This month’s special guest bestselling author Sarah Pinborough reveals when she knows that’s she finished a draft and how she ‘triple writes’ her books…
SARAH: Well, Mark, invariably, I am skating in the last knockings of the deadline. So when I write the end, I literally think ‘I’m going to scan through this and I’m sending this fucker off,’ so… But, because I do triple write, as it were, like I plan in a notebook, then I rough write into Scrivener, then I copy it over into Word, tidy it in Word. I do it in like 8000 word chunks. I’ve kind of… if it’s not untidy and it’s not…. You know, it’s probably most people’s second draft, when I hand it in. And I kind of think… I mean obviously this would be different if it was on spec, but I’m like; they’ve paid for it. Let’s see if it’s holding, you know, because if it’s not holding, it doesn’t matter how pretty I make it. (If) there’s a massive structural problem, let’s get to that. You know, so I kind of figure that’s the way.
This month’s special guest bestselling author Sarah Pinborough reveals when she knows that’s she ready to start writing…
TRANSCRIPT
MARK: What’s the thing that makes you think you’re ready to start writing on a project?
SARAH: When I’ve got the ending locked in place. I can’t start to write without… I have to see the final scene of the book in my head. So… Behind Her Eyes, the final chapter was in the pitch of the book. So I don’t have the whole book planned, obviously, but I tend to kind of have to have the characters names, a bit of a tent pegging. and the ending has to be locked so I know what I’m working towards. But you know, I’m great one for mulling… mulling for a long time. I think that’s the hardest part, isn’t it?
This month’s special guest bestselling author Sarah Pinborough reveals a great tip for writing in 20-minute bursts…
TRANSCRIPT
MARK: What small thing has made a big difference to your creative process?
SARAH: Cocaine! Okay, that’s a joke. (laughs)
MARK: (laughs) You might have said that a little too quickly.
SARAH: What small things made a difference to my creative process. I mean, it’s not a small thing, but obviously… Oh, actually, I do have one for this! So I use the Freedom app. You know, which turns the internet off. And my friend Harriet Tyce… because I used to just turn it off for an hour and then dick around on my phone. Pointless. But she told me to do it… There’s that thing where you do it in 20 minute bursts. So you set it for 20 minutes, and then you work… because 20 minutes you can work for. And so three lots of 20 minutes, and you’ve done, like, nearly a thousand words. And it’s much more focused. So I do try and do these 20 minute bursts if I’m not feeling it. And that does help, you know. And also I’m not a great fan of the word count thing. You know, people say I must write 2500 words a day. I think it’s better to have a good thinking time.
MARK: Yeah, absolutely. That 20 minutes is that sort of Pomodoro timer.
SARAH: Yeah. That’s the word! Pomodoro. That’s it.
I chat with Sarah Pinborough, the bestselling and award-winning author of Behind Her Eyes about her new thriller We Live Here Now, spooky houses, her method of ‘triple writing’, going on tour and the lies we tell each other…
This month’s special guest bestselling author Tracy Buchanan reveals her biggest mistake in her career…
TRANSCRIPT
MARK: So what’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in your writing career?
TRACY: I think not being consistent and maybe pivoting too much sometimes. So, because I’m savvy I’m very aware of being careful with what publishers I’m with. I’ve learned that publishers are pretty much the same. A lot of publishers are the same. As in they’re great. A lot of publishers are great. And at the end of the day, you’re the one who’s in control. So they are helping you in a way. They’re almost like a freelancer for you. So staying with publishers, you know, I think there’s… it’s important to have that consistency. So I probably have, when I’ve been offered opportunities, jumped around a little bit too much. So, I think that’s, that’s something… I wouldn’t say it’s the biggest mistake I’ve made, but , you know, just being a bit more consistent.
This month’s special guest Tracy Buchanan reveals how her dog inspires her creativity…
TRANSCRIPT:
MARK: What small thing has made a big difference to your creative process?
TRACY: Oh, having a dog in my office. A small thing: it’s walks. I know that sounds really… Going out for walks when I get stuck on something or trying to come up with ideas. And that’s what my dog — my dog assistant is snoring at the moment — comes in. So that’s that is a small thing for me, because if I’m sat there and I cannot figure out this plot hole, if I go out into nature, walk around… It untangles. So I’d always recommend that to anyone: going out for walks.
Tracy Buchanan is the bestselling author of the Dr Vanessa Marwood thrillers and she runs one of the best author groups on Facebook and is a brilliant advocate for authors.
We discuss: Which comes first: research or plot? If authors can still earn a living from writing Growing maggots for research purposes And much more!
Edit by Kai Newton Production assistance by Emily Stay Jingle by Dom Currie
My apologies for the quality of my mic for this episode. I had a dodgy connection and sound a wee bit toppy!
MARK: What’s the best happy accident of your writing career?
NADINE: I’d say that not reading the small print when I entered the city university competition, because, honestly, if I’d read the small print, then I would have read that: if you win the competition, you win a £2,000 bursary. And I know definitely back then, if I’d read that it was a bursary of the Creative Writing Masters, then I wouldn’t have entered because I’m thinking, I’m already working full time, you know, being a lawyer. But I was also teaching in the law school and I would do that in the evenings. So, I don’t want to spend any more time in a classroom. I give up my evenings as it is, you know, teaching in a classroom. Why would I want to go back? Why would I want to go back to school to learn how to write? So if I’d read the small print, I would not have entered. But because I did not read the small print, I entered and won the competition, did the Creative Writing MA, I and I wrote the Jigsaw Man, so… Is that a happy accident?
MARK: Absolutely, yes. It is. Absolutely. Fantastic. Yeah. Who reads the small print? Honestly, we all sign up to META and it says in there, you know, 17 pages down, we can steal everything you put up here. So yeah, anyway, enough of that.
MARK: What’s the thing that makes you think that you’re ready to start writing on a project?
NADINE: Because I’m a planner; once I’ve done the plan. If I haven’t done a plan and I’m like, well, yeah, it’s like… if there’s no outline, then I wouldn’t be comfortable writing. Because I know what would happen. I would just get to 20,000 words and then that would be it. I’ll just be… I don’t know what I’m doing with the story. But, and I say, it doesn’t need to be a, you know, a beat by beat by beat outline of the whole story. But it’s a general one. And once I’ve got that in place: okay, now I’m ready to start writing,
MARK: It kind of occurs to me, that’s the point in the story where you need to start making serious choices, story choices that have consequences. You know, the first 20,000 words you’re introducing people, you’re having fun, setting everything up. And then it’s like: we can start making serious decisions now. So it’s kind of scary, isn’t it? You don’t know where you’re going.
NADINE: I think that’s exactly it. I’ve mentioned this for my own podcast recently, I was writing this book, and I had a character called Nick. I didn’t have a plan for it. And, you know, the beginning’s, you know, all the set ups, that’s all the fun stuff. But then I got Nick into… Nick got released from prison, and then he went home. Now he’s sitting in his dad’s house, sitting in his dad’s kitchen. And to this day, he’s still there cause I’m like… I don’t know what to do with you now. I don’t know what. I don’t know what to do. So to this day, Nick is still sitting in his dad’s kitchen.
MARK: What small thing has made a big difference to your creative process?
NADINE: What I do now… Before I just used to write my first draft — and it sounds like a big thing, but it’s not, it’s a small thing — I write the first draft, and then after that, then do the rewrite, brief re-structure, whatever. That’s the second draft. But now I don’t. I write up to act two, and then once I finish act two in the first draft, that’s when I start doing the rewrite. Because now I’m doing the rewrite, I have a clearer idea of how… I’ve fixed everything now, so I know exactly how that last third is going to finish. And I started doing that. I think with… I think I did it with The Kill List, and I think it was just a timing issue I had. Like, a personal time finishing, I thought, I’m not going to get this done if I wait to finish it. I thought, let me just start rewriting it now. When I did that, I thought, this is a better way for me to work. So that’s what I do now.
MARK: And when you get to that two thirds point, you just plough on and get straight through to the end.
NADINE: Yeah, because I’m not thinking… When I’m writing that first draft, I’m already thinking, well, I already know I need to change this now. I need to change this character, put it in a different location, or I’m just going to get rid of that subplot. I just know these things aren’t going to work. And by the time I’ve done the second draft, I’ve already done that. And then I said, that last third is… I can’t say seamless, but it’s a lot smoother. I’m not fixing things.
MARK: Yeah, it’s so weird because I’ve just done that myself actually. You know, I’m talking about trilogies being hard. I got about I was 80,000 words on this, and the ending is there, and I’m kind of thinking, hmmm… And then I’m writing, I thought, ‘Oh, that’s what this is about!’ So I’ve realised, actually, what it’s about. So I’ve had to go back and sort of, you know, make changes. And now the ending just feels so much… Not, like you say, not easier, but I know where I’m going now. I know I’m going to do it. Yeah.
NADINE: You have a much clearer… There’s no debris in your path. That’s the best way.
MARK: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s a lot less cluttered, isn’t it?
Mark Stay Writes 