Get to know our faculty: Gail Aldwin
Gail Aldwin is an award-winning writer of fiction and poetry. She attended SWF19 as a participant and will join SWF20 as the newly published author of both The String Games (Victorina Press, 2019), a coming-of-age novel that was longlisted in The People’s Book Prize 2019, and adversaries/comrades (Wordsmith_HQ, 2019), a poetry pamphlet written on the theme of siblings. Gail will be part of “The Debutantes” panel on entering the world of publishing and will teach the “Writing for independent publishers” breakout.
Gail shares advice on completing her first novel and why she’s happy to be part of SWF20.
What makes you most excited to be part of the Stockholm Writers Festival?
After attending SWF19 as a participant, I’m delighted to be invited back as part of the faculty. I thoroughly enjoyed the conference last year, met loads of interesting writers, learnt a lot and appreciated the social events that ran alongside the structured input. This coming year I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences as a debut novelist, spending more time in the wonderful city of Stockholm and learning from the writing journeys of others as I move forward with my career as an author.
How did you develop your book’s main character, Nim/Imogen?
Through its three-part structure, The String Games deals with the emotional legacy of a lost sibling and traces events through Nim’s childhood and adolescence to find acceptance as an adult. In the novel, I wanted to explore issues of guilt and responsibility for my young protagonist and to discover how she is able to come to terms with loss. Although the catalyst for the novel is a childhood tragedy, the story itself is about fresh starts and new beginnings. Through the main character, I develop ideas about resilience and how it is possible to overcome even extreme barriers in life. It was by putting myself into the shoes of a ten-year-old that I was able to plot a way forward for her, through the murky world of teenage manipulation and to find forgiveness as an adult.
What was the most challenging part of completing this novel, and how did you push through?
I initially thought my novel was finished when I had completed a story using the alternating narratives of ten-year-old Nim and Imogen, the adult she grows up to be. I worked on the novel as part of PhD studies in creative writing and my supervisors were keen for me to explore my protagonist’s teenage years. In particular, why she changes from use of her nickname, Nim, to her given name of Imogen. In order to do this, I had to strip the work apart and re-structure it into a three-part novel. To make room for the new section, I cut great chunks of the narrative. Twenty thousand words went in one revision and more at other times. It was hard to keep pressing on when my word count was shrinking, but I focused on the outcome. The novel is improved by the changes all that cutting allowed, and it gave me something to write about in the self-reflection aspect of my thesis.
What’s one piece of advice for writers still working on their first book?
Keep going! Completing a first draft is an amazing achievement. And then onto redrafting and editing – enjoy each stage of the process. Remember to celebrate every step along the way. This is your path to becoming an author.
What books are you currently reading?
While writing The String Games I read a lot of debut novels in order to check out the competition. As I like using children in my novels, I love to learn from other novelists who include young characters in their work. Currently, I’m reading lots of novels by writers based in my home county of Dorset, UK, and novels which are set in Dorset. There are many stories that include Dorset seaside locations – Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan is just one example.
More from Gail Aldwin on her website: gailaldwin.com.