Interview with: Author JOANNE HARRIS

Interviewed by: Natascha Scrivener

Joanne Harris was born in Barnsley in 1964, of a French mother and an English father. She studied Modern and Mediaeval Languages at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and was a teacher for fifteen years, during which time she published three novels; The Evil Seed (1989), Sleep, Pale Sister (1993) and Chocolat (1999), which was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.

Since then, she has written eight more novels; Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange, Coastliners, Holy Fools, Gentlemen and Players, The Lollipop Shoes and Runemarks, and most recently blueeyedboy which was published in March 2010, plus; Jigs & Reels, a collection of short stories and, with cookery writer Fran Warde, two cookbooks; The French Kitchen and The French Market. Her books are now published in over 40 countries and have won a number of British and international awards. In 2004, Joanne was one of the judges of the Whitbread prize (categories; first novel and overall winner); and in 2005 she was a judge of the Orange prize.

Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult?I don't know to what extent they influenced me, but as a child I was obsessed by Melville's Moby Dick and Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books.

What was your favourite childrens story?
The Pied Piper.

Which authors do you admire?
Ray Bradbury, Victor Hugo, Ian Banks, P.G. Wodehouse, Jules Verne, Mervyn Peake, Haruki Murakami, Cormac McCarthy...

Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?
I wasn't really expecting to get published. I just wanted to see how far I could go. I came across my first agent in the Writer's Handbook, and he and the publishing industry did the rest - very, very slowly. :-)

What is the environment that you write in like?
I have a stone shed at the top of my garden. It's quiet, spare, usually undisturbed, and the view is spectacular...

Do you do an outline before hand, or just write directly from inspiration?
I don't write outlines, although I do have a general idea of where I'm heading. I like to surprise myself occasionally - if I'm not surprised, I reckon the readers won't be, either...

How do you begin a novel?
I always recognize the first line when I get to it. Then I delete anything that came before.

How many drafts do you usually complete? And can you tell us about your editorial process?
The number of drafts can vary between three to six. I am my own most stringent editor, which mean that the version I send to my editor has already been re-drafted by me several times, and is fairly clean. I edit by reading the text aloud and correcting as I go. I find this works very well for me - being a linguist and a musician I have a sensitivity to the way text sounds, rather than how it looks on the page. When I get my editor's notes (usually a half-dozen pages of them),I'll do one more pass, addressing her queries (sometimes another one for the US), then a line-by-line copy-edit. After that, it's done.

You have written various short stories. How does the writing of short stories differ from the writing of novels?
It's a very different discipline (there's an essay on my website about precisely this topic), and potentially, a more difficult one. Structure is far more crucial to the short story - you can get away with experimenting with structure in a novel, but a short story has to have perfect balance and cohesion, otherwise it flounders.

You've revisited Vianne in The Lollipop Shoes, are there any other certain characters you would like to go back to, or is there a theme or idea you’d love to work with?
I tend to revisit places, characters and ideas as and when the thought occurs. I don't tend to think ahead much about what I'm going to do next...


Can creative writing be taught? Do the creative writing courses help or hinder the creative process?
I think that many things can be taught, including how to improve one's creative writing, but that creativity is innate. No-one can teach creativity.

What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?
I don't care much about critics. I guess the best compliments I get are from my readers, when they tell me they recognized my characters, or remembered something from their past, or felt compelled to eat chocolate...

Can you tell us about your upcoming book 'Runelight'?
It's the sequel to my fantasy novel Runemarks, which is loosely based on Norse mythology. Ragnarok has come and gone, the gods are presumed to have been wiped out, but survive in secret, stripped of their godhood, as a new belief system, the Order, arises to take their place. Into this arena comes Maddy, a teenage girl with a "ruinmark" on her hand, that sets her apart as different, maybe even dangerous...

How does writing for adults, young adults and children differ?
In my case, it doesn't. I write for everyone.

How do you feel about the new technological advances? Will computers and video games completely take over? Should those of us who aspire to write find another hobby?
I think that some people will always want to write. For those people, it isn't a hobby, but a compulsion. In the same way, some people will always want to read. As for computers and video games, I think if they were going to take over, they would have done it by now...

Do you have any advice to give to aspiring writers?
Read avidly. Take advice. Be self-aware and self-critical. Take interest in current affairs and what's going on around you. Be yourself - don't copy trends. And most of all, enjoy what you do. If you don't, how will anyone else?