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claire
collison
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Claire Collison's debut, Treading Water, is out now.
1.
What inspires you to write?
A lot of the same things that inspired me as a photographer: recording,
making sense, making true. The space between a memory and a memory revisited.
Fragments –overheard mobile calls, inscriptions on park benches,
a note attached to a hot water bottle in a rented cottage bearing the
legend, ‘PERISHED!’
2.
How long did it take you to write a novel?
The mulling took ages, then maybe 9 months writing, then a long settling
period, and another couple of months editing. But Treading Water was very
personal, and getting the distance from it took time.
3.
Do you have a writing routine? If so, what is it?
I have a back-breaking furniture shifting habit: the more I know I should
be writing, the more wrong the position of my sofa is. But eventually
there’s nothing for it but to write. I like processes. I keep checking
the word count, then once I’ve got a good wodge I print it out and
take it somewhere other and scribble all over it.
4.
Is it harder to start or finish a novel?
I think daring to start is hardest. Once I’d made that decision,
Treading Water practically fell out of me. I got completely immersed in
it. I met an old college friend in Lower Marsh who asked if I worked nearby.
I replied ‘No, but one of my characters lives in a flat just there’.
Letting go was hard, too. It felt like I was putting my baby up for adoption.
5.
How did you go about finding an agent and do you think it's necessary
to have an agent?
Circuitously. After a rollercoaster of submissions and rejections I pretty
much gave up: it’s hard to sustain confidence in the face of that,
and writing is a confidence trick of sorts. But I kept entering competitions,
and Sarah Waters selected my short story for one that she was judging.
I don’t know why it took me so long to think laterally: If Sarah
liked my writing, maybe her agent would. Within a week of receiving my
typescript, she was representing me. It felt like a mighty weight had
lifted! Yes – an agent makes life massively more pleasant. A good
agent is encouraging, supportive, reassuring, and has the expertise that
means you can concentrate on the business of writing.
6.
How do you cure writer's block?
Swimming works for me. And shifting furniture. Autogenics (a meditation
technique) is something I don't do nearly enough. Fifteen minutes of that,
then writing stream of consciousness rubbish for the next fifteen minutes.
It’s amazing what comes out – a kind of colonic irrigation
for the head.
7. What is your all-time desert island book?
J D Salinger; For Esme With Love And Squalor.
8.
What's the biggest myth about being a writer?
That you wear glasses on a little chain round your neck.
9.
What advice would you give budding authors?
Get off the Internet and get writing.
10.
What can readers expect from you in the future?
Refinery is a teenage rites of passage novel set
in 1970’s Kenya: Dysfunctional family life bathed in Disco and smeared
with Ambre Solaire.
