Jennifer Bacia – Making her Own Luck
Jennifer Bacia is a writer who may have had a lucky break, but she has leveraged off that break to build a successful writing career. The author of ten books, she has had two of her novels optioned for films.
Her books are available at Smashwords and Amazon and have just been released with sizzling new covers.
Darrell - I know you were fortunate enough to meet Colleen McCullough early in your career. Do you think luck plays a role in succeeding as a writer?
Jennifer - Of course luck plays a certain part in success. I was lucky that Colleen McCullough gave me the name of my agent who was just setting up Australia's first purely commercial fiction agency. She was looking for a female commercial writer and my first novel, 'Shadows of Power' was a hit for us both. After that another 9 books followed with foreign translations, Book Club Choice novels, extracts in women's magazines and options for TV rights.
Darrell - Can you describe a typical day of writing?
Jennifer - A typical writing day: Good breakfast, read the Sydney Morning Herald cover to cover (minus sport!) tidy up. Begin by reading previous day's work and editing. I always keep 'polishing' so that my first draft is pretty close to the final draft. I usually have a short break for lunch then work through till dog walking time in the late afternoon. Any form of exercise is a good way of clearing the mind. If I have deadlines, I will then work after dinner through till whenever exhaustion catches up with me. The 'creative coma' means that time has no meaning as the joy of the process takes over.
Darrell - Do you believe your work is plot or character driven?
Jennifer - I think the best popular fiction is where both plot and character are driving the story. Sometimes one or the other dominates through the story but both are essential for a satisfying narrative.
Darrell - Where do you get your ideas and inspiration?
Jennifer - My ideas and inspirations usually emerge from what I am interested in -politics, current events, psychology, heritage, female independence, pressure points between men and women. The trick is to transform these interests into gripping stories that will reach a wide audience. I am an avid reader of newspapers and follow current events closely and have found triggers for many of my storylines this way.
Darrell - There is sometimes a stigma attached to popular fiction as opposed to so-called literary fiction. What are your feelings on that?
Jennifer - It's an interesting question about the 'stigma' attached to popular fiction as opposed to literary fiction. That stigma is probably most obvious when popular fiction is 'reviewed' by literary reviewers. Readers certainly don't feel any stigma. I remember that my publishers didn't want me to breathe a word to the media about the record breaking advance that I was receiving for my first and second novels. That wouldn't happen nowadays I'm sure where every angle for publicity is explored. But perhaps back then it was to avoid upsetting literary writers who received such poor advances!
I'd like to think that e-printing will be a way of offering all writers their best chance of reaching as wide an audience as possible without the need to depend on publishers and their marketing and distribution departments, or uninterested, inexperienced bookstore staff.
Darrell - What would be the main advice you would give to new writers?
Jennifer - New writers need persistence and a deep well of self-belief to complete a novel. When I see all the creative writing courses being run today I sometimes wonder how many of them are being taught by actual published authors. I also think many would-be writers have unrealistic expectations about the financial rewards of writing. That said, if you are convinced of your talent and find joy in the creative process then nothing will stop you from writing.
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