STAR INTERVIEW
http://www.writers-online.co.uk NOVEMBER 2019 19that the writing world and publishing
world should be doing a lot better on
diversity. But the general trend in society
is away from understanding other people
- different cultures and ethnicities. I’ve
been pleased and proud to contribute to
both these anthologies.’
After Stone Cradle, Louise began to
write edgy contemporary stories about
the darker aspects of women’s lives. ‘I’m
not sure where the shift came from to
contemporary psychological thrillers.
With Whatever You Love (2010), my older
daughter had reached the age where she
could leave home on her own, which is
nerve-wracking for a parent. So it was
the fear of letting go – and I think books
come from whatever is possessing you at
the time, in a bad or a good way.’
This is a key element to her method,
but it’s not deliberate. ‘My books evolve
very organically. I don’t sit down and plot
and plan in advance. I just throw myself
in. I can’t draw up a plot in isolation.
Ideas will form out of a scene I’m already
writing. So I always do whatever pops into
my head. I think a lot about characters,
and what that character might want to do.
It’s a very haphazard method.’
Louise may have a free-form approach
to creating a first draft, but she’s rigorous
about the editing process. ‘I guess the
organisation comes later. It’s when I’ve got
70% of a first draft written in a chaotic
mode that I think, you have to sit down
and impose a certain order. You have to be
ruthless about cutting.’
With Lisa in Platform Seven, the hardest
part was to write the flashback sequence.
‘That’s the part where she finds out
about her own life,’ says Louise. ‘It was a
question of, should it appear in sections?
In the end it made sense for it all to be in
one section.’
Bringing her characters to life is the
part of writing that’s difficult for her to
explain. ‘I can explain how I can construct
a plot or a sentence, but voice is a mystery.
It presents itself and you go with it.’
Many of her books feature a female
first-person narrator. ‘Black Water is a
male, third person perspective but the
female first person comes most naturally
to me and it would be silly to ignore that.
I quite enjoy the sardonic, slightly wry
voice that some of my female narrators
have. I don’t feel that voice is restrictive
at all – we’re half the population and
women’s stories can be universal too. The
majority of book buyers are women. There
are universal truths that apply to different
sorts of people.’
Using a first-person narrator is a useful
way to control what the reader knows.
‘With first person, you can only tell your
reader what that person will know. With
Lisa, the ability to read minds was useful.’
She says there are ways around everynarrative problem. ‘In Apple Tree Yard
Yvonne imagines a scenario that’s going
on – it’s not an objective truth but
it’s a way of taking your reader into a
different world.’
The most important thing for a writer,
she believes, is to be true to the story.
‘The main thing is to write the story you
want to write to the best of your ability,
and not worry about things like genre or
if it will sell or where you’ll fit in. You
can’t anticipate where you’ll fit in because
fashions change. Writing comes from what
you’re passionate about – and what you
love reading. If you love reading dystopias,
write dystopias. Same with romance. Write
where your passions lie.’
And stay focused on the task in hand.
‘Try to put aside the white noise –
anxiety about getting published, about
book sales. All of that can be quite a
damaging distraction.’
Louise follows her own advice, feeding
her passions and interests into her fiction.
‘I’m passionate about women’s lives. The
way women are often judged to a different
set of criteria to men. Apple Tree Yard is
about how a woman’s morality is judged
by the yardstick of her sexual morality. I’m
passionate about story. I like telling stories.
I like creating a whole invented world that
wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t conjured it into
being. To take a reader by the hand and
lead them into this world.’‘You can’t anticipate
where you’ll fi t in because
fashions change. Writing
comes from what you’re
passionate about – and
what you love reading.
If you love reading dystopias, write
dystopias. Same with romance.
Write where your passions lie.’