Alison Wray
The Doll in the Gingham Dress
Alison lives in South Wales. Through her day job as an academic, she has published an awful lot of words, though none intentionally fictional. As for her creative writing, she has been shortlisted and published in a few short story competitions and was runner up in the Trisha Ashley short story award 2023. The Doll in the Gingham Dress was shortlisted for the Impress Prize 2022. Alison is a former professional singer, plays the piano and several different sized recorders, and enjoys a daily bike ride in the hilly local lanes and woods.
What made you enter the Cheshire novel Prize?
The worst thing about being an unpublished writer is sending your work off to agents and competitions and either hearing nothing back, or only a ‘no’. The Cheshire Novel Prize is very different, in providing feedback to every single entrant, and, for those who make the long-list and shortlist, a chance to have their work looked at by agents. I entered in the hope of getting the attention of an agent, and because I knew I would get considered indications of how my work could be improved.
What did it feel like when you were LL and SL?
The same novel was long-listed last year. Because that’s as far as I got then, I really wasn’t expecting to be shortlisted this year. So, I was a bit stunned when I got the call. It was a great boost to my confidence because it can be difficult to gauge the space between what you feel works and what others feel works.
What was the reaction like from those around you? Family? Friends?
I didn’t tell many people about it, to be honest. A few family members know, and my writing group friends, many of whom beta-read the novel, so they have a particularly strong connection with it.
How did you come up with the idea for your book?
It’s based on my mother’s life, though the story goes off in new directions pretty quickly. When my sister read it, she said no longer knew what had happened to our mum and what had only happened to Moira. But honestly, if all of that had really gone on in our family, I could have written a book about it. Oh wait…
How long did it take you to write it?
This was my Covid project in 2020, capitalising on being stuck at home with fewer distractions. Working in my spare time, it took about nine months to get a complete draft, but I made quite a few changes, including a significant alteration to the plot, as the result of my beta readers’ comments. I finally stopped doing edits when I wasn’t sure I was improving it rather than just changing it. I’m sure an agent or editor will have ideas I haven’t thought of.
What’s it about?
It’s about a family playing ping-pong with the emotional wellbeing of a child. Moira grows up unaware of the dynamics that are shaping her experiences. But aged 69, she decides to track down what happened to the father she never knew.
What’s your writing routine?
I’m pretty good at sitting down and getting on with it. I do a lot of planning of the plot, so I know where I’m going, but I’m happy to replan if I have better ideas later. I also create a timeline of all the events, so I don’t inadvertently talk about cherry blossom in November. Currently I’m reworking my second novel to reach a different ending, which is a bit like unpicking stitches in a complicated piece of knitting, so it does need stretches of dedicated time.
What’s next for you?
Once the second novel is complete, I need to go back to another, which I abandoned in 2020 because I was stuck. But my longer-term aim is to totally rework the very first novel I wrote, which has a cracking plot, but I knew wasn’t well enough written. I decided to set it aside and come back to it when I had developed my skills a bit more.
Have you done any writing courses?
I’ve not been in a position to do formal writing courses, but I did get mentoring through Gold Dust, which gave me one-to-one mentoring with an author. In lieu of courses, I have consumed a lot of books about how to write, many of which have been very helpful. And I read fiction avidly. Each author teaches me something about how to write effectively.
What are your two favourite books and why?
For craft, plot, and characterisation I always go back to John Steinbeck. I most recently read The Winter of our Discontent which blew me away with its agonising emotional pull. For similar reasons, I also loved Sebastian Barry’s Days Without End. I get through a lot of unabridged audiobooks in the car, and having a brilliant reader definitely helps me connect with a book.
What advice do you have for any aspiring writers?
Here’s something that really worked for me. I was trying to rewrite a particular scene but couldn’t see how else it could be done. So, I jotted down the bare bones of the events and got my writers’ group to do their own versions. It was a real eye-opener. They all produced different styles, dialogues and sentiments and they made different assumptions about peripheral details. It immediately freed me from thinking that the scene could only ever be as I had originally written it and I was able to rework it in a quite different way.