At the age of about 21, when I still had a luxuriant head of hair, I started having stories and poems published in the small press, although I was always working on longer stuff. My big break came in 1993 when an editor at Virgin commissioned my two Doctor Who books. After that I wrote half of The Cut which got me an agent, Caroline Montgomery, who sold The Cut to Penguin Books. It’s a dark story of teenage alienation and murder in an English coastal town, and it seemed to strike a chord with a youngish readership. This was followed by Losing Faith (Hamish Hamilton), a story of love, loss and nostalgia. I wrote non-fiction for a while, and The Encyclopaedia of Classic 80s Pop was published by A&B in 2002, with an expanded and revised paperback edition in 2004. My latest books are Dadlands: the Alternative Handbook for First-Time Fathers (Wiley, 2005) and I Hate Christmas (A&B, 2005).
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My new novel This Is the Day is scheduled for publication in early 2007. It’s a story about what happens to a modern, normal British family in Blair’s Britain when everything they take for granted – money, love, security – is suddenly whisked away from them and they have to re-invent their life. I hope it’s very poignant, but also very funny – it’s full of stuff about how men and women, and parents and children, misunderstand one another.
Thanks to my writing, I’ve got to do lots of exciting things – such as talking to groups of aspiring writers, appearing on the radio and in the papers, and co-presenting an 80s music show on BBC Local Radio. I have also taught writing classes for the WEA and Sheffield College, and will be working as a Writer In Sheffield Schools for the first time in 2007.
My inspiration? Well, that comes from far and wide – what I read, what I hear and see, fragments of ideas I jot down which sometimes resonate. I once pinched a friend’s wedding-speech almost word-for-word for a scene in Losing Faith.
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The best thing about writing, especially novels, is the huge creative freedom it gives you to explore a world you have totally made up and to treat it as real! The worst thing is the lack of career stability and guidance – there is almost no advice out there about how to maintain a career as a writer, and there is certainly no salary structure or any financial safety-net, unless you create one by having other jobs. Most writers I know do something else apart from writing, and that’s how they keep the Bad Wolf from the door.
I like to write on my computer in the attic of my house, which is reached by a perilously creaky wooden staircase. From the window I can see the beautiful Loxley Valley and the countryside towards Bradfield, and I like to have a good supply of tea and biscuits handy while writing.
I’ve been married since 1998 and live on the edge of Sheffield with my wife Rachel and our two very demanding young children. I’m working on lots of new writing projects, including new non-fiction proposals – and a book for older children, if that ever happens!
Website: www.danielblythe.moonfruit.com
Representation: Caroline Montgomery at Rupert Crew Ltd. info@rupertcrew.com
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Try Dan's writing exercise
I’ve decided to set an exercise which is all about economy of writing. Many people over-write when they start out – they use too many words, too many adjectives and adverbs. They tell us too much back-story rather than showing us.
 I’d like you to have a go at writing a story of just 200 words. Yes, just 200! (OK, I’m not going to quibble if you go to 205, but keep it as close as you can.)
Make it as quirky or as offbeat as you like, but it must be a STORY in which something happens – and not just a fragment of descriptive prose or an extract from a longer piece.
You don’t have to have named characters in it, and it doesn’t need to be obvious who the narrator is, but there should be something in it which makes the reader sit up and pay attention. It can be based on an experience from your life, or totally invented.
If you want to have a look at how this sort of thing is done really well, check out James Kelman’s (rather grisly) story ‘Acid’ from Not Not While the Giro (1983), or any of the stories in Dan Rhodes’ recent collections Anthropology (2000) and Don’t Tell Me The Truth About Love (2002).
If you want to send me your piece when you’ve finished, I’d love to see it.
For some tips, have a look here: http://web.mit.edu/mbarker/www/writers/tech970803.txt or for examples try here http://budgie_uk.livejournal.com/534913.html
Have fun, and good luck!
Best wishes
Dan
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