Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Oh that’s always a fun question, isn’t it? Because everyone has such a — I think writers are very superstitious. Once you’ve done something one way, that’s it. That’s how you have to do it forever. I’m definitely a pantser, but I have to have a bit of a lighthouse to know where I’m heading. So with Dirt Town I knew that a girl had died - and that’s not a spoiler, that’s in the first two pages - and I personally as the writer knew who had killed her. But that was before I understood who everyone was and I spend a lot of time writing and re-writing and so I definitely think I’m a pantser in that sense. But if I didn’t have that end point that I was shooting for I think I would have really struggled. And now I’m working on my second book, superstitiously I felt like I had to have those same things, where I know an end point that I’m heading for but I really like to let the characters dictate what happens, and you have to get to know them for them to do that otherwise you’re just moving around pieces on a chess board.
Before you start, do you do a map of who your characters are or do you figure them out as you write them?
I didn’t for Dirt Town but I’m doing it more for my next book where I’ve figured out it is like getting to know a real person, you have to see them in a bunch of different situations and you have to spend time with them and often what’s most fun is when they surprise you, they do something that’s kind of the opposite of what you think they’re going to do. And so I do start out not having a sense of what they look like, but I’ll just put them in a series of situations. I throw away a lot of writing, but I think that’s okay because it’s the only way I can do it. I don’t start with a fully formed character who strolls in. Often I’ll cheat by giving them bits of myself or giving them bits of people I know really well. That’s always an easy way to do it.
Do you have any writing rituals?
I do think if I can get to my study from bed - if I can literally get up, make a cup of tea, and be sitting down and not have to talk to anyone, those are always good writing days for me.
Do you have a favourite writing place?
I have a little study in my house which is far too hot in Summer and far too cold in Winter, but it’s where I wrote Dirt Town. And particularly with lockdowns I’m very fond of that room and I’m very fond of having a door that I can close.
If Dirt Town was made into a movie, who would you see playing the main characters?
It’s so funny - I joke with a friend of mine that everyone should be played by Cate Blanchett. Everyone, from the eleven-year-old boy through to Detective Sargeant Sarah Michaels, Cate Blanchett. I think if anyone could pull it off Cate could do it.
What are you working on next?
My next book is kind of - I’m quite superstitious again about not talking about it too much because I think when you open the door and you show everyone what you’re working on the light comes in and makes it all look a bit… you go “Oh, really? Is that it?” I keep the details fairly close to my chest, but I would say, like I said before, it’s similar in that hopefully a propulsive plot follows from knowing the end point that I want to get to, and knowing the kind of ride that I want to take the reader on. Which is kind of like Dirt Town in that I want you to pick it up and be so compelled that you have to find out what happens next. But I’m always a character writer first so I’m getting as deep into the characters as I can right now. I would say it’s not a sequel to Dirt Town and it is set in a different kind of community, but a small community. I’m interested in those kinds of spaces. So not the same geographical location, but certainly similar. I’m interested in how we define ourselves in opposition to other people - how the people in our life shape us and we shape them. So that will be a shared thing between Dirt Town and the next book.