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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 wonderful writer, musician, and all
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around top bloke, Neil Williamson.
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I caught up with Neil at EasterCon in a very busy bar.
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Furthermore, we were both wearing masks.
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So as you can imagine, it's been quite a challenge to clear up the sound.
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But I've done it, because I love you dear listeners.
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And I like to show off.
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Here are my five questions with Neil Williamson.
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Neil Williamson, we're here on the Sunday of EasterCon.
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I have five questions for you.
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Uh, the first one, when you write, do you write best in a fixed location or
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do you prefer to write wherever you can?
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Wherever I can, as long as it's not at home.
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Okay.
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Which during lockdown was a problem.
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Um, as soon as I was able to get out, back to writing in cafes
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again, that's when my writing picked up again during the COVID times.
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So.
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So is that you've got kids and sort of lots of family?
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I just, I just, my brain won't settle at home for writing purposes.
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I can go to the cafe across the road, which had to close down during
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COVID, which is really annoying.
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There was a coffee across the road.
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I could go there and immediately switch into writing mode.
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Okay.
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Yeah.
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Oh, nice.
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Well, I'm glad that you can do that.
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Would you describe yourself as a planner or a pantser?
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I don't think anyone's truly one or the other.
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I think we're all a little bit of those things.
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So what I tend to do is have an idea, outline a little bit,
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just enough to get it going.
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Write a bit.
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Redo the outline a little bit.
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Write a little bit more and just kind of iterate all the way to the end.
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Okay.
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Do you like using a word counts as targets or are they like just a source of anxiety
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and you don't try and do that at all?
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I actually quite, quite like it.
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Well, if I've a long project.
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I quite like it.
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I think they're useful too.
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I don't make myself hit them.
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I find it useful to say well, need to a bit more.
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And when you're looking at your outline, is it that you're writing to say like
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10,000 words and then you review, is that, do you have it like that structured?
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Or is it just more, I feel like I'm getting to a point where I
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might need to just check back?
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Yeah.
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So what happens with my novels, certainly, is the ideas are
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kind of world-building ideas.
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I don't plan the world beforehand.
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But sometimes I realize I've, I've come up with a thing that's
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going to change everything that's gone before in a little way.
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And I have to go through and just sort of filter that through and just another
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layer layer of mulch on the garden.
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Yes.
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So you keep laying and laying down more mulch and eventually you get
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something sort of deep and rich.
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Yeah.
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Uh it's actually, um, do you know Jen William?
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Uh, so she says about composting, uh, ideas and that yeah, you just
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have to throw a load of junk on it and there's let it, like you say
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mulch and just become fertile soil.
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So yeah, it's, it's a metaphor that I like.
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I feel that each writer learns and develops with every story that they write.
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Can you think of anything on the last story that you finished and in that
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editing and in that writing of completing that story, that you learned something
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about your writing and that you're now applying to your latest story?
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It's a difficult question.
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I always think I'm learning.
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I've been doing this 20 something years.
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I still think there's something, there's always something to learn.
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The last thing I finished was a short story.
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Which had a really odd organic structure that I wasn't, I didn't, I didn't plan
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at all, and I think the thing that I learned from that is that's something
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I think I can trust myself to do.
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Nice.
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So yeah, I might do that more often.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, no, absolutely.
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Is that gaining confidence with it.
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You know, sort of just doing something out of your comfort zone.
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That's good.
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And my last question, is there one piece of writing advice that you've
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either been told or read um, that you feel really applies to your writing,
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that really has helped you as a writer?
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Yeah, the one thing that I try to do that someone told me many years ago
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was at least try and finish, to a draft stage at least, everything you start.
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Yes.
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Because it's too easy to give up on things when there, you hit
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a little bit stumbling block.
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And it's too easy to go, oh it's not working now.
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I don't know where to go with it.
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Push through, get to the end and then look at it.
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And you might still want to junk it or put it away.
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Yeah.
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But at least you got a finished story you can edit at that point.
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No, absolutely.
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And Neil Williamson, thank you very much.
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You're welcome.
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Thank you Tom.
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And those were my five questions about Neil's writing process.
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Would you like a longer interview with Neil?
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Me too.
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We'll get there, dear listeners, we'll get there.
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In the meantime, I need to get back to editing the full interviews
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that I really should be releasing.
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And to all those writers I've met recently and are keen to be on the show.
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I have an outro song for you.
