Flaming Nora: How soap operas influence my novels

Monday, October 19, 2020

How soap operas influence my novels

I’ve been a fan of Coronation Street since before I can remember. It was the show I used to watch with my mum and grandma, all three of us huddled on the sofa. My grandma and I used to love Elsie Tanner, the wicked woman of Weatherfield, no better than she ought to be. She had a string of men in her past and I loved the naughtiness of Elsie, the cheek of her.

I went on to write TV tie-in books about Coronation Street, commissioned by ITV. I also contributed to the official ITV Corrie website, to their official magazine and to various one-off ITV publications about the show. I have also written unofficial fan books.

In addition, I set up and now edit the Coronation Street Blog, a fan site written by and for fans. It’s been online since 2007 and remains unique, a real labour of love. And I’ve been writing online Corrie weekly updates since 1995. So being a fan of the show and writing about it is in my blood. It comes naturally to me. You could say I’m steeped in soap opera. I know their twists and turns, their cliff-hangers and signposts. Most of all, I know their women.

It’s a privilege and pleasure to write the TV tie-in books for ITV. But I was acutely aware that writing these books meant that I was re-telling someone else’s story. I hadn’t created the wonderful characters that I was writing about. Someone else had invented Hilda Ogden, Ena Sharples, Deirdre Barlow and other women who've become cultural icons. After writing the official tribute book to the character of Deirdre Barlow after actress Anne Kirkbride sadly passed away, I knew I had it in me to write a book of length. And I knew then, felt it surely, that I wanted to create my own characters and write my own story. And so, in 2015, I began writing fiction. I found a home for my stories with the women’s magazine market where the central character was female and the story revolved around her family, friends or home.

Since then I have had short stories published in many of the major women’s magazines including Take a Break’s Fiction Feast and My Weekly. The People’s Friend magazine enjoyed my stories so much that they commissioned me to write the magazine’s first ever weekly soap opera, Riverside. Now, not only do I write about the world’s longest running TV soap Coronation Street, I also write my own weekly soap for the world’s longest running women’s magazine – The People’s Friend!

Away from women’s magazines, I also write darker, more edgy short stories. These I often submit to competitions where I’ve had success in winning, being placed or published in anthologies.

And now, with my novels, it is the women who continue to shine. I write gritty and determined young heroines who take on everything that life can throw at them – and more – and still come out smiling at the other end. Along the way they meet feckless fellas, evil villains, women that will help or hinder them as they make their way through. It is always the women I am drawn to writing most – the more gritty the better. I think my favourite type of women to write is the female villain, she’s everything I’m not – evil and mean and I really have fun with this type.

But while I take my inspiration from TV soaps and drama in terms of dynamic story arcs and fast pace I absolutely do not attempt to write my own Corrie or EastEnders for the page. My novels are my own, the stories and characters coming from nowhere other than my own imagination. However, the influence of soaps on the novels cannot be denied especially in terms of place, pace and tone. There is a great deal of crossover between soap and saga and the more dramatic either of these can be, the better.

You need a good sense of place in saga – and the same goes for soap. Whether it’s a street or a square – or in the case of my novels, a village – you need a place for characters to operate in. You need a good sense of time – in the case of my novels it’s circa 1919.

Research is key and Google is not your friend. You need to get out and explore – museums, archives, records offices. Find old maps, deeds, plans, photographs. More importantly of all – speak to people. You’ll be surprised where this can lead, opening up avenues for subplots in your novel that you’d not explored before. I’ve been up inside a bell tower in a church as part of my research, an experience I’ll never forget.

And possibly the most important link of all between saga and soap is the cliff hanger device. I use this a lot because I enjoy it and it’s fun. I try my best to leave the reader in a state of suspense at the end of each chapter, eager to read on, begging, desperate for more.