Nine Questions
In this series Ink Sweat & Tears talks to practicing writers about their process and craft.
1. Where do you write? (do you have an office, room, bus or train journey that you find yourself and your writing? etc)
I write in a spare bedroom which has been converted into a study. Well, converted is a grand way of putting it – I just moved out the beds and replaced them with a desk and bookcases. My desk is right under a lovely skylight so I can look up at all the changing moods of the sky for inspiration.
2. How do you write? (into a notebook or straight onto a computer? etc)
Straight to computer. I’m ashamed to say I’ve almost forgotten how to write by hand! Computerised cut and paste functions are, I find, an essential tool for writing a novel. When I look back at the days when I used to write in reporters’ notebooks, I don’t know how I did it.
3. Roughly how much time do you spend each week on creative writing related activities? (writing, editing, correspondence & submissions – give a daily average if possible)
This varies a lot depending where I am in the life cycle of a book. In the very early stages, while the idea is ‘composting’, I will probably be doing a lot of other things while the book takes shape below the radar in the back of my mind. At the moment, by contrast, as I’m approaching the completion of a novel, I’m writing quite intensively, but rarely more than three hours a day because any more makes my brain hurt. Editing and redrafting is different. It’s way less intense, so I will usually spend longer on that, other commitments permitting. As I also teach, my best writing days are generally during vacations. I do find that teaching and marking creative writing makes it harder to work on my own books because you’re engaging the same part of the brain. I think the best ‘other jobs’ for writers are those which have nothing whatsoever to do with writing.
4. What time of day do you usually write?
Early morning and sometimes early evening. Afternoons are totally dead time for me, best devoted to reading (or watching repeats of Midsomer Murders, just between ourselves).
5. Do you set yourself a daily target for writing?
I try to write at least a thousand words a day, but it’s important to be flexible because sometimes the words just don’t come. But even when it’s tough, I try to get a few words down, just to keep me in touch with what I’m doing, to keep the book’s voice alive in my head. On a few legendary days, I’ve managed 3000 words at a sitting.
6. What does it feel like to write?
For me, writing is a compulsion. It creates order in my life. If I don’t do it, I tend to feel panicky and out of control. It’s also very hard work and rarely flows without a lot of sustained effort. When writing a novel, for about two thirds to three quarters of it, it feels like groping my way through dense jungle with a blunt machete and a guide who doesn’t speak the same language as me. The later sections, when I’m resolving trails laid earlier, sometimes feel easier – but only if I know how the damn thing’s going to end, which I frequently don’t. A former colleague once told me I was lucky being able to make a living out of my hobby. There are two things wrong with that. Firstly, the making a living thing – few novelists make an entire living out of their fiction. Then the hobby thing. Hobbies are voluntary and you do them for fun.
7. Are there any stimuli that will usually trigger you into writing?
Walking. I usually walk my dogs for an hour or so every morning before I start work.
8. Do you work in silence or have background noise? If you do have sounds, what are you listening to now?
For writing, silence, though I do have pieces of music associated with most of my characters, which I tend to listen to while driving. At the moment it’s tracks from late 80s David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes and Scary Monsters. When I’m editing I frequently listen to Radio 4. When England is playing cricket, I listen to Five Live Sports Extra ball by ball coverage whatever I’m doing. That is inviolable and would only stop if I went deaf.
9. What are you working on now?
I’m just coming to the end of the first draft of a novel called A Family Burial. Unlike my two previous books, this is contemporary rather than historical and I’m really enjoying the ability to factor modern communications into my plot, not to mention Lycra, alcopops, sports cars and all kinds of other frivolities of which our mediaeval ancestors were cruelly deprived. When confronted with the question, what’s it about, I really couldn’t say. It has elements of crime, mystery and family drama plus me banging on about certain issues close to my heart (these will go in the editing, I promise). I guess you’ll just have to read it.
*Sarah Bower is the author of two historical novels, The Needle in the Blood (Susan Hill’s Novel of the Year 2007) and The Book of Love. She is also a successful short story writer, having the Norwich Cafe Writers Short Fiction Prize in 2005. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, shortlisted for the Curtis Brown scholarship for 2001/2002. She teaches creative writing at UEA and for the Open University.