Time to Write: Emily Winslow's 49 lessons for writing a novel
Crime writer Emily Winslow visited the Intellectual Forum on 19 October to give a packed audience a taste of a few of the 49 lessons on how to write a novel in her new book Time to Write.
Emily has published four crime novels and a memoir with major international publishers. Born and raised in the US, she now lives in Cambridge and teaches for the Cambridge Creative Writing Company and the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, where she's recently been made Course Director for the Crime and Thriller Writing master’s degree. The lessons in her book came out of her own experience as an author and her time teaching creative writing.
During her talk, Emily shared practical tips from her book and told personal stories about how she has built her career as an author. Answering an audience member's question about how to get through writer's block, she recalled her own experience of feeling uninspired while writing the fourth novel in her crime series. She got through it by relying on discipline and writing with friends to get words onto the page—and now, she said, many people tell her is the best of the series!
After the event, Emily signed copies of Time to Write as well as her novels and memoir.
“What a great talk and so much priceless advice about writing", one of the attendees commented. Emily "had such verve too and a good sense of humour that helped carry everything along".
