Tell us something about you?
Words and books and language have always been a passion for mine. I think this is because I didn't have a chance to go to school until I was 6 years old. My brother and I were moved around a lot between London and Lisbon, so the opportunity to read and write was kept from me until then. By the time I started school, I was hungry and desperate to understand those black, squiggly lines in books. Within a year, I had the reading age of a fourteen year old, and my love of reading and writing was set. The first time I was taken to a public library (Hackney Central Library in Mare Street), the hunger for books was replaced with awe and wonder when I discovered how many books there must be in the world. Up to that point, I thought there might be about a hundred! My awe for these cathedrals of the written word continues today, and I am proud to be a patron of Halesworth Library in Suffolk. We need these special places more than ever.
My house is full of notebooks of all colours and sizes (it's like an addiction!), so I always have one nearby. An idea usually begins with a question or imagined conversation in my head. From this comes a character who might talk that way, and then I'm off! I always write with pen on paper first because I love the connection and flow from mind to brain to hand to page. It feels like a direct flow. Then I type into my laptop after a chapter or two, editing lightly as I type. Then back to the pen, back to the laptop, until I get to an ending worthy of an editor's eyes. Not every book or story gets finished, of course. There are probably five works in progress in a drawer, and another six in my head!
2. What are the parts you best enjoy and get moved by when writing?
Sometimes, during the writing of a play, short story or novel (I write in all three genres), there's a magical moment when a character comes to life off the page. Then it feels as if they're sitting at my desk with me, urging me on to tell their story. When this happens (and it doesn't always), it's as if the writer and the story and the character are all one. It's a very difficult thing to describe, but when it happens, the writing flows. Of course, the part I enjoy the most when writing anything is getting to those two glorious words: The End!
3 What are your thoughts on the use of AI when it comes to creative writing?
I could write a whole book on this alone! As an author who has had two novels illegally scraped by AI, I am not a fan, to put it mildly. The actual name is misleading, as there is nothing 'intelligent' about this Pandora's Box, neither is it creative. Even the creators of this technology are warning of the dangers of its use into the future. At best, it's a random regurgitating machine, and at worst, it's an absolute gift to the worst kind of criminality currently using the internet. Not to mention the disastrous consumption of energy and water that is required just to run it. I'll stop there before I upset someone!
4. Any advice for a new writer or someone with an idea to write a book?
The best advice I ever got as a new writer was this: If you want to be a writer, all you have to do is write and write and write. And when you're not writing, read!
And if you've got a great idea for a book, don't assume that you can write it. I do believe everyone has a story in them, but translating that into a novel is much harder than most people think. The idea is the fun part. So, if you have a great story but not the necessary skill to write it, find someone who can and work with them. But please don't feed into AI. Feed it to a human first...and good luck!
Jackie Carreira has published three novels, a collection of short stories, and numerous plays for theatre and radio that have been performed around the English-speaking world. Her novels are available to order from all good bookshops in the UK or online from the usual places.
