Suzannah Dunn: 'My focus as a writer has always been on what’s going on beneath the surface'
BY Emily Powter-Robinson
13th Mar 2024
Suzannah Dunn is an integral and much-loved member of the CBC tutor team. She has published two collections of short fiction and twelve novels, seven of them historical, one of which The Confession of Katherine Howard was a Richard and Judy Pick. She has sold over a quarter of a million copies of her historical novels in the UK alone. Her thirteenth novel Levitation for Beginners will be published by Little, Brown in April 2024.
We're thrilled that Suzannah is teaching on our upcoming Writing Your Novel – Three Months course, our flagship online course designed for writers who are serious about developing their novel to its full potential.
We spoke to Suzannah about the inspiration behind Levitation for Beginners, writing complex relationships and her advice for getting the most out of your creative writing course.
You are an integral part of the CBC tutor team and have been teaching on our Writing Your Novel courses for a number of years now. What's the most rewarding part of teaching creative writing?
Working really hard with lovely people on something that really matters to them, something that they want to get as right as it can possibly be (dream job!)
Your latest novel, Levitation for Beginners will be published by Little, Brown Books in April 2024. Set in 1972, it is an unsettling novel about the secrets, lies and omissions of a small rural community. At the heart of the novel is the fraught relationship between two young girls, Deborah and Sarah-Jayne – what drew you to explore this dynamic of childhood friendship?
I’ve been exploring it all my writing life: it’s my writerly territory, as it were. But why? Maybe if we knew why we’re drawn to something, we wouldn’t be compelled to explore it. In other words, if I knew, perhaps I wouldn’t have needed to write the novel[s]. But I do know that my focus as a writer has always been on what’s going on beneath the surface. What’s unseen and unsaid. And so much is going on under the surface in friendships between girls. The appearance might be ‘sugar and spice’, but blimey…
The book is full of nostalgic 1970’s references to butterscotch angel delight and Raleigh chopper bikes, and Clunk Click, and Crackajack and Jackanory, Layla and the Bee Gees, flares and ponchos. You’ve previously written historical fiction set in the Tudor era – how did you approach your research differently for a more contemporary novel?
I hate to break it to you, but I was actually alive then! So, I didn’t need to research - I can simply remember! But obviously my memories are largely of domestic life at that time.
You’re quoting from the novel, there, and I’ll point out that the narrator follows the talk of Angel Delight and Raleigh Choppers with “Vietnam, Pinochet, Watergate, Bloody Sunday, the IRA and ETA and the Baader–Meinhof and Black September and the Red Brigade and the Angry Brigade.” That decade, for all its blinding bright-and-shininess, and arguably because of it, made for a dark and dangerous era.
Your fiction explores the highs and lows of human connection. Do you have any tips for budding writers looking to write about complex relationships that ring true?
Ooo, good question (and thank you!) My advice is that your characters must seem as if they are more than who they are in the moment-by-moment of any particular scene. They don’t just exist in those moments, however thoroughly and beautifully you craft those instances. In reality, we all bring to every moment of our lives everything that we are.
Obviously that’s impossible to re-create on the page – but the trick is to give that impression. Give your characters memories or reflections here and there (and everywhere you can). It works on all levels. If a character is falling in love, have a think about whether to their mind this time is similar to how it’s previously been for them, or if on the contrary it’s somehow different. Or if they’ve never been in love before, is this seeming to them as if they had always assumed or hoped it would be? If a character walks onto a beach, perhaps have them recall (probably just fleetingly) a previous occasion they came to the seaside. Even if that recollection is indeed fleeting, it’ll show us something about that character and/or the life they’ve lived.
Do you have any thoughts on the best way for a writer to get the most out of their three-month Writing Your Novel course?
Commit to it, as best you can. I’ve noticed over the years how sometimes people come on our courses at times of great change in their lives – which does make a kind of sense and can work well. But do bear in mind that the courses are (properly, wonderfully) demanding.
Do you want to learn more from Suzannah Dunn? Applications are open for our upcoming three-month Writing Your Novel course (online). Deadline 24 Mar 2024.
Levitation for Beginners is out on the 6th April!
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.