Nick Sturley is the author of Milan, a genre bending novel. His forthcoming novel, Innocents of Oppression, is released on 26th October.
Tell me about yourself.
I?m, 44, profoundly Deaf BSL user. I also have Usher syndrome. I live in South Croydon, but grew up in Cornwall although I spent my secondary and further education at Burwood Park School and College in Surrey. I trained in a two-year professional film and television course in Gateshead before setting up a short-lived Europe?s first all-Deaf production company with four other Deaf graduates from the course. I also worked for the BDA, firstly the 4-year Usher in the Deaf Community Project then the Multimedia Information Officer at their then London base. I took a premature retirement from work in 1999 due to a big change in my vision. I love reading and writing, watching movies and supporting my beloved Plymouth Argyle football club.
What kind of writing do you do?
I have written two novels, a stalled Deaf children?s ebook series, scripts (for BSLBT to which I also directed) and have written articles for BDN and Limping Chicken. I also wrote three successful pantomimes, two for London Deaf Drama Group and the other for the BDA. I have edited three different newsletters. I also manage three websites.
How did you get started writing? What or who inspired you to start?
I?ve always had the fascination towards writing. According to my mother, I started to become fascinated with letters and words from the age of five. I was a very demanding young child who wanted to learn more and more words which, I think, was quite unusual for any profoundly deaf child of that age, as they tended not to be much interested in them because their parents couldn?t communicate with them to help them understand English due to being told by the so-called professionals not to use sign to their deaf child. I practically wore my parents out with my demands for more new words!
At Burwood Park School, which was a boarding school for Deaf boys aged 11-16 in Surrey, I loved English lessons even though all lessons were in oral. This English teacher would sometimes tell a great story (with a class of nine boys wearing headphones and the teacher holding the microphone ? in hindsight, these never worked for us anyway!) and I would always absorb in the stories, usually science fiction or real life discoveries and inventions (such as Marie Currie and Albert Einstein).
Although he told them orally, I was lucky enough to already have a good command of English unlike most of my Form (and most of the boys at the school as I was one of the very few who had good English language skills) so I was able to understand the context behind the orally spoken words. Then we all had to write our own versions in the evening prep based on what he?d said. Unlike many others in my Form, I would always write pages and pages, even extending his own story version! For example, the others would average a page or two of lined paper (no computers back then), but I would always end up with three to six pages. With the teacher always having to mark an average total of 45 boys? homework each week (mostly with poor command of English), I think he was sometimes irritated by having to mark as twice as much on mine than any other boys!
At the same school, I was the Editor for their weekly newsletter for a year and each issue averaged 14 pages a week, almost twice the usual number before and after I was the Editor (Up to until the school?s closure in 1996, I still hold the school record for the most number of pages in a year) but guess who has had to proof read the typed pages before going to print? Yes, the same English teacher and he sometimes complained to me to cut down a bit but I never did. It was a great way of learning more about writing.
What has been the biggest obstacle for you?
I think it?s the lack of my fluency in writing one hundred percent perfect English. Yes, I do write good English, but not one hundred percent perfect. I would say around eighty percent, to be honest. I can?t write BA degree-level English nor can do those smart and fancy words. I?m a very creative writer, but there are times when I get really stuck with a sentence, grammar or context. I had that problem sometimes when I was writing Innocents of Oppression, but thankfully with the help of my proofreaders and editors, they were able to help address these issues.
A good story structure is very important otherwise your reader would lose interest. Structuring Innocents of Oppression was really tough because, although the core story is in a linear time, there is a huge maze of interweaving subplots and backstories told by a core group of characters that are relevant to the book?s core themes. This isn?t unusual in novels, of course, but it was a real challenge to keep them together and make them really compelling as possible. My first novel Milan had a cleverly engineered structure as it spans between three different time points and it was a tough one to write.
Do you write full time or do you have a day job?
As said before, I?m in premature retirement although I?ve done two short films for BSLBT. I simply write to stop me from dying of boredom!
How do you network?
Through the internet and email. They?re very crucial for me because they?re the window to my world. Social networking such as Facebook is also important to me because it?s a good way to connect with other people, including Deaf writers.
What inspires you? How do you find inspiration or ideas?
Well, I found when I was writing Innocents of Oppression over two years that it?s quite true that writers get better inspiration during the early hours of the morning such as six o?clock. I often did that. Most mornings, I would wake up, grab coffee, go straight to my home office and type away with ideas flooding in like waterfalls. I struggle when I?m writing in the late afternoon or evening, so I always made the point of stopping if I felt I couldn?t get ideas into my head and then left it till the next morning.
It?s also down to finding the right source material that is relevant to the story. Innocents of Oppression is a powerful and controversial story set in an oral boys? boarding school during the late 1970s. So, along with my own experiences in an oral boarding school, there were loads and loads of source material at my disposal for this type of story: the Deaf education, the real-life experiences by many Deaf and hearing people I ?interviewed, the real history with regards to the state of British education and politics during the 1970s, the real Deaf history of that era as well as before and after this decade, the ?I Love the 1970s? nostalgia (I had real fun reminiscing all those memories of toys, films and clothes we had at that time!) and so much more. They all gave me plenty of ideas and inspiration to attribute them into the story. Putting them together was a very challenging and time consuming process and it has taken me about two years to do, but?I?m?really proud of what?I?ve?achieved to a great extent.
Good research with plenty of accurate facts is extremely important if you want to write a really good novel. Innocents of Oppression mixes fact with fiction and it was very important to get the historical aspects right. There was, however, a moment when I discovered there was a major historical inaccuracy in one of the chapters a few days before the deadline of completing the manuscript last June ? I went into a state of panic and had to rewrite the entire part of the chapter in one evening. This inaccuracy was spotted by one of my contacts in America who was helping me out on America side of things (Gallaudet in the mid-70s is featured in the story). Thankfully, this was sorted out, so it was important to have good contacts around the world to help with the information you need.
How has your deaf identity helped your writing?
A great deal. Although I come from a hearing family, I grew up in the Deaf world. I went to two Deaf schools (one day and the other boarding as mentioned earlier), worked with many Deaf people and so on. This has enabled me to know what to write about them, their culture, language and identity. Innocents of Oppression has plenty of descriptions of the language barriers between Deaf and hearing people, their typical ways (such as waving at another or stamping foot on floor for attention, their general temperament and their mindset) and how they live and breathe as Deaf people. The book is full of them that, I think, will give a reader who knows little or nothing about Deaf people a greater sense of their identity. Many of the Deaf boys characters in the story represent what we are.
I?m really hoping that people reading the new book will have mixed opinions. Many, if not all, Deaf people will probably herald it because they know many aspects in the story are based on real-life experiences. Those, Deaf or hearing, who went to boarding school know what it?s like and will agree to many certain aspects in the story. Hearing people such as teachers of the deaf, whether they can sign or not, will relate to some of the teacher characters in the story.
Those who know the real issues within Deaf education will agree to almost everything that is written about it. However, it?s those who refuse to believe the real truth behind the wider issues such as the continued failure of oralism or those who believe the deaf ?don?t do these such things? (such as the deaf can?t learn through sign or deal with sexual issues) will almost certainly dispute them. The book also acts like a campaign to address many issues ? not only Deaf education, but also the legal recognition of BSL and raising Deaf awareness in many different ways.
What does a typical writing day look like to you? Do you have habits or a routine?
To put it quite simply, when I was writing Innocents of Oppression, my typical day would be; I wake up at six or seven in the morning, eat cereal and have coffee, continue writing where I had left off from the day before, get dressed, back to work, two more coffees in the morning, lunch for thirty minutes, back to writing until five o?clock ? I always stop writing on the dot even if I hadn?t finished a sentence, have a rest or go out in the evenings. I didn?t allow myself to go back into my home office in the evenings although I did do occasional writing (if there was nothing on telly!), but that was about it. The real danger of working in the evenings for me is that I tend to get really tired in the next morning if I work in the evening, so it was very important to have a good balance of work, rest and play.
Do you have a special memory connected to writing?
Too many to mention, but the strongest memory I have at the moment is writing my first novel, Milan in a crazy short period of time ? four months ? based on a script that I had written years before, did the book layout all by myself and had it self-published with my own money. This was an experience that I would never forget and never do again. There are pros and cons of self and mainstream publishing and?they?ve?always been debated by many, but for me,?I?ve?been there, done it with self-publishing although we?re now moving to digital publishing such as eBooks, which?doesn?t?require a great deal of expense. I did, though, get good revenue from selling my Milan book, but it?s not something that I would like to venture into again.
The reception my first book got was hugely positive because the writing style was really accessible to Deaf people. It also had a Visual Glossary section which had illustrations and graphical plans of the characters and structure to help the reader visualize the complicated text descriptions in the story better. On the other hand, though, I?ve had some hearing readers who felt that they were a bit confused about the writing style because they were more used to the heavy novelization format, so they sort of ended up skimming through! It was really interesting to observe the differences in their reading perception between Deaf and hearing people. The book enabled me to win the Deaf and Disability Awards 2006 for the Literacy Artist of the Year.
I?m very grateful for Action Deafness Books for giving me the chance to publish Innocents of Oppression with them, as many mainstream or niche publishers are quite choosy on the new and aspiring authors.
If you could interview anyone, who would it be?
It?s very difficult to choose as there are so many that I would love to interview including those who are no longer with us but off the top of my head, it would have to be the Christopher and Jonathan Nolan brothers (director and screenwriter respectively of Batman trilogy). They?re brilliant at structuring their stories and writing sharp dialogue and I?d really love to learn more from them. Inception was truly indigenous writing. I also would love to interview Stephen King, but I know I?d get ?off? answers from him having been to his rare UK appearance event in London a few years ago and he was in interview mode (we had a BSL interpreter there). The interviewer struggled to get straight answers from the man himself. At least, I got the chance to meet him, got his Lisey?s Story novel signed and shook hands with him.
What is the hardest part of writing for you?
The proof reading, of course! Writing is the easy part; proof reading is the hard part. Innocents of Oppression has about 215,000 words ? more than Harlan Lane?s famous When The Mind Hears: History of the Deaf, so you can imagine how painstaking that was. It has taken me and about five or six other proofreaders (including TeamHado to which I was successful in my application for a grant from The Author?s Fountain to pay for their services) about nine months to read through, but it was extremely important that the book was in good shape.
However, for me, I got really weary after a fifth or so round of proofreading (remember it?s a 215,000 word book, so I?ve literally read well over a million words of the same book) and I sometimes came to the point when I really got sick of the book, but I knew it had to be done. I?m glad that it?s all over now, thank goodness for that!
There had been some really tough moments writing Innocents of Oppression, particularly the child sex abuse backstory, however, there was one same moment that kept coming back to me: the emotions. There are some really strong emotional and tear-inducing scenes. All authors who write novels have to play all the characters to bring out their personality, behaviour and dialogue. So in the emotional scenes, I actually had to argue, scream in both sign and spoken (not that I can speak well, but it helps to bring out dialogue from hearing people) and cry at my computer. This had drained me emotionally and mentally, but I think it was well worth the effort because this has given the book a really good emotional depth.
What is the best thing about being a writer?
The freedom of what you like to write and letting loose creativity and ideas. You also get to throw stuff out of your brain into the computer and it?s kind of fun doing it.
What advice would you give to an emerging deaf writer or young writer?
You don?t get rich from writing a book unless you write Harry Potter or Fifty Shades of Grey because the publishers don?t pay royalties well. After I had self-published my Milan book, I was often asked whether I was now rich or how many books I had sold. The reality of it is, whether your book is published by a mainstream, niche or a self-publishing company, you never get rich from it. But it?s the satisfaction of having written a book with your name screaming across the top and being read by many people ? that is always good enough for me.
But this shouldn?t discourage aspiring Deaf writers. Deaf novels are a rarity, so I would really like to see more Deaf authors writing big novels. Innocents of Oppression paints a realistic portrait of the poor state of Deaf education in Britain, so I?d like to see more Deaf novels that are based on reality.
Do you have any favourite authors or books?
I?m not much of a reader of classic books as I prefer modern ones. I can?t digest Shakespeare, not keen on Austen although I do like Charles Dickens but that?s because he has painted a realistic picture of Victorian London (a part of history that I?ve always been interested in). I prefer to read horror fiction and real-life stories.
James Herbert is my favourite author. He?s the greatest British horror author of all time and is my biggest inspiration. Not that I can write horror fiction (I can?t really!), but it?s his unique and accessible writing style that inspires me. It was his first novel, The Rats (1974) that actually made me start writing Innocents of Oppression. It wasn?t those big black mutant rats that attacked and chomped up poor people in East End London that gave me the idea to write about a close friendship between two teenage deaf boys in an oral boarding school during the late 70s ? far from it as I already had the story in place for over ten years before that ? it was James Herbert?s fantastic easy-on-the-eye storytelling that got me typing away. I?ve never met him yet, but it would be a great honour to have a cuppa or a pint with him!
I also liked Suzanne Collins? The Hunger Games trilogy. I really loved the first person perspective written in the present tense style. It was a different kind of reading experience for me.
I?m very, very fortunate to have an iPad with Kindle app, as I?m now able to read as many books as I want using my preferred set typeface. Before the iPad2 arrived, I hadn?t read novels for some years due to my deteriorating vision and I?ve had to rely on electronic reading aids to read them but it?s a slow process. But now, ever since I received the iPad2 back in March 2011, I?ve read seven James Herbert novels, the entire Hunger Games trilogy and a few other books in one and half years on top of writing Innocents of Oppression as well as proof reading it in the iPad. Purists would speak up against the rapid emergence of ebooks which is now officially more popular than printed books, but for me and others like me, it?s a massive boon.
What do you consider the most important piece of advice?you?ve?received?
When I was writing and proofreading Innocents of Oppression, I had very good advice from a good friend, Shane Gilchrist, on many aspects such as not to write too much irrelevant rubbish (as some authors tended to do), put in too much information and to watch out for the context pragmatics. It?s very easy to overlook these three aspects unless someone else points them out and say ?No, you can?t write that!? I really learnt a lot from this.
What is next for you? What are you looking forward to in the future?
At of this moment, I don?t know. It depends on what happens after when Innocents of Oppression is published. But what I?d really like to do is to write something lighter, like a children?s book series or something like that for a change. Innocents of Oppression has been really heavy work, so I want to take a break from it. I also would like to go back to writing scripts, which is my first fare, for BSLBT or a production company.
How can we contact you? (Website, Twitter, Facebook?)
Author Website: sturley.co.uk.
Book Website: innocentsofoppression.com
Facebook: facebook.com/innocentsofoppression
Twitter: @nicksturley
Source: http://destinyischoice.co.uk/2012/10/12/writer-interviews-nick-sturley/
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