I’m still here and in the middle of editing. I haven’t blogged about it because it’s hard slog and I’m not sure there’s anything about it worth posting. I took great comfort, therefore, from a recent BBC documentary on Ian Rankin (for those in the UK it will be on I Player for a few more days). I don’t pretend to compare myself to him but it was good to know that successful writers also have ups and downs during the writing process.
The documentary included interviews, as well as recordings made by the author using a hand held camera. He was very honest and showed that it’s not as simple as sitting in a lovely study and drafting a polished novel in six months. I wanted to share a couple of quotes which held some resonance with me but please take a look at the programme if you can.
On the writing process, “It’s still a weird rollercoaster. One day I’m enjoying it, the next day I’m not. One day I think it’s ok, the next day I think it’s dreadful and it isn’t working.”
On the novel, “The real world is very messy and incomplete and often our questions aren’t answered and we can’t always make sense of things. What the novel does for me is that kind of therapeutic thing of giving a shape. Suddenly I can take all that mess, all these notes and clippings and give them a shape...an arc, make it into a story and that is very satisfying.”
Posts
