Short stories in lifestyle magazines started author's writing success

Alan Williams was born in Sydney, Australia, but has lived over half his life in France, England and Tasmania. His latest novel is Mystery in the Snowy Mountains, published by Holand Press, is available on Amazon, along with his short story collection, The Rain, The Park and Other Things. He is a widely published author, concentrating mainly on women’s magazines.

Short stories in lifestyle magazines started author's writing success

Alan has sold over sixty short stories published in Australia’s That’s Life and UK magazines like Take a Break and My Weekly. In the past seven years, Alan has sold nineteen novels to My Weekly published by DC Thomson in the UK. Fourteen of these are available in libraries worldwide in large print published by Linford Romance. You can find Alan on Goodreads and Facebook. He’s a retired science teacher and financial services manager, currently exiled and living in Britain. In this interview Alan shares how short stories in lifestyle magazines started his author writing success, the happy ending themes he's drawn to, and why being a pantser works for him.

Author Alan Williams

OCW: 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?

AW: I read comics as a kid. Still do. The feel-good ones from the sixties seventies and eighties. They taught me about plotting, not so much about characterisation. Bradbury, Asimov were favourite authors then Alistair McLean, Tom Clancy and Neil Gaiman. I’ve never done writing course but writing group in Tasmania then on-line with Writewords helped me develop and analyse my own and others’ writing. But I write for myself, wanting to share my imagination. I use my experiences a lot in my stories linking reality with fiction. It gives my writing depth.

Drawn to happy-ever-after endings

OCW: Can you trace any common themes across your writing?

AW: I guess I’m a romantic. I love HEA (Happy Ever After) or HFN (Happy For Now) endings. I’m an escapist and want to give my readers an experience that they’ll love. Reality is too harsh these days. I have kidnappings and explosions or fires in many of my books as I like a surprise ending to my chapters. All of my novels feature a strong female protagonist and are written in the first person. If she is too brusque or says something ungrammatical, it’s her fault, not mine. I give her the words. What she does with them is nothing to do with me. Sometimes we might argue but we manage to reach an agreement, even down to changing her name because she thinks my choice is too ‘ordinary’.

OCW: Are you a plotter or a pantser?

AW: Definitely, a pantser and proud of it. I have a very mixed-up mind. Australians would say I have ‘a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock’.

A strange thing happened when I was given a CPAP machine to help with sleep apoenia back in 2017. Within two weeks my little brain was supercharged. Before that, I was flat-out like a lizard drinking, writing a short story of 2500 words. Suddenly I had a novel in my head with plot, sub-plots, characters and many scenes complete. Three months later, it was completed and sold.

Since then I’ve completed 26 novels, 19 of which I’ve sold and had published so far. ‘Mystery’ will be my 20th. These days, it’s harder and I have concerns that my superpower is waning but then I come back with a new one and all is right with my strange world.

Short stories helped writer hone his craft

OCW: If you’ve been published, how did you find your first publisher?

AW: I wrote short stories in a writing group in Tasmania in the early 2000s. That honed my craft. Thinking I wanted to be famous, I sent a few to a national Australian woman’s magazine called That’s Life. A few rejections from them and others then an acceptance in 2012 for a fantasy idea called The Cool, Dark Place. What followed was encouragement and a regular home for my quirky writing across fantasy, cosy crime, humour and very emotional tales. I did almost 50 stories for That’s Life.

OCW: Do you edit as you write, or write and edit later?

AW: I have rheumatoid arthritis and have done virtually since my first publication. Add to that being a one-finger typist and typing becomes a struggle. Therefore, I have to be economical with my writing, meaning my first draft is close to my final one. I write and edit later but I might be writing chapter 13 while editing chapter 6 and fine-tuning chapter one. I can compartmentalise so it works. Strangely I have issues with character names, often forgetting who I’m writing about until I check my crib page. It's the only guide I use. The story is in my head, the names not so much.