Do we all have a novel in us?

This was the question put to me and three other writers at the recent Abergavenny Writers Festival. The fact that we had all written and published novellas or novels was our qualification for being on the panel. Experienced writer, Cath Barton, has a prize-winning novella, The Plankton Collector which followed a place on the Literature Wales Enhanced Mentoring Scheme. Jack Strange a young editor for BBC Wales, followed up two zombie novels with an acclaimed murder mystery, Murder on the Rocks. Catherine Menon, a university lecturer and a serial winner of writing competitions has her latest novel, Subjunctive Moods. Then there was me with my four self-published crime novels and four fantasy YA novels published by Elsewhen Press. Our chair for the session was Hannah Hill, editor and publisher of community magazines.

Before launching into the topic Hannah asked us to each introduce ourselves. This gave us a chance to tell the stories of how we started writing and to describe our novels – a useful bit of marketing! Then we got down to the discussion. A problem is that I can’t remember who said what, but I think we were in general agreement.

So, do we all have a novel in us? (That’s the only time I’m starting a paragraph with “so”.) The answer, we thought, was yes and no and what do you mean by novel. Everyone has a story in them – their life. A good writer can make any life story gripping but writing about your own life is autobiography or memoir. Novels are fiction, aren’t they? A life can be fictionalised but we’re getting into specialised authorship now and perhaps not everyone can turn their life history into exciting fiction.

Does everyone have an imaginative fictional story in them? Probably not. There are some people who are not interested in the imagination or the unreal (my mother was one; I don’t think I ever saw her read a work of fiction). Many people may have a bright idea for a story but only a proportion will have the inclination to write it down. How many authors have had someone approach them to say “Oh, I’ve got a brilliant idea for a novel”? There may even be a suggestion of a collaboration which they are sure will be money-spinning

Fewer have the determination to complete a novel and fewer still will see it through to publication. I have met a lot of writers at writing groups who while being very keen and competent authors, say, truthfully or not, that they have no wish to be published. There are others who have spent year after year, writing and re-writing, but never actually finishing that great modern novel. That still leaves a few million people who each year publish their work, most often as a self-published e-book, many with dubious standards of literacy and/or editing. Perhaps it would be better (for the rest of us) if a smaller number of people felt they had a novel in them.

The discussion, followed by questions, easily filled the hour allotted to us and there was a merry, satisfied buzz when we finished. I and my fellow panellists are grateful to Lucie Parkin, organiser of the Abergavenny Writing Fest, for the opportunity to present ourselves to the reading public and we are looking forward to meeting up again next year.

Photograph @AberWritingFest 2019

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