Putting the strangeness of the world into the book
I didn’t even realise I was doing this as I was writing it but after Five Days Missing was finished – and now it’s about to be published – I see that it is by far the most claustrophobic book I’ve written, and probably ever will write. Most of if takes place inside one house. It’s close. It’s tense. It doesn’t really give you time to breathe. Now I have time to step back from it and am in more of a normal world than the early months of 2021, I can see why that could possibly be…
Five Days Missing
A network
One of the most special things that happened to me during lockdown was finding – by total fluke – a local writer friend. My usual work networks were 200 miles away on my formerly frequent trips to London but now – bam – those trips were off limits. So having someone close by who got it and being able to run those mundane, fiddly, work-specific things past her on the odd socially distanced walk with our takeaway coffees was invaluable.
Avoid multitasking
Multitasking is great in many situations but when it comes to two such behemoths as educating your children and writing your novel.. no. Do not do it! Not even when you’ve whacked a bit of Cosmic Kids Yoga on and called it PE. I tried for the first few days to do the odd bit and I was guilt-ridden at doing everything badly and about 80% convinced my heart was going to pound right out of my chest.
…Instead, take the windows when they come
Whether it was playing around with some twist ideas while out for 20 minutes exercise on my bike or swapping with my partner for an hour’s speed writing at my desk while he took over phonics, homeschool novel writing was about being adaptable and finding windows when they came. Which I found far more effective than multitasking.
Great support
The two most important things you can have in your arsenal during homeschooling when writing a book, definitive: a kind, wise editor and a kind, wise agent. I lucked out with both (Side note: I’m often asked if it’s ‘worth’ having an agent as financially, they obviously take a cut. My answer every time: It’s worth it. Oh my god it’s worth it). The emotional support, the practical support: simply having people there to understand that my working hours were for the time being as unreliable as Dominic Cummings’ eyesight… they were both invaluable.
Wine/ fancy herbal tea rotation system
Ok, I don’t want to be too pandemic booze cliché about this (and I’m talking one slowly sipped glass of Rioja rather than sticking a straw in your fourth bottle of the week). But I think what a lot of us found hard about lockdown was distinguishing between day and night when the boundaries all became so blurred of work/ family and down time was so rare. For me, like for a lot of people, when my children were in bed and the pencil cases had been tidied away, there was no getting around it: there was work to be done and deadlines to be met. What I <did> try to do was make that evening workspace as lovely and relaxing as possible. That glass of wine – interchanged with a good herbal tea - helped.
Tricking my brain
It wasn’t just that glass of wine/ posh tea that helped me find that evening peace even when working, but the whole setting. Tricking myself, I suppose, that I was ready for a Netflix binge not a 9pm writeathon. I set the scene. Roaring fires. Fancy scented candles. Good loungewear. Blankets on my lap. Shunning my desk, often, for the sofa (I know, I know, back experts). Anything that made writing feel – even if it was work - like something kind of calming after a full-on day masquerading as a teacher was crucial.
Five Days Missing is out 17 February (Avon, Harper Collins)
