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Hello and welcome to the Real Writing Process.
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I'm your host, Tom Pepperdine.
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And this mini interview is with the queen of grim dark herself.
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Anna Smith Spark.
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Anna was one of the most requested interviewees at EasterCon, so this
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is definitely one for the fans.
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I hope you enjoy.
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So I'm here at EasterCon with Anna Smith Spark.
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Hello, thank you very much for doing this.
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Top five questions on your writing process.
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Question one, do you write best in a fixed location or do you
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just write wherever you can?
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I write wherever I can.
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I write at home.
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I can't afford to write in coffee shops anymore (laughs).
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Yeah, I write at home in a fixed location or I write on trains, is the
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other great place to write is on trains.
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So do you have a set place at home?
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Like a desk in a room always or just the dining table?
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I have the dining table.
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I do not have the space, I do not have a room of my own.
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I have the dining table.
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Okay.
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No, but that works for you.
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That's good.
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And would you describe yourself as a planner or a pantser?
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Yeah, so, okay.
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I start writing a novel because there is a location I want to describe.
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Okay.
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And I then have a figure who appears in that location and their story then begins.
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When I'm beginning that process, I do not know anything beyond I'm describing
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a scene with a figure or figures in it.
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Right.
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What is then the something is happening in the scene and things then unfold.
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I then reach a point where everything is clear.
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The entire shape of the book is clear.
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So I have it in my mind.
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And it is then moving around to get there.
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Things surprise me still.
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But it is then a constant thinking process in my mind, simmering all the time.
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And I mean all the time.
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In the shower in the morning, when I'm cooking food, all the time.
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I'm thinking, first of all going over what I've written in terms of structural
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and prose edits, and also in terms of where are we going, what is happening?
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Am I still right about what's happening?
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Can I see the shape?
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Do I need to change everything?
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How is this developing?
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What is it I want to do?
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But it's all in my head.
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I haven't written any of anything down.
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And it gets to the point where I can see everything and I'm
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writing to that end point.
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So there's a bit of a mystery that you're trying to uh, discover it unfolds.
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But yeah, I've definitely spoken to writers where part of the enjoyment
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of writing is uncovering the story.
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Yeah, I mean, for me, it's almost like..
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It's incredibly pretentious, but there's that famous Michelangelo quote about the
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sculpture already exists in the marble.
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Yes.
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And for me it sounds mad, but it really does feel like the book already exists
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and it is writing itself through me.
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And what I'm doing is discovering it.
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So when I'm thinking about it, what I'm doing is I'm finding,
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the thing that already exists and getting it right in my head.
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It's almost like solving crossword.
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You know, the answers are all there and and I might be wrong
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for a while about something.
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So I can watch something the characters doing, and it's like, oh no, I was wrong.
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That is what she was always doing.
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The book exists already.
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I just need to find it and make it.
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It's very instinctive.
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It's incredibly, yeah, incredibly instinctive organic process.
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Yeah.
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It's just, it's just kind of there.
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And I, a question I always like to ask is that how, um, you know, people
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learn and develop as they write.
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With such an instinctive process, has that refined over time?
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Is it like trusting your instincts, has that process got shorter and easier?
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No, because I think I've got better as a writer.
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Yeah.
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So I've gotten more complicated as a writer.
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So in fact, if anything that I don't, it hasn't gotten more
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difficult, but it doesn't get easier.
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It's that I'm much more confident in that sense.
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Okay.
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It's exists and I'm writing it and it it's right.
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And I I'm more confident.
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Like I'm also much more confident in saying no, I'm wrong.
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So I'm very confident in scrapping stuff.
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So I edit while I'm going along and I will have no problem at all in simply saying
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the last 20,000 words I wrote are wrong.
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I'm going to cut the entire thing.
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Even if it's like I've written 30,000 words, but everything
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from the first scene is wrong.
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So I'm going to, I'm going to cut right back to the first 2000 words,
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dump everything in a Word file and just like, not just delete it because
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it might be useful, but they might even just the little lines or single
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descriptions, but I'm just dumping that.
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And it doesn't even bother me anymore.
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And actually that is the one thing I would say to people.
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Do not hesitate to cut stuff.
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If you start feeling this is not quite right somehow then I know it sounds
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really awful and there is a part of you that's like, that was, that was the month
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of my life I'm never going to get back.
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But you dump in a word file somewhere.
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It might be good for something else, but just do it.
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So, yeah, because my final question generally is, um, what's the best
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piece of advice that you've received.
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And I guess the advice you give other people is don't be afraid to
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cut stuff, but was there anything maybe early on that you got told that
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really helped apply to your writing?
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It was certainly finishing it.
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I mean that really, I always felt very frightened of the idea that
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I could, I just felt this strong sense I couldn't write a novel.
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But this great crushing sense of grief that writing and it was not
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something I could possibly achieve.
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And of course I mean, the classic adage is of course where you, you begin at the
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beginning and you just keep doing it.
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And you write another word and another word, another word, and you keep
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doing it until you reach the end.
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Because anyone could start a novel, the effort like anything in life, anyone
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can start something, finishing it.
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Yes.
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And it's that, I don't know if it was even advice, but the realization
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that it was just to keep going.
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Yeah.
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And just, just do it, just do it.
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I suppose the best thing, like my dad has a postcard on his
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mantlepiece that says you must write as if your life depends on it.
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And that, that I suppose is the thing that I finally really got,
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that you must just keep going.
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Yeah.
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No, that's perfect.
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That's a great place to end.
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So Anna Smith Spark, thank you very much.
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Thank you.
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And that was a glimpse into the real writing process of Anna Smith spark.
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Thank you so much, Anna.
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I really appreciate you being a guest this week.
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Now I'm not going to sign off with my usual actual music as I don't really
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think it fits these mini episodes.
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However, I found a track that perfectly articulate to my method of
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getting authors to be interviewed.
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So here's Thea Taylor and Dinah Smith with Come Over To Me.
