Show Your Working is a regular column exploring how some of our favourite writers get things done. This month, we take a peek into the writing routine of author and playwright Sean Wilson, whose debut novel Gemini Falls is out now from Affirm Press.
Sean’s ‘pod’ studio. Image: Supplied
What does your workspace look like?
My partner and I recently had a tiny home studio built in our backyard. The makers call it a ‘pod’. At less than four square meters, the pod is just big enough for a desk, a chair, a fan and one little worker pea. There’s a window looking out to our uncompleted garden and, in the evenings, the setting sun. My partner is a psychologist, so she can take telehealth appointments in the pod, and I can retreat out there to write.
It’s cosy and safe in the pod, and I feel very fortunate to have it—but I don’t want to get too attached. I worry about linking my writing practice with a physical space and feeling unable to write in other locations. I want to be able to write anywhere: the couch, a library, a train, a hotel room. I’m planning to install a blind over the window to make sure I don’t get distracted. Sometimes I need blinkers on when I’m writing to pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist. I need to pretend I’m not missing out on things, tapping away at a keyboard in a tiny plywood box.
The desk is orderly and minimal. I think it runs in the family. As kids, my sister and I used to prank our mum by moving a rug or couch slightly off on an angle. Mum would walk into the room and freeze, sensing something was amiss. Now it’s me aligning objects on invisible grid lines.
I worry about linking my writing practice with a physical space… I want to be able to write anywhere: the couch, a library, a train, a hotel room.
Are you an analog or digital writer?
Almost completely digital. I’m very interested in tweaking my process and tools to get the most out of the limited time I have to write. I’ve used Scrivener for many years. Before I write a word of the manuscript, I make research notes, put together character profiles and save photographs for setting inspiration. All of that goes into the research folder in the project. I’ll then complete a detailed outline and carve that up into index cards for individual scenes. Those index cards become the notes I use when writing the first draft. I’ll often write split-screen, with an image above the window where I’m writing. For example, when writing about the stone cottage where the Turner family stay in Gemini Falls, I had a photograph of a crumbling old cottage for reference.
I write between my laptop, iPad and phone, and Scrivener backs it all up on the cloud. I put a lot of faith in the clouds these days.
What sort of software and hardware do you use to get your work done?
Scrivener, as mentioned, is wonderful—until I have to use the compile function to export a draft. I still don’t understand it and so, when compiling into PDF or Word, I enter a strange state of mind. I have no memory of the icons I click or the options I select but, somehow, I end up with a document to share.
On the go, I use a simple app called Notebook to save notes, voice memos, screenshots and quotes. You can organise them within digital notepads for each project.
In the pod, my hardware is a laptop, a second screen, and a keyboard and mouse. The sit/stand desk is the kind you have to hand crank to adjust from low to high and back again. I find the minute or two it takes to change the desk’s height to be a nice breather. There’s also no power in the pod; everything runs on battery packs. Every watt is precious.
Describe your writing practice?
I have a day job and keep a strict schedule when I’m writing a draft. I’ll wake at five in the morning and write for as long as possible, until I need to get ready for work. That’s usually just over an hour. I find that time to be good for drafting. My brain is still soft and spongey from sleep, and is well suited to imagining scenes.
Gemini Falls was written mainly during lockdowns, so the savings in commute time went to writing. On weekends, I’ll slice off as much time as I need to hit my weekly target. I find that 3,000 words a week is a good, achievable target around my job.
I wrote four scripts for plays before attempting a novel. I’m interested in writing for both page and performance, and I find that leaning away from one and toward the other can help the writing process. Sometimes, when I’m writing a scene for a novel, I’ll discover that the dialogue is sharpest in my mind; I’ll write the dialogue as if writing a script to make sure I keep up the momentum, and then I’ll return to rewrite the scene in full later.
I’m interested in writing for both page and performance, and I find that leaning away from one and toward the other can help the writing process.
Has your writing practice changed over the years? If so, how?
I used to have to trick myself into productivity by moving between rooms or going to the library. I spent a lot of time in the State Library of Victoria. Something about being around other people indoors, all of us staring at our screens, helped guide me back onto the rails. When the pandemic hit, that wasn’t an option for an awfully long time, and so I’ve become better at staying in one place.
I’ve also used a trick called an Odysseus Pact to force my present self into doing the work. The name comes from a scene in Homer’s The Odyssey: Odysseus convinces his men to plug their ears with wax, and tie him to the ship’s mast so that he can hear the sirens sing without guiding the ship to ruin. My Odysseus Pact involved me giving a chunk of money to a trusted friend and have them promise to give the cash to a particularly awful politician if I miss my self-imposed deadline. I could only get the money back if I showed them the completed first draft before the due date. I’m not sure I need that anymore. Missing a production deadline is scary enough.
How do you encourage inspiration to strike?
Good ideas and words usually only come after research and the hard work of breaking the story. I plan the plot, story, character arcs, conflicts and central dramatic questions. Before committing anything to the page, I want to know as much as I can, including the ending. That way, when I’m doing the writing at five in the morning, I don’t have to worry about the shape of the complete work—I only need to focus on the scene I’m writing.
A key part of the planning process is answering a lot of questions about the characters and their relationships with each other. In stories, the way characters and relationships change through a story is fundamentally what interests us, and so I want to work that out early on. The questions are ones that I’ve gathered from books and workshops, including: what are their attitudes and values? How do they get their money? Where did they go to school? What do they want? What’s stopping them from getting what they want? What will they do to get it?
Before committing anything to the page, I want to know as much as I can, including the ending.
So much of life, particularly now, is unpredictable and out of control. I like to be in control of my little story world, as much as possible. It helps drive me back to the manuscript, knowing there is a place where I understand almost everything and have a hold on the strings.
What’s next for you?
I wrote another novel manuscript before Gemini Falls. It was my first full-length manuscript, but it will be my second novel. I’m looking forward to going back to it after the experience of having a book published. I know a lot more now than I did when writing it and I’m keen to improve it, especially on a sentence level, and then get it out to readers.
Gemini Falls is available now from your local independent bookseller.
