“I think it’s hard for any writer to keep their own worldview of out their writing”

Someone to Blame is the second novel from Irish writer J. J. Green, who has had a number of political essays focusing on economic and environmental injustice also published.

Her first novel, The Last Good Summer, was published in February 2023 and she is back with a tale involving secrets among a close-knit Irish community. The BookInsider has caught up with the author to ask about her writing processes and how her non-fictional writing informs her fictional novels.

How long does a novel idea manifest in your mind before you start writing?

Often, I get an idea and I’ll have it knocking around in my head for months or even or year or more before I start writing. I think about it a lot, play around with it, tease out how to develop it into a story, bring in characters and think about their motivations and what journey I want them to go on.

By the time I sit down to do any planning on paper, I have a good sense of what the plot will be.

Does your non-fiction work and being a social and environmental activist inform your fictional work?

My non-fiction writing often does inform my fiction writing. In my first novel, a mystery thriller called The Last Good Summer, the backdrop to the story is an eco-crime. So, I weaved in many of my concerns about the environment, but being careful not to make it feel like a lecture.

However, Someone To Blame doesn’t have that strong social or environmental message, but my politics seep in anyway, in a more subtle way. So for instance, the story is set shortly after Covid and I mention anti-vaxxers and the various tensions there were around masking wearing and getting vaccinated.

I think it’s hard for any writer to keep their own worldview of out their writing, but I’m conscious of not letting it take over and get in the way of the story I want to tell, at the same time.

Do you write characters that reflect your own personality traits?

Some of my own personality might come out in a character, and my main protagonist is nearly always female because I feel I’m more able to write a female character who has to carry the story.

I’m not sure I could go into that much depth for a male character, although I do write male characters too. Mostly though, I challenge myself to create characters that are very different from me in terms of their motivations and values.

When I create a character, I find it helps to match them somebody I know to help form an initial personality with the key trait or traits I want that character to have.

Then, as I start writing, the character will usually develop into their own person and will be very different from the real person I based them on.

What are your plans now that ‘Someone to Blame’ has been published?

I’ve been writing for most of my adult life and the first novel I had published was actually the seventh one I’d written – the previous six are unpublished.

So, my plan is to keep writing, and actually, I’m almost finished the first draft of another novel, a climate fiction whydunnit set in 2050.

What is one piece of advice that has helped you become a published author?

The one piece of advice that I always keep in mind and that has helped me stay the course to getting published is: don’t give up. What is it they say? An author is just a writer that didn’t give up.

And while there are other pieces of advice that have helped me enormously – learning the craft of fiction writing through creative writing courses; practising writing every day; reading other writers; making my work as good as it can be; finding a really good editor; all of these have been crucial and without them, I would not be published.

But that advice of never giving up is the inner motivation that pushes me onwards. While writing brings so much joy and fulfilment, it’s also lonely and demanding – and often disappointing with the dreaded rejection letters, or more often these days being ghosted.

It takes a lot to keep going on, in spite of the setbacks.

“Shay Dunne is a poison pen. Not that she wants to be one. But a recent tragedy in her life has left her hell-bent on dishing out some punishment to the two people she blames. Sending them a letter containing a vague accusation will do the trick.

“Only the letters set in motion a series of unintended consequences, and Shay soon discovers that in the close-knit Irish village she calls home, a community still reeling from Covid, there are sinister secrets everywhere.”