Evie Wyld is Booktrust's third online writer in residence.

  • The pleasures of weight loss

    Posted Friday March 27th 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    Right, one of the several purposes of this blog is to let you all in a bit on the actual process of the book I'm writing at the moment. In other words, the time I spend at the very unglamorous coalface of writing.  And that means, at the moment, a second draft.

    My situation is this: My last book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, came out last May, and the year that it's had has been bewildering and wonderful and surprising and could fill a blog on its own. But it won't. What it does mean, though, is that the sequel – called The Ask and the Answer and out in the UK on 4 May (plug alert!) – has attendant responsibilities with publicity and so forth that its author will gratefully fulfil.

    But all the while, I'll be writing the much-needed third volume, and it comes out, you guessed it, just about this same time next year. Having spent a feverish six months getting a first draft written, I've been continuing work on the second draft.

    Which, for me, means cutting, cutting, cutting. 

    This could easily go in the writing tips section (and it still may), but a…

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  • On metaphysics and housekeeping

    Posted Tuesday March 17th 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    Welcome back!  The writer in residency is only a week old, and already I’ve got my first question. Dogflea from Brazil (yes, truly, Dogflea from Brazil) wants to start with a biggie, so here we go:

    'What moves you to write in the first place?'

    Now, Dogflea (aka Celine), felt this question so important she put it in all caps, and I tend to agree. It’s the most important question of all, and I have a simple answer: I write because it feels like I have to. If I didn’t, the consequences for me would be too great to bear. (A brief warning that there are rough waters ahead in today’s blog, but hold on tight, we’ll make it to the shore together.)

    The authors I love, really love, are those that seem to be writing entirely to feed an irresistible compulsion. Nicola Barker, Peter Carey, Ali Smith, people whose prose burns with fire and urgency, burns with the energy of trying to appease some goddess of writing before her dogs tear you to pieces.

    Over dramatic? Possibly, but why do you write? Is it for a better reason? If it’s to make money, for example, you need to have…

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  • And so it begins

    Posted Monday March 9th 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    Welcome! I’m a newcomer here myself, so don’t be shy.

    We’ll distress the carpets, mark the walls and lower the property values together. I haven’t yet found the en suite, but the builders have left a bottle of champagne in the fridge. Which is all yours, as champagne makes me whiffy.

    My name is Patrick Ness, and I am Booktrust’s very first writer in residence. It’s an online writer-in-residency, so it’s not like I’m getting a cliffside retreat with dramatic views of Bodmin Moor or anything (grumble grumble). The benefit of being online, though, is that it’s open and available to everyone to come and have a peek, and this is regardless of age, younger writers just starting out being particularly welcome. So roll up, roll up! There are plenty of good things in store.

    As for my bona fides, I’m the author of three (in May it’ll be four) books of fiction. I’ve written a novel, The Crash of Hennington and a short story collection, Topics About Which I Know Nothing. And since my work as a writer in residence will involve lots of writing tips (more on that in a moment), let the first one be that if…

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