Today, we have a very different first draft Q&A with crime writer William Sutton.
Working with the ReAuthoring project and Portsmouth Writers’ Hub, William often wields a ukulele while performing; he has read on the radio, and at events from the Edinburgh Festival to Portsmouth’s Square Tower, from Canterbury Cathedral to High Down Prison.
William Sutton’s historical mystery Lawless and the Devil of Euston is republished 27 November 2015 by Titan Books. Unearthing scandal, sabotage and stink beneath Victorian London’s streets, it introduces detective Campbell Lawless. Lawless and the Flowers of Sin comes out July 2016.
When you decide to write something new, what is the first thing you do?
I scribble notes, just a few words or a situation. I then usually lose these notes, or forget about them. In a moment of relaxation, unguarded, the thing comes back to me. Then I st8rt reading, looking, thinking.
Do you have a set routine approaching it?
Every new project seems to demand its own new method. Inconvenient, as it means blundering badly every time. But but but it keeps things fresh. There are always notebooks, diagrams, charts, sketches, and lots of wandering.
Pen and paper or straight to the keyboard?
Initial notes can equally be on Evernote or notebook scribble.
First draft I used to do with fountain pen: so satisfying changing cartridge. That’s now eveleved to typewriter first draft, or at least scrappy patchy ‘zero draft’.
How important is research to you?
I can’t claim to be methodical, but I do sift through vast amounts of material, images, contemporary fiction, dictionaries, histories, charts, figures. 1 love oblique research: the Richard Dadd exhibit at Watts Gallery, the Stanford 1863 map of London, the Geffrye Museum’s period rooms.
How do you go about researching?
Once I’ve developed the bones of the story and the characters
I know what to go looking for. My first book concerned Victorian London’s innards. Crucial books were London Under London and The Great Stink. But images of sewers, the Metropolitan Line construction and contemporary urchins and villains helped too.
How do you store everything; ideas, research, images that catch your eye?
My old groaning files of paper are mostly ceding to virtual files. Yet on top of Evernote, Scrivener and mountains of snapshots filed on the C-drive, I still collect typed sheets of each draft in order. I love getting familiar with the draft in order to bash and slash it into shape.
Tell us how that first draft takes shape?
- Endless notes, moments, scraps of dialogue finally assembled.
- Typewriter: reokless attempts at scenes in rough order.
- Rethink. Panic. Dramaturgical crisis.
- Retype into a more coherent first draft, fixing narrative angles.
Are there any rituals you have to do or items you must have with you while writing that draft?
I do collate most of my notes into a single notebook, covering characters, plot, story, events, twists, moments.
I then fetishise either fountain pen or typewriter ribbons and the slowly mounting pile of paper.
Does the outside world exist or are you lost to us for a period of time as the magic works?
When the magic begins, I’m still in the world as long as the story is unclear and the characters are coming clearer. Once I’ve broken through the early hesitancy, most of the first draft comes fast. Early mornings, late extra sessions, careless of mealtimes, appOintments, bins, keeping in touch.
What does your workspace look like?
Two workspaces. The analogue desk currently has the typewriter, sometimes just notes. The digital has laptop raised up, USB keyboard &mouse, often an extra screen.
Edit as you go or just keep getting words out?
I tried editing as I go and ended up taking 5 years to write a 200,000 word monster {intricate, unpublishable).
Keep getting it out: magma hot, messy, exciting.
I see many writers counting words in a day. Word counter or other method of keeping track of progression?
First book: I aimed for minimum 500, maximum 1500 wards a day.
Now I aim more scenically to finish the unit I’m on. This tends to mean 3 – 10 typewritten pages. Less is disappointing.
So, that first draft is down. Roughly how long did it take? And what shape is it in?
Six months – not counting a few months of false starts as I get to grips with it. It’s just about readable to me but not to my agent. I’ll slash loose words ~ sections, tighten plot, cut and rename characters, back-engineer twists.
In what format do you like to read it through, ereader, paper or the computer screen?
I love to read the typescript, but 1 soon type up on to computer document. Then besides re-reading onscreen and iPad, I’ll make an MP3 to listen to while driving (Natural Voice Software).
The relentless computerised voice shows weaknesses well.
What happens now that first draft is done?
Now it’s time to fix those glitches, omisions, over-egged sections, telegraphed surprises, conflated characters, historical inaccuracies. After this round of line edits & copy edits, I’ll send it to 5 – 10 friends for critique, and to my long-suffering agent, Phil Patterson.
Thanks for digging into the depths of the first draft. It’s been a pleasure having you.
Thanks for asking. Hope you can read the old typewriter script.
You can find William at his Writers hub, Lee Jackson’s encyclopedia and The Amateur Casual’s skewed view
LAWLESS AND THE DEVIL OF EUSTON SQUARE
A mystery in London 1859 to 1862.
Great exhibitions. Foreign conquests. Underground trains. But the era of Victorian marvels is also the time of the Great Stink. With cholera and depravity never far from the headlines, it is not only the sewers that smell bad. Beneath the respectable surface of society, a multitude of ills need flushing out.
Novice detective Campbell Lawless stumbles on to the trail of Berwick Skelton, an elusive activist who rose from humble beginnings to cross swords with London’s illuminati then vanished amidst presages of disaster, his heart broken by the darling of the East End.
The Worms – a gang of urchins – help Campbell investigate the ‘Skeleton Thefts’ mystifying society. Berwick’s trail leads to an entrancing world of music hall hoofers, industrial sabotage and royal scandal. Campbell uncovers a world of disillusion beneath the filthy cobblestones, peeling away veneers of secrecy in order to convince the powers-that-be of Berwick’s revolutionary plans. Can he track down this underworld mastermind before he unleashes vengeance on those who have ridden roughshod over him and his people?
Margot Kinberg says
As ever, this is so interesting! I do research in a similar way, in that I wait until I have a story outlined; then I dig into the research I will need. Great ideas here, so thanks, both.
Kristina Stanley says
Love the whiteboard photo. I hope you have a big “do not erase” sign near it.
images of new year says
Let us all close our eyes, say a warm goodbye to the year 2015.
Sol says
Some Chinese people believe that they mustn’t do cleaning and wash their hair in the 1st 3 days as that will sweep/wash away very good luck.