Swallowed By a Whale: How to Survive the Writing Life

Description

In this specially-commissioned anthology, sixty accomplished authors share secrets and insights into their writing lives: on their inspirations, methods, wild ideas and daily routines; on the pleasure and the pain in achieving their literary goals; on how they started out and how they hope to continue. They outline some golden rules for staying on track and talk candidly about what goes wrong as well as right. We hear from novelists, poets, biographers, and children's writers; illustrators, campaigners, teachers, mothers, husbands, an entrepreneur turned surfboard shaper, a quantum physicist, an opera librettist, and a Laureate who loves dragons. All writers. We have emerging talents in our team alongside much-loved authors whose books have sold in millions. Each reflects in their own way on the creative process and the compulsion to write. How to find inspiration? How to get the words right? How to cope with writer's block? How to handle bad reviews? How to become a better reader? Pencil or computer? Inside or out? And where do the good ideas really come from? Swallowed by a Whale includes contributions from: Kwame Alexander, Anthony Browne, Cressida Cowell, Isabelle Dupuy, Inua Ellams, Lev Grossman, Joanne Harris, Catherine Johnson, Thomas Keneally, Neal Layton, David Mitchell, Beverley Naidoo, Chibundu Onuzo, Chris Riddell, Francesca Simon, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, Raynor Winn and many more.

Huw Lewis-Jones is an author, teacher, naturalist and polar expedition leader whose work has been published in many languages. His past books include Ocean Portraits, In Search of the South Pole, The Conquest of Everest and Explorers' Sketchbooks. His most recent edited collections are the acclaimed and bestselling The Writer's Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands and Archipelago: An Atlas of Imagined Islands. Huw lives in Cornwall.

"Balances practical advice with heartfelt guidance...this handbook is sure to please." --Publishers Weekly