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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Psychologists write: Voula Grand

18/5/2015

12 Comments

 
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Is a background in psychology an asset when it comes to writing fiction? How easy is it to combine a scientific approach to the mind with one embedded in the imagination? I decided to ask professional psychologists who are also published novelists how they do it. I’m delighted to welcome Voula Grand to Annecdotal for the first post in this series.

As a business psychologist, I advise large corporations on executive performance and leadership development.  My work has some similarities to sports psychology, as I’m hired to increase the success of executives who are already performing at the top of their game; so doing even better is down to subtle refinements of leadership that can make a powerful impact on business results.

In order to help my clients, I am widely trained in an extensive range of human change methods and techniques, from traditional therapies and psychological frameworks to the contemporary methods of positive psychology that impact the dynamics of thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Psychological resilience is a hot topic in corporate psychology at the moment, and I am experienced in the techniques that promote this.

I spend my working days in close communication with executives, either one on one or within their teams. Understanding the organisational context is important, and I need a good business grasp of the strategic aims, culture and goals of the client company, and of the broader corporate world.

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Writing is my passion, whether that’s writing novels, or writing my blog on psychological topics relating to my fiction.  This year, I am focusing my blog on the themes of my novel in progress, Honor’s Ghost, which are: Hopes, Dreams and Memories. I am also a writer of non-fiction, being a contributing author to The Psychology Book (published by DK, previously Dorling Kindersley), having written all the chapters on Individual Differences.  This book won the British Psychology Society’s Book of the Year Award in 2013.

My two novels, Honor’s Shadow and Honor’s Ghost are psychological dramas, aimed at a general readership. Because of their focus on personal relationships, they may have more appeal for women.

Dr Honor Sinclair is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist and her personal and professional challenges tangle, facing her with profound dilemmas.  

Honor’s Shadow, was published in 2011 by Karnac, a publisher that traditionally specialises in psychology titles, who decided to start a selected fiction list, of books with a psychological theme and/or written by psychologists.  The novel is a tale of secrets, betrayal and revenge in marriage.  Honor’s memory of her husband’s marital infidelity is ignited when she meets Tisi, a strange new client, distraught at her husband’s betrayal.  Honor struggles to maintain her professional distance as old scars re-open, clouding her judgment, and stimulating her desire for revenge.

In Honor’s Ghost, my almost finished novel, Honor faces a new dilemma as a mesh of interconnecting pressures threaten her marriage.  Her professional knowledge is of limited help to her personally: what she really longs for is advice from her great grandmother, Annie, who died before Honor was born. When Honor is asked to participate in clinical trials for a drug for anxiety and depressive disorders, which appears to stimulate ancestral memories, she is tempted to experiment with the drug herself….

I plan a third novel in the Honor series, Honor’s Spirit, a work of speculative fiction set fifty years in the future.  The main character is Isabelle, Honor’s great granddaughter, who is a neuro-scientist. Like Honor, Isabelle faces complex dilemmas both professionally and personally.

After that, I’m going to write something completely different. Which I’m looking forward to.  

Being a practicing psychologist has both advantages and disadvantages for me as a writer. My fiction writing has been praised for its depth of characterisation, and I think that’s a direct result of my psychological understanding of character and personality, which helps me create well rounded, real people, with all their strengths, flaws and contradictions.

My fascination with the complex psychological challenges of dilemmas is a perfect topic for my fiction writing, but I sometimes struggle to hold the line between the scientific discipline of psychology and the imaginative world of story telling. I have a tendency to include diversions and sub plots around psychological details that capture my interest, but that are not strictly necessary to my plot and can even obscure the central story line, muffling its impact.  So I have to be pretty brutal at the editing stage.  

Despite these challenges, fiction writing is the perfect marriage of my two passions in life, psychology and creative writing, and I am profoundly grateful to be able to both listen to people’s real life stories in my psychology practice, and to imagine brand new stories as a novelist.

Thanks, Voula. If you'd like to find out more about Voula and her writing, click on the images to go to her website and/or Amazon page. Or ask a question via the comments here.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
12 Comments
Sarah link
18/5/2015 02:43:27 pm

I can see that "Being a practicing psychologist has both advantages and disadvantages for me as a writer." These books are intriguing. they certainly appeal to me. But...I'm not sure I agree with this: "Because of their focus on personal relationships, they may have more appeal for women." Obviously, since you wrote it, you'd know better than I would but it seems a novel that would appeal to anyone. Thanks for sharing. And thanks for posting, Anne, introducing us to this new series. Look forward to more.

Reply
Voula link
18/5/2015 02:55:11 pm

Thanks Sarah. I'm not sure that I agree that my novels may have more appeal for women either! Though it has been said.... One male reader was emphatic that Honor's Shadow was a book for all..... Thank you for commenting. Voula

Reply
Sarah link
18/5/2015 03:54:10 pm

Interesting you were told that. Hmm. Maybe they do, in general. ? I'd go with the male reader who said Honor's Shadow is for all. I'll let you know (once I get my husband to read it). :-) Cheers!

Annecdotist
19/5/2015 03:35:42 am

Isn't it interesting (or perhaps I mean annoying) how books about relationships are thought to have more appeal for women? Is reading is supposed to increase empathy, how are we ever going to get men who share the "emotional labour" if they're encouraged to cut themselves off from a huge part of what makes a person.
I wonder if that issue will still come up when the male psychologists step into this slot!

sarah link
19/5/2015 12:27:38 pm

Ugh. "Annoying" would be the word I'd use. Ooh... I'm looking forward to when the male psychologists/authors guest post. I wonder what will happen with this issue (if anything).

Charli Mills
18/5/2015 05:15:33 pm

Anne has hooked me on her reviews and fiction in part because of her professional background. She's willing to take on characters many writers might feel intimidated to write. I always enjoy her reviews of fictional psychologists.

That all said, I feel like this is going deeper by inviting other psychologists who write fiction to post on the topic of writing. And I'm still hooked. :-) Honor sounds like an intriguing character to follow in a trilogy.

Have you ever considered writing a corporate thriller?

Reply
Annecdotist
19/5/2015 03:37:28 am

Glad this new series is proving of interest to you, Charli. And how about that, Voula, a psychological corporate thriller?

Reply
Norah Colvin link
19/5/2015 01:26:34 am

This is a fascinating post. I enjoyed hearing about your professional work as a psychologist, Voula, and your work as a fiction writer, and the way you are able to mesh them to create deep and realistic characters and plots. Interesting that the professional psychologist, Honor, is unable to implement her techniques/advice/knowledge in her personal life. I think that makes her realistic. "We" often think that teachers' children should be clever and academic, that the children of police should be well-behaved; and that the children of clergy should be without fault. Sadly/realistically it is not so.
As an armchair psychologist who enjoys thinking of the whys and the wherefores of particular behaviour and responses I find books that add light on the subject fascinating. I think I would enjoy both of Honor's stories and perhaps the third that is yet to come.
Perhaps even more I would be interested to read the Psychology Book and the chapters you wrote on Individual Differences. Anne and I, and others, have engaged in some thought-provoking discussions on that topic on a few different blogs.
Thank you, Anne, for introducing me to Voula.

Reply
Annecdotist
19/5/2015 03:56:31 am

Totally agree, Norah, it fascinating how much we do or don't apply our professional knowledge to our own lives, and then applying it to our writing takes this a step further. I'm interested in what I'm going to learn about this from this series.

Reply
Voula link
19/5/2015 04:55:54 am

What a rich discussion! Sarah, I look forward to your husband 's opinion on whether Honor's Shadow is "women's fiction".... Hmmm.... A corporate thriller....? In Honor's Ghost there is a plot line of pharmaceutical intrigue, but that's as close as I've got! Maybe I should try it, but it doesn't really capture my imagination- too much like my day job!

Reply
Voula link
19/5/2015 05:00:24 am

Norah, thanks for your comment on Honor's failure to apply her psychological knowledge to her own issues - something I have found to be true in real life, sadly. Knowledge is very helpful, but in extreme situations it can be hard to put it into practice. So I agree, it is more realistic.

Reply
Kate Evans
19/5/2015 08:08:55 am

Thanks for a great post and I will search out your books Voula. My novel has been praised in terms of characterisation and I think my training as a counsellor has helped with that. On the other hand, one person asked whether I couldn't produce a character who was a bit less screwed up!

Reply



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