What inspires your plots? Is there a particular event or personal experience that sparked influenced each story?
Strangely enough, absolutely nothing comes to mind that has inspired any of my books. In my first novel, Divine Hayfields, I was bored, in a motel, waiting for my husband to complete some business and I just wrote a description of my victim as she was found. I liked what I’d written, and the story grew around that description, forwards and backwards from there.
In Search For Elise, I idly typed a description of her tired out at the end of a hard day, and then livened up her evening by having her kidnapped! Poor girl. I’m sure she wasn’t looking for anything quite THAT lively.
I don’t know what inspired my third novel, but I didn’t really like the type of person my victim was, so it wasn’t difficult to kill him!
How do you develop the characters?
I must say right here that none of my characters are based on any person I know. At my age, and with my life experience, I have met a wide cross-section of the people who make up the world, so little characteristics I have noticed tend to merge to become the people in my books.
Some of my readers believe they have recognised people or themselves in my characters, but I always draw strictly from imagination.
The wonderful thing about writing is that you don’t have to be polite. In our day-to-day interactions, there are behavioural expectations. But in my stories, if I don’t like my characters, I can make them as horrible as I like and know I’m not hurting anybody’s feelings.
I can do what I like to all these fictional people without any worries about repercussions.The characters tend to develop on their own, growing as the events of the novel unfold and reveal better or worse aspects of themselves.
How does the setting of the book contribute to the overall narrative for you? Did you choose specific locations for particular reasons?
In my teens, on several occasions, I happily visited different friends in the Muswellbrook area. My first novel was set on a horse stud and there are many horse studs in that area, so I set it there.
I was once told ‘write about what you know’. Knowing about rural life and the area having happy memories for me made it a logical choice. There was no point in setting the book in the area where my childhood home was because, there were no horse studs there and in my head I needed that authenticity.
Relationship dynamics are often complex. How do you ensure that relationships feel authentic and relatable to readers?
I think one can try too hard to make relationships feel authentic. I try to include relatable characters who have day-to-day dilemmas that we all experience.
I mostly let my relationships grow as the story grows and my characters seem to somehow shake down and become the people I want them to. I don’t want to force my readers to see the characters exactly as I see them. I more or less rely on readers’ experience to colour their interpretation of the relationships depicted in the story.
If a reader has experienced a relationship I depict to a greater or lesser degree, that is how they will interpret that relationship in the story. At the same time, some of the complexities and contradictions that we all experience in our relationships have made their way in, which, again, people will relate to depending on how those things have affected them.
The book Search for Elise has been described as having a strong emotional core. How did you approach writing the more intensely emotional scenes?
My father once asked me to write him a letter in regard to an issue I was experiencing. I wrote twelve foolscap pages, did not re-read them, simply posted them. He rang me in tears to say nothing about the issue I was dealing with, but: ‘Where did you learn to write like that?’
Words just come out. I can be a very emotional person (I believe it has been said among family members ‘drama queen’) and usually can express the emotions by simply putting myself in the situation of my characters. Unlike with my letter to my father, these days I always follow the advice my brother gave me which was ‘write, re-write it, re-write it, and re-write it’.
The search for identity is described as a significant theme in Search for Elise. How do you see this theme resonating with contemporary readers?
Contemporary readers are really not much different from readers over the ages. Many people from each generation have been engaged in a struggle to find themselves. For contemporary readers, Search For Elise might illustrate that the answer to that search for identity comes from within, not from the internet, not from a movie theme, or a book storyline, or somebody else’s life. Life experience and our interpretation of that and our reaction to it, is what shapes our identity.
Are there any particular literary influences or authors that shaped your approach to writing?
I love all murder mystery writers, well really, I read anything! We had no television in my childhood home and our parents were great readers who encouraged us to read everything. I was through Charles Dickens by the end of primary school.
Sprinkled through that was the historical romance of Georgette Heyer, children’s adventure from Enid Blyton, Rudyard Kipling, copious volumes of Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayer. In later age, I read John le Carre, Morris West.
I just love burying myself in somebody else’s adventure, whether it is fiction or non-fiction. When I write my novels, I just hope that they will give my readers an adventure to bury themselves in for a short time.
How has your background influenced your writing? Are there aspects of your personal life that directly or indirectly made their way into the novels?
I think the way I have dealt with some of the normal challenges in life, the wins, the losses, have enabled me to write authentically about life experiences in my novels. That is an indirect influence.
As I said earlier, age and experience are great teachers. I’m not sure I could write believably, covering my subject matter, if I hadn’t reached my current age.
Can you describe your writing process? Did you face any challenges while writing, and how did you overcome them?
I believe the proper process for writing a novel is to do a brief precis of the overall concept, then do an outline of each chapter, then write the novel. I’ve never done that. Each novel has grown, following its own direction. This has sometimes necessitated backtracking and either adding chunks or deleting or changing bits.
My third novel (not quite finished at the time of this interview) actually DID begin at the beginning and has proceeded in a relatively orderly way. Having said that, I was three quarters of the way through the novel before I settled on a murderer!
With Divine Hayfields, I didn’t know how it would end until I was about five pages from the finish. So, while it may work for some writers to follow a set of guidelines, for others, the development of their story may be even more random than mine. I just think it is important to have a strong line to hang the story on so that the reader feels secure with the direction and can relax into enjoying the ride.
My real challenge seems to be that as I near the end of my novels, I tend to jam up. I’m not sure if it’s because I am reluctant to end the story or why it happens.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors who are struggling to bring their stories to life?
- Live your story! Not to the point of killing, obviously. But choose a character you can relate to and BE that person as you write.
- Make your characters human and fallible. I don’t know many people who enjoy reading about a saintly goody two shoes!
- And then take my brother’s advice to re-write as many times as you need to. I’m a great believer that when its right, it WILL feel right.
- A trusted reader is often a great help, someone who will offer constructive advice, kindly point out weaknesses and not give false hope.
How do you balance writing with the other demands of life? Do you have any routines or practices that help you stay focused and productive?
I seldom follow any kind of routine. Sometimes having to take care of necessities like doing the laundry take me by surprise! I work on my laptop, so I take it with me when I know I will be doing some long waiting (medical appointments, travel and the like).
I usually write when I feel like it. Sometimes if I have been kept away from writing by life happening, I just get up early (4:30 am) and write. Sometimes, I’ll write all day and have to force myself to attend to things like meals.
I enjoy writing, so just opening the laptop is my signal to focus. I do try to do a stretching sequence at the start of each day and that makes me feel settled and ready to face the day. Even if I start writing early, I stretch first, facing east, often catching the sunrise which I love.
What’s next for you as an author? Are there any upcoming projects or new books that you’re working on?
As I’ve said earlier, I’m almost finished my third novel, An Unstylish Death. After that, I have no plans. But since I never planned to write and attempt to publish a novel in the first place, everything since that has been a delightful experience and so, anything could happen!
If you could have a conversation with any character from your books, who would it be and why?
I like Kaylee, the detective. I think she’s a strong and determined woman with an undercurrent of compassion and humanity, very organised and focused. I’d love to have dinner with Gisella and Burt Bunrack – she is so vivacious and animated and he is such a working class Englishman who is not above the odd excursion into minor illegality. I think that would be a very entertaining experience. And the food would be delicious!
About Alison Trimper
Born in the beautiful New England region of New South Wales, Australia, my childhood was spent on the family farm, revelling in the freedom to roam, helping out with farm tasks and letting my imagination run free. After high school, I travelled in New Zealand, then worked at several unskilled jobs in Sydney and Darwin.
This was followed by marriage and motherhood. I left my marriage while living in Thailand and returned to Australia, eventually settling on the mid north coast of NSW. My partner and I established a tea tree plantation and ran a small herd of Murray Grey cattle. At the time I had three sons in high school, was working part-time in town, doing the farm work and the drawings for my then husband’s business.
With his support and encouragement, I started a teaching degree, externally at New England University. In my final year, we sold the farm and moved into town where I began teaching. My sons flew the nest and I became bored so I completed my masters in special education through Flinders University.
In due course, my husband retired and we moved to a rural village on the outskirts of Toowoomba, so I could be close enough to be of assistance to my aging parents. Here, while still enjoying working, I began my first novel. Since then, I have written two more novels and retired. I am enjoying writing, watercolour painting, freedom to travel and frequent visits with my children and grandchildren.
Alison Trimper’s books are available from Dymocks, Amazon, Booktopia and other booksellers, and via her own website alisontrimper.com.au
