I never go anywhere without a notebook. I have notebooks of varying sizes and weights so that I can fit one in almost any bag. You never know when inspiration is going to strike and in my experience, it strikes when you are thinking about something else, something totally mundane, like which sort of pasta to buy. Obviously, you can’t write a whole novel in the pasta aisle. But you might just scribble down a word or a sentence which holds the key to a scene or a plot point you’ve been wrestling with for days and weeks.
Clare Fisher By Justine Stoddar
All the Good Things began with a voice. I was in bed. Like most people in bed, I just wanted to sleep. But a voice called me up. It belonged to a young woman, Beth. She’d done a bad thing and she felt like she was ‘no thing.’ She was spiky and charming and I knew it would be some time before we were ready to let each other go.
I take my characters for runs. When I’m not sure what a character would do in a particular situation, I take them out for a run. I chat to them the way I’d chat to a running buddy (although not out loud). Sometimes we’ll plod on in silence. Getting to know your characters is like getting to know people: it takes time and persistence.
I write to move people. I read to be moved and I write the kind of books I’d like to read. Beth is a young woman in prison and her story is a difficult one, but I hope it is one that makes people reconsider their assumptions and one that moves.
I can’t go a day without reading. I really can’t. I never leave the house without a book.
I’m extremely nosy. Some of my earliest memories are of eavesdropping on adult conversations. It’s still one of my favourite past times now. As a writer, you’re always listening to how people speak, interesting turns of phrase, bits of themselves they reveal without meaning to.
South London is a part of me. I live in Leeds now but a part of me will always remain in south London, where I grew up. This is evident in my novel; the somewhat shambolic streets of south London, teaming with all sorts of different people, is the kind of place a vulnerable young woman like Beth can feel at home.
I don’t believe in good and bad people. It’s too easy to judge others, especially when they are in a different situation from you. Beth is in prison but she is, like the prisoners I met whilst researching the book, more like you and me than you might think. She’s done a bad thing but she’s not a bad person.
Writing is hard. Most of the time it’s like driving in the dark. You mostly have no idea where you’re going. You just have to hope.
Editing is fun. It’s not the sob fest people might imagine. It’s getting to know your characters and your stories better; making sure that you’ve done the very best job you can.
