Christopher Wakling: 'Trust what comes naturally, but don’t be afraid to experiment'

Christopher Wakling is the author of seven acclaimed novels, including What I Did, The Devil’s Mask, and Escape and Evasion. He has published travel writing, short stories, and adventures for children, too. A former city lawyer, Christopher has held Royal Literary Fund Fellowships at the Universities of Bristol and Exeter, and has tutored numerous creative-writing courses for The Arvon Foundation and Curtis Brown Creative.

Chris is a long-standing CBC tutor who has been teaching on our Writing Your Novel course since 2011. We're thrilled that he is the tutor of our eight-week Zoom course for beginners, Starting to Write Fiction.

We spoke to him about what he enjoys most about working with CBC students and his tips for writers starting out on their creative journey.

You’re an integral part of the CBC tutor team and have been teaching our Writing Your Novel course since 2011. What do you enjoy most about working with our students?

I enjoy working out what a writer is trying to do and helping them achieve it. The practical aspect of our courses appeals to me: students aren’t in it for a certificate, they just want to improve their work. There’s something elusive and alchemical at the heart of the writing process, but there are also tips and techniques that can help a writer progress. I like working out which ones might be helpful to the writer in question and dishing them out.

As the tutor of our brand new eight-week Starting to Write Fiction course, what are you most excited about teaching on the course? Do you have any tips for writers starting out on their creative journey?

At CBC and in other contexts I’ve worked with writers at all stages of the creative process, and I mean all: I’ve tutored schoolchildren, accomplished beginners, university students, writers wrestling with works-in-progress, writers with MAs and PhDs, and the authors of prizewinning bestsellers; I’ve also tutored writers returning to writing, and tutors who want to tutor all of the above. I enjoy working at all levels, but there’s something special about helping someone take the first steps on their creative journey. Come with an open mind and be willing to put in the work, those are my two top tips.

Your first novel On Cape Three Points is about a young lawyer who loses a file of important documents and then tries to cover up the loss. You started out in law – how much of your novel was based on personal experience?

Yes, yes, I lost that file, good guesswork! But I didn’t lie about it, as the hero of that novel does. Though losing the file was an awkward experience for me, it wasn’t a story: I didn’t suffer the life-changing arc my protagonist does. I wrote about a world I knew, using writing tool 101, the good old ‘what if?’ All of my work, even the historical fiction I’ve written, and the children’s adventures, comes from within: the autobiographical elements are nearer the surface in some stories than others, for sure, but we all write what we know to some extent.

What’s your approach to writing? Do you have a daily routine, set yourself word targets, or is your method less structured? Have you ever suffered from writer’s block, and how did you overcome it?

I try to have all of those good sensible things: I sit down at the start of the day with an aim in mind, be it a scene I want to write, a wordcount I want to reach, a number of hours I want to spend hacking away at the word-face. And often I fail to achieve my aims. I’ve suffered from writer’s doubt, writer’s laziness, writer’s distractedness, but not ‘block’, no. The trick is to avoid becoming downhearted by those failures, to have another go the following day, to try again.

You’ve published seven novels, alongside short fiction, adventure stories for children and travel writing. How do you find switching between forms? Do you have any advice for writers searching for the right voice to tackle a writing project?

I write what interests me at any one time, and yes, I’ve experimented with different story-types. I like playful variety. I think that helps with tutoring: I’m not fixated on any one type of tale, or genre, or voice. My advice to writers trying to find a voice for their project is a bit contradictory on the surface but I stand by it: trust what comes naturally, but don’t be afraid to experiment.

What novel do you most frequently find yourself recommending to others?

Impossible question! It varies with time. For ages I kept banging on about Beryl Bainbridge’s The Birthday Boys. Also, George Saunders’ short stories. Big fan of Magnus Mills’ The Restraint Of Beasts. Devouring Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver at the moment. Patrick de Witt’s The Sisters Brothers seems always to be on my desk. But recommending those books just makes me wince at the ones I’m not mentioning…

Do you want to learn more from Christopher Wakling? Applications are open for our upcoming Starting to Write Fiction course. Deadline 23 Sept.

Apply now