6. How do you come up with the perfect names for your characters?
It’s usually a process of trial and error. I give a character a name, and then use it for a few paragraphs to see if it sounds right. Sometimes a character name just comes to me, as if the character already knows the name that he or she should have. Sometimes it’s a matter of trawling through baby-name databases on the internet, trying to find something that’s suitable.
Sometimes, character names – and place names too – make into the story because they have special significance to me. For example, the Matt who appears on page 68 of Lessons to Learn and tries to copy Charlotte’s homework, is named after my husband, even though they share no defining characteristics. And on page 10, the Waiteata School that Jack mentions is named after Waiteata Road, the address of my writing workshop when I was writing the novel.
7. When you’re writing, do you ever imagine your book as a television show or movie?
I could give two answers here: no and yes. No, because I don’t see my books as actual televisions shows, with title sequences and end credits and actors playing the characters.
But yes, because as I write, I do picture my characters themselves acting out the scenes. I can see what they look like, what their environment is like. Sometimes this awareness translates to the page, sometimes it doesn’t. After reading an early draft of Lessons to Learn, someone asked me, “but what does Charlotte wear?” I knew what she wore, but I guess I hadn’t put that into words. In some ways, I’d rather my readers come up with that kind of descriptive detail for themselves; for them to have, in this case, their own Charlotte.
8. Have you ever had a character insist on doing something you really didn’t want him/her to do?
There have been times when I’ve been writing the story, the characters have been progressing well, and suddenly they’re in a situation which I don’t really want to write about: it’s dangerous, or awkward, embarrassing, frightening, they’re going to get hurt, they’re going to say something that I really don’t believe in.
But if the characters are going to have their own lives, independent of mine, I’ve got to take a deep breath and just write them through it. I’ve found that if I try and back out, the story tends to suffer for it.
9. Do you know how a book is going to end when you start it?
For the two novels I’ve worked on so far, I’ve had a good idea of what’s going to happen at the end, or at least the final decision that the character’s going to have to make – even if I’m not 100% sure about how they’re going to get to that point.
I find that short stories work on more of a find-out-as-I-write sort of process. Usually, I start with characters in a certain situation, and what’s going to happen to them in the end only becomes apparent as I write their story.
10. Where do you write?
I don’t really have a proper writing space here in London. For the most part, I write on a laptop on the dining room table, in-between my diary, 2 for 1 promotional vouchers, Christmas themed tablemats, candles, dice, burnt backup CDs and coffee mugs. Occasionally I take the laptop into the kitchen, or into the bedroom, but that’s about as adventurous as it gets at the moment.
