Josie Ferguson: 'Writing is a craft - it’s something you can learn and something you can continuously improve'
BY Emily Powter-Robinson
20th Jun 2024
Josie Ferguson studied on our six-month online Writing Your Novel course in 2021. Her debut historical fiction novel The Silence in Between is out today with Doubleday, Penguin and has been shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2024!
We spoke to Josie about the inspiration behind the novel and the importance of historical research to accurately depict true stories.
You studied on our six-month online Writing Your Novel course in 2021. How did studying with us impact your approach to writing?
The course was a gamechanger for me. I had been writing for almost twenty years and though I’d come close to getting a publishing deal a couple of times, I was still an unpublished writer with a dream I couldn’t let go of. I learnt so many things on the course, but what helped the most was learning how to approach my writing as a reader. Switching my perspective helped me to see things I hadn’t seen before. Before the course, I was always just winging it with my writing, but the course showed me that writing is a craft like any other. It’s something you can learn and something you can continuously improve.
Many of our students find lifelong writing friends on our courses. Are you still in touch with anyone you met on the course?
Yes! There are four of us who still critique each other’s work every week. The Silence in Between would never have been in a fit state to publish if it wasn’t for them. They helped me shape it into a better book, something I never would have been able to do alone, and I will be forever grateful to them. People say writing is a lonely endeavour but since meeting them I have never felt like I was on my own on this journey. They’ve championed me all the way.
Your debut novel The Silence In Between is a gripping historical debut about a family separated by the Berlin wall, based on true stories. Can you tell us a bit more about the book and the inspiration behind it?
The Silence in Between is about a woman, Lisette, who is separated from her baby when the border between East and West Berlin is closed overnight in Aug 1961. Lisette also has a teenage daughter Elly and it’s Elly who decides to somehow escape East Berlin, find her baby brother in the West and bring him home again.
The book has a dual timeline so a parallel story also unfolds during WW2 in Berlin when Lisette is a young woman herself and what she experiences as a German civilian during the war and immediately afterwards.
I was initially inspired to write The Silence in Between during Covid when I was pregnant and separated from my family (my family are based in Sweden and Scotland and I was living in Singapore at the time, where the borders were closed). Our separation lasted two years. They saw me when I was pregnant and the next time was when my son was almost two years old. During this difficult time, I was thankful that I at least had my children, and I began to imagine what circumstances in the past (and present) have led parents to be separated from theirs.
Once I started researching the Berlin Wall, I couldn’t stop. I uncovered countless stories of families separated by the border, but it was Sigrid Paul’s story (printed in The Guardian in 2009) that stuck with me. Sigrid’s son Torsten was a very sick eight-month-old baby when the border was closed. The hospitals in East Berlin were unequipped to care for him and, fearing he would die, one doctor organized for his transfer over to the West (transfers were only allowed for heart patients and so the doctor falsified Torsten’s medical records). It was four years before mother and son were permanently reunited. Though Lisette’s story is fictional and very different from Sigrid’s experience, Sigrid’s story struck a chord with me and it sparked the initial inspiration for this book.
How did you approach your historical research for the book?
Writing historical fiction comes with a huge responsibility to accurately portray an important time in history and though my characters are fictional, they represent the many women who lived through both the Rape of Berlin in 1945 and the brutal division of Berlin in 1961. I read countless articles and books (both fiction and non-fiction), I watched documentaries and films based in those times, and I also listened to podcasts (such as BBC Radio 4’s podcast Tunnel 29). The more research I did, the surer I became about pursuing this book as I discovered so much that I had never heard about previously – stories that had been lost in the cracks of time but I felt deserved to be heard.
In addition to your own writing and work as a freelance book editor, you are trained as a clinical psychologist. Is your work in this field something you draw on when developing fictional characters?
Absolutely. I studied a 5-year vocational degree in clinical psychology where I learnt all about the complexities of human relationships and the motivations behind people’s actions. Creating believable, complex characters is absolutely vital in story-telling and my education has certainly helped with that.
What’s the best piece of advice you received from your tutors Lisa O’Donnell and Laura Barnett during the six-month online Writing Your Novel course?
Both Laura and Lisa recognised that my book was actually two different novels in one and they encouraged me to remove one of the original storylines. It was tough to hear as I had to cut 30,000 words, but it was absolutely the right decision.
What’s on your summer reading list?
Ooh, there are quite a few on my TBR but I’m most excited about reading The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese and The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan. I’ve got a busy summer ahead with lots of exciting book events but I’m hoping to squeeze in some much-needed reading time too. The best way to become a better writer is to read more.
Finally, what’s next for your writing journey?
I’ve just finished my next book which is based in Scotland and also focuses on untold stories from the past. I’ll be sending it to my agent and editor in the coming weeks – let’s hope they like it!
The Silence in Between is out now!
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