Lucy Apps: 'Allow your characters to say and do things that feel uncomfortable to you as write'
BY Maya Fernandes
In this interview Lucy Apps, author of the debut novel Gloria Don't Speak, shares her approach to writing complex relationships and the novels that have inspired her.
'My advice would be to develop an understanding of the motivations of your characters – know what they need and desire from each other and the particular ways they are vulnerable to being hurt by each other.'
We caught up with Lucy to discuss her time studying with us, the inspiration behind her debut novel and her approach to creating authentic dynamics on the page.
Gloria Don’t Speak follows Gloria, a young woman with learning difficulties, as she navigates adulthood. How did you approach shaping Gloria’s inner world, and finding a narrative voice that felt right for her character?
I spent a long time thinking about the character, and at the same time playing with different ways to write her story – how to structure the novel but also trying to find her voice. I initially tried writing in first person, from Gloria’s perspective, but that didn’t feel authentic because she often struggles with putting things into words. I thought about writing about her from the perspective of other characters, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do – I wanted it to be her voice. Switching to close third allowed me to find a style that worked, and it took off from there.
The novel is set in Newham, East London, where you grew up. How did that setting influence the novel’s central themes, and was it always where you imagined the story taking place?
I think initially I set it there because Newham is the default background for me. It’s the old adage, write what you know. I wanted to focus on Gloria, and she’s a character who notices a lot of visual details, as well as sounds, smells etc, and these details needed to be there for me to reach for when I was writing. So setting it in Newham meant I didn’t have to think too hard about building the setting in my mind because I just know it really well. I also know what it looked like in 1999, for example, so it didn’t take a lot of research to write something that covers different time periods in the same place. Like I can remember which shops used to be there in the early 2000s. And then the setting shapes the sort of encounters and experiences Gloria will have. So I think Newham itself became very central to the book because it’s central to me and to the experiences I’m drawing on.
Gloria’s relationship with Jack is volatile and deeply influential to her character. What challenges did you encounter in writing such a complex dynamic, and what advice would you offer to writers tackling difficult relationships on the page?
For me the difficulty was making it feel very real, and showing the relationship in a way that allows the reader to see why both characters would be invested in it. That means creating a character who sometimes behaves in abusive ways but still feels like a complex person and not a one-dimensional villain.
My advice would be to develop an understanding of the motivations of your characters – know what they need and desire from each other and the particular ways they are vulnerable to being hurt by each other. Also, allow the characters to do and say things that feel uncomfortable to you as write, if it feels true. Let it happen. You have the privacy of the page to work it out.
Were there any novels in particular that inspired you whilst you were working on this book?
I read The Sound and the Fury around the time that I started working on this novel, so I think that was there in the background for me. Also in the early stages of writing, The Shock of the Fall – even though it’s about relatively normal events, I couldn’t put it down, and I wanted to write something similarly propulsive.
You studied with us on our flagship London Writing Your Novel – Six Months course. How did your time with us shape your approach to writing?
First of all it was quite a big deal for me in terms of choosing to invest time and money in my writing, in a way that I hadn’t done before. So it gave me permission to really focus on writing. It was also brilliant to be around other people who were working on their own novels, and share ideas, feedback and enthusiasm. Learning how to give feedback and how to take it and apply it was a really useful lesson. My tutor was Simon Wroe, who was excellent, and his support and encouragement meant a lot. He was also very insightful and would give each of us constructive advice for our (all quite different) novels. I was lucky enough to be part of a great group and everyone was generous in sharing resources. Learning about structure was probably the other big takeaway for me, I had no idea about books like Save the Cat and Into the Woods until I did the CBC course, and the course helped me begin to understand how to apply those ideas.
Many of our students find lifelong writing friends on our courses. Are you still in touch with anyone you met on the course?
Yes! Several of us continued to meet for a couple of years after the course ended. We even did two self-organised writing retreats. I’m still in touch with friends from the course, and frequently discuss writing ups and downs with at least one of them.
And finally, what’s next for your writing journey?
It took a long time to get Gloria Don’t Speak published – I wrote it in 2018, after I finished the CBC course, and then struggled to get any interest in it for years. So seeing it out in the world is something I’m still getting used to, and being chosen as an Observer Debut Novelist for 2026 was incredibly validating. I’m hoping to get my next novel published, but for now I’m enjoying the moment.
Get your hands on a copy of Gloria Don't Speak, out now from Weatherglass Books.
Rebecca was a student on our London Writing Your Novel – Six Months course in 2017.
Photography: Yellow Belly
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