An Interview with Grant Hudson B.A. (Hons.)
(now specially extended!)
“As seen on BBC TV? Really?”
Yes! I was interviewed earlier this year for an item on BBC South East about this website! I’d written a press release about the launch of the site as part of the battle against plagiarism in schools, and it was such a hot item that within days I was interviewed for the BBC's Southern Counties Radio. I was also interviewed for local radio station Mercury FM and that was a news item all day, I think. Then, within a few days, a BBC film crew turned up and there I was on BBC One talking about it!
“What was the response after the story went out?”
If you add in the local press interest -the story was in three local newspapers- then I estimate that the interest in the website went up by several thousand percent! Things got jammed -I’m still trying to catch up!
“Who is it that uses your site?”
At the moment there’s a spectrum of people. Quite a lot of people want to write better -either novels or short stories or essays for school. At certain times of year, students who are having trouble with GCSE and A Level coursework contact me. Many people want to be better creative writers and have sent me material to look at or downloaded some of the free material on the site.
“What sort of response have you been getting to the free material?”
Very, very positive! Better than I thought possible, actually. You can see some of the comments on the home page of the site. I seem to be striking a nerve with the articles on the fundamentals of writing and how to immediately improve essay writing, for example. The free ebook is very popular and the Secrets Series is now attracting interest.
“Why is the response so positive? What makes your material different to all the other writing advice out there?”
Ah, that’s the big question! I think it’s because the Inner Circle Writers’ Group material is based on the underlying laws and principles of writing in ways which the other sources of writing advice aren’t. It’s not all about grammar or examiners’ rules or the kind of stuff you learned at school -it’s living, exciting and relevant and has to do with life as well as writing. There’s an energy in these ideas which most writing advice lacks. Where does the energy come from? Well, it’s largely from YOU, the reader, because when you read this material you recognise something about it and that gets you excited.
“What do you mean?”
Try it! Download the free ebook for a start. As soon as you’ve read it, you’ll see how it’s completely different to the usual writing courses and advice and more relevant to what you are actually running into. What is the most effective technique used by great authors throughout history, for example? Where exactly in your essay should you put your key ideas? Once you have read this advice, you can immediately apply it and see the results for yourself.
“You sound very confident. Why are you so sure that this material is so exciting?”
I’m not confident about anything that I haven’t seen work with my own eyes. The ideas that I’ve written up here for general use have all been “field-tested” in the classroom or with private students or individual writers. In one way or another I’ve been working with this material now for nearly thirty years. As it has developed, I’ve discovered what works and what doesn’t work. I’ve even managed to see through things which I used to think worked, but then gradually improved until they really did work! So people aren’t getting advice that hasn’t been proven to improve results.
“Where did it all start?”
A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away! No, it was back at school and university, I think, in the 1970s, that I began the research. I wondered, basically, why my favourite books had the effect on me that they had. It was curious -only some books had the precise effect I was looking for. I read widely in those days, looking for books that worked in this way, and gradually refining my reading down to the books and stories I could be sure of. Eventually I found I was re-reading the same few books! I didn’t feel that I could “waste time” on books which didn’t move me in a particular way. That was the beginning of my quest to find out what makes some books work and why others just don’t.
“How did things develop from there?”
Thanks to the scholarship I was lucky enough to be given by the Australian Government, I was able to research my favourite literature for several years! I developed a theory, or the beginnings of a theory, as to how certain writing worked, or how certain principles became visible in the actual structure and style of certain authors’ writings. I put this together as a thesis for a higher degree, but I was never quite happy with it and didn’t finish the thesis or the degree. It seemed to me that there had to be more to it: there had to be something, some set of principles, which applied not just to my favourite books but to literature as a whole, and that more general theory eluded me.
“What eventually brought it all together?”
Strangely enough, it was something which I write about in my books: one sure way to get the mind dipping deeply, making basic connections and coming up with really interesting material for writing is to get away from your ordinary life and push yourself to the limits in an unrelated area of life. I went on a weekend break to the Peak District -one of my favourite parts of the country, as you can read about in The Magic Hills: Adventures in Yorkshire and the Peak District- and planned a walk to places which seemed quite clear on the map. At that time, several years ago, snow lay all over England, from the South East where I lived to the moors of Yorkshire. I went up by train and set off from my hotel with my camera, eager to take pictures for my mother and father who still lived in Australia, but realised as soon as I set off that the camera had been broken somehow. So I decided that, rather than rely on photographs, I would focus mentally and try to record every possible detail as vividly as I could on my mind in order to be able to report them later to my parents.
“What happened?”
I set off on my walk, up through snow-laden fields, past houses where weak winter sunshine shone through windows onto blue, floral wallpaper, where small birds shivered in hedges and the cold wind rustled dried leaves. On the horizon far away I could see dark, wintry trees highlighted against slow-moving clouds which passed regularly over the sun, in that way which creates a searchlight effect on the white Yorkshire hillsides. I’ve never seen that exact effect on hillsides anywhere else in the world.
“What does this have to do with writing?”
That’s one of my points! Writing isn’t something which you can separate out, necessarily, from the rest of life. Writing and thinking and feeling are all interwoven. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I nearly killed myself -I walked twenty miles or more that day, through some of the loneliest and most beautiful country in Britain, from point to point on my map, each time arriving at what looked like civilisation only to find solitary, empty farmhouses which gave me no choice but to go on. You can read all about the rest of the adventures elsewhere if you like -it was what happened as a result of all this which is relevant to your question.
“You sat down and wrote a travel book?”
No. On the train on the way back from Yorkshire, I took out a notebook (another tip of mine is always travel with a notebook!) and ideas just began to pour out of my head onto the page. Within three hours, I had a notebook full of tiny writing and diagrams, and the core of the ideas presented here had been written down for the first time.
“What did you do with them?”
The very first thing I did, once I’d organised the notes into a presentable form, was present them to an A Level group in an experimental lesson. I wanted to reveal the central ideas to an intelligent group, just to see if I was on the right track or not.
“Did they get it?”
Yes. It was utterly remarkable. They were literally on the edges of their seats, open-mouthed. I knew I was onto something. I’d been worried that the basic ideas were just too esoteric or complex or perhaps even irrelevant to other readers -I was wrong. They couldn’t get enough. Realisations about literature, films, drama, culture and life flowed from them.
“What happened next?”
I thought I’d try the same lesson on a younger, GCSE class.
“But it was too much for them, right?”
On the contrary. They also were stunned. Their perceptions of the material they’d been studying for GCSE totally changed. And so, encouraged, I tried the same lesson on every class I had at that time. The results were the same, if not better, each time. Every group to which I have since given the same seminar have responded with equal or greater enthusiasm.
“So why didn’t you write this all up sooner?”
Life has a way of getting in the way of writing. Read about that in this material too! I had dozens of students encouraging me to get the book or books written. Some made it their life’s work to hassle me into doing it! But I prevaricated, I delayed, and I procrastinated. In the end, I researched just about every barrier that gets in a writer’s way, first-hand!
“So how did this website come about?”
A couple of years ago, in the process of getting married, I was looking for ways of generating extra income and came up with the idea of a website designed to help people with editing and proofreading their own work, whether that was business letters, student essays or creative writing. I got a fair response once I began, and made some money. But it became clear to me that the website, once it was up and running, was a perfect vehicle for getting many other ideas out there.
“What's the catch? Are you really giving away free information which is valuable?”
Yes, I am. Of course I want to make money from what I do, and I do. But when it comes to writing, there is so much to offer that much of what you'll find on this website is completely free. When people come to you and know that they can get really good advice for nothing, they are more inclined to come to you for more. That’s what tends to happen. The free ebook and ezines are packed with valuable ideas which I could charge a small fortune for, but the Secrets Series, for example, goes into much more depth and is worth even more.
“What do most people do?”
Many start and finish with the free ebook, “7 Steps to Improve Your Writing and Be More Successful”. Others continue by signing up for the free “More Results” newsletter and get better writing results on a continuing basis. Some buy the books and empower themselves properly as writers.
“So we can ask you our own questions about writing for free too?”
Yes, you can, and if it's about writing -essays, stories, novels, business letters, etc. etc.- I'll try to answer it. And if I can't, I'll try to find the answer from somewhere else! But there is probably only a narrow window of time when this will be possible, because I am getting too busy to do this personally much longer! That’s another reason why I’d like more people to join the Inner Circle Writers’ Group -I need more members because I’m going to need more help!
“What else is for free?”
Take the Writing Test or send me a sample of your work for a free assessment. If you have a completed essay for English Literature, for example, I'll mark it and let you know what you would get -and why! But I can’t see myself doing this for more than a few more weeks, just because of the volume of work.
“How do I get better results with my writing?”
Big question! It depends on whether you are really interested in improving your writing skills and why you are writing. If you write creatively or for school or university, if you're a professional or amateur writer, student, tutor or teacher or provide writing services of any kind, do you want to generate more interest? Or attract more readers? Do you want to get better academic results? Or do you just have some idea of “making it” with writing? I want to help you upgrade your writing successfully with the ideas on this website for getting more attention, attracting more readers and achieving better results.
“Where should I start?”
If you're new to this web site I suggest you start by signing up for the free writing ebook, “7 Steps to Improve Your Writing and Be More Successful”. With it you'll have the key strategies and ideas you need to become a master writer, and take your writing to the next level, all for free. The “7 Steps” ebook is the first tool I'd recommend but then I suggest you read the other writing ideas and articles on this web site. You'll find them packed with low and no-cost writing tips. If you are really interested after that -and most people are- then buy the Secrets Series, either individually or together.
“What is the 'Secrets' Series?”
It’s my attempt to put all of this together, with adequate depth and with lots of examples. The series is also structured as a course: each book is a course, and together they form a long course which I’ve called (rather grandiosely, I suppose) the Ultimate Writing System. If you get these books and do the courses, you’ll be as empowered as I can make you on the subject -though of course I’m developing new material all the time!
“When you say ‘Secrets’ what do you mean?”
As long as there has been Mankind there have been stories, right? Some say that 88% of our communications with each other are non-verbal and therefore not related to words at all, but human beings have been trying for millennia to capture experience and imagination using words. There are literally millions, perhaps billions of stories out there, and thousands -perhaps hundreds of thousands- of ideas therefore on “how to write successfully”. Almost everyone you meet will have some opinion on the subject. But what actually happens in fiction? What really makes stories work? Why are some stories better than others?
“So what makes a great writer?”
Exactly! How did the great writers become great? Are there any guidelines or even rules which make that greatness more accessible to any writer?
“Can you let us in on any of these ‘Secrets’ now?”
You’ll have to buy the books for that! But I can tell you this: great works, when examined, can be seen to be based on foundations which are held in common with other great works. Even lesser but still popular works tend to follow the same guidelines.
“Are these secrets complex?”
No -they are actually amazingly straightforward.
“Is there, then, some sort of a ‘magic wand’ which will transform any kind of writing into a classic?”
Sort of, yes! I’m not going to claim that you’ll be automatically successful, of course -there is some work involved on your part -but I can promise to open your eyes to some amazing stuff. You could cull through tons of written material to discover the same ideas yourself, but it’s already been done for you right here, and much more too.
“Are we talking about turning creative writing into a science?”
Just as there is a science involved in building a complex machine, so there is a kind of science involved in writing a successful story. It’s something that can be learned. Of course, there’s something “mysterious” and artistic involved too, but there are also some core principles upon which it all depends.
“Aren’t all writers different?”
Yes, unique in fact -as people and as writers. What one has to say, while it may hold many elements in common with what is said by others, will have a uniqueness of its own. But certain underlying principles are at work. Exactly how these patterns interweave, what they are trying to do and how they work together, is what this is all about.
“Why is your writing advice special?”
INNER CIRCLE WRITERS' GROUP |