Why I write, where I write and how I write
I’ve decided to put a section in here because this is always the information I look for when reading about my favourite authors.
I write because I have to. Someone once described the compulsion to write as being ‘like breathing’ and I think that’s true for me. I have been writing down stories from a very young age and can’t imagine not doing it. I have given up writing ‘for good’ on at least two occasions because I was fed up with getting so many rejection letters from publishers, but I went back to it within a week both times and haven’t stopped since.
I write in a room that used to be the dining room of our house and which is now our ’study’. In this room, I have my old desk, which I bought for £100 from an antiques dealer who had a shop within the Barras market in Glasgow. Whether the desk is, in fact, an antique, I don’t know (it certainly looks old enough), but I don’t care because I love it.
In the room, there are also three bookcases full of books and family photos, a sofa and a whole load of other things that should be stored somewhere else, but I haven’t got round to sorting them yet.
On top of my desk is my computer. Next to it is a pile of paper that includes copies of draft chapters, lists (I make endless lists - another compulsion), some magazines and a couple of household bills.
How I write is simple: I get an idea, I mull it around in my head a bit and then write it down. I get my inspiration from all over the place: things I read in books or newspapers; things people say; my childhood; history; overheard conversations; my own observations; dreams; daft thoughts that just pop into my head. I write everything down in an ideas book so that I don’t lose or forget them.
When writing a book, I write down a rough plan of the book so that I know how it’s going to start and finish. I do the same for each chapter and use these plans as the basis of the actual written chapters. Hopefully, the book then finishes the way it’s supposed to do! Sometimes, I have a brilliant idea halfway through and the entire thing changes course, but that’s the fun of writing.