HOW I WRITE
Harriet Tyce
Known for her skilful storytelling and ability to create tension, bestselling author Harriet Tyce has gained widespread acclaim for her novels, including debut Blood Orange and It Ends at Midnight. Having previously worked as a criminal barrister, she now dedicates her time to writing. Her latest novel, A Lesson in Cruelty, explores revenge and redemption, weaving together three diverse and compelling stories.
Where do my ideas come from? A combination of my own experience, personal obsessions (such as school-gate politics, which I explored in my second novel The Lies You Told), stories I’m told and events that I read about in the news. A Lesson in Cruelty started as an interest in the terrible conditions in women’s prisons, before I added in layers of my own time at university and landscape from a walking expedition in the Scottish Highlands when I was at school.
I have used bits and pieces of real-life experience from my work as a barrister in my books – but more from a perspective of place and the overall life of a barrister than any actual cases. I was a junior when I left the bar and hadn’t done many complex trials, although I’d worked on them for other barristers. There’s a reason the trial in my third novel, It Ends at Midnight, is set in a Youth Court and not somewhere more glamorous! I didn’t know I was going to write about it all but as Nora Ephron says, everything is copy.
Choosing how to tell the story is very difficult. There are so many decisions to make in terms of narration, tense and structure. A novel in itself is difficult – where to start, how to keep the middle going, when to end – but with a crime novel there’s an additional layer of the games you need to play with the reader and how you can outfox them. Readers are phenomenally good at working out where a story is going, and it’s necessary as a crime writer to try and keep one step ahead. It’s challenging but lots of fun!
In my head I have a splendid, disciplined routine. From Monday to Friday, I start work at 7.30am and write 1,500 words before going on a nice walk at lunchtime, and reading and plotting in the afternoon. In reality, I’m sadly only too good at procrastinating, and find many excuses not to stick to this timetable. Having a daily word target helps when I’m working on a first draft. Editing is a different beast and can eat up all the hours of the day – night too.
When I’m writing about dark subjects I watch a lot of cookery programmes. I also try to get outside every day and do some exercise. I tend to write sitting in bed, which gives me the security I need to go dark.
✢ A Lesson in Cruelty by Harriet Tyce (£16.99, HB, Wildfire) is out on 11 April.
‘I write in bed, which gives me the security to go dark’