Barbara Taylor Bradford: living the dream

Barbara Taylor Bradford: An idea for a novel usually comes to me unexpectedly and quite out of the blue. It just pops into my head a with a snap, and it's there. And usually it's a character linked to an idea. But that's only the inspirational part, really. After this I have to think about it for a long time. I often do this walking the streets of New York, where I live, or in London or Paris if I'm there. At other times I simply sit in a quiet room in our apartment and let myself drift down with my thoughts, usually listening to soft music. I close my eyes and visualise the character, who she is, what she's about, what her life is about. Slowly the story grows, and then I really sit down and create the main character, then the plot.

iVillage: When you were writing AWoman of Substance, did you base your characters on people you knew or people who you would like to have known?

Barbara Taylor Bradford: I did not base any of the characters in A Woman of Substance on people I know other than Emma's brother, Winston. He was very much based on my father Winston Taylor. The fictional Winston Harte looked like him, thought like him and had many of his characteristics. Fortunately my father was pleased with my depiction of him as a young man in this role. I enjoy writing about strong women, and that is why I made Emma so strong and resilient. But she is not based on anyone, not even me. I find it much easier to write about invented characters than people I know.

iVillage: What advice would you give to new writers on developing a strong and likeable heroine?

Barbara Taylor Bradford: It's quite hard to advise people how to create strong and likeable protagonists, because we all have different values. I always try to create women who have admirable traits and who also have integrity. I think my ability to do this has developed over the years, and long before I wrote A Woman of Substance, I was attempting novels which I never finished. In this way, though, I learned to build characters by trial and error. My best advice is to settle on an ideal woman and then go from there, building her character using good and bad traits. But, she will only come alive when you start to write the book. And don't forget, she must be very human! Too perfect is not true to life.