| |
Louise Doughty with Odette’s restaurant head chef Bryn Williams |
Writer on what readers digest
Louise Doughty tells Simon Wroe how she attempted to turn would-be authors into successful novelists by offering tips aimed at inspiring literary greatness
WRITING is a solitary pursuit for many, but not for Louise Doughty.
The Kentish Town author and journalist believes all writers, whether novices or old hands, benefit from a little help.
Her latest book, A Novel in a Year, is a compilation of her weekly Daily Telegraph column that ran throughout last year, in which she advised would-be novelists on the potential pitfalls and fail-safe techniques of the letters trade.
“Writing is the only art form where people seem to think it will just emerge organically,” she tells me over dinner at the recently revamped Odette’s restaurant in Primrose Hill.
“Everyone likes to believe that their inner genius will just come out on to the page, but there’s a huge amount which can be learned, like technique.”
Technique is something Bryn Williams, Odette’s classically trained head chef, knows all about.
An ‘amuse’ of watermelon foam with black olives and an anchovy biscuit is set in front of us, which is refreshing, if a little peculiar, but then the games begin.
For starters, Louise had the Cornish crab and basil salad that she described without a trace of irony as “very crabby”. I had curried scallops with cauliflower puree, sultanas and pine nuts – the subtle “Coronation” flavours working well with the fleshy scallops.
One of us had to try the turbot with braised oxtail and cockles, chef Bryn’s signature dish which was chosen over hundreds of competitors on BBC’s Great British Menu earlier this year to be cooked for the Queen .
Louise selflessly volunteered herself for the task, while I settled for roast John Dory fillet with crushed new potatoes and a ragout of pickled and salted grapes.
Bryn has a reputation for his fish dishes and, true to form, both were excellent.
“Nobody can teach talent,” said Louise as we tucked into desserts of warm Valrhonna chocolate fondant with milk ice cream and poached pineapple, mango and mint salsa with coconut ice cream.
“If you read my book you’ll be no more or less talented than you were before – that won’t change.”
Louise’s mix of writerly insights, practical tips and fortnightly tasks for her readers gained enormous attention. When she told them to write in they did, in their droves, swamping the Telegraph’s website with anecdotes about thumb-breaking or what happened to them on their eighth birthday.
“I encouraged my readers to write about all sorts of things,” she says.
“Even if you don’t end up using these things, you discover things you didn’t know about your character.”
As well as instructing her readers, Louise is also asking them for help with her novel in progress.
She says: “People have been very generous. As a way of saying thanks, I’ve begun to name characters in my book after them.”
|
 |
|
| |
|
