Belinda Brady

We got an interview with Belinda Brady about her piece “A Quick Minute“ in Issue Seven.

Fiction sometimes comes from a single moment in time that sticks with us, is this the case when you sit down to write? Or do you plan each step? Is it formulaic for you?
A little of both. Some stories are just bursting to get out, and they can be from something I’ve seen, felt or experienced, or just a random thought in an everyday situation, while others come from prompts where I can have a beginning, or the end of the story, and I write the rest as I go.

During the editing process, do you find it difficult to adhere to a word limit? And if you do, how do you manage to keep it within the parameters?
Normally I write the draft, and then edit, where I look at how far over the word limit I am (and you can guarantee I always will be!) and re-write accordingly. Of course, some stories simply need more words to be told, and they will be put away for another time, but I really do enjoy the challenge of trying to tell a story within a word limit.

What was the inspiration to write this?
I was inspired by a little bridge that’s near my home, and though there is nothing out of the ordinary about it, it stayed with me and got me thinking about how I could somehow use a bridge in a story. When I eventually sat down to write this story, my love for the supernatural naturally took over and it went from there.

When it comes to a first-person narrator, sometimes it’s hard to deliver the right information for the reader to comprehend what is going on. What do you do, when writing in first person, to make sure that you’re giving the right details.
My aim is to hopefully make a reader feel like they are in the story themselves, experiencing everything my characters are, and in order to do that, I need to make sure any thoughts, actions, words and emotions are clear and relatable. I write like I would verbally tell a story to someone and hopefully that’s how it’s received.

Do you have any previously published pieces you’re particularly proud of?
I do have a short story titled ‘Better You Than Me’ that has been published in the Inner Circle Writers Group ‘Fireburst’ Anthology, published via Clarendon House Publishing. I am particularly proud of this story and I really enjoyed writing it.  Link to the books page is: http://www.lulu.com/shop/grant-p-hudson/fireburst-the-inner-circle-writers-group-second-flash-fiction-anthology-2018/paperback/product-23777504.html