Q&A

Where do you get your ideas from?

This is such a good question, and such a tricky one to answer! For The Flatshare, the root of the idea came from my own living situation: I had just moved in with my boyfriend, a junior doctor, who was working lots of night shifts. Like Tiffy and Leon in The Flatshare, we shared a space but would go days without seeing each other - someone was always at home, but we weren’t there at the same time. The spark that started the novel came when I wondered, what would happen if two strangers lived this way?

But this was unusual - most novel ideas don’t come to me quite so fully formed. I pick up pieces of ideas everywhere, and have tens - hundreds - sitting in the back of my mind. Most of them never turn into anything. They’re a fraction of an idea, nowhere close to a whole concept for a novel. But sometimes, after months and years, they might grow into something more, or link up with another idea, or change in a way that suddenly makes them much more interesting. It really is a peculiar process, but it’s wonderful too - there’s nothing better than the moment when you think, yes, this is a story.

Have you always wanted to be a writer? 

Yes, as far back as I can remember. Somewhere in our loft I still have various stories written on scrap paper in childish pencil writing! 

Becoming a full-time author is an absolute dream for me. It’s like winning the X Factor or becoming a professional footballer or something. I always hoped and dreamed but never really believed this could happen to me.

How did you get published? 

I knew I wanted to be traditionally published, and so my first step (I learned, from Google) was to find a literary agent. I first started sending submissions to agents when I was about 17, I think. It took me another eight years and five completed novels - and countless unfinished ones - before I finally got the email I’d always wanted from a literary agent.

So I finished reading this on Friday night, and I LOVE it, the email said. I would love to discuss the story with you in more detail, as well as to talk more about you and your writing. Would you be free within the next few weeks to meet for a coffee and talk in person?

The agent was Tanera Simons, at Darley Anderson Agency, and the story she loved was The Flatshare. I met with Tanera, immediately clicked with her, and signed with her the next day (I tried to play it cool, but I was totally giddy). Then Tanera and I spent some time working on the manuscript together. She helped me make it so much stronger before sending it out to editors with a view to them publishing it.

After that, it was a whirlwind. The book sold in a pre-empt in the UK to Quercus Books, then in the US to Flatiron Books, then all across the world. It was the strangest and most wonderful time in my life. I still feel a little dizzy just thinking about it…

What’s your writing routine?

It really varies depending on where I am in the process of creating a novel. When I’m in first-draft mode, I write in very intense bursts of one to two hours, followed by an hour’s break, and I always try to hit 2000 words a day. This works for me because it’s a lot (for me, at least!) and that means I don’t have time to second guess myself, I just have to get the words down.

When I’m editing, I work longer, steadier days. I’m a morning person so I tend to get up early and try to achieve a lot before lunch, and I usually clock off around four because after that most of my work is drivel anyway! 

Do you plan your novels before you start writing?

No, not generally. I sort of plan as I go along: this Instagram post will tell you more about whether I’m a planner or a pantser! 

How do you get to know your characters?

By writing them. I wish I had a better method for this, but I’ve tried doing character profiles/q&as and they just don’t seem to stick for me – the only way I can learn about my characters is through my first draft. They reveal themselves to me slowly, a bit like a jigsaw, and each time I throw them into the next scene they tell me a little something more. This isn’t very efficient, and is a bit frustrating, but there we are!

What advice would you give to someone who wants to be an author?

I’d start by saying only hang on to advice that you find inspiring and motivating – I think writing advice can be a bit stifling sometimes and everyone’s process genuinely is really different. Here are two things that have really helped me, though:  

1)    Read books and watch telly and go see plays and listen to music. Just consume as many types of stories as you can, really – for me, it’s the best way to learn how stories are built, and how they can move us.

2)    Finish something. Maybe even that thing you’re working on right now and have kind of lost faith in. So much of the work of writing happens after you’ve written The End for the first time. I don’t even really know what a story is until I’ve got a first draft, and I find it excruciating reading through that draft because it’s always a mess and so far from where I want it, but that’s how I seem to have to start. Maybe you’re the same, and you’ll never know unless you stick at that story and find out.