Author Interview: Joe Chadwick

“The trees were as old as they were tall, reaching far beyond the mottled sky. Their branches were all but bare and looked like long, crooked fingers, stroking and scratching their surroundings. Hamish couldn’t help but imagine how regal they would look once re-clothed in their autumn finery.”

The day is Wednesday 14th April, 2021. It is the publication day for The Briarmen, an exciting new novel by debutant author Joseph Chadwick, 25. I was able to have a quick chat with Joseph in which we discussed his new book and the writing process.

The novel itself is a fantasy-adventure blend following the lives of Hamish – a young boy who is evacuated to the small and unassuming village of Brombury in 1939 – and Penny, whose mother takes Hamish in. Their initial distaste for each other soon blossoms into an unbreakable bond as they venture into the mysterious forest on the outskirts of the village, sparking a chain of events, secrets and lies beyond anything they believed possible.

The Briarmen is already gaining significant traction on Instagram, particularly on the subsection of the photo-sharing app known as “Bookstagram”, a place for authors and readers alike to share their thoughts and reviews. In the age of social media, this is a hugely important online space for a novel, especially a debut novel, to occupy so for Chadwick’s book to impress there speaks volumes for the impact it is having.

Q: How did you get into writing?

As far back as I can remember I had always enjoyed creating my own stories, although writing wasn’t something I seriously considered pursuing until university. I started university in 2013, albeit with little idea of what to do afterwards. I was studying history, simply because it was the subject I had done best in at college, with a minor in film, simply because I liked watching films. However, upon arriving at University I was told there was a gap in my timetable and that I would need to pick up another subject in order to fill it out. I was given a long list of subjects, ranging from business studies to Japanese, and somewhere amongst this long list I saw ‘Creative Writing’. Well, I liked stories, so that would do. Within a few months it had firmly become my favourite subject, so I dropped film and picked up as many Creative Writing classes as possible. Over the course of three years I studied writing for all mediums, and by the time I left university I decided it was something I’d like to pursue. My first minor success came when a short, darkly comic stage play I wrote won a playwriting contest and was produced and performed.

Q: What does your writing process look like?

Just… write. With The Briarmen I found that getting up and writing in the morning tended to be more productive, though that being said there were certainly times I wrote late into the night and managed to get a good amount done. I find planning really useful, personally I need to know where the story is going in order to write it, so I tend to start projects with a basic plan, which usually grows and becomes more detailed as the draft gets longer, evolving into a plan for each chapter.

Q: The book is being described by many as ‘A fairy tale for adults’. What age group did you have in mind when writing the novel?

I didn’t really think all that much about it, honestly, but I think ‘A fairy tale for adults’ sums it up perfectly. Although the two protagonists are young, I knew it wasn’t a children’s book, but that being said it is my hope that the themes can be appreciated by old and young alike. I’ve seen a lot of reviewers say that they’d recommend it to all ages, and I’d like to think that’s the case.

Q: What do you find most difficult about writing?

When sitting down to write I find the first few words to be the hardest. There were many occasions in The Briarmen where I really had to force myself to get those lines down. I liken it to running. If you don’t fancy a run, you really have to force yourself to take those first few steps, but once they are out of the way you can easily find yourself running for miles. Writing is the same, more often than not I’m not ‘in the mood’ to write. It’s just about pushing yourself to take those first few steps, or words in this case.

Q: What sort of challenges do you regularly overcome while designing your world/setting?

With this story being set in a quaint, albeit fictional, English village in 1939, the biggest challenge was trying to make the time period seem authentic. For me, it was getting the minor details right, although luckily nowadays it is very easy to research these things extensively, and I found myself reading through loads of first-hand accounts written by evacuees, which were really helpful in building the world that the evacuees in my story would inhabit.

Q: How different does the final novel look from the first draft?

Very different where it counts, thankfully! It’s a cliché, but it’s definitely true that most of writing is rewriting. I did try not to rewrite until the first draft was done, as I found it kept things moving, although on occasion I would realise I had to go back and change something in order for what I was planning on writing to make sense. In the end there was probably around ten drafts.

Q: There’s an array of vastly different characters in the novel, all with differing motivations. Did you have a favourite to write?

I really enjoyed writing all of the characters for different reasons. Some of my favourite scenes to write were the chapters involving the Inspector and the characters involved in that whole sub plot, and equally it was fun to write the more fantastical chapters featuring the Briarmen. What surprised me the most was how much I enjoyed writing the character of Penny. Trying to find the right voice for a teenage girl during WW2 was something I thought I might struggle with, but once I started I found her to be a fascinating character to explore.

Q: What are you reading at the moment?

I’m reading a couple of things at the moment: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and I recently started Cows Can’t Jump by Phillip Bowne. Wildly different but I’m enjoying them both!

Q: What's the most useful advice you could give to an aspiring

author?

Again it would be just to write. This is, of course, harder than it sounds, but that’s all there is to it. There are some exercises I found useful, for example setting myself a minimum amount of words to write each day, nothing crazy, anywhere from 250 to 500. I found when I did that I would, more often than not, exceed the minimum amount I had set myself. Also, if you find that you’ve hit a wall, try writing about a different character, or start a completely new scene, even if you don’t end up using it. But ultimately it comes back to just write, even if what you write is rubbish. Which it probably will be. But that’s better than nothing, and you can only make it less rubbish when you go back to edit it.

Q: The Briarmen has been received really well with reviewers, especially on ‘bookstagram’. A lot of these reviewers are saying they’d love to see more of the Briarmen. Do you plan on writing a sequel?

I’ve no plans for a sequel at the moment, but it has been amazing to see such a great response, so you never know! I’d definitely like to write more, and I do have a few projects in the early stages, although they are completely different from The Briarmen.