Lizzie Enfield

Lizzie talks to Paragraph Planet about her novel 'Living with it'

It's about living with decisions made in the past which come back to haunt you. The plot revolves around one of the central character's, decision not to have her children vaccinated. This leads ultimately to the baby of her husband's best friend, also her former lover, catching measles and becoming completely deaf. The book examines how the two sets of couples, their friends and their families deal with the resulting fall out.

What's your favourite part of the writing process?

I am inclined to say finishing! But perhaps it's working on the final draft, knowing it's all coming together and what started life as a vague idea is on the final stretch to becoming a book.

How important is being a good at marketing for a writer?

If you've written the most brilliant book but no one knows about it, they won't buy or read it. You need to do what you can to get noticed. So you have to become a bit of a book tart, which goes against the grain but, there you goÉ Please buy my book and I'll do whatever you ask in return!

You write articles (Writing magazine, The Guardian etc) as well as novels. What are the similarities/differences between an article and a novel?

Writing articles is a great antidote to the long term project of writing a book and generally more sociable too. It's satisfying being able to pitch, research, write and see something into print in a matter of days and engage with the word while you are at it. I think each type of writing benefits the other though. I think a bit more creatively about my journalism these days and the interest journalism breeds feed into the novels.

What's your next project? Any clues?

It's a love story involving a certain amount of quantum physics! You did say clues...

Lizzie's website can be found here and you can follow her on twitter.