Plunging into the middle of a scene can be a sure winner to hook readers
Debut out last year, 2nd out soon, 3rd just done…
Polly Crosby
Polly Crosby grew up in England on the Suffolk coast, and now lives with her husband and son in the heart of Norfolk. Her debut novel, The Book of Hidden Wonders (The Illustrated Child in the UK) is acclaimed as “2020’s most haunting and magical literary fiction about a young woman’s search for the truth.” Her second novel, The Women of Pearl Island (The Unravelling in the UK) is out this autumn.
In 2018, Polly won Curtis Brown Creative's Yesterday Writing Scholarship, which enabled her to finish her debut novel. Later the same year, The Illustrated Child was awarded runner-up in the Bridport Prize's Peggy Chapman Andrews Award for a First Novel. Polly received the Annabel Abbs Creative Writing Scholarship at the University of East Anglia.
How do you approach your first pages? Start typing and revise later? Plan in general and go?
PC: I spend time with the basics of an idea, and then, when research and jottings aren’t enough anymore, and I just have to write, I make a start of the very beginning, so that I can get a feel for the story. Sometimes I’m not sure what POV to write in, or what tense, and it helps to get stuck in so that I can find its voice.
Place plays an important part in my work, so those first pages can give me a real feel for the atmosphere of the novel. I try to polish it as I go, but I’ve learnt sometimes I need to leave something to go back to later, otherwise I’d obsess over a single paragraph forever! I used to feel that I must write linearly, chapter after chapter, but now I’m much more comfortable with leaving gaps and coming back to them when I have more of an idea of what I want to say.
Is this the same approach you took with your debut, The Book of Hidden Wonders (The Illustrated Child)?
I wrote my debut novel over ten years, so it’s hard to remember how it started! I know that back then I wasn’t very aware of how to structure a novel, and so it was more a collection of scenes and pretty bits of writing. Plot and story definitely came later.
How much did your original first draft change in the process to publication?
Oh gosh, loads! When I first started writing my debut novel, I wrote because I loved the act of writing, of putting images and thoughts down on paper. I didn’t really understand how to structure a book. I didn’t really plan, and therefore I changed it a lot over the years as I learnt how to mould it into the shape I wanted. But a lot has stayed the same. Some of my favourite scenes are those that arrived early and, miraculously, worked! I also seem to write quite short drafts that grow longer as the book editing progresses. I sent my debut to my agent at 66,000 words, and by the time it was published it was 112,000!
As a reader, what draws you in about others' first pages?
Books that hook me from the beginning, whether it be with lush, beautiful writing, an intriguing idea or by plunging me into the middle of an exciting scene are all sure winners.
Can you think of a 'forever first page' - an opening that’s stuck with you?
That’s such a good question! My favourite first line is from I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith. ‘I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.’ I mean, so many questions arise from that line! Why the sink? And how? What are they writing? Is the sink full of water?
Talking of water, I’m currently reading The Water Cure, by Sophie Mackintosh, and the first couple of paragraphs stopped me in my tracks. They are horrific and beautiful and set the scene perfectly, and I had to read on to find out what was going on.
Your 2nd novel’s out later this year. Are you working on a 3rd? How are your latest first pages?
I’ve just finished the first draft of my third book. This one came quite easily, but it’s also important to point out that it was my fourth attempt at a new novel. The first two attempts got to 10,000 words before I ditched them. For my third idea, written in lockdown, I wrote a painful whole draft (all the time thinking “Is this right? What am I doing?”) before I realised it was pretty terrible.
It’s at times like this that I miss entering my work into writing competitions. I came runner-up in The Bridport Prize novel award a few years ago.
I have always loved writing competitions because I really respond to having a deadline, and to knowing that someone somewhere will read my work. It gives me focus.
When I began this latest story, it just felt right. Like going on a walk and finding a secret, quiet, green glade and wondering who had just stepped out of it. We’ll see if I still feel like that when I re-read it in a few weeks!!!
FPP: Polly, it’s wonderful learning more about your process, thank you.
Polly’s work grabs our attention from the first line. Check out the opener of The Book of Hidden Wonders / The Illustrated Child: “You probably know me: I’m the Kemp Treasure Girl.” It plunges us straight into the middle of something. Follow Polly with the links below.
Twitter: @WriterPolly
Instagram: @polly_crosby
Facebook: Polly Crosby - Author
Website: pollycrosby.com