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ARTICLES BY JULES
Jules Evans
Writer & Gardener
I cannot remember a time when I did not enjoy writing. At school English was my
best subject, and the lessons I loved most were the ones that gave me the
opportunity to write stories. The whole process of choosing words, creating
characters, scene setting and doing my best to convey to the reader, atmospheres
such as tension, drama, happiness and sadness, and the visual imagination of
places which might be either stunningly beautiful or a bit squalid and anything
in between.
Even having my children didn’t put a stop to my aspirations. True, there seemed
little time between feeds, nappy changes, and looking after the house and
garden, but to make sure there was time, I would rise extra early
in the morning before the first gurgle from my youngest, creep downstairs with
my notepad and biro, load the washing machine, make coffee and then begin to
scribble furiously for about two hours until my then husband arrived in the
kitchen for breakfast.
I wish I could remember now what I wrote about. I’d love to read all those
notebooks crammed to the back cover with my scribbling, but I threw most of
these early efforts away in disgust. Who were all those characters that drew me
inescapably to write their stories? I thought about them all the time and my
head would be full of the next scene, the next piece of dialogue, while I took
my three year-old to play school, pushing his one-year old brother in the pram.
I had hardly finished one story before another was already forming in my head!
Years later, I began to realise just why I was disappointed with my early
efforts. True, the characters were interesting and the settings in which they
lived out their lives were authentically researched, but it was only when I
began to go to talks given by authors, joined a writing group and attended
workshops, that I finally realised that writing, whether fact or fiction, is a
craft. Up until then I had certainly got some of the tools; inventive mind,
fertile imagination, enthusiasm and the burning desire to have novels published
- not just published, but be the kind of novels that readers would be able to
escape right into and sigh with regret when the last page was turned- the sort
of novels that I love to read. So, I needed to use my tools properly- just as
surely as the stonemason or carpenter knows the right tool create the contours
of an oak chair, or the flowing calligraphy on a slab of granite.
At first I was quite shocked and very daunted. I had wanted to be a born writer-
someone to whom writing came naturally and I doubted that I could learn this
wonderful craft. Before this enlightenment, writing had all seemed like good
fun, creating people and setting them within a story. All I had to do was write
the novel and send it off to a publisher. Hey Presto, lots of cash for doing
something I love, but the idea of learning to craft a novel seemed like very
hard work, and it IS hard work. At the end of it all there are no guarantees and
maybe even be publishers rejections – lots! But, I loved writing so much that it
was clear I would have to knuckle down and learn to do it properly.
Writing groups can be valuable because they bring you into contact with other
writers - some published, some not. It is said that writing is a lonely business
and it can be. Day after day you beaver away with your article or novel, mostly
completely alone. You don’t have a clue whether what you are working on will
sound good or bad, boring or exciting to another person. You are quite pleased
with your efforts but writers are so CLOSE to their own work, so intimate with
it, that, sometimes, glaring faults in punctuation or sentence construction
elude us when we read it back. Within a writing group you have chance to air
your work and receive what will hopefully be constructive criticism, and
probably a laugh, and a coffee as well!
It would
be foolish to try to slavishly follow all the well-meaning advice other members
give you, because you may disagree with them - they don’t know what’s coming
next in the story but you do. If you feel you have done the best you can, you
must continue without trying to write to the complete satisfaction of the
writing group. It’s your story, written by you, and in your individual style.
I have not hung up my gardening boots in favour of writing. I find working in my
garden very inspirational, Often it’s when I’m being creative in the garden, the
words that might have annoyingly eluded me for the latest story I am working on,
suddenly materialise in my mind, and then it’s time to quickly drag out a
notebook and pencil from my bag of garden tools so that I don’t forget that
important piece of dialogue before getting back to the computer.
Jules lives in Cumbria, UK and is currently working on a fourth novel, She
writes short stories contributes to anthologies of poetry and prose and has had
articles published in Essential Water Garden magazine. Previous jobs include
working for newspapers and magazines as an advertisement representative and
feature writer, and gardening for a Cumbrian hotel.
ABOUT JULES
Occupation:
Writer and Gardener
Birthplace: Bedfordshire UK
Birth sign: Cancerian
Fav places: British Isles, Eire, Atlas Mountains, Scandinavia
Fav books: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown – what a superb writer? Blackberry Wine
by Joanne Harris The Genesis Code by John Case
Musicians: Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits
TV progs: Don’t watch much but Time Team is a must, also, Frost, Meet The
Ancestors, anything archaeological, University Challenge, Only Fools and Horses.
Fav comfort food:Welsh Rarebit topped with poached egg–M’mm, delicious!
Fav drinks: Teas, various, or a large white wine, please, depending on the hour!
Fav animals: Horses, dogs, cats, Herdwick sheep – Sheep? Yes, really!
Dress: Jeans, boots, long skirts, big shirts– love buying jackets and Irish
shawls!
Fav cultures: American Indian, Berber, Romany.
Ideal getaway: Right now it’s Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, or a Gypsy
caravan in Donegal, Ireland.
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