Author and journalist, Lisa Brace, described her writing journey and her most recent novel, ‘Swim’, which tells the story of Lucy Morton, an almost forgotten swimmer who won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics in 1924, the first British woman to do so. The centenary of her remarkable achievement takes place at this year’s Olympics, which are again being held in Paris. Lisa also outlined three ways in which to tackle writing a novel. There is ‘writing by the seat of your pants’ also known as ‘pantsing’ when ideas are allowed to flow onto the page; having a loose plan beforehand, or using a ‘Beat Sheet’. This strange title refers to composing a template where different sections of a novel, including characters, incidents and even word counts are tightly plotted. Of course, most authors use a combination of all three and each will require post editing.
