The 15 Question E-Mail Interview
with Lisa Jewell
author of One Hit Wonder and Thirtynothing

GirlPosse When did you know you wanted to be an author?

Lisa Jewell I always loved writing as a child, especially poetry, but then I got into my teens, discovered obscure indie music and dreamed about being a hard-living music journalist instead. This ambition went out of the window when I discovered boys and fashion and, for some strange reason, I ended up at art college for four years and didn't read a book for ages. It wasn't until I met my first husband that I started considering the idea of writing a novel. He was a voracious reader with very catholic tastes and introduced me to all sorts of diverse literature. The one thing I couldn't help but notice though, was a missing voice - young women (who were still alive!). That really sowed the seeds of my ambition.

GirlPosse What made you finally sit down and start writing a novel?

Lisa Jewell Well - that's a very interesting question! I'd done an informal creative writing course early in 1996 and it had really given me confidence in my ability to write. However, I'd never written anything longer than 1000 words and it wasn't until later that year, when I'd just been laid off from my job as a secretary that I considered the idea of writing a novel. We'd all been reading High Fidelity by Nick Hornby on holiday and it was the first book I'd ever read that reflected a world I really understood, so when my friend Yasmin asked me about my ambitions one night around the swimming pool, I immediately said I'd like to write a book. As a kick up the backside, she offered me dinner at my favourite restaurant if I wrote the first three chapters of my book, we shook hands on it and that's where it all started.

GirlPosse Which of your characters most closely resembles you? Do any?

Lisa Jewell It's funny because when Ralph's Party came out people always asked me if I was Jem and I'd categorically deny it. But I re-read it the other day and realised how much of me is in her - her interests and her sunny nature. However, there's also a bit of me in Ana from One Hit Wonder, too - Ana really represents my adolescence - which was awkward, painful and far too long. But I tend to scatter bits of me all over the place within my characters.

GirlPosse You had a lot going on in your life when you were writing "One Hit Wonder". Did the pressure help or hurt the creative process?

Lisa Jewell Well, it certainly gave the process some edge! I started writing it at the same time as I started organising my (very complex!) wedding. At some point the wedding overwhelmed the writing and by the time I got back from honeymoon, I read through what I'd written and hated it - so I started again, leaving myself with very little time to get the book written. It was very hairy and very stressful and for the longest time I had no idea what the book was supposed to be about. It all fell into place in the end but I've no idea whether the pressure helped or hindered.

GirlPosse Do you know how your books will end when you begin, or do the endings sometimes surprise you?

Lisa Jewell All I know when I sit down to write a book is that I want a happy ending. I have absolutely no idea what form that happy ending will take, who'll end up with who or how they'll get there. I'm a very disorganised writer - I'm stumbling around in the dark for most of the time and it's not until some point, usually after the halfway mark, that things start falling into place and I know what it is I'm trying to do!

Lisa Jewell

GirlPosse How do you create such realistic dialogue? Do you tape record your friends at parties, etc? :)

Lisa Jewell I'm glad you like my dialogue! No, I don't do anything clever like taping my friends - I just 'hear' the character talking in my head and write it down verbatim - with all the 'likes' and 'you knows' and broken sentences. It just comes naturally to me - I often read other people's books and am surprised by how stilted and unnatural their dialogue is, even when their writing is very strong.

GirlPosse Your characters seem perfect for the big screen. Any movie plans?

Lisa Jewell I wish - got any Hollywood contacts?! Film-type people have sniffed around all my books at some point but it never seems to come to anything. I'd love to see one of my books made into a film - the thought of arriving at a cinema, sitting down and watching my characters come to life on the screen gives me goose bumps!

GirlPosse Which authors do you read?

Lisa Jewell Authors whose shopping lists I would pay good money to read are Nick Hornby, Ben Hatch and Geoff Dyer. Yes, I know - they're all men. I'm not ashamed to admit that I prefer male writers - I like the male view of the world and the slight edge of cynicism that always lingers behind the writing.

GirlPosse What one piece of advice would you give to an aspiring writer?

Lisa Jewell Be yourself. People often send me their writing to get my opinion. They write me these lively, bubbly e-mails introducing themselves and asking for my help and I feel quite positive about them and then their writing is really clunky and forced. Be natural, be relaxed, don't try too hard.

GirlPosse What do you do when you're not writing?

Lisa Jewell I watch TV, read in the bath, socialise and drink too much, cook, visit my niece and nephew and surf the net. For hours. And hours. And hours ...

Now for the fun questions.........



GirlPosse What's the biggest perk to being a famous author?

Lisa Jewell Not dreading it when you meet someone new and they say, so, what do you do? I love telling people what I do - I'm very proud to be a successful author. There's also a lot of champagne involved with being a famous author, which is very nice. Another unexpected perk has been all the new friends I've made. There's a big gang of us 'girly' writers in London who get together all the time to drink and have fun. We've even got our own secret chatroom on the net! The downsides are the hours and hours and hours you spend on your own staring at a screen and having sole responsibility for a year-long project that's going to get national attention and have hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on it.

GirlPosse Why do you think Americans are so attracted to British humour?

Lisa Jewell Americans have always loved British humour - from Monty Python to Fawlty Towers to Absolutely Fabulous. If I may be provocative for second, I think that one of the key differences between the English and Americans is that we take ourselves much less seriously than you - we love to denigrate ourselves, send ourselves up and play down our achievements and I think Americans find this quite charming and refreshing.

GirlPosse What's your biggest pet peeve?

Lisa Jewell Oh God - I could go on and on and on. I really could - I'm British - we're genetically pre-programmed to whine. My nickname at school was Moaner Lisa! Pet peeves would make a whole separate article!

GirlPosse Smarties or M&Ms?

Lisa Jewell Smarties.

GirlPosse What question is never asked of you in interviews that you would like to answer?

Lisa Jewell What's it like being the most beautiful woman to have ever walked the earth?

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