Maeve shares secret of how to become a best-selling author
With her first book launch in over eight years, Maeve Binchy broke her publicity retirement to come out in support of the National College of Ireland for the launch of 'The Maeve Binchy Writers Club'
Friday May 09 2008
"WRITING is a bit like going on a diet, you should either tell everyone or no-one."
Author Maeve Binchy is lifting the lid on the secrets behind penning a bestseller. Based on a series of 20 letters that she wrote for students taking a writing course with the National College of Ireland, her new book, 'The Maeve Binchy Writers' Club', offers advice and encouragement for aspiring writers.
"I put everything I had into that course and told them the truth -- I didn't hold any secrets back," she said.
While many believe they have a book in them, you're not a writer until you get it down on paper or on a computer screen, she says
"People say 'I don't have the time', but that's no excuse. What they are really saying is 'I didn't make the time'," said the author.
When she was starting out Maeve was holding down a full-time job and a hectic social life so the only recourse was to force herself out of bed at 5am three times a week. She also set herself a deadline of writing 10 pages a week for 50 weeks.
"When I was in my late 20s and early 30s sleep was the easiest thing to give up -- I couldn't give that up now. Early morning was a good time for me to do it, you have your second cup of black coffee, you're waking up and the rest of the world is still asleep," she recalled.
"You have to think of yourself as a writer. I've been a writer for years but when I see it on my passport when I'm travelling abroad my heart still leaps.
"You can never start too young or too late. The disappointment is just as bad whatever stage you're at. If it comes at the end of your working life, you think you've nothing left to say; when it comes at the start, you think I'll never make it," she added.
Around 200 students signed up for the writing course when it was held four years ago. Around 70 of them had finished their own novel by the time the series of classes came to an end -- the carrot in this instance being a partial refund of their course fees. Of these, around eight have gone on to have their work published.
Maeve delivered the opening and closing lectures and in between students heard from guest lecturers including editors and radio and television writers. However, she initially had some reservations about the whole concept.
"There are two schools of thought about writers' clubs. On one hand they're great like Weight Watchers or AA, everyone there has the same problem, they help you like a lifebelt keeping you up in the water.
"The other side is the danger that it will become a talking shop and that people end up talking about stuff instead of writing."
'The Maeve Binchy Writers' Club' is published by Orion.
- Breda Heffernan
