Show Your Working is a regular column exploring how some of our favourite writers get things done. In this instalment, we take a peek into the writing routine of crime-mystery author Sulari Gentill. Her novel After She Wrote Him, winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction, is reissued this month by Ultimo Press.
Image: Supplied.
What does your workspace look like?
Sometimes it’s disguised as my bed, sometimes as my couch, occasionally as a cafe or airport or a hotel. The only thing that is absolutely essential to effect the transformation is my laptop. However, there are a few not-strictly-essential but useful ‘assets’ which render the bed or couch in my home preferable. First, I like to write in pyjamas which makes the home spaces less socially problematic. And I have three dogs who supervise my work from a comfortable place on my legs. I write with the television on.
I also have my official study—a beautiful space, but in the truffière. I built it with romantic notions of writing in seclusion but in truth I just go there to think and to talk to my horse. I do have a perfectly functional desk but write better with my feet up so it’s used only for administrative necessities like tax returns. But as much as my home spaces are ideal I try not to be too rigid about where I can work. I take every moment to write that I can.
Images: Supplied.
Are you an analog or digital writer?
I write straight into the laptop. I don’t take notes. I’m a pantser, so I don’t plot, and I write chronologically from first word to last. The story evolves organically as I write and I’m not sure I have any control of it. I do buy beautiful notebooks but it’s more a personal fetish than a necessity or useful in any way. When I die my boys will inherit several dozen blank notebooks! I do have a vague work goal of a thousand words a day but it’s vague and I don’t punish myself if it’s not met.
I write chronologically from first word to last.
What sort of software and hardware do you use to get your work done?
I use Microsoft Word, generally. Mainly because I can’t be bothered learning any other program, and it works for what I need. Scrivener is only really useful for people who plot. I work on one version of the file and I periodically email it to myself. It’s not a high-security operation, but save for a couple of mishaps it works.
Images: Supplied.
Describe your writing practice?
As I mentioned before, I’m a pantser. I have no idea what will happen on the next page let alone at the end of the book. It’s sometimes a wild way to write. I work whenever I can: early mornings, late nights, in the middle of the day. Almost everything else will wait if I have words I need to pin to a page.
I have no idea what will happen on the next page let alone at the end of the book.
I don’t really rewrite—I just don’t put anything down until I’m absolutely sure it’s exactly what I want to say. I choose my words precisely the first time. It means my first draft is often my final draft.
Images: Supplied.
How do you navigate your various kinds of work?
I am in the enviable position of being a full-time writer so I no longer need to juggle a career as a lawyer with what I actually want to do. I don’t really separate the different aspects of a writer’s life—it’s all part of the job. I still love placing one word after another the most. I don’t mind the publicity responsibilities. I’ve always refused to be media trained—instead, I tell the truth as I believe it to be… it’s easier to remember.
I don’t really separate the different aspects of a writer’s life—it’s all part of the job.
Has your writing practice changed over the years? If so, how?
My writing practice hasn’t really changed. I’m writing book sixteen in much the way I did book one.
How do you encourage inspiration to strike?
I don’t know that I do anything specific to encourage inspiration, I simply live curiously. I wonder about everything—the whys and hows—and in those questions, I often find the beginnings of a novel. I suppose that is why I consider ‘write what you know’ the worst possible advice for a writer. If that were true, serial killers and psychopaths would be best placed to write crime fiction. Most of my work begins with a curiosity about something as opposed to a knowledge—a question which the novel answers.
This is where research comes in. Particularly for the historical novels but even the contemporary narratives require facts about settings, accents, where you can stab a character if you don’t want them to actually die, etc. I tend to research as I go rather than in a block before I start writing. It means my research is story driven and very specific, so I don’t spend vast amounts of time gathering random but interesting facts that I may or may not use. I research with a question I need answered in mind, which stops me being waylaid and returns me to the writing as soon as possible.
What’s next for you?
After She Wrote Him (first published as Crossing the Lines) has been republished in Australia. And my new novel The Mystery Writer will be released early next year. And of course, I’m writing.
