Joe Abercrombie Author Visit

“If life has taught me one thing, it's that there are no villains. Only people, doing their best.”  Half a King, Joe Abercrombie

With an impressive body of fiction containing rising kingdoms, backstabbing twists, bloody battle scenes and characters influenced by Norse mythology and video games such Red Dead Redemption, Joe Abercrombie’s visit to the Creative Writing Club on the 12th of October left young writers' awe-inspired, wide-eyed and raring to go.

In a packed section of the library, Joe shared his influences and tips of his trade with future writers of the School. He always had the outline concept for the perfect epic fantasy trilogy playing in his head, but it was only during his university and screenwriting days that he began to seriously put pen to paper. Joe knew he wanted to write the books that were missing from his own childhood, wanting to bring to life dreams, nightmares and gory imaginings for children and young adults.

In the early days of his writing career, Joe would come home from work as a screenwriter, desolate and disheartened to self-addressed brown paper envelopes piled up on his doorstep with slips of rejection letters inside. It was not until he found a great agent to represent him that his writing career began to properly take off.

Joe prefers writing on Microsoft Word rather than Scrivener and, like Stephen King, his approach to writing is more fluid than planned.  He writes starting with scenes that inspire him, then fills in the gaps later. If research is needed for a particular tale, he does this alongside working on his manuscript, keeping the two processes tightly intertwined.

Joe explained how challenging and difficult writing can be at times. For him, the redrafting and rewriting process is the most frustrating part of the journey. He also described in detail a favourite writing technique, especially of his famous battle scenes, of following a character before killing them off and then following their foe before they faced the same fate, thus creating a string of high action cinematic sequences.

Joe insists that he prefers to remain pure to the writing world, saying, “Writers can often get lost in the world of film and TV, which is often seen as the pinnacle of writing success.” Although he left the option open for a possible film or TV adaptation "when the time is right.”

After book signings and selfies done in a flurry, pupils were hurried back to Period 4 on a Wednesday afternoon, leaving with tales of heroes in their minds and glints of magic dashing their eyes.

Many thanks to Sixth Formers Elise Withey, who organised the event after applying for an Old Edwardian Activity Fund, Cate Fox, Lucy Smith, Claudia Williams and Eleanor Martin, as well as the KES library team and Mrs Bruton, who creates a safe and ever inspiring atmosphere in Creative Writing Club on Wednesday lunchtimes.

Report by Georgia-mae Tan - Year 12