Friday night in Anam Cara saw Vanessa Gebbie, Tania Hershman and I reading from our work to a small though enthusiastic crowd. The roads were incredibly icy on the peninsula so we were chuffed that anyone risked coming out at all. Hearty souls, these Irish, with an abiding love of story-telling which allows them to brave the worst conditions just for the chance to talk about writing. Gotta’ love ’em!
As wonderful as the readings were, the conversation was just as fascinating. We all discussed our processes- how we start, how we finish, whether we research and if so, when, what time of day we work and for how long. If one lesson was learned at all, it was that there is no single “correct” way to write. We own have our own methods and we all stumble upon them over years of trial and error. For example, when I sit down to write a novel, as I’m doing now, I begin by thinking about what issues or themes I want to tackle, where the tackling will happen and who will do it. I make some lists of possibilities and then I start to research. I read books and articles about my themes, immersing myself in the “reality” of my subjects, not so much for specific facts but for ideas of facts, hints of a framework, an occasional statistic that might come in handy during some conversation or other. I likened myself to a 2-year-old. By setting up real boundaries, I feel safe and free enough to explore and create. I need a framework of the plausible in order to start to understand my characters and imagine a storyline. The more I read and think, the more real my fiction begins to feel to me. And the more real it feels, the more acutely will I feel the need to create this “realized fiction” through writing.
But my colleagues have their own, very different processes. Rather than put words into their mouths, I’ll be asking them to discuss here sometime the specifics of their approaches. But I will say that one only does research after the entire first draft is completed, just to see if what she made up was correct. The other rarely does research at all but has her characters inhabit a world just off to the side of our perceived reality.
Then there is the question of time — how much time do we spend actually writing? We all seem to have our own internal clocks. One of us sits down to write and finds herself stopping after 20 minutes, and then does it again and again. I start to write and then look at the clock to find, inevitably, it’s an hour-and-a half later. I’ll take a tea break and then do it again. Sit to write, look up to find another hour-and-a-half has passed. Boom, literally like clockwork. And then I’m spent for the day.
Fascinating stuff, I think. But if anything could be learned from this discussion it is that there is no one correct way of doing it, no one proper way to write a story or a novel or anything. And that, I think, is incredibly liberating. It is like bestowing a certificate of permission. We all have permission to write in whatever way works best for us and our work. But if there is one overriding commonality it is that in order to write, you have to stop talking about it, sit down in whatever seat is best for you, and do it. Make a start. Only by starting can you ever hope to get to the middle and then, miraculously, to the end.
So, how do you write? What is your process? If enough people are interested, maybe I’ll compile a list of all our different approaches.
This must have been a fascinating conversation, and writers all love to hear how other writers work.
I have to imagine a whole novel like a film before I can start writing. I see it all in my head – well not all of the scenes, but scenes all the way through it to the end.
Only when I can see it all like that can I start writing, as if it was something I witnessed. And at each chapter I will spend time imagining the whole chapter before I start writing.
It must be wonderful to spend time at a writers’ retreat, like Anam Cara. I was born in Belfast and my heart is still in Ireland, although I seem completely English.
Like Adele, I write as though I’m watching scenes from a film … I even decide on who I would like to play the roles of my characters! I always need complete silence and find it very difficult to write anywhere but in my study. Very limiting!
Adele & Joanna: The role that film plays in our imaginations now is so interesting. I wonder what was the equivalent in Dickens’ time….I also imagine who I’d like to play the characters in my novels. For John in Tangled Roots, it was like I was channeling John Cusack’s voice in my head as I wrote. But with A Clash of Innocents, I didn’t think about it until it was done. Then it became obvious that Hugh Jackman was the only one to play Kyle. Ha!
I believe that Dickens used to stand in front of a mirror and act out his characters. Very film like.
I can write anywhere – my office, my home, on trains, at airports, in friends’ houses – but it must be on a computer with a keyboard. Desktop or laptop, doesn’t matter, but not longhand; it’s too slow and frustrating, and it makes my hand ache. I plan a fairly vague outline and begin developing characters before I start; I won’t necessarily know the end when I begin, but I will know it well before I get there. Film doesn’t play much of a role for me as I didn’t grow up with TV and have never owned one myself. I know many people cut a lot out of their first draft when they’re working on their second; I inevitably cut some sections, but overall I add far more than I cut during the first full edit.
Glyn: I never heard that story about Dickens. Fascinating!
Queenie: Never owned a tv? I tip my hat to you…and I’m the opposite of you. I need to write everything out 1st longhand. For me it’s actually faster and that way I can make all sorts of scribbles the act of then typing it onto my computer acts as my first edit.
I think for me it has been different depending on what I’ve been writing. With the Garron ‘series’ (if you can call 3 books with the last as yet unpublished, a series) it has been all about the character developing and reacting ‘in character’ to events, situations and people and thereby developing.
I hope.
So I can develop situations and people deliberately to have him react and interact with them.
With short stories, it’s much more, almost manipulative, as there is a specific story to tell or point to make in a short word count and I can pull characters from anywhere to make that point and tell that story. I don’t have rules attached to existing characters that I’m tied to.
Although having read that back, I think it’s more complex and maybe I can’t write it out in a short blog post.
But the mechanics of writing are impossible for me. I ended up on book two writing in twenty minute bursts on the train to work.