Questions to Ask Writers at Literary Events

There is a particular hush that falls over a festival tent just before the questions begin. The author has read, the audience has laughed in the right places, and now the event hangs on what happens next. A thoughtful question can turn a pleasant hour into the conversation you remember for years. A vague one — or worse, a thinly disguised pitch for your own manuscript — can deflate the room in seconds. The good news is that asking well is a skill anyone can learn, and it starts with curiosity about the work rather than the sales figures.

Why Process Questions Beat Praise

Telling an author you loved their book is generous and welcome, but it rarely opens a door. They have heard it before, often that same evening. Questions about how the book came to exist, on the other hand, give them something to think about on the train home. Writers tend to be far more interesting on the subject of decisions than on the subject of talent.

So when you get the microphone, skip the compliment and go straight to the question. You can always thank them afterwards while they sign your copy.

Questions About Inspiration and Beginnings

Beginnings are fertile ground because every book has a moment when it was nothing at all. Try one of these:

• Which image or scene arrived first, before you knew what the book was?
• Was there a particular day, argument or overheard remark that started this?
• What were you reading when the idea took hold, and did that shape it?
• Did the book you finished resemble the book you set out to write?
• Were you ever tempted to abandon it, and what made you carry on?

These are generous questions. They invite anecdote, and anecdotes are what an audience has come for.

Questions About Revision and Craft

Revision is where most writers do their real work, and where most readers know least. Ask about it and you will often get the most honest answers of the evening.

• How many drafts does a novel take you, and what changes between them?
• What did you cut that you still miss?
• Do you work on screen or on paper, and does it make a difference?
• How do you know when a draft is finished rather than simply tired?
• What is the first thing you do when a trusted reader hands back a manuscript?

You may also want to ask what they would tell a younger version of themselves at the start of a second draft. Writers almost always have an answer ready, and it is usually more useful than any advice about inspiration.

Questions About Daily Habits and Routine

For anyone trying to write around a job, a commute and a family, the practical details matter enormously. These questions tend to get the whole room nodding.

• Do you write every day, or in concentrated bursts?
• What time of day does the work actually happen?
• Do you stop mid-sentence to make the next morning easier?
• How do you handle being stuck — push through or walk away?
• What does a bad writing day look like, and how do you recover from it?

If you are asking at a smaller event, in a library or a village hall, you can be more specific still. Ask about interruptions, about writing in cafés, about the notebook in their coat pocket. Specificity is a gift to any writer answering questions.

Questions About Reading and Influence

Writers are readers first, and this is often the liveliest part of a Q&A. It also doubles as a reading recommendation service for the rest of us.

• What have you read recently that you have been pressing on friends?
• Which book taught you the most about how to write?
• Is there a writer you think deserves a much wider readership here in the UK?
• Do you reread, and if so, what do you go back to?

Bring a notebook. You will leave with a list.

How to Ask Well in the Room

A few practical points make the difference between a question that lands and one that wanders.

• Keep it to one question. A two-part question usually gets half an answer.
• Stand, speak clearly, and use the microphone if there is one.
• Avoid spoilers for anyone who has not finished the book.
• Never use the Q&A to pitch your own work or ask them to read it.
• If the queue for signing is long, ask your question there instead — briefly.
• Write it down beforehand. Nerves erase good questions.

And if you think of the perfect question on the way home, that is a fine thing too. Send it to the bookshop that hosted the event and ask them to pass it on. Most authors reply, and a good question can carry a conversation far beyond the tent.