I do plan, but then I veer off in surprising directions. I like to write at a big desk, facing a window and preferably with a dog at my feet.ĭo you plot your novels out thoroughly, or do you write organically? And I’m a traditionalist, I always write at home, on a laptop. I find if the main protagonist is very different from me then it’s a struggle to get inside her mind, it’s a real effort, so I have to stick with it for a few months. When I’m writing the first draft of something I’ll write all day, every day for several months. I am pretty diligent about writing, a lot more so than I used to be. Things moved very quickly after that.ĭo you write every day, and if so how much and where? And the good ones always seemed to come just when I was about to give up! Then I got the idea for writing The Betrayal of Natalie Parker, which is a reworking of Macbeth, and through that I got my first agent. One of those could keep me going for another couple of years. A good rejection letter, a personalised one that gives some advice, they’re gold. Getting a form rejection letter can be very dispiriting, it can make you want to give up, but if you’re really a writer you’ll keep going. That period was very important to go through, I believe. I sent out a lot of submissions and did an awful lot of waiting. I sent out regular submissions for eight or ten years, it took a really long time. It was always just something I enjoyed doing, but I didn’t realise till I was in my twenties that it was something that would become my life’s path.Ĭan you tell me how you got your first break? I took Creative Writing in High School and just kept on writing – short stories at first, then novels.

Narrative has always been part of my way of thinking. As a child that was the way I would play, writing down little plays and stories and acting them out.

Yes, I always wrote – for as long as I can remember. Lauren, why and when did you start writing? Have you always written? I was lucky enough to be asked to interview Lauren on her visit to Dublin to promote Passion. The Fallen series features the most achingly perfect love story in the form of the relationship between Luce and Daniel, one that transcends time and space and resonates with Christian theology and fable.

Her novels have been translated into over thirty languages. National Emerging Writer Programme OverviewĪmerican writer Lauren Kate is the internationally best-selling author of The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove, a reworking of Macbeth, and the Fallen series – Fallen, Torment, the just-released Passion, and the forthcoming Rapture.

Rapture by Lauren Kate