Show Your Working is a regular column exploring how writers get things done. In this instalment, we take a peek into the writing routine of author Diana Reid. Her latest novel, Sign of Damage, is out now.
Images: Supplied.
Signs of Damage explores a mysterious death. How did this story come about?
I’m always interested in cultural scripts: the very human impulse to look to fiction and popular culture to make sense of our own lived experiences. Specifically, in this novel I wanted to write about trauma narratives. I decided to open with a traumatic, devastating event, which the characters (and the readers) spend the rest of the book trying to understand.
This is your third novel. How do you encourage inspiration to strike?
I usually think inspiration will strike in its own time, and there’s not much you can do to hurry it along. If anything, I’d say the trick is learning to recognise inspiration when it comes. Often I’ve had an idea that feels inspired only to discover a week or a few months later that it’s not worthy of a whole novel.
Image: Love & Virtue (2021), Signs of Damage (2022) and Seeing Other People (2024).
There are two things that help me distinguish these whims from true inspiration. First, I abandon ideas all the time. If a story isn’t working it’s tempting to blame yourself. You think, If I just did more research or worked a bit harder, I could get it over the line. Maybe it’s you, but more often it’s just a bad idea! What if you put all that effort and energy into thinking of something else to write about instead? Second, I gravitate towards projects that scare me. With every novel I sit down to write, I want to be unsure whether I can pull it off. That’s where inspiration lives, I think—just outside your comfort zone.
What does your workspace look like?
I try to vary it up. I have a desk in my tiny flat in North London for when I’m working late or don’t feel like leaving the house. I’m also spoilt for choice with libraries: there’s a public one right next to my local park (where the real thinking happens), and I also pay a subscription to a members-library, which has a lovely community of writers. If I’m on a deadline, I often work in a cafe as a last resort. The guilt about sitting on one cup of coffee for several hours usually motivates me to stop procrastinating.
Images: Supplied.
Are you an analog or digital writer?
I draft in Microsoft Word and I have a big notebook for plotting. There’s nothing like a word processor for finessing a sentence. But if I’m trying to make big, abstract decisions—about character arcs, themes, and structure—I reach for a pen. There’s something about the forced slowness of handwriting (and, of course, the fact that it occurs offline) that encourages deeper thought.
What sort of software and hardware do you use to get your work done?
I use a MacBook Air. When I was studying for the HSC, I downloaded an app called Self Control that blocks the internet for as much as twenty-four-hours at a time. Embarrassingly, I’m still completely dependent on it.
Describe your writing practice?
If the same idea has been percolating for a few months, and I’m still intrigued by it, I’ll open a blank Word Doc and do what I think of as a ‘free draft’. This is where I write every single idea that pops into my head: every scene, every character, every relationship between those characters. I don’t read it back until I’ve got about 60,000 words, whereupon I print the whole thing and work out what’s salvageable (basically, what doesn’t bore me or make me cringe). I’ll usually keep about half of it. From that half, I’ll work up a plot. Then I’ll write the second and third drafts to a plan. Obviously, it’d be more efficient to plan first, then draft, but I want to leave room for the characters to surprise me. That way, hopefully, they’ll read as if they have a life of their own.
What’s your editing process like?
I love editing, it feels like the reward for the arduous slog that is drafting. When I’m into the second, third, and fourth drafts (basically, after the ‘free writing’ phase), I’ll edit as I go. Then when I can’t think how to improve it, I’ll show it to a close friend and, after that, to my agents and publisher. I’m always grateful for edits. It’s a genuine privilege to have other people apply their intellect and creativity to improving your work.
How do you navigate your various kinds of work?
I’m very lucky to write full-time, but I’ve found it helpful to cultivate multiple work streams. On top of my novels, I do freelance work for magazines and newspapers, as well as occasional screenwriting work. I also have a fortnightly newsletter on Substack, The Fuse. So much of writing life is waiting to receive feedback—from an editor, or publishers, or readers. Spreading your energy across lots of different projects keeps you sane in those more passive periods when you’re waiting to see how your work will be received.
Has your writing practice changed over the years?
I’m much less rigid than when I started. I wrote my first book when I was twenty-four, and I was hyper-aware that I was in such a fortunate position to be published at a young age. I used to keep very strict nine-to-five hours. At the time, I told myself it was just good discipline. In hindsight, I think I was trying to prove (to myself and to other people) that I was worthy of the opportunities I’d been given. Now, I probably work just as hard, if not harder, but I’m much less regimented. If there’s a film or play or exhibition I particularly want to see, or a friend I want to catch up with, I’m less self-lacerating about leaving the desk in the middle of a weekday.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on a new novel. I won’t say anything about it because, per the above, I’m not yet sure if I can pull it off!
