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People often ask where I get my ideas from. For me, it begins with a very small seed. With Come Back to Me it was a newspaper report, just a few lines tucked away in the corner of the West Australian. And for Beneath the Shadows it was the character of Grace who evolved first – this daunted but determined woman who faces an internal and external battle to uncover the truth of her husband’s disappearance. The rest of the story – the desolate terrain of the North Yorkshire moors, the ghostly stories and folk tales, the influence of other gothic novels – all came later.
My next step is letting these themes germinate in my mind, and seeing if they grow. Plenty of story ideas fall away, but a few stick with me and start to take a stronger hold. This feels like a natural, spontaneous process, as I begin to linger on characters and plotlines, drawing them out, examining them, asking questions, trying to ascertain and understand the heart of them. Sometimes this process moves me away from my original ideas, but there is always an unshakeable core of my story, some question or character that forms the underlying theme I want to explore.
Then I begin to write. Usually I don’t worry about the plan too much to begin with, I just concentrate on encouraging the story to life on the page, and as I go along I intersperse planning with writing, figuring things out as I go along, trying not to wander too far off track, and encouraging myself to make the necessary cuts if I realise I’ve gone wrong. Little by little, the first draft comes together, and there is this fantastic moment of realisation when I realise I’m no longer looking at chapters, paragraphs and snippets of writing, but at a whole book. It is a moment I thoroughly recommend basking in, before the small matter of editing begins…!
It’s hard to say goodbye to a book you’ve worked on and thought about for years. I’m not sure you ever really do. But nothing beats the satisfaction, the joy, and the exhausted relief, of writing the final page, putting your pen down and deciding that your story is ready for somebody else to read it.
At the beginning of any writing project I am fiercely protective of my material. I don’t really like to talk in any great detail about it until I feel I’ve taken it as far as I can by myself. At that point, when I am ready, all input is welcome, and I am open to lots of advice about how it could be improved or reshaped. This is a different type of ending, as I let go of my private relationship with my characters and their story and open them up for assessment and critique. And boy do they get it! It’s the beginning of a whole lot of editing and rewriting work, which I definitely find more challenging than the first draft, but by the end the book has improved beyond all recognition.
The next ending comes once this process is exhausted, and the final proofs are sent off to the printers to be turned into a finished book. It’s exhilarating to hold finished copies in my hands, although to begin with I hardly dare turn the pages in case I see something I want to change! But this is yet another beginning, as the book finds its way to shelves and stores, doing its best to catch readers’ eyes in the hope that they will reach for it.
I hope that the final pages of Beneath the Shadows leaves readers satisfied with the story they’ve been told. But, for the characters that make it all the way through, my ending is not their ending. It’s the beginning of a whole host of different stories for them, because once they are no longer fixed to the page, they are free to continue their lives through all our imaginations. And meanwhile, I’ll be turning my mind to my next book – because I’m becoming well acquainted with a young girl who is about to put her life on the line for what she believes in, and I’m already fascinated by her story.
‘The past is still too close to us. The things we have tried to put behind us would stir again.’
Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca features throughout Beneath the Shadows. The quote above forms the epigraph, and sums up the heart of my story perfectly. And in the novel itself, my main character Grace begins to read the book while she is searching for her husband. As she draws ever nearer to the answers she craves, so the second Mrs de Winter gets closer to learning the truth from her beloved Maxim.
From the very beginning I knew there were parallels between Grace’s story and du Maurier’s classic novel. I reread Rebecca twice while I was working on Beneath the Shadows to examine how du Maurier built characters and atmosphere, but the idea of making the book such an overt feature of my narrative didn’t occur to me until a little while after I began writing Beneath the Shadows. It was when I was developing Grace’s fearful dreams that I began drawing Rebecca into the story more and more. When I looked at the way I dreamt, it was noticeable that when I was unsettled I had to pick the books I read or the films I watched quite carefully, because they were liable to creep into my dreams in some way. Once I recognised this I knew at once which book I wanted Grace to be reading, and I loved playing with the way that different events affected Grace’s subconscious.
The other book that features in my novel was conceived very differently. Ghosts of the Moors is a fictional collection of folktales about the North Yorkshire moors area. Its author, Connie, is a relative of Grace’s husband, Adam, and she has some secrets of her own. Grace’s sister accidentally discovers the truth in a short story you can find at www.randomhouse.com.au/beneaththeshadows. I hope you enjoy revisiting the book in this extra chapter – and who knows, there could be more mysterious tales in this family that have yet to be uncovered.
Or why bad drafts aren’t always a bad thing
When I was writing Beneath the Shadows there were a few scary moments when things went awry. I don’t mean those times when I was determined to get 2000 words down before dinner, but found myself browsing the internet, eating biscuits, or reorganising shelves. They were just irritating. More horrifying were the points where I re-read my draft so far and realised that something had gone horribly wrong.
I’ve read enough to know I’m not alone on either count. It would seem that in offices the world over, there are writers at all stages of their careers engaged in random tasks during time they’d assigned for writing – or despairing over the hundred pages they’ve just put in the bin.
My advice to anyone who knows what I’m referring to is this: first of all, never throw a manuscript across the room without double-checking that you have numbered the pages. And second, breathe steadily and begin to repeat this handy little mantra: Bad words can be a good thing.
Because I’ve come to realise that the excruciating moments where I recognise that my characters are no longer cooperating, or my writing is downright awful, have often turned out to be blessings in disguise. Cutting ten chapters in one evening – my last month’s work – might be heartbreaking at the time, but in the end these occasions are just as important as having exciting flashes of inspiration. By recognising that things have gone wrong, I can begin to put them right. And learning from these mistakes helps me find the right direction. So, in a way, all these lost words and moments of frustration are just as much a part of the story as the words that make it to the printed page.
I consider myself very fortunate that I was already familiar with the moors when I began to write Beneath the Shadows. My husband’s family are from the area, and I knew straight away that it was the perfect setting through which to tell my story. The landscape’s endlessly undulating emptiness can seem inspiringly beautiful in some moments and downright hostile in others, and this contrast meant that Grace’s uncertainties and moods could be easily reflected in her perceptions of her surroundings. The weather in this region is mostly bleak and unrelenting during the winter months, which is when most of my story takes place. And the area has such a long and colourful history that there are plenty of legends and folk tales to add layers of mystery and disquiet to the narrative. I was only disappointed that I had to leave so much out! In the end, the setting was so vivid and significant to me that it was as though Roseby and its surroundings became another character in the book – one standing ever-present in the background, silently observing, stealthily absorbing all it witnessed into the depths of the earth.
Although the North Yorkshire moors and the Australian Outback could not be more different topographically, in a few ways they remind me of one another. There is this stillness, this vast emptiness that makes both areas impressive and intimidating. And while on first glance they look devoid of life, it is only because the majority of their inhabitants prefer to remain hidden. Underneath, there is much to uncover.
Back in November 2010 I had great fun doing some filming in the area, which two of my talented brothers in law then used to make a trailer and promotional video for the book (which you can see at http://www.randomhouse.com.au/beneaththeshadows). Being there again reminded me of how lovely the moors are during the milder months, and I am a little sad that I couldn’t say more about that in Beneath the Shadows. Still, I’m sure that those familiar with them will recognise their wintry depiction (and since we returned to Australia we gather they’ve had a LOT of snow!). As for the readers who are unacquainted with the region, I hope you are captivated by the events that take place amidst this vast, cold, withering wilderness on the other side of the world.
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