Organised Chaos

How my books get written. SPOILER ALERT: Reading this back I realise more than ever how much of a miracle it is that they ever get finished.

A room without a view

I’m lucky enough to have a room to write in. In a grand gesture of confidence, my partner has always referred to it as ‘The Writing Room’, but names like ‘dumping ground’ and ‘pit’ are much more accurate. I’m a messy writer, in my environment and my process. I try to be organised, but organisation stifles me, like my brain needs a level of chaos to be creative. Plus, the mess in my ‘Writing Room’ is mostly made up of objects that I love: old research maps, schematics and (quite bad) drawings of characters, weird space themed detritus, crystals, tickets and lanyards from author events and days out, post it notes with scribbled ideas for guaranteed best sellers, snack wrappers… oh, and books for course. I get emotionally attached to objects very easily, this is because my memory is terrible and they act like hundreds of little time capsules. I genuinely feel better surrounded by them.

In the midst of this, under the window, sits a laptop and a second screen, a pile of manuscripts and the research materials for whatever project I’m focused on.

WADING THROUGH CUSTARD

I don’t have a writing process. I just strap myself in and let the project lead me in the right direction. This, obviously, sounds like complete tosh to anyone with a real job. And I would totally agree (I also have a real job in advertising, and if I went into a meeting saying I was going to let the spreadable cheese write the billboard ad for me, I would be fired on the spot). But I have written five books now (two of which are published) and each one was planned, written and edited in a completely different way. Some required endless plotting post-its on the wall, some a notebook full of quotes and ideas, others just wanted to be written straight away without any more thought. The emotions are always the same though; the excitement, the dread, the fatigue, the constant crushing DOUBT… Is it even any good? WHAT WAS I THINKING!? Help!

All I know for sure is, if I keep going something will happen, and that usually takes five stages:

A SPARK - Without that first, exciting, addictive spark of inspiration there is nothing. Every project starts with a spark. I have no idea where or when it’ll hit, but there will be no book without one. There must be a spark.

CHAOS - Then comes chaos. A period of collecting and collating, plotting or writing scenes, talking to characters (often out loud in my house when I’m on my own), researching, drawing, making playlists, plotting maps, making up languages - none of it is in order, not a lot of it makes sense, BUT IT’S THERE.

A PATH - Once the chaos calms a little, it’s time to wade through it and find the story inside it all. Creating a path from one end to the other, making things make sense, making the characters act with motive and stay true to their backstory, making the world they live in feel real. THIS BIT MAKES MY BRAIN HURT AND I HATE IT.

DECORATION - My favourite part. Once the story is formed out of the chaos I can now start to add detail. This usually involves going back to SPARK and CHAOS stages and picking out fun details and dialogue and adding it into the story where it works, adding colour to the black and white of the plot.

GIN AND WINE - The final stage. I never miss this stage. SO IMPORTANT.