Hi. I'm Isabel, recent Worcester graduate, northerner, and the author of Etiquette, which came out in September.
It's a school story, kind of a modern day glamorous Malory Towers, set
at a kind of a finishing school, really. In terms of my inspiration for the book.
Well, when I was a teenager, I had a bit of a self-improvement flurry.
So I read Debretts Etiquette for Girls. And as a bit of a thought experiment,
I started writing these little scenes where someone absolutely clueless was thrown
into this world of lobster and grapefruit spoons and how to behave at polo matches.
And 70,000 words later, I had a novel.
I also went to boarding school myself. So the camaraderie there and then later on at Worcester definitely makes its way into Etiquette.
The exam stresses, the gossip, celebrating Oxmas, the hijinks, and as we all know Worcester is the friendliest college ever.
So I never felt unwelcome or out of place in any sense.
But I think we can all relate to the early days imposter syndrome where you're absolutely convinced
that it's a terrible admin mistake that landed you there rather than your own intellect.
So that definitely informs the first half of the novel and that kind of alienated
new girl feeling. In terms of how I found the process of writing Etiquette,
I largely found that it just happened, I think because it's based on a few of my own experiences and reasonably true to my own voice
it really flowed. I certainly didn't have any set 'writing times' or 'writing places'.
Sometimes I wrote on my laptop at home, sometimes on my phone standing in a queue.
I think where I made more of a conscious effort - there were two points, really.
First of all, when it came to the novel's more serious themes.
On one level, probably the main level, it's a delightful little story about girls at boarding school getting up to mischief.
But it also deals with themes of class, of 'poshness', of the realities of being a teenager today,
different backgrounds. I was really aiming for genuine representation, quite an authentic, diverse cross-section of today's teenagers,
so I did do my research about tropes to avoid.
I was really on my guard to make sure that there weren't any assumptions or stereotypes kind of riddling their way surreptitiously into the text.
And the second thing that took more effort on my part was the actual publication process itself.
Etiquette is self published. I chose to go down that route.
So the formatting, the cover design, I did the cover art myself, publicising it afterwards,
that took a bit more effort, but I loved having that creative control, so it was certainly worth it.
Something I learnt at Worcester that's helped me with my writing is simply ploughing on, stamina.
I studied German and Philosophy, which is very writing heavy anyway.
So I think that really helps me in terms of being self-critical, editing, drafting, redrafting, also churning out quite a large volume of work,
sometimes in a short space of time if needed. I also think - I don't want to go on about confidence and belief in this kind of self-important way -
but I think studying at Worcester really showed me that nothing is insurmountable, no matter how difficult it seems at first.
Although, as I say that I think my old logic tutor might disagree with me.
I was truly terrible at logic, but I think in general, being at Worcester showed me nothing is insurmountable.
Whether it's a novel or an essay, that one word that you're looking for, that one sentence that's on the tip of your tongue,
you will think of it, that blank, awful, intimidating page staring at you.
It will get words written on. It just takes some time. I think that's a big thing that I took from my time
at Worcester. Thank you very much to Sophie Clayton for inviting me to be part of the Worcester Writers podcast,
And thank you for watching.