Rebus writer, 57: I’m getting slow

NOVELIST Ian Rankin says he is ‘slow- ing down’, writing only a couple of pages before he is ‘knackered’.

The 57-year-old said it is a common problem for writers of his generation and the days of ‘15 to 20 pages a day’ are behind him.

Rankin is the bestselling Scottish author of the John Rebus detective series. He told the Hay Festival he often travels to the village of Cromarty in the north of Scotland to focus on work. When ‘panic sets in’ he goes to a house with ‘no wifi, no mobile signal, no phone, no TV’.

‘The first 100 pages of Rather Be The Devil [the 21st Rebus book] were written in ten days in Cromarty,’ he said. ‘By the time you have written 100 pages you know you have got a novel.’ He said he goes to the pub at night, eats fish and chips, and repeats the process the next day. But he added: ‘I am slowing down, I used to do two books a year, 15 to 20 pages a day. Now after a couple of pages I’m knackered, I have to take a break, have a cup of tea, go for a walk, do the crossword … and try again’.

Rankin said part of the problem was that authors are asked to do a lot more on TV, radio and social media than writers in the past.