What was your breakthrough moment?

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Dead Wood and Jasmine. The Garden by Nuada Argatlam

Collated Answers from WW interviews

Al Hunter Ashton	I’m still waiting for it. I spent a year writing a film for Wesley Snipes and John Goodman called “Hoops” and it was pulled. If that had gone on maybe I would have gone to America but I don’t dwell on it. . . ..well not much. . . the bastards what the ^%$ do they know about films in Hollywood.. . .. .. . . .. .

Alan Williams	At a Tasmanian writing group many years ago, I read one of my Flash Fiction pieces that I tried to imbue with feeling. To finish reading then see my fellow writers with tears in their eyes meant I’d succeeded beyond my expectations.

Ali McNamara	The day I heard Little,Brown were going to publish From Notting Hill with Love...actually. Even though I wasn’t really expecting to hear anything on that day, (my novel had been to an acquisitions meeting the previous afternoon and I knew it might be a few days until I had any definite news,) I couldn’t really settle down to do to anything because it was playing on my mind all the time, so I thought I’d put a DVD on. I was probably punishing myself with this choice – especially if it had been bad news, but I choose Notting Hill. Notting Hill is such an important part of my novel that for a while just watching the film would fill me with mixed emotions. Desperation, when I wondered if anyone would ever love my novel as much as I did, would then turn to a determined hope, when I just knew that one day they would. On this day the film was just ending and was in the final scene - the press conference when Hugh Grant asks Julia Roberts the question about staying in England, when my phone rang... Incredibly it was my agent, Hannah, and as she told me the good news (just as well it was good or I may never have been able to watch that movie again!) and was talking, and I was trying to take it all in, pinching myself that this wasn’t all a dream. I could hear the strains of ‘She’ by Elvis Costello playing in the lounge as the final credits began to roll up the screen on the TV. It could have been a scene from my book it was so perfectly timed!

Andrew Blackman	Winning the Luke Bitmead Writer’s Bursary. It gave me validation, confidence, a cash prize, and the long-held dream of a publishing contract, with Legend Press. I’d had short stories and non-fiction articles published before, but being a novelist was always my goal. Achieving it was a massive breakthrough for me. Now, finally, I have the confidence to call myself a writer.

Ardella Jones	I’m still waiting…

Beanie Baby	Meeting Norman Wisdom and having him tell me "Never, ever give up and keep everything that you write." I recognised a passion in him that I thought I was the only person feeling and it spurs me on to this day

Bill Spence	My breakthrough moment was when my first book was accepted for it showed my work was publishable and therefore spurred me on to do more. Then of course there were other breakthroughs when I shifted genres.

Cally Taylor	I think it was being awarded the runner up prize in the Woman’s Own competition. I always thought I’d write a very deep, very worthy literary novel but writing “Wish You Were Here”, the story that won the prize, gave me so much pleasure and came so naturally it made me realise that I had to be the kind of writer I was, not the kind of writer I thought I should be.

Candi Miller	Two moments. The first when I pulled Salt & Honey out of the bottom drawer after a three-year hiatus and found myself enjoying the story. The second when my publisher, Tom Chalmers of Legend Press, said he really liked it. I was so thrilled I asked him to marry me. He looked relieved when he discovered I was already married, but of course he was gallant about it.

Candy Denman	A course called From Script to Screen, where the person running the course- a then BBC script editor called Stephen Jeffrey-Poulter- sent my first completed script to Tony Virgo, Executive Producer at The Bill and suggested he give me a chance.Two years and several trial scripts later, The Bill commissioned a script from me, but I didn’t get an agent until I had written ten episodes and was considered a regular. I met my agent at an agent’s evening organised by the Scriptwriters’ Workshop in London.

Caroline Rance	The first “positive” rejection. Before that I genuinely had no idea whether the book was any good or not. I imagined agents reading the first few lines and either chucking it aside in disgust or laughing at the presumption of this deluded wannabe. Then I got a letter complimenting the writing and setting, and giving some specific suggestions. That was when I started to think “maybe this isn't total crap after all.”

Cassandra Clare	I always thought that eventually there would be a moment where I realized that I had practiced enough and now I was ready to be a professional writer. Then I befriended a number of successful professional writers and realized that none of them ever felt ready. After that I decided I might as well stop waiting to feel ready and just get started.

Catherine Richards	Meeting Luke Bitmead.

Cathy Glass	When my agent auctioned my first memoir - Damaged, and the biggest publishing houses bid.

Claire Moss	Aside from being offered the publishing contract, which is obviously the ultimate boost, the biggest moment for me was the point where I decided I was going to write a book. Even as I started to write NSR, I didn't have enough faith in my own staying power to imagine I was committing myself to a whole book – I thought it would be a short story. But within a few hours I knew that to tell the story properly I would have to make it into a novel – which meant making myself into a novelist.

Clare Sambrook	Getting an agent. Landing a publisher — Canongate. The first foreign sale. Film rights. Each took me closer to making a living out of fiction.

Courttia Newland	I try to have at least one personal breakthrough moment in every day.

Danny Rhodes	Sending Asboville to Maia Press. I’d come to expect the standard rejection slips from publishers and then I received an e-mail from Maggie Hamand saying that she liked what she’d read and could she see the rest of the novel. I didn’t get too excited as this had happened to me once or twice before with other novels but a few days later Maggie got in touch again to say that she’d like to meet up and discuss the book…

Dawn Finch	For the story? The breakthrough was when I knew who all my characters were and they came to life for me. When I realised that they had distinct personalities. After that the rest of the book was an organic process as I just wrote what I knew they would do. For the book? In a beautiful and sun filled room in Kensington when I shook Ivan’s hand! I knew that it was the beginning of a new phase of my life.

Diane Samuels	I guess this must be the first production of “Kindertransport” directed by Abigail Morris for Soho Theatre Company at the Cockpit Theatre in 1993. The production was moving and true to the play. The reviews were very good and people queued around the block for every performance for returns. It was very exciting.

Domenica De Rosa	The Italian Quarter was short-listed for a first novel award. It didn’t win but just being nominated felt like a real vindication of my writing.

Elizabeth Buchan	When I published Consider the Lily which gave me a platform with publishers and later with the publication of Revenge of Middle Aged Woman.

Elizabeth Speller	I suppose it was my first novel The Return of Captain John Emmett, being chosen by Richard and Judy for their 2011 summer reads list. From feedback and emails I think it reached a far wider more diverse readership than my earlier work, which was a real bonus and of course it sold well with their endorsement. My earlier titles, especially Sunlight on the Garden, a sort of memoir, also sold more on the back of it. It was an extraordinary experience.

Eva Salzman	Getting a poem in the New Yorker felt as good as getting my first book published.

Fiona Robyn	Breakthrough to being published? I suppose I see all of my writing as ‘part of my writing career’, so I wouldn’t say being published has been the most important thing, just a different part of the journey. It might make life more complicated in some ways. That’s not to say I’m not hugely excited about my books being in the shops!

Gary Davison	When I hit the bestsellers list and stayed at number 1 for 18 weeks, both here and in the US. I wish. It’s when they offered me the book deal.

George Szirtes	Terribly enough, the death of my mother in 1975, I suppose. It was in trying to write something about her – she was an extraordinary, brave woman - that something clicked about register, distance, form and the energy that is not entirely yours but in the language. My poems changed at that point. The more substantial part of the journey began there

Gordon and Williams	RG: Losing my job. BW: There have been many and various

Helen Black	When my editor told me she takes fifty pages of a manuscript home every evening and Damaged Goods was the first time she’d ever wished she’d had the whole thing.

Helen Castor	Faber giving me a contract for Blood & Roses. Suddenly a new world opened up in which it was possible to imagine writing for a living.

Jae Watson	Realising that I couldn’t not write and that I would probably go mad if I didn’t make time for it. That’s when I reduced my working week to four-days and tried to think of myself as a writer.

James Burge	When I tried writing TV reviews and people said they found them amusing.

Jane Elmor	There are several times I'd consider breakthroughs – firstly finding the right voice to tell that particular story. The encouragement of a tutor who wrote the comment on a piece of early work that it was a 'real' piece of writing. Getting the novel longlisted for a big competition, just when I was thinking it wasn't good enough and would never happen for me. Then of course sending it to the right agent who gave it a chance and placed it with a fabulous editor who really 'got' it, took it on as her own and championed it, even though it didn't sit easily in a particular genre, which made it more difficult to market. The process seems to involve a series of breakthrough moments, which eventually happen if you just keep going through the frustrations and disappointments.

Jem	I don’t think there’s only been one. I suppose selling my first story to My Weekly – or, maybe, one night at the end of the weekly writing class I was attending, the teacher, Sally Cline – who, early in my writing career was a huge mentor – said she thought I could make a career in writing. I remember riding my bike all the way home feeling absolutely ecstatic. I’m not confident about my writing even now – always looking over my shoulder at the competition – but back then I was very timid. In my class there were people who wrote brilliantly and I couldn’t understand why Sally had singled me out. I still don’t know but I think it might be to do with the fact that I hope I write from the heart and it’s this that comes off the page. Also, primarily I tell storied with beginnings, middles and ends whereas there are those people who write exquisitely in creative writing classes but never seem to be going anywhere.

Jill Dawson	I think when I was short-listed for the Orange Prize and Whitbread Novel prize for Fred & Edie. Although that was my third novel, and seven or eighth published book, the nomination for prizes got me a lot of attention and made a big difference to the offer I got for my fourth novel.

Jill McGivering	I was travelling for work in Pakistan and came back from a stressful day of news reporting to find an email from my agent with an offer for my novel from Harper Collins. It was one of the most exciting emails I’ve ever had – before or since.

John Murray	My breakthrough moment was getting that long story taken by Karl Miller for the London Review of Books in 1982. Basically he was risking his neck accepting a 12,000 word story by a completely unknown writer. He and the late Alan Ross of London Magazine were two great magazine editors who could recognise talent and took risks. The likes of them inspired myself and David Almond to do what we did with Panurge magazine from 1984-1996. We aggressively looked for brilliant unknown writers and had no time for some of the second rate stuff we got from published writers. In the end the mag had such a reputation we were getting stuff by famous writers sent via their agents, even though the agent knew the payment would be next to nothing. I once memorably turned down a story sent in by Fay Weldon's agent because it wasn't as good as an unknown 19 year old's that came in the same day.

John Ritchie	I think it was when my Dad told me I have an easy, readable style. That is my favourite comment ever. Now when someone actually likes what I write I get that thrill over again. It’s lovely, and its spurs me on to write something new.

Jon Haylett	Winning the Bridport Prize because in this, as in all good short story competitions, the works are judged anonymously, so celebrity, one of the great banes of modern British publishing, has no influence. It was a breakthrough moment denied to some potential entrants to the much-lauded National Short Story Prize: for that, you have to submit a list of recently published work. Little surprise therefore that names such as Rose Tremain and Haruki Murakami have appeared on its short lists.

Jonathan Wolfman	The first paid commission was on the old BBC hospital soap “Angels” but it didn’t feel like a breakthrough moment. I was very young and insecure at the time. Developing “Best of Friends” and getting the news that the BBC wanted to commission a series was my breakthrough moment in kids. Getting the Tracy beaker Returns gig was the most recent.

Judith Johnson	Eh?

Julia Bell	Finishing my first novel because then I knew I could write one.

Julia Copus	It depends what you mean by ‘breakthrough’. It’s a very open-ended question! Well, to keep it simple I can tell you that, career-wise, 2002 was a very good year for me. I won the National Poetry Competition that year with Breaking The Rule, and a month or so later I also won the BBC’s Alfred Bradley Award (for new radio playwrights) with a play called Eenie Meenie Macka Racka, about the friendship between a 10 year-old girl and an elderly Asian gentleman living in Blackburn where I was living at the time. When I break through into the bestsellers list, I’ll let you know! It doesn’t tend to happen for poets… Not in this country anyway, and not in their lifetimes.

Kal Bonner	I guess my first real breakthrough moment was being shortlisted for the Longbarn First Novel Award in 2007. Although I didn't win (mutter, mutter, mutter) it made me think that perhaps I did have something to offer to the unsuspecting public. Susan Hill also sent me an email, encouraging me to continue, which was a real boost. I was also a bit scared that she may set that Woman in Black on me if I didn't.

Kate Long	There’ve been ‘moments’ all along the way – the first short story competition I won in 1994; meeting David Rees; the initial offer from Hodder; signing with Peter Straus’s agency Rogers, Coleridge & White; speaking to Ursula Doyle at Picador and knowing this was an editor I’d like to work with.

Kate Tym	I’ve had a few… first book published…. Giving up a full-time job to go freelance… and more recently when I had a real crisis of confidence in my writing when I’d floated out of the world of children’s books and wasn’t sure where to go next. I was in my kitchen complaining to a friend and making my ‘I’m going to get a job in a shoe shop’ speech. She asked me what I’d really like to do. I said, in an embarrassed kind of way that I’d like to do performance poetry. I then read her some of my poems. She didn’t laugh or make me feel like an idiot, in fact she seemed to think it was all rather a jolly good idea. It only took one person to have faith in me to give me back a bit of faith in myself.

Kia Abdullah	Getting noticed by local papers. Local papers are such an important starting point for first-time writers. In general, national newspapers only pick up and promote new writers if they have already had some positive press. The only way to get this is to get local papers behind you.

Laura Watson	Getting the phonecall to say my play had been accepted by Radio 4 really made me first believe that I could make a career out of writing. This was seconded when I got my first chance to write an episode of EastEnders.

Lee Henshaw	About ten years ago I went to Hawaii for several weeks and it was there that I found the confidence to speed write, to just chuck-out all the thoughts in my head without panicking or breaking for up to 3 hours even if it what I was writing was private or gibberish.

Lola Jaye	A few spring to mind; meeting my agent at Winchester and watching Oprah a few years later when the idea for By The Time You Read This… hit me. That was a very heartfelt moment as I just knew that the story of a man who is dying but wants to guide his daughter as she grows up, was the story for me. I wrote six thousand words after watching that ‘Oprah’ episode. A definite ‘breakthrough’ moment.

Lucy McCarraher	Getting the letter from Macmillan gave me the confidence to think I actually could complete a novel and believe I could actually be a writer. In terms of the writing itself, I can’t pinpoint a single one, but little ones happen on a regular basis, as a character develops into someone real, or a plot twist suddenly becomes apparent.

Luisa Plaja	Getting into the final of the RWA Chick Lit chapter's "Stiletto" contest with the first few pages, plus rough synopsis, of the book that is now Split by a Kiss. That’s when I first thought other people might possibly want to read something I'd written one day.

Malcolm Burgess	Everything you achieve is a bit of a breakthrough in one way or another. I think in writing you also have to be a bit philosophical – er, what goes up can go down.

Mark Booth	For years I kept my stories to myself, or just showed them to my immediate family. Then when I went to university I won a competition to write the last episode of a long-running satire in the university newspaper. I’ve never looked back. More recently, I won the overall prize in a weekly writing competition organised by Toshiba to promote a new computer. The competition was aimed at bloggers, and was designed to let them posit answers to some ‘big’ questions. I won with a piece about selecting your child’s gender and they let me take any of their existing laptops as a prize. My entry consisted of a conversation between McCrumble and his unborn child. You can read it here… Unfortunately no-one knows I won because Toshiba didn’t bother to publicise the overall winner. It was like having a breakthrough moment in space – no one to hear my victorious screams.

Mark Liam Piggott	Had a few breakthroughs in various ways – first cheque for writing; first article in a paper; first short stories in books and magazines; but none really compared to hearing my first novel had been accepted.

Meg Peacocke	I don’t think there’s been a breakthrough moment in the writing, but now and then I’ve made changes in my life which have brought me nearer to an understanding of the way I need to write.

Michael Ridpath	Carole’s assistant somehow managed to sell a serialisation of Free To Trade to The Daily Telegraph over Christmas in 1994. I am sure this really helped sales when the book came out in January. A couple of years later the assistant left Blake Friedmann to become a singer. Silly woman, I thought she had a promising career in publishing. Her name was Dido Armstrong.

Neil Forsyth	Jacking in all other work other than writing. I was comfortable in my writing and receiving encouragement from independent sources, but even then I felt nervous taking that step. Yet it was the best thing I could have done. Forget the suggested complexities of the creative mind - when I had to write to pay the bills things came along a lot quicker.

Neil J Hart	As far as ideas for Spritz, I made a documentary about a fictional pop star called Johnny Davies and his manager Bob Flint with some colleagues at University. We workshopped the characters and produced a ‘talking heads’ style interview with each of them interspersed with clips from music videos that I made. The characters then went on to form the basis for the novel albeit with considerable changes to the story. As far as publishing, Spritz had been languishing on my hard-drive for a few years and one day I just decided that I’d had enough of dreaming about writing for a living and drew up a plan. ‘I love it when a plan comes together.’

Neil Nixon	There have been loads. Mainly those occasions when out of nowhere I had an idea and knew in a second I’d be living with the consequences for years, like developing the Professional Writing course I now run at NW Kent College. Often these ideas came when I was out running or on my mountain bike.

Nick Griffiths	I guess being accepted by Sounds, from where everything developed (if at a snail's pace).

Nick Stafford	There’s been several breakthroughs, but I haven’t had the moment, yet.

Nicky Singer	Winning a bar of chocolate for a story I wrote about a giraffe when I was six. This is easy money I thought, I’ll do it again.

Peter Robertson	I don’t think there is only one breakthrough in a lifetime but rather a succession of breakthroughs. I can be an impatient man and have to keep reminding myself of what Elizabeth Bowen said, “Fate is not an eagle, it creeps like a rat”. This is especially true in my case. Now in my mid forties, I am a late developer but am confident that I will go from strength to strength.

Preethi Nair	In terms of publishing it was when Gyspy Masala published under my publishing company was picked up by Books Etc and promoted in all their branches (free of charge). Normally publishers have to pay to have their books promoted and window space is often bought up for lead titles and when you are a small publisher you do not have the money to compete with the big guns.

Rebecca Connell	The moment when I really felt things shifting for me was last February, when I got a voicemail from an agent saying she was halfway through my novel and really loving it. It came out of the blue – my first expression of interest from anyone in the know – and I remember very clearly standing in London Bridge station listening to that message, hearing the enthusiasm in her voice and thinking, “things are starting to happen here”. As it turned out, she wasn’t the agent I eventually signed with, but I’ll always remember that moment. It was the first time I really felt certain that, one day, I would be published.

Rebecca Strong	I think there was a series of breakthroughs – deciding to write a novel, completing the first draft, finding out it was going to be published, and no doubt the launch next week will feel like a breakthrough. That’s why writing is so enjoyable – it feels like a string of milestones, as if every paragraph you write is an achievement.

Ron Morgans	I’m still waiting for it. I know I’ll never give up.

Rosy Barnes	The Debut Authors’ Festival was a big breakthrough moment. It gave me a real boost and encouragement at a key time during the writing process. But I think everyone on WW knows that there tends not to be one breakthrough moment, but rather a series of ups and downs. It is such a long, drawn-out process that it can be easy to loose track of any progress we make sometimes. I think we need to stand back and realise how far we’ve come. Even if it feels like we’ve been proceeding like a snail.

Rosy Thornton	Getting my contract with Headline. Until they offered, even though I had an agent (even two, for a while!) I never believed it would actually happen.

Sally Nicholls	Getting published, for me, felt more like leaping a set of hurdles than having one breakthrough moment. First I had to get on the MA, then I actually had to finish the book, then I had to get an agent, then I had to get a publisher … The most exciting moment was when I got my first real offer from a real live publisher. I was living with my mum but I’d been offered a part time job and a room in a flat. I knew people were going to make offers, but I didn’t know how much they were going to be for. I’d just about worked out that I could survive on my wages by cooking meals for my housemates when the offer came through. It meant 1) I could afford to run away to London and 2) I was actually going to be published. Wonderful.

Sally Zigmond	I don’t think I can pinpoint one in particular. There have been small ‘light-bulb’ moments along the way such as the conference where a speaker told us to allow ourselves the privilege of a ‘shitty first draft’. Before that I thought every word had to be perfect first time! I suppose my first published story was the most important one because it gave me the confidence to carry on.

Sarah Salway	I have been beyond lucky in the people who picked up my first book – Something Beginning With – and have continued to support me. Many of these have been writing heroes: William Gibson, Neil Gaiman, Scott Pack, Alice Elliott Dark, Kate Long, and I don’t take any of it for granted. Their public support is amazing, but I value their private encouragement even more if possible. It’s something I hope I pass on to other writers too. The writing world is surprisingly generous.

Sarah Stovell	Oddly, my biggest breakthrough wasn’t to do with finding an agent or being offered a publishing contract (though obviously those were great moments). My major one was when I gave myself permission to become a writer. I’d always known I wanted to write, but after graduating at 21, I spent far too much time succumbing to conventional pressures to ‘get a steady job.’ And then I found I couldn’t hold down a steady job cos I was too frustrated by my desire to write (and the jobs were deathly boring and, to be honest, I would rather starve than do half of them). Eventually in 2003, when I was 26, I took a course in Advanced Fiction at the Arvon Foundation. It was then that I thought, ‘This is what I’m going to do.’ And so I did.

Shahrukh Husain	For books, the Witch book idea, I think, and knowing exactly where to place it. In movies working for Merchant-Ivory on the adaptation with Anita Desai, of her book In Custody. The film was nominated for an Oscar. Then Buena Vista commissioned a rewrite of a script Goldie Hawn was producing.

Shelley Weiner	I was at that Arvon course and had read out my first poem. Until then, I’d only written journalistically and this ‘creative’ stuff was all new. The poem, about my father, was only a few lines long, and it made a couple of my listeners cry. The realisation that the power of my words had the capacity to move people affected me profoundly. I’ll never forget that moment.

Shika	Being short-listed for the Virago prize.

Sion Scott-Wilson	David Mitchell snorting with laughter at an earlier novel. It meant a great deal to me. It meant that I was able to keep going in at my own thing which doesn't fit into a literary genre but does seem to fit a reader profile.

Sol B River	I don't know if I've had my breakthrough moment yet. I have a lot in my head that's yet to come out, there's a lot I'd appreciate the opportunity to do.

Sue Moorcroft	I think most careers hold more than one. After the selling of the first book, as mentioned already, and the second, my career wasn’t moving in the direction I’d planned so I approached Choc Lit because I’d looked at their stuff and been impressed. Choc Lit like my work and I like them and they’ve moved my career on. Also, they ‘get me’ as I am, rather than trying to make me something else.

Tania Hershman	I think there have been many of them, small breakthroughs that took me to the next level when I needed it – my story on Radio 4; my first prize win (Creating Reality's Flash 300 competition) which led to me meeting fellow WW member Vanessa Gebbie and forming a strong writerly friendship which has led to so many wonderful people and situations; meeting Ali Smith and hearing her telling me I was a real writer and should do it full time; getting a publishing deal; setting up the Short Review. All these are milestones that have nudged – or shoved - me onwards!

Tibor Fischer	Being chosen for Granta’s Best Of Young British Novelists list in 1993. I’m sure that of the twenty writers on the list I’m the one who benefitted most – my first novel had just come out, published by an admirable, but very small Scottish firm, Polygon. Without Granta I think I would have been in trouble.

Tim Lott	When ‘White City Blue’ won the Whitbread in 1999.

Tony McGowan	The first chapter of Hellbent, my first book, is still the funniest thing I’ve written. After I’d written it I thought to myself, yep, you can do this.

Vanessa Curtis	The first contract I ever signed in 2001 felt like a breakthrough moment. Another was last year when I realised that I was actually enjoying writing fiction for children and that there might be some sort of future in it. And meeting my agent, getting the approval of somebody considerably more experienced than myself; an official ‘go ahead’ to write fiction. It’s strange how we sometimes crave ‘permission’ to get on and do the work.

Vanessa Gebbie	Looking back, it was when an English Teacher used to sit me in front of the class over and over and get me to read my latest masterpieces. I was 14. Now, of course, I realise she was only getting out of doing English lessons. At the time, I was of course, going to be the next Enid Blyton. (and earn the dosh to go with it… sadly… that’s another story)

William Coles	This came after about five years of slogging away at sundry novels. And, having already had a stab at various genres, I decided to try a love story. I'd been told the story by a friend about 15 years ago, and I had been mulching on it for some time. And I'm so glad I'd had that time, because it's a cracking tale - and if it had been first (or even third) book, I'm sure I'd have messed it up. But when I embarked on this project, I felt that I'd paid my dues - that I had the necessary skills to make the story into a Go. And I just dived in. I didn't really have any sort out of outline as such, but I knew the general direction that I was heading. After about a week, I'd done 10,000 words - and when I came to read the thing through, I realised that somehow it was authentic. That the voice for this love story was the real thing - that it was believable. And that was when I realised that I might, just possibly, be onto something.

William Sutton	Still waiting for it. But I find muddling through and keeping at it astonishingly good substitutes for sudden inspiration.

Zoe Lambert	For ellipsis, I realised that all my stories were set on buses or had moments on buses. Ahhh, I though. That’s what they are about. Buses. That is how they are linked. I’ll put them all on the same bus. About this time I also realised that the short story form suited how I wrote and what wanted to write. To make a big generalisation, I wasn’t interested in the developmental notion of character that structures a lot of novels, but the transient, sometimes momentary glimpse at characters in short stories that enabled me to write about stasis, absence, loss.