In the last couple of weeks, I have been working on a TV treatment with another writer pal. It’s particularly nice because I usually work alone (except for the authors who I ghost), and so it’s a luxury to have somebody to share and swap creative ideas with.
The story that we are working on is based on fact but, for the purposes of drama, we are adding in some fictional elements. As a journalist I have always been answerable to facts, and that extended to my ghosting work, so I struggled so much when I started writing fiction, because I always had that annoying little thought nagging away at me: Is anyone really buying this? Do they believe this happened?
I decided, for a novel that I have just finished writing, to try and mix the two together – fact and fiction, and this worked so well for me. For many writers the line between research and procrastination can be a thin one, a tightrope walk perhaps. But by the time I’d finished my research, I was itching to get going (I have to wait …