The Beryl Bainbridge Method From Interview no. 19 • Chat to people, read biographies, scan the papers for anecdotes that intrigue you: a murdering clergyman; Hitler’s Liverpool-based brother; the Speaking Clock lady. • When one comes to obsess you, start reading about it and taking notes. Begin organising your notes, then give up. Research related subjects. Soon the information will knit together into a body of knowledge. It’s the moment you’ve been dreading: time to start writing. • Set aside five months and cancel all engagements. Get in a supply of cigarettes, teabags and eggs and put a pile of takeaway menus by the phone. • Everything’s ready. You’re at the edge of the lake. The water’s murky and freezing. Once you’re in you must stay in until the book’s finished. That’s the rule: no matter how badly it’s going, you must finish what you’ve started. • Go up to the attic to your Iron Age computer and Stone Age school desk. Wedge yourself into the school desk, brush fag ash off your floppy and insert it. • Rule two: don’t start the second sentence until the first is perfect. Resign yourself to spending four weeks on the first four pages. • Rule three: do not repeat yourself. If you’ve used first person in the last book, choose third person for this one. If you’ve tried one protagonist, experiment with multiple viewpoints. Do away with chapters; try dates or photographs instead. • Ignore your many clocks. Day and night are irrelevant during this process. As you live alone, you can eat when you’re famished and sleep when you fall over. You can write all night. You can smoke ‘til you’re dizzy. • Rule four: point of view is sacrosanct. Don’t write anything your characters wouldn’t (a) know and (b) remark on. This might cause confusion for your readers, but that’s not your problem. If 10-year-olds can read Shakespeare, you reason it should be possible for grown-ups to read Bainbridge. • When you’ve finished a page, pace the room reading it aloud. Correct it for cadence and economy and pace again. Do this 12 times before proceeding to the next page. • As you progress, you will need to read longer and longer sections aloud. Fortunately your books are short; nevertheless this will become a major feat towards the end. • Finally give it to a secretary to retype into a proper computer. Everything’s ready. You’re at the edge of the lake. The water’s murky and freezing. Once you’re in you must stay in until the book’s finished.
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