Described as ‘thrilling, compulsive and utterly addictive’ by Women’s Prize longlisted author Kirsty Capes, Hattie Williams’ debut novel Bitter Sweet is a thought-provoking exploration of a relationship founded in power, control and silence. To celebrate the publication, we met with Hattie to learn more about her writing workspace and creative process.
Where do you write?
I live in a small Victorian terraced house in east London and we don’t have a spare room to make into an office. Sometimes I like to write in bed, which feels very decadent but is terrible for my back, but mostly I write in my living room slash dining room at a table which has many, many functions alongside being my part-time desk. At 6 p.m. on weekdays, this room completely transforms into the hub for my family. The space takes on a totally different feeling, even the light feels different. My ‘desk’ becomes a craft table, a painting station, where we eat our meals, make sock puppets and do Play-do.
This is where I wrote my first and second novels, and where I am writing my third. I’m quite good at making the most of the space I have, and blocking out distraction, which is essential for writing. You have to quite aggressively carve out time for writing, and then even more aggressively protect that time. This means sometimes letting housework go, and accepting the mess, because cleaning is the opposite of protecting my writing time. This was a big lesson for me. In the week, when I’m home alone writing, I regularly trip over toys and single Crocs and have to peel bits of yesterday’s penne off of my socks, but I have learned to see it as a beautiful mess that I have to accept if I want to write.
What do you have on your desk?
Every few weeks I will have a massive sort out and clear the dining table of the mountains of ephemera that have built up, and I will feel very grown up and professional. But it only takes fifteen minutes to return to its chaotic state. Right now, there is a laundry basket, a pile of proofs I’m very excited to read, a stack of Bitter Sweet branded postcards I’m writing to bloggers, two empty mugs, an ominous looking black box I keep receipts and other such boring financial things in, a box of paints, a few notebooks and a fan of nice pens. I try to always have a vase of flowers by my laptop to make the immediate space around me as nice as possible, and today it is full of my favourites, peonies. There is beautiful ceramic fruit bowl that my friend made me, which makes me feel very loved. It never has any fruit in it, but it has just about everything else; I call it The Bowl of All Things.
Which is the most inspiring object in your workspace?
Opposite where I like to sit is a wall that I have covered in photos and artwork; family, friends, good times, those people that I love that are no longer with us, postcards and a prints. On top of these photos I drape long rolls of paper covered in the paintings my daughter does at the weekends… we roll out long pieces of paper and spend Saturdays filling them. It is a colourful mess, scrappy, chaotic, beautiful. My kid’s lovely, abstract expressive brush marks and my efforts alongside them. Mermaids that look more like muddy puddles, dogs and cats that look like muddy puddles, fireworks that look like… you get the picture.
What does your writing process, from gathering ideas to finished manuscript, look like?
I generally stay away from doing any actual writing until I have an entire story in my head. I have no idea where the ideas come from other than life, the people around me, the details of conversations and articles, overheard conversations and social media posts. When they come, they come in fast and it is really the very best bit of all of being a writer. Before I put a word on the page, I need a clear beginning, middle and an end, and a plan and a map for how I get from a, to be, to c. It is very important that I don’t write until it is ready. This bit of the writing involves no actual writing, just a lot of thinking, usually at late night.
When I’m ready to go, I write in intensive sprints; between seven and ten hours a day for seven or eight weeks. It’s not healthy. It goes against all the advice writers are given. But it works for me, right now. Once a first draft is done, I leave it well alone for at least two months to ‘cure’. Then the edit starts. That’s the hard bit. I have had the grace of time for my first two books – no publications or press or events in the diary. But with my third, I have had to pause halfway in because I can’t just hop in and out of the story while it is still forming. When the promo is done for Bitter Sweet, and I have a clear few weeks, I’ll have to try and get back into it.
What can you see from your window?
I wish I could tell you it was rolling mountains, an ocean, even an apple tree. But my window looks into a shambolic lean-to where we dry our laundry. And as all adults know, there is always some laundry drying. My wall of pictures and paintings is my window.
Have you ever had a particularly good piece of writing advice?
If you want to write, write every single day for twenty minutes. It starts working the muscles that you need to be able to write a novel. The ideas will follow. And when you get stuck, keep writing – this is the only way to get unstuck. I learnt this from Kerry Ryan who runs Write Like A Grrrl, brilliant courses which are accessibly priced and very inclusive. Kerry helped me so much. I really encourage anyone who wants to write to do her Ignite course. Finally, give yourself permission to write what you know. Your life, your story, your outlook, your inner world should be your greatest source of inspiration, because it is all totally unique to you. YOU are interesting enough.
