‘When I write, I have a village in my head’

With a new novel, Violeta, out now, Isabel Allende shares her passion for strong female characters and why she writes fiction in Spanish

Your protagonist, Violeta, lives for 100 years, from the Spanish influenza pandemic to Covid-19. How did this idea come about? The initial inspiration was my mother, because she almost lived through a century – she was born in 1920 and she died just before the pandemic began. I wanted to explore how both these pandemics disturbed everything, changed everything. Of course, people didn’t have the information in 1920 that we have now, and they didn’t travel, so the virus didn’t spread so fast. But the misinformation and the people who didn’t believe in mask-wearing – all that happened before, exactly like today. And so I knew this was going to be the story of a woman who lives for a century and that century has bookends of both pandemics.

Violeta is intent on both following her heart and staying financially independent. How important are strong female characters to you?

Well, they are in all my books! I would have loved to instil my feminist fights in my mother, but she came from another time. However, it’s interesting to me that even though I’ve written very different books in different genres, I always go back to the same themes. I write about love and death, violence, organic justice, loyalty, courage and always strong women. Even if I try to write something else, sooner or later, these themes return.

Your grandchildren once said that you have a village in your head and you live there – how does this manifest itself when it comes to your writing?

My village is all the characters that have lived with me for 40 years from the 26 books that I have written. I go back to that village when I’m writing, and because all my characters live there, sometimes they come back and invade another book in disguise, with a different name or nationality. I have a terrible memory for everything except a story. I won’t remember your face, your name or where we met, but if you tell me a story, I will remember it 20 years later.

Describe your writing process…

I start every one of my books on 8th January, so by 7th January, I’ve cleaned up my attic, I have everything that belonged to the other book in the cupboards and I am ready to start something new. Sometimes, I don’t have a project. But I know that if I show up, it will happen somehow. My usual routine is to wake up around 5am, to have a little time for gratitude and for remembrance, with a large cup of coffee in bed. I get up very early, walk my dogs and then I’m at the computer until the evening when my husband gets home.

I try not to go back to writing after that, but the book calls me with such a loud voice that sometimes in the middle of the night, I sneak upstairs to do something that occurred to me while I was asleep.

‘MY THOUGHTS MOVE LIKE AN OCTOPUS’

You write non-fiction in English, but you always write fiction in your first language of Spanish – why is that? I feel that when I write fiction, another part of my brain is engaged. I can’t think in a very linear way – it’s very organic. It flows. My thoughts move like an octopus’s tentacles in every direction, and I cannot do that in any other language. Things that I can say in Spanish freely, I don’t feel free to say in English. For instance, if there is a love scene, it will sound sentimental to me in English, and yet in Spanish, we have a whole vocabulary for love. It’s like dreaming – it happens in your language.

Violeta (Bloomsbury Publishing) by Isabel Allende is out now

About the book: 12 Hours To Say I Love You is the love story of Pippa and Steve, a couple whose lives are thrown into turmoil when Pippa is rushed to hospital following a traffic accident. The novel is written from both characters’ perspectives, with Olivia Poulet writing Pippa’s chapters and Laurence Dobiesz writing Steve’s.

Find your own space

LAt first, we tried sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table, working on different chapters. Pretty soon we had to move to separate rooms but would reconvene in the kitchen to read and discuss our day’s work, often with a drink and some crisps.

OWe would write for the most part in separate rooms. Larry commandeered the extremely comfy Ikea swivel chair in the study, but that meant I was at the kitchen table and thus nearer the biscuit supply. So – swings and roundabouts. As our novel is episodic, we tended to write the chapter we felt most equipped to attack that day. Our approach was not always chronological.

Establish a work-life balance

LIt’s important to know when the working day is over. This was particularly true while we were redrafting during the Covid lockdowns, when time kind of stood still. It was easy to find yourself locked into ‘busy yourself with work’ or ‘distract yourself with leisure’ mode. Usually we were very happy to clock off at 5pm and catch up on Bake Off.

OOwning a dog helps – because dogs are singularly unimpressed by all of your tapping on a keyboard and ensure you switch off and take a long walk every day (during which you almost always have your eureka thoughts). Clocking off with a glass of wine after a writing day was a moment to relish. On some days, we would use the time to debate a plot element, but other days we made sure that it was a novel-free zone.

Let go of ego

LWhile tweaking later drafts, we’d occasionally find ourselves trying to make changes to the same section of text in our shared document. That could be a flashpoint for disagreement, but a productive one. We learned to be honest when giving notes and resilient when receiving them.

OEditing was the most difficult bit. The closer we got to completing the novel, the more real it became, the more we both became wedded to little bits we liked. But letting go of any ego and trusting each other’s perspective always led to a better and tighter chapter in the end.

Acknowledge your differences

LWe have similar tastes and senses of humour. But when we sit down and start typing, we have our own distinct metronomes. It could be frustrating if one of us was lagging behind, so to speak. But once you accept that you work at your own pace, those different approaches can reveal themselves as strengths to your overall process.

OI am scattergun and words bounce around my brain like ping-pong balls. Larry follows one thought to its bitter end and can squeeze every ounce of humour from something that on the surface could appear mundane. I write quickly, while Larry can ponder over one sentence for hours. I encourage him to whack it all down, and he encourages me to consider if I really, really need all those sentences. If you’re able to improve, polish and celebrate each other’s work, then you could be on to a winner.

Be kind

LThis was a new experience for us both. While it was useful to give each other a push now and then, it was most important to be gentle and positive when encouraging each other to keep going.

OYou make yourself extremely vulnerable when you write, therefore kindness is crucial in a writing partnership. 12 Hours To Say I Love You (Headline Review, £14.99) by Olivia Poulet and Laurence Dobiesz is out on 3rd February