How Does a Gap Year Diary Turn into a Novel?

Diaries to Novels1 How Does a Gap Year Diary Turn into a Novel?

Excerpts from an interview with Madeleine Tobert:

“So, there I was, 18-years-old, following the crowd on my way to Oz, but with a two-week stopover planned for Tonga. Two weeks turned to three, then to one month, another and another until the best part of my year was gone and I had a notebook full of stories. …. Then I noticed that lots of the stories I was putting into my diary hadn’t happened at all. Why was I lying? The answer came to me when I was back in Scotland and couldn’t stop creating my own Pacific. Of course – it was a novel! And it’s always had a mind of its own – it seemed to evolve without my guidance or permission, the characters just did what they wanted and I obeyed.”

Q: ”Your characters live on an unnamed Pacific island of your own creation, in an invented village called Moana. Why did you feel you needed to invent an island rather than set the story on an existing one?

A: ”I think you have an amazing responsibility if you’re writing about a place that is real, to be 100 per cent true to it, to double – even triple – check all your facts, to show each side of the culture in a balanced, fair way. You need to know the minutiae of the country. As you’ve said, I’m from the other side of the world. I feel that after years in the Pacific I really understand the spirit of the place and I can write my Pacific (a cross between Tonga, Fiji and the world) authentically.”

Read the entire article: Love and violence in a Pacific paradise