Author Interview – Beth Miller
High stakes, ‘what if’ questions and a healthy dollop of sex… author Beth Miller’s found her forte with six successful novels, many of which have been published in multiple languages. Here Beth shares some choice insights with TYPE! readers and writers… and contemplates the fickle and fleeting nature of success.
Beth, it must be brilliant being a full-time writer — remind us of your resume?
I’ve written six novels, including the bestselling The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright (2020), and my newest novel, The Woman Who Came Back to Life (2022), which I’m thrilled to say will be published in seven languages. I’ve published two non-fiction books: one about Shakespeare and one about The Archers. I also teach creative writing at various places, including for Arvon, and I work as a writing mentor and book coach. My website is here.
How did you get to where you are?
I think most people who get published will agree that – hard work, persistence and some writing skill notwithstanding – the big secret ingredient is luck. I suppose I just kept plugging away at writing and submitting until finally I got lucky. It took me a long time to write and rewrite my first book, and there were many rejections on the way. When it was finally published, I thought, this is it! I’m a literary star now! I was a bit deflated when I discovered that no-one seemed to have noticed I’d written a book… It wasn’t till my fourth novel that I sold more than a handful of copies. And it wasn’t until my fifth novel that I managed to resolve the tension between what I wanted to happen in my career and what actually had happened. I’m pretty chill now, but oy, you shoulda seen me a few years ago!
What have you learnt about writing?
That writing and publishing are two completely different things, though people sometimes conflate them.
That the real work of writing is in the rewriting.
That first novels take ages because you’re learning how to write a novel at the same time as writing one.
That the great reward of writing is in the responses from readers, which is just as well, because most writers don’t reap great rewards in monetary terms.
That writing books opens unexpected doors. I love teaching writing, and mentoring other writers, which I got into after I was published. I see that work as much a part of my literary life as the actual writing.
That no matter how long I do it, two things never lose their lustre: hearing the writing of a group of new writers who all have different voices and stories to tell; and working out how to write something I’ve written in a better way.
What have you learnt about the agent / publishing process?
That everything I thought I knew about it was wrong. Publishing is a strange business. Even now I’m still surprised by it. For instance, my publisher has just turned down my seventh novel because they don’t think the setting of it will appeal to foreign readers. I had no idea that they were considering foreign readers at the pitch stage. I am also repeatedly surprised by how little involvement (none, oftentimes) most writers have in their cover designs, titles and blurb. I had an agent for the first few years of my career and she got me my first two deals, but we parted company in 2020 and it was honestly the best thing that’s happened to me. There were a lot of things wrong with our relationship. A good agent, of course, is worth their weight in gold.
What’s the key to your success? Indeed, what do you define as success?
Great question – the definition of success. I’ve thought about it a lot. For a long time I thought it was about doing really well with a book, but eventually I realised that no matter how well a book does, the thing that represents success just changes to something else out of reach. One never seems to quite get there. I’m now in a place where I can spend my working day on things to do with writing and other writers, and I’m able to teach writing in beautiful places, and I get to see the successes of writers I’ve worked with, and I adore being a RLF Fellow in Brighton University, and my books get lovely, heart-felt emails from readers, and I think that’s pretty damn successful.
What’s more important to getting published? Great book? Great hook? Talent? Persistence?
Persistence is vital – everyone I know who’s been published had to wait it out through a lot of rejections and false starts – but you do need to have a good book as well. And then the agent or publisher might just be in a lousy mood when they read your query letter, which means that our old friend luck once again plays a big part. The writer’s job is to keep their attention on the parts they have control over – write the best book they can and keep sending it out. Learning to roll with rejection is an essential skill to develop. Top tip: calling rejections ‘passes’ can help take some of the sting out of it.
What comes first, character or plot?
My books always start off with a ‘what if’ question. What if a mother with a very sick child was only pretending her child was sick? This became The Good Neighbour. What if an Orthodox Jewish girl ran away the day of her arranged marriage? This became The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom. What if a tribute artist swapped places with the star she portrays? This turned into Starstruck. After getting the idea, a character will start to form in my mind: the person who can carry that storyline.
How do you approach each novel?
With a tabbed notebook. This helps me keep everything straight as I don’t have a great memory. I also create a checklist for how many words I need to write each week to get the first draft done. EG if I want to finish the first draft in six months, I’ll need to write approx. 3,500 words a week. I like to do the first draft quickly to work out what the story is. I’m a plantser (a mix of plotter and pantser), with pantsing uppermost. Usually I only have the faint outline of the ‘what if’ question in my head when I start to write, and it’s interesting to find out what happens as I go.
You write about sex a lot – what tips can you share on this?
Is it really a lot? Haha! Sex is part of life and people do have sex a fair amount (if they’re lucky), so I think having them have sex a couple of times in a novel is fair enough. I regularly run a workshop called ‘Writing Sizzling Sex Scenes’. I encourage writers to remember a sex scene is a scene like any other – it either needs to move the story on, or reveal character, but ideally both. And luckily, a sex scene is a great opportunity to reveal character. We can get to see your character being vulnerable, or in charge, or scared, or excited; we can get to know them in a different way. Lastly, even the best writer can lose their minds when writing about sex — see the Bad Sex Awards for evidence. Decent prose suddenly becomes heavy with awful metaphors, or dry and awkward like the contents of a medical directory. There’s no reason to write a sex scene in a different style from the rest of the book.
++ Beth’s newest novel The Woman Who Came Back to Life is available to buy now. You can also follow Beth on Twitter @drbethmiller.