Joanna Briscoe

How did you become a writer?

Well, I was writing quite a lot from the age of nine or so – at school, and at home. I was always thinking about what I wanted to do as a career, and veered off in several different directions, but from the age of fifteen, I committed to being a writer, and at that age, I actually wrote in a very disciplined manner that the adult me envies! I used to do an hour a day, after homework, and finished two full length children’s novels before I left school. I had no idea about agents, sent them to publishers, and was rejected, and this was a real blow to my confidence. However, I carried on, and started getting short stories published. These, and a non-fiction book, were published in my twenties, and I did lots of work for national papers from my early twenties, but to me, this was all a way to support what I really wanted to do – write a novel. I went through so many drafts of what became my first novel, Mothers and Other Lovers, and it then won a Betty Trask Award on the manuscript, and was published by Orion. That was the turning point. I had a desperate need to be a writer from a young age, and a lot of determination, but that meant that the rejections were very, very hard along the way. You do have to inure yourself to rejection.  

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

I was lucky enough to have two great English teachers – Judith Kirk and Antony Dixon. The latter was my teacher for many years, and he totally inspired me. I wrote partly to please him! Then, from early on, my influences were Rumer Godden and Laurie Lee, followed by Thomas Hardy, Vladimir Nabokov, and Daphne du Maurier. Toni Morrison, Marguerite Duras, Michael Cunningham and AS Byatt are favourite writers of mine. 

When and where do you write? 

During lockdown, I’m at my kitchen table – or in cafés when we’re allowed to be. I find I can write in noise, as long as there’s not one specific conversation that’s audible right near me. Before this, I always wrote at the fabulous British Library in King’s Cross. I constantly attempt to have a routine, certain hours, certain word counts, and usually fail. Somehow, I muddle through. Some writers are so much more disciplined than me, and I admire them for it. I think you really just have to find the method that suits you, and it won’t necessarily be the same as someone else’s. Many writers say they are morning people, and when I get my act together, that works for me. As long as you produce something, regularly, the words will build up.

What are you working on now? 

I’m working on my seventh novel. It’s set in the 1960s and the present, in Somerset and Enfield. The truth is, if I say too much about a novel in progress, I don’t have the same impetus to write it…. I think this is something to be wary of. You can find yourself expressing yourself to friends instead of on paper, and by talking about a work in progress too early, the themes can be crystallised in a form they weren’t quite meant to take. So I advise not talking about it, unless you have a particular plot problem, and that can sometimes be solved by a conversation with an objective listener.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

I just refuse to believe in writer’s block. There are good days and bad days, but if you sit down and force yourself to write, something useful will come out of the process. Workers in other fields aren’t allowed a sudden ‘block’. I find if I’m really stuck, I go for a walk, and the thoughts flow differently.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Just do it. It’s as simple as that. It’s so easy to give up, but if you stop, you won’t have done it, will you? 

What’s your advice to new writers?

I’d say many things…among them, that it’s hard. Remember that. It’s a marathon. So when you hit difficulties, don’t think you’re alone in feeling hopeless. You will hit difficulties, and if you persist, you will overcome them. Also, try to loosen your process so that you delve into some kind of emotional truth. Don’t stop yourself because of embarrassment or self-consciousness or fear of what readers will think. Go for it, and tell yourself you can edit later. If you really want to do this, it’s a long, lonely, hard slog. Don’t deny yourself other aspects of life, but understand that it may take some time. On the other hand, the rewards can be great too. If you have to do it, you have to do it. 

Joanna Briscoe’s sixth novel, The Seduction, was published by Bloomsbury UK and Bloomsbury US this summer. Her third novel, Sleep With Me, was adapted by Andrew Davies as an ITV drama. She has written reviews, features and columns for all the major newspapers and magazines, and is a literary critic for the Guardian. She broadcasts on Radio 4, and teaches on Faber Academy’s Writing a Novel course.