Declan Burke Shares About His Writing life
Submitted by Sandra_Ruttan on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 16:38
Name: Declan Burke
Where do you write? Can you write when traveling?
I have an office / study upstairs at home. I’m a freelance writer / reviewer for magazines and newspapers, so I work from home. I write first thing in the morning, generally from 6.30 to 9am, or a little later if my schedule that day allows. But it has to be first thing in the morning, and preferably while the rest of the house is still abed. It’s a nice room, where I’m more or less surrounded by shelves of books. The desk is in front of the window, which has a lovely view of the Wicklow Hills, although I usually have the blinds drawn while I’m working.
I have written while travelling in the past – I have fond memories of finishing a draft of THE BIG O while on holidays on an island off the coast of Sicily, getting up early to write on the balcony on a laptop. The woman who swept out the alleyway every morning and fed the cats probably thought I was insane. I know my then girlfriend did. Actually, we got engaged that holiday … When I asked her what she wanted for her wedding present, she said, ‘Just leave the laptop at home for the honeymoon.’
These days, when I’m taking time off, I try to shut down the writing part of my brain. Although when I’m going away on holiday / travelling for work, at least two blank notebooks go in the bag before the passport does.
Can you work with music or the tv on?
Yes to music. I’ll generally, when I’m working on a specific story, have one album or compilation CD playing on a constant loop, to the point where I don’t really hear it anymore. I’m working on the sequel to THE BIG O right now, and I’ve put together a compilation of Bruce Springsteen live tracks, it really suits the effect I’m aiming for. The music has to, in my mind at least, be appropriate to what I’m trying to write. And right now, Springsteen’s older stuff, about life’s losers girding their loins for one last break-out, have that quality of mini-epic tragi-comedy I’m aiming for. And wouldn’t TO CASE THE PROMISED LAND, from Thunder Road, make for a wonderful title?
But writing with the TV on? No chance. What kind of barbarian could? Mind you, I was out for a few beers with Declan Hughes recently, and he told me about a writer who admitted that he doesn’t just write with the TV on, he actively snatches lines of dialogue at random. So I guess it takes all sorts.
What are the five things you must have when you’re working?
Cigarettes. Coffee. Quiet, with or without low music. No sense of who I am. And, I guess, a PC / desk to work at.
What’s the strangest place you’ve ever been when struck by a flash of inspiration and started scribbling notes down for a story idea?
It all depends on what you mean by strange. I’ve had ideas like that during football matches (while playing), during sex, at a funeral … I’ve been interviewing people, sometimes, when ideas occur, and I’ll make a few notes – I’m sure they thought I was noting down additional questions I wanted to ask. One time, visiting a military ship, on a tour, I started writing something, and I got hauled off to one side – they thought I was maybe spying, making diagrams. But I don’t do that so much anymore. I used to do it quite a lot, and I have heaps of notebooks full of ideas … These days, though, my theory is that if an idea is good enough, by which I mean really good, you won’t forget it – how could you? It’s all you can think about all day … And if it’s not really good, then why the hell is it going into your story? I’m not really one for listening to strangers’ conversations and jotting down lines of dialogue, either. Maybe it’s just me, but strangers’ conversations are generally inane. What I do like to do, though, is listen to the rhythm of conversations, the way people interact back-and-forth, how they phrase certain kind of conversational structures … I’ll certainly use other people’s verbal tics and quirks, although I’ll very rarely use the actual words they say.
Author of THE BIG O, Declan Burke’s insightful blog, Crime Always Pays, features reviews, interviews, author profiles, and much much more. You can read his efforts to cheat the Lie Detector here.