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Readers’ Questions

Is Zena Shapter your real name?

Yes! Zena means ‘woman’ in Persian and, since my parents had already called my brother Adam, which means ‘man’ in Hebrew, when they read the definition of Zena in their baby name book, their minds were made up – the balance of A:Z man:woman was too good to resist! And ‘Shapter’ is my hubbie’s last name. I kept my maiden name as a middle name, but took his last name as mine so the whole family would have the same last name, and because it sounded like a good writer’s name!

What’s it like working as a writer?

You need to have a certain mindset to work as a writer. You need to be incredibly self-disciplined – otherwise you might spend all your writing time watching movies or surfing the net (oh… wait, oops!). You also have to be able to spend a lot of time alone, because writing is a relatively solitary vocation. Next, you have to be good at juggling commitments. Few writers get to write only their words all day long; so the better you become at juggling commitments, the more time you’ll have to write. After that, you’ve got to come up with ideas, write about them, and keep yourself fit in the process! Sitting still for hours each day isn’t good for anyone. So I like to go for a run or a walk each morning – whatever gets the blood pumping – to wake up my metabolism and focus on what I’m going to be writing when I get home. Most importantly, you have to enjoy creating meaning with words and through them reaching out to readers – just like I’m doing now!

Where do you write?

When I first started writing fiction, I wrote during my commute to and from work, on the ferry or bus or train, over lunchtimes sitting on a park bench. When I got my study nook I switched to writing there, though that did have the distraction of the internet (I cannot be trusted near the internet!). Once I wrote a story on a mobile phone, which turned into an mStory! Now I write on the sofa, on the deck, or in a quiet corner of the library (I love libraries!), and I save my desk for editing and rewriting. Wanna see my study nook and sofa? They’re here, along with a bunch of other authors’ writing spaces. Wanna see my writing space on the deck. It’s right here:

Which writers have influenced your writing?

As a young reader, I loved both the ‘Little House on the Prairie’ series by Laura Ingalls Wilder and ‘The Worst Witch’ series by Jill Murphy. When I studied literature at school, and later at University, I loved the symbolism of medieval literature (Malory), the inventiveness of Augustan prose (Swift, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding), the imagination of 19th century speculative fiction (Verne, Shelley, Carroll, Wilde, Stephenson, Wells, Stoker), and the raw emotion of real-life autobiographies. I still do. Once I began to travel, however, it was the thrillers that kept me occupied on the planes, on the buses, on the trains… Their constant highs and lows made journeying times pass quickly. Now I love escaping into all kinds of speculative fiction – science fiction, fantasy and horror. Want me to name some books? Okay, here you go – these aren’t necessarily my favourite books of all time, but each one has influenced my writing style in some shape of form over the years (publication date order):

Malory, ‘Morte d’Arthur’ (1485)
Shakespeare, ‘Hamlet’ (1609)
Daniel Defore, ‘Robinson Crusoe’ (1719)
Laurence Sterne, ‘The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman’ (1759)
Mary Shelley, ‘Frankenstein’ (1818)
Emily Brontë, ‘Wuthering Heights’ (1847)
H. G. Wells, ‘The War of the Worlds’ (1897)
Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ (1902)
T.S. Eliot, ‘The Waste Land’ (1922)
Aldous Huxley, ‘Brave New World’ (1932)
Laura Ingalls Wilder, ‘Little House on the Prairie’ series (1932)
George Orwell, ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ (1937)
George Orwell, ‘1984’ (1949)
Margaret Atwood, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ (1985)
Salman Rushdie, ‘Haroun and the Sea of Stories’ (1990)
Louis de Bernières, ‘The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts’ (1990)
John Grisham, ‘The Firm’ (1991)
Stephen King, ‘The Green Mile’ (1996)
Ben Bova, ‘The Precipice’ (2001)
M T Anderson, ‘Feed’ (2002)
Mark Haddon, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ (2003)
Cormac McCarthy, ‘The Road’ (2006)
Patrick Rothfuss, ‘The Name of the Wind’ (2007)
Suzanne Collins, ‘The Hunger Games’ (2008)
Veronica Roth, ‘Divergent’ (2011)
Delia Owens, ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ (2018)

Writers’ Questions

What’s your favourite worldbuilding technique?

I’ll give you two:

Whether the world you’re creating is in an imagined location or a real one, make notes on that world before you start to write, jotting down its various intricacies and peculiarities, or storing scenes or landscapes in your mind. Maybe sketch out some locations too. Then, as your characters experience their story, have them notice only those details relevant to their state of mind in each scene, ideally through their non-sight senses (such as smell, sound, touch, taste (if appropriate), as well as feeling and thinking). Don’t rush this. If you follow this technique, by the end of each scene you’ll still be throwing in new information about your world, but your reader won’t feel overwhelmed by all the details.
Imagine your scene is in a silent movie, or on a planet where you don’t understand the language, and suggest meaning through characters’ actions. So much of what we understand isn’t said verbally.

What’s your top tip for unpublished writers?

I’ll give you three:

Be raw. Publishing is an extremely competitive industry. To stand out, you have to use the one thing you’ve got that no one else has – you! You’re the only person in the world who’s had your experiences, history and relationships. So open up a vein, as they say, and bleed.
Don’t try and get published before you’re ready. Before you approach any publisher or agent, get your work absolutely ripped to shreds, either by an experienced critic or an editor. Manuscript assessments can help guide you, but being shown – with red pen all over your work – more clearly pinpoints your weaknesses and strengths.
Realise that a description of an incident is not the same as a character having a problem they have to solve.

If you’d like further help, please get in touch! I’m a writing mentor and editor with years of experience and I run a professional creative support business. If you live in Sydney, I also regularly teach creative writing workshops where I help writers further behind me in their writing journeys. Come along and I’ll teach you what I’ve discovered about writing over the years. Check out my events page for the next date.

What’s best: being a planner or pantser?

Until recently I always thought being a planner was best, because I feel more confident about creating a world if I’ve thoroughly researched it in advance. But then I realised that sometimes I’ll think about a story for weeks, months even, until one day – BAM! It jumps straight from my brain onto the page fully formed. That’s more of a pantser’s technique. Confused, I explored the issue via my blog, asking Are all pantsers really planners?, and now I know… There’s a sliding scale between the two techniques, and where you sit on that scale will depend on the project in question. So there’s no right or wrong. There just is, or is not.

What three things can I do on social media right now to advance my writing career?

1. Follow me. Only kidding! Just make sure you’re following all the publishers and writing centres who interest you. This will help you stay up-to-date with what’s happening in the world of publishing and with writing opportunities relevant to you.
2. Support other authors. Authors remember those who help them. Buy and review their books. Comment on their blogs, tweets and posts. Share their links. Promote them where you can.
3. Interact. Converse with readers and writers online. We all love stories, and you might learn something, sometimes in the most surprising way.

Interview Me!

Would you like to interview me about my books, writing process, community creativity, collaborative writing, or anything else you’ve seen on my website? Please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

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