“I became more curious, I think. The longer I’ve written, the more curious I have become. I was somehow liberated when I started to work. I felt like I became more free.”

Is it ever too late to finish writing that novel you started all those years ago? Creating a truly great novel takes time - sometimes longer than you think. Today’s author spent an entire decade writing her newly released debut novel, and it was certainly worth the wait.

Lydia Sandgren is the author of Collected Works, a massive 700 page novel that follows the life of former writer Martin Berg. The book asks searching questions about motherhood, family relationships, the stories that we tell ourselves and those that we inherit. In this episode we hear how Lydia is the type of person who never gives up, and how she’s changed both as a person and a writer over the ten years of writing the book. 

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why you don’t always need to know everything about your characters before you put pen to paper.
• The art of adding musicality and lyricism to writing a novel.
• Why cutting and re-writing your work isn't a waste of time.

Find out more about Lydia here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

Behind The Spine is an inkjockey production, and the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon. Sign up to the newsletter here.

You can buy copies of our anthology series here. 

You can view the full transcript here.

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