Tracy Chevalier - notes on process

    As promised, a few notes on Tracy Chevalier's writing process, as outlined in her recent Edinburgh Book Festival appearance:

    -    Tracy commented that her writing focuses on the senses, so if stuck on a scene she asks herself what her characters would see, smell or touch, and she goes on to imagine what that scene would look like if it were a film.

    -    When researching, she prefers to read books and take notes rather than resorting to Google for her facts (see the bibliography at the back of A Single Thread).

    -    She writes in notebooks then types up her draft every day or so, but the first pass is always done fully by hand and that relative slowness is a crucial part of the process; in addition, the crossings-out and movings-around on the page become the book's road map, she says. She edits on paper, too, printing a scene or chapter and working on the text by hand before correcting it digitally.

    -    As to stationery, she always tries to suit the notebook to the novel, but sometimes has to "make do" if her large collection can't furnish the perfect style. She can't work in cafes or other public places, preferring to sit on her sofa away from the distractions of the computer.

    -    On editing, "be ruthless" is Tracy's advice, for "editing is where most unpublished novelists fall down".

    -    How long does a book take her? She'll do six months' research before beginning to write, then she aims for around 1,000 words a day (her novels are typically about 90,000 words) but despite the initial work she often has to break off to check facts, and other writing commitments intervene, so 2 - 3 years in total is a fair estimation. Her next book is set in Venice in the 15th. and 21st. centuries and is about glass-making and beads; this is a big subject so will take longer, and no, she has not got any quicker over time and with practice. 

    -    Regarding subject matter for future books, while a place or situation may draw her, Tracy says she has to be patient "then something will click" and she sees "a flash" of what she could do with it. For example, Girl with a Pearl Earring grew from looking at Vermeer's painting and wondering "what did he do to her to make her look like that?", thus a portrait of a relationship took shape on the page.

Comments

[Fran H-B]

Isn't Tracy amazing. I heard her speak at the Port Eliot festival a few years ago, when she was writing The Last Runaway. The ends she goes to with her research is quite phenomenal. In her novel about Blake; Burning Bright she writes about Dorset buttons. So before starting the novel she learnt how to make the buttons herself. Looking forward to this new one....and the next!

[Emily]

I love hearing about writers processes. It's really neat that she does it all by hand.