Separate Lives (35 page)

Why do you write?

I've written ever since I can remember so I suppose it must be a sort of terrible obsession/compulsion. I've obviously been very lucky to be able to turn it into a career because I genuinely have no idea how I'd be earning a living otherwise—though I'd love to own a little shop.

How do you write? On a page, or on a screen?

I write on an Apple Mac desktop, in my “office” at home. Unless it's a shopping list, I've almost forgotten how to write longhand.

When do you write?

Whenever I have to, though rarely for “pleasure.” By which I mean if there's something great on TV, I'll find a way not to write. Many years in journalism mean I'm pretty disciplined about deadlines and know when I have to stop looking for displacement activities and just sit down and get the job done.

What's a typical writing day?

Every day is different, depending on what it is I'm writing, but normally I'll be up at 7:30 a.m., get the kids ready, do the school run and be back by 9:30 a.m. After a couple of pints of coffee, I'll catch up on emails, have a quick look at Twitter (and try not to get distracted!) and then write from about 10 a.m. through to a quick lunch break at about 1:30 p.m. If I'm on a tight deadline, I'll keep going until 3 p.m., before the next school run, though I often have a post-lunch energy/concentration dip (which is when I go to the supermarket). Luckily, I'm quite fast, so I've learned not to force myself to write if I'm not really in the “zone” because I'll invariably end up having to re-write it all later. These days, I find I'm usually too tired to get much writing done in the evenings after the kids are in bed, so I prefer to switch off . . . usually by switching on the telly.

Having said all that, writing fiction turned out to be a very different process to writing journalism. Very few people knew I was writing
Separate Lives
and because my “deadline” was self-imposed (it took me about seven months to write, part time) some days I ended up writing 2,000 words I was really happy with, while on others it might have been 500 words I'd find myself rewriting from scratch the following day. I was basically learning on the job, though I did make myself start at the beginning of the story and write straight through to the end. That may sound slightly obvious, though I've discovered that not every author likes to work in a very linear way. I started writing with an ending in mind, yet the one I finally reached turned out to be very different—and (hopefully) better.

Best part of writing?

Knowing when you've nailed it—whatever that particular “it” may be. It could be a sentence, a paragraph, a chapter, a piece of dialogue, a plot development—whatever, but you'll know when it's right even if it's not necessarily what you set out to do.

Worst part of writing?

Not nailing it! And isolation. Writing isn't a very inclusive business so it's important to find a balance between the world unfolding in your head/onscreen and the rest of your life. I can sometimes feel a bit punch-drunk when I have to speedily remove my writing-head and replace it with my mum-head, for example.

What's the best piece of writing advice you've ever received?

Don't talk about it—maybe don't even bother thinking about it—just do it. (Advice, incidentally, that wouldn't work for everyone!)

What's the first book you fell in love with?

The Chronicles of Narnia
. All of them.

What's the last book you read?

Capital
by John Lanchester (as of late April 2012): very clever; very “now.”

Which book do you wish you'd written?

Rebecca
by Daphne du Maurier. It's a perfect piece of storytelling and I re-read it every few years.