::mslexia author method::

The Sarah Waters Method
From Interview no. 20

• Select a historical period (Victorian is good) and focus in on a corner of society that fascinates you (lesbian cliques, women’s prisons, criminal), or an issue topical at that time (cross-dressing, spiritualism, baby farming).

• Steep yourself in the writing of the time: fiction, journalism, diaries, letters. Try to absorb how people thought and spoke. Continue this reading throughout the writing process, to ensure your mind stays saturated with the right atmosphere.

• Make meticulous notes on historical trivia and turns of speech, recording the title of every source, its author, date and page number, as though footnoting a PhD.

• Write ‘Thoughts’ at the top of a separate sheet and jot down ideas for the book as they arise from your reading.

• Decide on a structure, based on one of the dominant literary forms of your period, and begin sketching out a three-part plot and embryonic characters. Include at least three of the following: a plot twist, a shy lesbian, a journey, a pair of gloves.

• Divide each of your three parts into six chapters of around 10,000 words apiece and map out the detail of what happens in each chapter.

• Now begin writing, starting with one of the scenes you like best (you’re particularly fond of madhouses and bedrooms) as a way of discovering the voices of your main characters.

• Return to the beginning and start moving your half-formed characters through the labyrinths of your plot. Write in past tense, in first person (try a diary format) and watch their personalities develop as they kick against the things your plot requires them to do.

• Your weeks will start to take on a pattern: a slow agonising start (as you plan the next scene) gradually easing into the steady production of 1,000 words a day until the scene is complete, then back to the agony of the blank page.

• You’re unable to write a rough draft. But if a scene is particularly complex, you may use finished dialogue to create a skeleton for it; and flesh out the details when you’re happy with its shape.

• After three months, review what you’ve written, incorporating notes you’ve made in the margins and taking time out to fill in any gaps in your research.

• Send the revised section to the one friend you trust to be the first reader of your work.

Steep yourself in the writing of the time: fiction, journalism, diaries, letters. Try to absorb how people thought and spoke. Continue this reading throughout the writing process, to ensure your mind stays saturated with the right atmosphere.