


Alumni Interview: Nicole Swengley, author of The Portrait Girl
5 minutes read
We sat down with Nicole Swengley, author of The Portrait Girl and a graduate of Faber Academy, to discuss her journey to publication, literary influences and writing routines.
You previously studied on a Faber Academy fiction course, tutored by Rowan Coleman. How valuable was the course to the writing of your novel?
Invaluable. Working as a freelance journalist, I knew how to write features for newspapers and magazines but had little idea how to craft a novel. As a journalist you tend to absorb wads of information then pare it to a minimum. In contrast, writing a novel demands expansion – opening out, building up, layering in a way that feels almost architectural. Learning about character arcs, story arcs, internal and external conflict, showing not telling, pace and dialogue felt like a revelation – and oh so hard to achieve on the page!
Did you make writing friends during your Faber Academy course? How important has peer feedback been to your process?
Yes, this was one of the aspects I most enjoyed about joining an in-person course. It was fascinating to read everyone’s work, in turn, for our weekly peer review and helpful to learn from each other in a friendly and constructive way. I kept in touch with one classmate in particular. We’ve read each other’s novels at the point of submission, comparing experiences with agents and feedback from publishers along the way which I’ve found very supportive.
Can you share your journey to getting published?
I submitted way too early to an agent who turned me down but kindly put me in touch with a brilliant freelance editor who made me re-think key aspects of the plot. After an extensive re-write I submitted to dozens of agents. Two called in the full manuscript but went no further. I submitted to dozens more without success and then decided to seek further editorial advice. One of the key things suggested was to cut a large chunk from the initial chapters to get the story underway much more quickly. I submitted again and was signed up by a small agency within weeks. After a little polishing the book went on submission to numerous mainstream publishers without success despite my agent’s enthusiasm and hard work. About a year later, however, my lovely agent left the company and I ended up parting ways with it too. I then submitted to a handful of digital-first publishers without success. Around that time, I heard about Breakthrough Books, an emerging independent publisher making waves with its curated short story anthologies written by a loose collective of authors from diverse backgrounds. I successfully submitted a short story for its second anthology, Order And Chaos, and joined the collective. Then I asked the publisher if she would read The Portrait Girl. On Christmas Eve 2023 I received an email from a beach in Thailand, where she was on holiday, saying she’d be delighted to help bring it to life.
Who are your biggest literary influences? Did any of these influence The Portrait Girl?
I’ve always loved reading novels that are part-adventure, part-mystery, especially when grounded with an emotional depth. Childhood favourites included H. Rider Haggard, Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson, while teenage years were spent with Mary Stewart and Daphne du Maurier. Later I read more widely while studying for an English degree at Leeds University and subsequently for pleasure – Elizabeth Taylor, Sarah Waters, Kate Morton, Alan Hollinghurst and Margaret Atwood amongst many, many others. It’s hard to pin-point specific influences as I feel everything you enjoy reading goes into the mix. Basically, I’ve tried to write the kind of novel I would enjoy reading myself.
What was the most challenging part of writing this book?
Figuring out how to make the stakes high enough for readers to care whether my lead character would succeed in overcoming the difficulties she has to face.
Could you tell us about your writing routine and how you balance writing with other aspects of your life?
Initial ideas are scrawled by hand in a notebook. Then I plan out chapters by hand before typing the story into a rough synopsis so I have something to push me forward while writing. For my first draft of The Portrait Girl I wrote the chapters straight through, seven days a week, to get the story down on my computer. I’ve always been a ‘morning’ person, starting around 9am and carrying on until a lunch break around 1pm. I’ve been surprised, however, to find writing in the afternoon can work well when I’m deeply engaged in the story, although I usually go for a walk at some point and rarely continue later than 6pm. Other aspects of life have to fit around that!
Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
Keep going until you get there.
What are you reading right now?
Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang, a clever satire about the publishing industry.
And finally, what’s next for your writing?
I have a work-in-progress – another mystery – so I’d like to say, more in hope than expectation, watch this space.

Nicole Swengley is an author and journalist who has written for the Financial Times, the Telegraph, The Times, Wall Street Journal, London Evening Standard and many other publications.
Her short stories have featured in women’s magazines, a crime anthology and themed anthologies from Breakthrough Books. A past student of Faber Academy, one of her stories was shortlisted in a national TV/magazine competition some years ago.
The Portrait Girl is her first full-length novel.
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