When you’re ready to start writing, Michelle Paver said, the challenge is to create a story that reads really easily.Ī ghost story needs a shape and it has to build. Where is the next mention? How does the writer build tension? How subtle, or otherwise, are the references to a ghost?

Where does the first mention of something otherworldly / spookiness / an actual ghost occur? At first it might be just a tiny hint. Then go deep – take apart the stories that work really well. (Michelle P hunts second-hand bookshops for old ones, which she loves the most).Īnalyse what you read in general terms – why does this story work and that one doesn’t? She told us that ghost stories are difficult to write and to get right, but there are ways to make writing them easierįirst study the form – read as many ghost stories as possible, the good especially, but the bad will help too. Here’s the advice she gave me and the other 19 members of Writers at Work 2019.

I can vouch for how creepy Michelle Paver’s writing is (see below) so she was the perfect person to ask about ghost stories, as far as I was concerned, and she didn’t disappoint. Michelle Paver’s latest ghost story, the novel ‘Wakenhyrst’ Her books ‘Dark Materials’, ‘Thin Air’ and ‘Wakenhyrst’ are brilliant examples of classic ghost stories. But I’ve decided to start with tips for writing a ghost story, as generously shared with us by ghost-story-writer– extraordinaire, Michelle Paver. So many wonderful authors, poets, songwriters, columnists and people involved in the business of publishing came to speak to us. It’s extremely hard to pick out the best bits from the programme I’ve also promised to share some of the highlights of the programme here on my blog. On Facebook – as real me Wendy White – I’ve posted about the experience and how to apply to Literature Wales for a place. This innovative scheme created by Peter Florence of Hay and led by Dr Tiffany Murray, really is as wonderful as it sounds. Meeting Michelle Paver in the Writers at Work tent It’s a professional development course for writers living in Wales or born here, that runs for the whole eleven days of the literary festival and is fully funded by the Arts Council of Wales. I’ve recently completed my second and final year on the Hay Festival’s Writers at Work scheme

Thin air michelle paver review