Emma Woodhouse: On how good editing is essential, and a love of Victoriana

Author Emma Woodhouse

Emma Woodhouse is co-founder of Oncreativewriting.com, and the author of The Prendergast Watch, published in Feburary this year. She has written the newly released Mary Queen of the Forty: The True Story of Mary Carr, about the history of Mary Carr, leader of the Forty Thieves gang, featured in Disney Plus series, A Thousand Blows. Emma's second novel, Simple Twists of Fate, will be published this month, and her third novel, Mercy, set her hometown of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, England, will be available in July.

Author Emma Woodhouse

Childhood visits to Victorian museum influence writing

On Creative Writing: What life experiences have shaped your writing style?

Emma Woodhouse: Everything!

The time period I write in was almost pre-determined, you might say. I grew up about half a mile from an open air Victorian museum, an amazing Victorian village, which my parents and grandparents took me to each school holiday.

As a teenager, I volunteered there, and went back to volunteer as an adult and ended up working there for seven years as a demonstrator, dressing up every day to give talks on the Victorian era. For the position, I learned all about Victorian schooling, baking, making plaster ornaments. I worked in the print shop with the printing machines, and in the chemist where I gave talks on the medicines of the time. I worked in the different houses, from the squatter’s cottage to the middle class Duke of Sutherland cottage. I would be kidding myself if I didn’t admit that the wondrous Blists Hill didn’t have a huge influence on my writing, and on the details that I like to have to give historical realism.

On Creative Writing: Has your writing evolved over the years? If so, how has this happened? Through writing experience? By reading a lot? From writing courses, writing communities, or something else?

Emma Woodhouse: It definitely has. My first book got me an agent, but was not picked up by publishers at first, and when I looked back at it, five years down the line, I could see why. I tweaked it, and it was instantly picked up by an indie press. Five years of writing, of working with my agent as well as experimenting with language in my own writing, and in starting an MA in Contemporary Creative Writing all had a huge effect.

I had read that once you’ve written something, you should put it away, get it out a year later and see what you think of it with fresh eyes. It is a very good piece of advice, as far as I am now concerned. But it took me a while to accept it!

For the love of research!

The other thing that has evolved too, is in the genre that I write in. I began writing purely fictional work, such as my first book, The Prendergast Watch. However, I soon realised that I was desperate to have an element of true history in my work, and began to integrate real people into my stories, discovering Mary Carr, who became a character in Simple Twists of Fate. Then I realised that I loved the research so much that I wanted to write her life story as a novel, and Mary, Queen of the Forty was created.

Then I wrote another about a real woman from Bridgnorth where I live, who was arrested for murder in 1848. This became Mercy, which comes out in July 2025. And then, I approached a non-fiction publisher and signed to write a purely non-fiction book about Mary Carr’s life, which is due to be published in March 2026 with Pen and Sword Books.

I will be returning to fiction for my next few books, but I now have the confidence to write non-fiction too, something I had never really contemplated before. And with that opening of genres, I can see that I might branch out further and develop other forms of writing too. I think the MA course has really helped to widen my scope for writing.

On Creative Writing: Can you trace any common themes across your writing?

Emma Woodhouse: Definitely. Other than the Victorian theme, I write about poverty, and about women struggling to survive the confines, expectations and oppression of Victorian existence. I am drawn to forgotten women, voices that are lost due to their status.

As a teenager, I experienced homelessness for a while, and this has most definitely given me an affinity with poor women in the Victorian age.

Untold histories of women are valid and should have a voice

I believe that working-class women have many hidden histories that are just as valid, just as interesting and just as worthy of exploration, and the importance of giving voice to these, of exploring the heritage of women who might otherwise be lost to time, need to be resurrected.   

On Creative Writing: Which authors and/or types of books do you like to read?

Emma Woodhouse: I love Charles Dickens and P.G. Wodehouse. I adore Daphne du Maurier. Books that have had a profound effect upon me include Germinal by Émile Zola, which really explored the poverty and struggles of working class life during the miners’ strikes in France in the 1860s. Books I’ve read recently include The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont and British Gangs: From 1900 to 1950 by Paul Dettmann.

On Creative Writing: Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Emma Woodhouse: In my fiction I was a pantster. The Prendergast Watch - and the prequels that might one day be published - was totally organic, growing as I wrote. However, my books about real women, Mary, Queen of the Forty, and Mercy, were both plotted, in that the chronology of the history demanded it.

On Creative Writing: Do you edit as you write, or write and edit later?

Good editing is essential for a good book

Emma Woodhouse: Both. I spent a long time not really understanding how immensely important editing was. Now I literally consider every sentence, and am much less afraid of cutting stuff out. I often reread what I’ve written to make sure that I like the quality of language and the sentence structure.

I also enjoy a good structural overhaul. I have changed books from first person to third, from past to present tense, and back again. I’ve taken characters out, and put different characters in. I’ve added scenes, taken scenes out and rewritten scenes in different locations.