Love a Happy Ending Lifestyle Magazine August 2013 | Page 4

GUEST INTERVIEW
We’re kicking off the summer fun by talking to author
Ben Hatch - who is guaranteed to make you smile!
Hi Ben, thanks so much for coming to visit us today. I
have to ask the question – how does it feel to have one of
your books made into a movie?
I’ll let you know when/if it happens. So far Are We Nearly
There Yet? has been optioned by Island Pictures and a
treatment
is
being
worked
on and although
there’s a long
way to go it is
exciting imagining
seeing it on the screen and maybe Sue Pollard
playing my wife. I should add although I want Sue
Pollard to play my wife, my wife does not want Sue
Pollard to play her and gets cross when I talk
about:
a) Miss Cathcart and b) red coats.
Writing a manuscript is only the start and it’s a long
and bumpy road – what would be your top 5 tips
for the ‘writer’s survival list’?
1. Get yourself an understanding partner. And by
understanding I mean one prepared to live with a
human being that will spend a lot of their life sat
down in a dressing gown covered in toast crumbs,
bending paperclips out of shape and mumbling
about a problem in their story arc. Also this partner
will have to accept they will probably always be
broke.
2. Be prepared to be rejected a lot. You will be rejected by literary agents, by publishers. You
will be rejected by bookshops, by supermarket book buyers, by book reviewers and by
readers. Ultimately your own family and friends will despair of you. Although they won’t
actually tell you to abandon your dream to be a writer they will certainly think this. They will
demonstrate this lack of faith in you by asking “How’s the? …” and then mimicking writing in
the air. This will be because they are far too embarrassed at your delusional state of mind to
mention the word “book”.
3. Get used to procrastinating. If there is anything to be done other than writing your book
you will do it. And you will do it right away. You will fix wobbly handles back onto doors right
away, make dental appointments. You will volunteer to do the Tesco shop. You will spend
time on twitter and Facebook. You will talk to the postman, to cold callers, to the man