Robyn Young is the author of the highly successful "Brethren" trilogy. Her current project is the telling of the story of Robert the Bruce. The first instalment, "Insurrection" was, once again, an instant best seller and the second book, "Renegade" is launched on 30th August 2012. I have been lucky enough to read an advanced copy and my review can be found here.
Robyn very kindly found time in her busy schedule to talk to me and gives an interesting insight into the world of a best-selling author of historical fiction.
- Your debut novel
“Brethren” was an instant success and all your books have become
best-sellers. Who first inspired
you to write and when did you realise you wanted to make a living from
writing?
·
My
grandfather was probably the first person to inspire me, with a love of
storytelling. I have fond memories of
holidays at my grandparents’, where my cousins and me would gather in the
evenings and my grandfather would tell adventure stories where we were the main
characters. I continued this tradition,
inventing my own narratives, and at school an enthusiastic English teacher
encouraged me to set them to paper. In
my early teens, I began writing poetry and won several competitions, including
one that saw one of my poems published in a national anthology. I remember seeing my work in print for the
first time. I think that’s the point I
knew I wanted to write for a living.
- The publishing
world is very tough and with the advent of P.O.D, Amazon and other easy
ways to publish novels electronically, how difficult was it to get an
agent and a traditional publishing contract?
· It was
a long, rocky road, as it is for most authors, although we all have different
stories of how we got there in the end.
It took two years, several major rewrites and thirteen rejections before
a literary agent signed me up for my first novel, BRETHREN. After that I thought I’d made it – I had an
agent and a Masters in Creative Writing from a top university. Why wouldn’t I get a book deal? Of course, reality kicked in and it would be
another two years and more rejections before we struck gold and BRETHREN ended
up in an auction with two publishing houses bidding for it. All in all, from concept to final draft, that
first novel was seven years in the making.
- You did an MA in
Creative Writing; is this something you felt you needed to do or was it
something you wanted to do? Would
you recommend this route to most writers?
·
It was
a bit of both. I’d done a foundation
course at Sussex University, where I’d begun writing BRETHREN, and the
structured support offered by a weekly class in those early years of writing
was so beneficial I decided to continue with a Masters. There is a sort of stigma attached to
creative writing courses – a tendency to believe that it cannot, or should not
be taught. But writing is a craft as much as an art and one of the most
valuable aspects of both courses for me was feedback from my peers. One of the
hardest, most vital things to learn is how to edit your own work. Working with
others, deconstructing one another’s writing, asking the questions you
constantly need to ask yourself – why this point of view, what does this
dialogue offer, what about pace here, exposition there – teaches you to see
where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Hemmingway called it having a built-in
shit detector. You don’t need to do a
course to become a successful author certainly, although I know plenty who have
(C.J. Sansom was in the year before me on the foundation course writing the
first of his Shardlake novels). It’s all
down to the individual and where they are in the writing process and, even
then, not every course will be beneficial – it’s often down to group
dynamics. I was fortunate to be in a
group that worked well together, but not every class will lend itself to
that.
- How did you
become interested in the medieval world and what inspired you to write the
Brethren trilogy?
· Back in
1999 I was in a pub with two friends, who were talking about the Knights
Templar. I’d not heard of these
so-called warrior monks before, but my interest was piqued. Some time later I came across a book called
The Trial of the Templars, by historian Malcolm Barber, a harrowing account of
the dramatic downfall of this powerful medieval organisation. I read it in an afternoon and by the end I
knew I wanted to tell their story. This
was long before The Da Vinci Code hit the shelves and catapulted the Templars
into the zeitgeist.
- Your current
project tells the story of Robert the Bruce. What made you decide to write about him?
· The
INSURRECTION TRILOGY was born out of a research trip to Scotland, where I was
working on REQUIEM, the final novel in the Templar series. I’d
spent three weeks on the road, travelling from battlegrounds and ivy-clad
ruins, during which time one figure came striding out of the wild landscape and
rich history – Robert Bruce. He swept me
off my feet and carried me into an epic story of bitter family feuds, two civil
wars and the struggle for a crown. There
is none of the black and whiteness of William Wallace about Robert – he is a
complex, enigmatic character, who offered a real challenge in the writing of
his story.
- How do you research your subject
matter? What are your favourite
sources?
· I start by reading as many
books as possible, during which time I write an enormous amount of notes,
trying to piece the historical world together. These will be a mixture of texts – ones that cover
the broad era, biographies of my characters and then those that deal with the
finer period details, such as food, travel, clothing, weapons and armour. It’s about building up a picture. Even if you don’t use half the things you
research, it will come across in your writing as confidence and authenticity.
Web-based research is getting better, but I still only use the Internet when I
have a good enough grounding myself to know which sites are good. I also try to visit as many of the locations
as possible. I speak to historians and re-enactors about specific events or
equipment and I like to try my hand at the physical aspects of my novels. For INSURRECTION,
I was taught to ride by a skill-at-arms tutor. I’ve tried sword fighting, used
crossbows and done extensive work with birds of prey, which have, I believe,
added colour beyond the book-based details.
- Your Twitter
profile says you are a “newbie screenwriter”. Does this mean your novels are making
their way onto the silver screen?
· We’ve
certainly had a few nibbles on the line, so to speak, but no firm plans
yet. My “newbie screenwriter” tag refers
to a project I’ve been working on with two fellow writers over the past year –
a WWII screenplay. It’s been quite a
departure, and not just in terms of period.
Having colleagues after twelve years working alone has been a breath of
fresh air. We’ll have to see what
happens, but if things go well I hope we’ll continue to work together.
- What advice
would you give to someone like me, an unpublished writer working hard to
finish their manuscript who wishes to turn their dream of winning a
publishing contract into a reality?
·
My
agent always said, in this regard, that a little knowledge is a dangerous
thing. I think he’s right. There aren’t many hard and fast rules when it
comes to trying to get a traditional contract – as I said, authors have many
different stories of how they got there.
I know one writer, for instance, who snared a contract on first try on a
partial manuscript and another who made it after sixty rejections. That said, there are undoubtedly a few things
you can do to help your chances, or at least not shoot yourself in the foot,
most of which are covered in a few excellent books. The best I read was Carole Blake’s From Pitch
to Publication. Also, the Writer’s
Handbook and Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook are well worth getting – they include
useful tips as well as listing all agencies in the UK, including details of
what to send. When you do send work out,
make sure you’re sending it to the right person, that you’ve included
everything the agent requires, no more no less, and that it’s the absolute best
it can be. You can be sure if an agent
isn’t hooked in the first page or so, your manuscript has had it. Covering letters and synopses are just as
important to get right. For some great
tips on these, and a damn good laugh, check out the brilliant - http://www.kitwhitfield.com/publisherdating.html
- Fun Question –
which three characters would you invite to dinner and why?
· Edward
I, because he’d have a decent supply of Gascony wine. Robert Bruce could bring the venison and
answer a few questions I have, and William Wallace could make a daring raid on
the local shops for anything we’d forgotten.
I’d probably have to up my house insurance though, with those three in
the same room.
- Fun Question –
at which event in history would you like to be a fly on the wall and why?
·
I’d
like to have witnessed Edward I’s coronation in Westminster Abbey, for the
grand spectacle of it and the feast that would have followed. It is said wine flowed through the conduit in
Cheapside for the people to drink.
