Nikki Gemmell, author of Shiver, Lovesong, Cleave, The Bride Stripped Bare, Alice Springs, and Pleasure: An Almanac for the Heart, shares her tips on managing time with Suite 101
Q: How Structured are You With Your Time Management?
A: I hadn’t really worked to a deadline before writing my third novel Lovesong. Shiver, my first book was written in just seven months and Cleave, the second, took a good couple of years. Neither had been written with a specific date in mind, I had set the timescales myself and with both it was a fairly fluid process.
Lovesong, the third in the trilogy, was different in every way. I had sold the novel in a two-book deal when signing Cleave. I’d described it in one sentence and was given a very specific two years to complete it. I thought this would be fine, but time ran away from me.
I had wanted Lovesong to be my rich chocolate mudcake of a book, as opposed to Shiver which I think of more as a soufflé – written with ease and speed. Lovesong completed my trilogy about women in tough places and I wanted it to hit readers in the guts. But, while at the outset I thought two years would be plenty, I found it progressively harder to work as time wore on.
It wasn’t a matter of losing confidence, rather that I became more uncertain as I wrote. I suppose that every time you write a new book you are reminded of how high the bar is so I was constantly challenging myself.
Q: Is the Key to Pace Yourself?
A: Absolutely! Part of the problem was that I started work on Lovesong straight after finishing Cleave and, in fact, had been thinking about it beforehand. This gave me no space and I felt under pressure from the start. This was made more intense by the fact that the novel was so complex.
I was ambitious for myself and wanted Lovesong to be sexy, compelling and heartbreaking – a novel that celebrates love. I also wanted to mint a language of my own, to make it a novel-length song with its own rhythm and beauty.
I had the bones of the story in my head and I wanted to flesh it out. I thought I had it all mapped out, but it turned out to be something totally different to what I ever expected it to be. It bolted away from me, took its own direction. I could feel myself losing it but I was so panicky about the deadline that I didn’t give myself the space needed to look at it with fresh eyes. I lost the clear simple linearity of it and I was tying myself up in knots.
It got to the stage when the publishers wanted it but it still wasn’t finished. They basically told me that I had to wrap it up and deliver, but to this day I feel like I fudged the ending. The last bit of the book feels a bit tapped on and my editor, David Godwin at DGA, picked up on it too. If I’d had more time, calmness and stillness around me as I was trying to complete it I would have ended up with something different.
But I desperately wanted to meet the publishers’ expectations and be the good girl and the good writer. I regret that I got myself into that situation. I had gone through 60 drafts and it took me three years to write. I almost collapsed with exhaustion after completing it and I don’t think I could ever write with that intensity again.
Q: How has Experience Changed Your Approach?
A: Now I know not to write to a publishers’ timeframe, instead I think it is far better to set your own timescales. Lovesong taught me that it is impossible to schedule a book, I do however set myself little goals on a daily basis. For example, today I want to complete a section – a couple of chapters – and then I will reward myself with a movie. Tomorrow, I want to start on another section then I might go and treat myself by going to TopShop. Rewards are important, they motivate you.
Novels take time and to make them work you need sheer tenacity: you’ve just got to keep on going and sometimes you need to accept that you won’t know when they will finish. You also need to be strong and listen to your heart.
It’s glib to say ‘Don’t give in to publishers expectations’ as they are so powerful and they’re your pay cheque, but I’ve found that whenever I’ve compromised because of something a publisher has said I’ve regretted it and in hindsight I know it was the wrong decision. Now I am very firm from the outset. I won’t sell a book until it is finished and I only work to my own deadlines.
Q: Do you have a Daily Writing Routine?
A: I try to write every day and advise that others do the same. I have three children aged seven, five and six months and so I try to work around baby nap times. I get up at around 5.30am to feed the baby then work for an hour while she goes back to sleep and before the rest of the house is up. Then it’s the breakfasts and the school run.
By 9.30am, the baby’s ready for a sleep again, so I grab another hour’s writing before heading out for a lunchtime walk. Once back, I try to glean another half an hour before picking up at school. It’s pretty chaotic and is getting more so now that the baby is sleeping less and is starting to move around.
I keep thinking ‘Oh my God, I have to get this book finished before she starts to crawl!” Once the kids are in bed, I may write for another hour or two but I am usually exhausted. I used to write until midnight but I simply don’t have the stamina for that now.
My best tip for people struggling with time management is to write as if you are dying! This is a real motivator and hurries things along. I think my background in radio journalism has helped me as I had several deadlines a day so this got me into the rhythm of hitting a target.
Q: Is an Author's Writing Pace Reflective of How They Live?
Yes, I think so. It’s important to style your writing to fit your lifestyle. My last book, Pleasure: An Almanac for the Heart and my current novel are written in very short chapters and I think this is a measure of how my time is now – I’ve got half an hour or an hour here and there so I just write very quickly and in concentrated verse. Short chapters suit this approach.
Any time I have is book time. When I am writing I feel like I am stealing time from everyone else and I feel guilty for that, but I am a much calmer person for it. Writing stills me so it’s important to have it in my life. A lot of my friends think I would be a perfect candidate for yoga but to me it is like going to the gym; time spent doing something that could be spent writing.
Q: What Drives Your Ideas?
A: it seems that every book I write is a reaction, a violent one, to the previous one. For example, The Bride Stripped Bare was written in a different way to Lovesong. I felt very light and easy writing it, it was the total antithesis to what had gone before. But since writing Lovesong, all have one thing in common: they are finished in their own time and not to a prescriptive deadline.
For more inside tips, see:
writing-novels.suite101.com/article.cfm/bloomsbury_magic; and
bookpublishing.suite101.com/article.cfm/balance_the_art_of_writing_with_the_business
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