short stories published is quite small and so very competitive when submitting to magazines and anthologies so it’s great to be working with Gill again.
Gill has developed a particular expertise in the short story market and also producing anthologies for charity. The stories that she is publishing with me are rather like extended illustrated short stories and I am looking forwards to the first one – Wilma’s Magic Hat with superb spooky illustrations by Ashley James.
As they say one step at a time!And lots to look forward to!
