After last year’s flurry of literary festivals and book events, I’ve discovered readers are fascinated to ask authors: when and where do you write?
To my amazement, many writers reply that they tap away crouched over a laptop, or in a space cleared on the kitchen table: what skills of concentration that must take - I salute you! I’m much more ritualistic when I embark on a writing project, and indeed it’s planned like a military campaign.
First of all I empty my email inbox and go through my computer ‘reminders’ (my equivalent of notebooks). Next I clear my diary, jettisoning anything non-essential and - with profuse apologies - postponing social events. I make sure all my paperwork is filed, tidy my desk and finally… I’m ready to roll.
Having spent most of my life severely sleep-deprived, I never now set an alarm clock; though I’m usually woken up by the cats between 7.30 and 8.30. I have a quick breakfast listening to the news – switching to Radio 3 when it gets unbearable – and am usually in my study by 9.0am.
For most of my magazine career I worked in an open-plan office and learnt to edit, interview and write in an atmosphere of constant interruption and banter. Indeed, I was one of the noisy ones - I remember a features writer demanding to move desks because I never shut up. Nowadays it’s different and I need peace and quiet, otherwise clues and red herrings slip between my fingers, and a character says something when she left the room ten pages earlier. Writing detective fiction is an intricate process.
The household suffers in other ways, too. I normally cook dinner from scratch – always a pleasure – but the standard of cuisine dips, unless Robert steps in and executes one of his famous stir-fries or Chicken Alsace.
Once my head is down, the only interruption I allow is Benjamin the cat. I believe domestic animals bring out the very best in humans, and we should treasure every minute we spend with them. So when he jumps up on my desk and rolls onto his back, at about ten and again after lunch, I open up my box of grooming accessories (brushes, combs, rechargeable head massager, toothbrush, et cetera) and devote myself to him till he’s gleaming all over, and jumps down.
I then work till I’m tired and the words are grinding to a halt, usually between four and 5.30pm.
I’ve had PCs but prefer to write on an iMac, using Word for Mac software. Many authors use Scrivener but I can’t get my head round it. Many also have a ‘writer’s wall’, which they cover with multi-coloured notes, scraps of plot and even maps and snapshots. I’ve considered this – they always look impressive on social media – but it’s enough of an effort to keep the story straight in my head and screen without having to keep an art installation to manage as well.
Because one of my hobbies is playing the piano, I’m very particular about my computer keyboard and mouse, to avoid strain or injury. I use a Matias Notebook Pro keyboard and Evoluent ergonomic mouse, supplied by the friendly experts at The Keyboard Co. John and his team look after quite a few authors, as well as other professionals who spend their lives in front of screens, and advise me when an interesting new piece of kit comes along, or I fancy a change. To keep my keyboard free of cat hair, I use a groovy little brush made in Finland, which you’ll find here and my cute wooden phone charger came from Oakywood. I’m fussy about my screen being clean, so going against all advice, I spray it with glass cleaner and burnish with a microfibre cloth.
I remember going back to school at the end of the holidays and getting very excited about stationery. From what I can tell, other writers feel the same. I even love the smell of a stationery shop. I have a few fountain pens, including a precious pair left to me by a very dear friend with whom I used to exchange letters, and a Dresden pen tray in which they nestle, unearthed in an Ashburton antique shop.
Handwriting fascinates me and features in the plot of Murder Below Deck. One of the characters uses Speedwriting – a brilliant shorthand system based on shortened words rather than squiggles – and another writes in what chef Paul describes as ‘griffonage’ – undecipherable scrawl. Before Christmas I decided to rescue my italic hand before it disintegrated completely, which led me to research ink – my current favourite being from Japan, Iroshizuku ‘tsuki-yo’ – and experiment with copperplate script, using a dip pen and walnut ink. This reminds me oddly of learning the violin – you have to regulate your ink flow, get the angle of the nib just right, press and release to make thick and thin strokes – and is almost as difficult.
To finish the tour, my globe is from National Geographic, and my desk lamp a reproduction of the ones you see in banks and insurance offices in old Hollywood movies. My wastebin is real willow, from Coates English Willow. Scissors, stapler, ruler and other choice accessories are from the best shop in all of London, Choosing Keeping.
I almost forget – The Shining mouse mat. This was a Christmas present – we have matching posters and tea towels in the kitchen. If Murder Below Deck hits the Sunday Times bestseller list, I’ve threatened to recarpet the hall in the same Overlook Hotel design (known as Hicks’ Hexagon): I just hope I don’t find myself typing ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ all day and breaking into the bathroom with an axe.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this exclusive glimpse inside my study. If you like the musical accompaniment, it’s my own playing of ‘Chanson sans Paroles’ by Paul Strang, a great friend who died last year and is worth a story in himself.
Loving the study, the fountain pens (I wrote some of my Christmas cards with one I’ve acquired), the advice re technology and most of all the essential cat. I am currently in Turkey with only my iPad and trying to transfer my books to the iPad which is proving frustrating so just spoke to husband and we’ve decided to get rid of the second double bedroom, sell the furniture and put a dining table and a desk with proper typist chair so I can really type. I’m lucky enough to be a speed touch typist and don’t want to lose that skill. I need a new laptop and will look into that too and your suggestions.