There’s a saying that stuck with me when I started thinking about putting my metaphorical pen to paper… write what you know. This is entirely relevant if you’re as lazy as me! Honestly, authors who build worlds in the fantasy genre are doing the heaviest of legwork and I will forever be in awe of them.
I suppose it stands to reason that, given my previous career as a police officer, and having lived on the Kent coast since I was three years old, it was inevitable that my writing would have those two fundaments steering the direction of my words and sentences.
It’s been so much fun to see places I know intimately set within a fictional town, but the best thing has been to speak to people locally who read the books, and find out where in East Kent they actually see the setting in their mind. It varies massively, from different beaches to different town centres, and this is surely testament to the power of the human mind – how words can transport us to places, but also how they can be interpreted differently. I’m sure there’s a deep dive that someone far cleverer than I could do about how life experience and the way we read something can impact upon how we process it, but it’s sufficient for me to say that I find it in equal parts fascinating and rewarding.
I love the coast, and I loved policing. Most of my time on the beat was in the coastal towns of Margate and Dover. Margate Police Station is actually set back from the cliffs overlooking the main sands, and this was the inspiration for the nick in my fictional town of Beachbrook. Having the blueprint of those walls within my mind and knowing every corner of the station, every nook and cranny, and the ghosts and secrets that resided within… It all made it so much easier to write about. I really hope this adds a layer of realism to the locations and settings that I’d otherwise have been unable to tap into.
And the policing itself. My God, it was such a good job. I actually joined a few days after my 19th birthday and, in all honesty, I was still a kid with no life experience at all. It made me grow up, and quickly. People talk about the school of life being the best education of all, but the school of coppering as a snotty-nosed little oik would give it a good run for its money! I saw everything, from births to deaths, from murders to mispers, from the very best of society to the darkest depths of depravity. It was tapping into this unique resource that I could always find something to write about. Sometimes, it was an anecdote. Sometimes, it was a story. And other times? It was a whole plot.
This takes us full circle, back to my opening gambit. Write what you know. For me, it’s where the magic is, and where a little bit of authenticity and a whole lot of heart can make imaginations run wild.
Against the Tide by GD Wright is published by Avon on 18th June.
