On The Second Day of Christmas
The Writing Advice Kit de Waal Gave to Me…
Happy Boxing Day!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day whether it was hectic with kids and noisy toys you wish you’d never been organised enough to buy the batteries for, or quiet and peaceful and spent with a few new books. Hopefully, between After Eights, you found five minutes to sit down and have a read of Jan Carson’s advice to budding writers, and if not, then you can find it here.
And so, on we go to day two of my Twelve Days of Christmas Writing Advice, and today, another brilliant best-selling and prize-winning novelist just for you. Ladies and gents, I present, Kit de Waal.
Kit de Waal was born in Birmingham to an Irish mother and Caribbean father. Her debut novel, My Name is Leon, was published in 2016 and was shortlisted for the Costa Prize, and she has received many other awards for her writing including the Bridport Flash Fiction Prize in 2014 and 2015. Her second novel, The Trick to Time, was published in 2019 and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize. Her brilliant memoir Without Warning and Only Sometimes was published in 2022.
Before she became an author, Kit worked in criminal and family law for more than a decade and was a magistrate for many years. She still sits on adoption panels, and has written many training manuals on adoption and foster care for the judiciary.
Reading through her biography, it struck me how coming to writing later in your life, after many different types of life experience, should never be seen as a hindrance, in fact, it is very often a blessing. And for that reason, the theme of Kit’s writing advice today makes so much sense because you simply cannot find your voice until you have found yourself. So whether you are 19 or 99, it is never too late to start that journey with your writing craft — in fact, a later start may just make it better.
Anyway, enough from me, you’re here for Kit de Waal, and so here she is with her Christmas offering especially for you: