Holly Black
The Spiderwick Chronicles writer has a kitten named after a D&D demon!
What is your daily writing routine like?
I think I’ve tried it all: outlining, fast drafting, note cards, whiteboard, three-act structure, five-act structure, reading the entrails of goats. But none of it has made the drafting process less agonising! Recently I’ve tried skeleton drafting and found that useful – at least I can get my mistakes over with quickly and get on to the revising stage, which is where the book starts to feel like something I can fix rather than something I am failing to properly make.
Describe the room in which you typically write.
I write in my office, which has a squashy leather couch, lots and lots of books, and a brand new wall perch for my hairless kitten, Quasit.
One of the ways I procrastinate is to make playlists for my books
Do you find it helpful to listen to music?
One of the ways I procrastinate is to make playlists for my books. You can find several on Spotify, including the one for Book Of Night. In particular, with this book, I liked listening to “Giver” by K Flay and Sam Tinnesz’s “Play With Fire”, both of which seemed quintessentially [lead character] Charlie Hall.
How do you deal with writers’ block/the urge to procrastinate?
I see those as very different things. Usually, when I am blocked, it’s because I either haven’t figured out something to do with the story, or I need to make a big change (usually one I haven’t realised yet, or don’t have a better idea for). But the urge to procrastinate often comes from anxiety. For that, I’ve been setting a timer for 15- or 20- or 30-minute sprints, promising myself a break when I am done.
Do you have any writing “bad habits” that you have to keep in check?
My first drafts are extremely skeletal, so I need to go back through, and slow things down.
Which of your books was the most difficult to write?
Book Of Night! I think I deleted three words for every one word I kept.
Is there any particular author whose writing ability makes you envious?
So many that it is hard to choose. But recently I’ve been thinking about how I absolutely adore Megan Abbott’s work. Her writing, line to line, is evocative, energetic and gorgeous. Plot-wise, she is a writer with a delicious understanding of women’s capacity for brutality. I started with her noir books, like Queenpin and (my favourite) Die A Little, and also love her contemporaries, like Dare Me or The Fever.
What’s the biggest misconception people have about being a professional author?
That, for us, writing must be easy. Thomas Mann once famously said, “A writer is a person to whom writing is more difficult than to other people”, and I find this to be sadly true.
What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve received or read?
Write for your reader self and not your writer self. We have a lot of received wisdom about what writing should be like, but when we put that aside and remember what we ourselves enjoy reading, we get at the stories we love.