Karen Ball: 'An author should always be open to feedback'
BY Emily Powter-Robinson
23rd Jul 2024
Karen Ball studied on our six-month Writing Your Novel course in 2019. Her debut novel The Unforgettable Loretta, Darling is out now with Viking Books.
We spoke about running her publishing consultancy, Speckled Pen, the challenges she faced writing her first adult novel, and her writing routine.
You studied on our six-month Writing Your Novel course in London in 2019. How did studying with us impact your approach to writing?
The course made me answerable to someone other than myself. I’d already written a previous adult novel, and the feedback made it clear that I needed help. ‘Great concept, writing feels thin.’
I am nothing if not stubborn and set out to prove publishing wrong. So, I signed up to one of the most prestigious writing courses in the UK. (That’s Curtis Brown Creative, in case you’re wondering!)
I relished the discipline of turning up for classes every week. Also, and if I’m allowed to be so vulgar, I’d spent money on this course that I could ill-afford at the time. This made me absolutely determined to make the course pay off – literally!
Many of our students find lifelong writing friends on our courses. Are you still in touch with anyone you met on the course?
Very much so! Our excellent tutor, Simon Wroe, took a group of complete strangers and cemented them into lifelong friends. As our course finished, we entered the first Covid lockdown. Immediately, we set up a WhatsApp group. It’s still going today, and we continue to meet monthly on Zoom, feeding back on each other’s extracts.
One of my biggest lessons on the course was to understand that writing doesn’t need to be solitary. Without honest feedback, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Few other people understand what it is to be an author, but my CBC friends continue to do so.
Your debut novel The Unforgettable Loretta, Darling is a darkly elegant novel, set in the glamorously debauched 1950s Hollywood (out now with Viking Books). Can you tell us a bit more about the book and the inspiration behind it?
I knew that I wanted to write something ‘a bit crimey’ set in Golden Era Hollywood, but not much more beyond that. At the same time, I’d developed a habit of settling down to sleep by watching make-up tutorials on Youtube. I discovered Lisa Eldridge, who has a collection of vintage make-up. She spoke about how Hollywood make-up artists had to start from scratch, when the industry moved on from black and white to Technicolor, and how they needed to make new potions. There was that word – potions! Anything could be made from a potion, and as soon as I did more research, I saw that there was a long history of make-up being poisoned. I was off and running!
At the same time, I was inspired by movies and other novels. Indeed, I took a very cinematic approach to my writing. Two inspirations I’d always reference are the 1987 movie, Wish You Were Here, and the novel, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
The Unforgettable Loretta, Darling is your debut adult novel, but you have also written over twenty-five children’s books. Did you face any new challenges or surprises when writing your first adult fiction novel?
Yes! I had learned so many ingrained lessons from editing and writing children’s novels. I thought I knew all the rules.
Guess what? I had to unlearn a lot of them.
One example is that a children’s novel can’t afford to spend too much time in a character’s mind set. I’d always been taught to move along with – plot, plot, plot! We might only have 10,000 words, and every word counted.
Writing an adult novel meant unpicking those lessons over the course of 90,000 words. I received feedback again and again that I needed to sink deeper into a character’s motivations and mindset and that my plot was too fast paced.
This was a humbling experience and one I’m very glad of. I’m a firm believer that the mind is a muscle just like any other part of the body, and I was happy to learn new lessons. An author should always be open to feedback.
Alongside your own writing, you also run a publishing consultancy, Speckled Pen. How do you balance running your own business alongside writing?
I’m probably in the same situation as most of your authors reading this. Day job, bills to pay, life and family commitments. So, it wasn’t easy.
But what’s that old saying? It can take three weeks to learn a new habit.
I knew from childhood that my brain worked best in the mornings, so I began to set the dreaded alarm clock. It went off at 5 a.m. I can’t claim that I always got out of bed at 5 a.m., but a routine was quickly and firmly established. Muscle memory.
Now, I have a rigorous and addictive routine of rising early in the morning. I make myself a coffee, feed the dog and then we both retire back to bed for cuddles and writing.
One hour at the start of the day. A single hour can make a massive difference!
Consistency of effort. Effort, not achievement. I don’t count words. But afterwards, I get up for the rest of the working day feeling happy and satisfied.
I do try to give myself some thinking time after a bout of writing – either sat on the garden bench, walking the dog, cleaning my teeth or standing in the shower. Most writing is done when you’re not writing and often that’s when you’ll have a breakthrough moment.
You have over 25 years’ editorial experience, including time as Head of Editorial at Working Partners and Publisher at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Does your existing editorial expertise affect how you go about editing your own work?
Editing your own work is hard, even as an editor. And this all comes back to the start of this blog post’s story. It’s all about the connection I made with new friends in that first CBC class. I can edit, but I needed to be edited by trusted friends.
That’s one of the details I most love about writing! There’s no graduation certificate. You never stop learning. Who can ever claim to be an expert? Not me! But we can learn a lot, from trusted tutors and writing peers. Since my experience with CBC, I can’t believe I ever tried to write on my own.
Finally, what’s next for your writing journey?
I am deep in my second novel, set in the world of 1960s London publishing, where an overworked and overlooked editor’s eye for detail makes her the perfect person to solve a murder. It’s been so much fun to write, including lots of research – I love research! I also love writing strong first-person female narratives and to discover another capable woman has given me all the feels. These characters become friends. They must, because you’re with them for a long time. Will Miss Diehl solve the murder and save her life? Only time and my second draft will tell…
The Unforgettable Loretta, Darling is out now!
The books linked in this blog can be found on our Bookshop.org shop front. Curtis Brown Creative receive 10% whenever someone buys from our bookshop.org page.