Stella Duffy is the author of seven literary novels including her latest, ‘Theodora, Actress, Empress, Whore’. Two of her other novels, ‘The Room of Lost Things’ and ‘State of Happiness’ were both long-listed for the Orange Prize.
Stella talks to Planet London about the importance of keeping going, Buddhism, getting to grips with social media and support from her mother and partner in the recipe for her success as an author, playwright, improviser and performer.
Stella has also written the five novels that comprise the Saz Martin crime series; eight plays; and over forty short stories, winning the 2002 CWA Short Story Dagger and Stonewall Writer of the Year in 2008 and 2010 respectively. In addition to her writing work she is an actor and theatre director. She wrote and presented the BBC4 documentary How to Write a Mills and Boon and has reviewed for The Review Show (BBC2) and written articles for most major newspapers in the UK.
Stella began her career writing theatre pieces for performance at school and university, although at the time she did not consider herself a writer. In fact she didn’t feel like someone from her background (the youngest of seven in a working family) could be a writer.
In 1986 she returned to her native London after growing up in New Zealand and here she learned to write whilst working in improvisation - these days she teaches improvisation for writers as a way into story telling - and out of that experience she wrote and sold her first ‘book’ Calendar Girl (1994). However, Stella warns “it wasn’t as easy as it sounds”. It took years of trying, working extra jobs to pay the bills, and a whole lot of perseverance.
We asked Stella where she turned to for support, and her first words of advice were to dig down into that inner strength and to “keep going through the rejection, keep going through the dejection, keep going through the early acceptances, and all the whilst you think you have not achieved success”. Rejections could be for many reasons; lots of great pieces of work do not get published or picked up if they are not fashionable at the time; it could also be because of how you are measuring success. Stella describes herself as a “jobbing writer who gets paid to do what she likes doing” rather than a successful author (and a successful author she is, in our opinion).
Stella’s practice and belief of Buddhism has provided support during some of the major challenges and alongside meditating twice a day, it helps her acknowledge what’s really important and face the challenges freelance work brings. Stella chants twice a day, in the morning and evening, and this gives her the regularity and discipline she misses out on not working in a 9-5 role. She says that it helps her escape the day to day worries and access another part of herself, the creativity; and is a reminder that “we are more than our work”.
The people Stella refers to as giving her emotional and practical support are her mother and long-term partner. Her mother, who passed away 8 years ago, gave emotional support and “understood” why Stella chose the creative path, and that her life was going to take a different direction from that of her six siblings. Her long term partner (now wife) Shelley Silas who is also writer and understands the life, has been a “huge bonus”.
Stella is now in a position where she thoroughly enjoys her career. She works with people she likes (of course, she didn’t know these people twenty years ago). In particular, Stella likes the opportunity to work with a wide range of people of all ages. She sees this as beneficial on both sides; to learn from them all and to give something in return. She thrives on the choices that being freelance offers, and the thrill of not always knowing what’s next.
It has been challenging at times, especially when Stella had breast cancer a few years ago and didn’t have the luxury of sick pay, so she had to keep working whilst ill. But she “loves work, and working, and doing work” even when she’s not being paid, and she is always in the midst of several projects at any one time.
Stella is looking forward to what the next decade will bring and the freedom of accepting success isn’t about having to achieve a certain something by a certain age.
The mantra of “Keeping going” still rings true and is used to overcome new challenges, such as adopting social media which was “scary at first” but working for Stella now as a great way to communicate, campaign and connect with people. Stella’s blog and twitter are great examples of how work, social interest and socialising can come together.
Stella has a large number of successes to be proud of, just take a look at her biography. But success for Stella is about more than the work achievements. Being known and acknowledged as a campaigner and advocate for gay rights, for example, placing high on this year’s Time Out Pride Power list, is just as important.
Stella is also a fantastic motivator and supporter of writers and gay people, which you can see in her blog responses, as well as being a long-time activist who is proud to have given support to Stonewall and gay-positive campaigns.
But, she notes that there’s still lots of work to be done there; we still need messages about helping people coming out and helping people who are gay at different stages in their lives, such as care homes that are accessible for older gay people.
And of course, there’s her 21 year relationship which still flowers. And Stella mentions her garden with glee; she is growing lovely things like courgettes.
The books aren’t all there is, but there is pride as she talks of Theodora – “one of my best, and well received”, and its potential to break the American market for her. The future holds a number of possibilities; the anticipated sequel to Theodora, film projects, theatre projects seeking funding and ideas for more novels. Not too much is set in stone, but there is excitement at all the possibilities.
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