Scottish Writers > Catherine MacPhail Author Profile

I always wanted to be a writer. But when I was a wee girl growing up in Greenock I didn't think wee lassies who lived up closes with their mammies and their three sisters could become writers. I didn't know then that you can be anything you want to be if you just work hard enough at it and believe in yourself. It took me a long time to have the confidence to start sending my stories away. In fact it was only after the youngest of my three children was born that I joined the Greenock Writers' Club, and that was a major turning point in my life. After that I tried just about every kind of writing but I was beginning to realise that I loved writing comedy and I eventually ended up with two series on Radio 2 called My Mammy and Me, a comedy about a mother and daughter who live up a high flat. I love writing comedy and I'm always looking for characters I can use in my writing. I think character is the most important thing in a story. I get lots of ideas for stories, but it is only when I find the right character that my story begins to come alive. Character creates story.

Cathy MacPhail answers your questions

What inspired you to become a writer?

Reading books and going to the pictures. I always wanted to change something about them. What if Beth hadn't died in Little Women? I never wanted her to. Or if Heathcliff and Cathy had got together in Wuthering Heights. Or if Jane Eyre had been beautiful? It would have become a whole different story. And that really fascinated me, how one little change in something or someone can create a whole new set of circumstances and become a completely new story.

What was your favourite book when you were growing up?

That's an easy one. Little Women. It was about four sisters, without a father and one of them wanted to be a writer. And I was one four sisters without a father and I was desperate to be a writer. Then I discovered Pride and Prejudice and Mr Darcy, and that still has to be my favourite book. I can re-read it again and again and always get something new out of it.

Where do you get your ideas?

From real life. From observing things and listening to people. People are so clever with their use of language without even realising it. I once heard someone say: "Och, you'll know him, he's got teeth like a row of condemned hooses." Now, if that guy walked into your house I bet you'd recognise him too! I thought that was brilliant so I wrote it down and used it. I do that all the time. I think I've got a brain like a pot of stew. I see a character, or a situation which gives me an idea, but I don't know how to use it. So I throw it into the pot of stew and let it simmer away and I'll know when the time is right for it to be used in something. I kept reading headlines in our local paper about the neighbours from hell who had moved into the high flats that I could see from my window. They were terrorising the decent people who lived there. That went into the pot and ended up as Fighting Back.

What made you write Fugitive?

My dad died when I was two so I never really knew him, but as I was growing up I used to imagine he hadn't died at all, that one day he'd come back and he'd be the best looking, the most talented, the smartest man in the world. I could imagine him anything I wanted. But what if he turned out to be the complete opposite? A nightmare of a dad? So it was easy for me to imagine how Jack felt. Also, boys who are always with their mothers are considered 'mummy's boys', the taunt that Lizzie Ferrier is always throwing at Jack. In Jack's case the opposite is true. He has a great relationship with his mother, but the taunt annoys him just the same. These two ideas just gelled together and once I had the characters of Jack and Big Rose, I knew I had to write the book.

Were Jack and Big Rose based on real people?

Jack and Big Rose were based on my friend and her son. (I dedicated the book to them) and the incident about crossing the bridge going to the pictures really did happen. They always have made me laugh so much, but it was that which made me decide to use them in the book. And once I had the characters the story just took off. I always think, for me it is the characters who create the story.

Did they mind being used in a book?

Not at all, as long as they got 10% of everything I made from the book (They wish!)

What's the best book you've ever written?

Books are like your babies. You can't pick a favourite, at least I can't. But I suppose I'll always have a soft spot for Run Run because it was my first, it was about my daughter, Katie, and it changed my life so much.

What's the most important bit of a book: the start or the finish?

One is as important as the other. You have to hook your reader with a great beginning, so that they want to read more. At the beginning of Fugitive I wanted to show that the book was going to be funny, to show the relationship between Jack and Big Rose, and also to intrigue the reader into wondering if Jack was really going to have an adventure in his life. And you have to satisfy your reader with a really good ending. I hope Fugitive has an ending that is exciting and finally funny. I loved writing about the school show. What they say is: the beginning of your book makes them want to read on, and the end makes them want to read the next one.

What would you be if you weren't a writer?

If I wasn't paid to write, I'd still write books. What do I do in my spare time? I write. What is my hobby? Writing. I just love it. So, what would I be if I wasn't a writer? Bored stiff.

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