Today in the first draft hot seat is Terri Nixon. Terri was born in Plymouth in 1965. At the age of 9 she moved with her family to Cornwall, to a small village on the edge of Bodmin Moor, where she discovered a love of writing that has stayed with her ever since. She also discovered apple-scrumping, and how to jump out of a hayloft without breaking any bones, but no-one’s ever offered to pay her for doing those.
Since publishing in paperback for the first time in 2002, Terri has appeared in both print and online fiction collections, and is proud to have contributed to the Shirley Jackson award-nominated hardback collection: Bound for Evil, by Dead Letter Press. As a Hybrid author, her first commercially published novel was Maid of Oaklands Manor, published by Piatkus Entice (a digital-first imprint of Little, Brown,) and it was short-listed in the “Best Historical Read” category at the Festival of Romance 2013. The sequel, A Rose in Flanders Fields, was published by Carina UK (a digital-first imprint of HarperCollins) and was short-listed in the same category in 2014.
Terri’s self-published Mythic Fiction series, The Lynher Mill Chronicles, has now been launched. Books one and two are available in print and e-book, and the third book in the series is due for release in June 2015.
Terri now lives in Plymouth with her youngest son, and works in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Plymouth University, where she is constantly baffled by the number of students who don’t possess pens. She also writes under the name T Nixon, and has contributed to anthologies under the names Terri Pine and Teresa Nixon. She is represented by the Kate Nash Literary Agency.
When you decide to write something new, what is the first thing you do?
I make copious notes! My notes documents run to tens of thousands of words, and until I have the shape of the story in my head I won’t start writing. But that’s okay; I usually conceive my new project while I’m still working on my last one, so there’s always writing being done at some stage!
Do you have a set routine approaching it?
Not really – I usually prepare some character notes, and place notes, and after that it’s sort of like I’m circling it, putting everything in just the right place, and then I’ll swoop in, and pin it down with a paragraph to get it all started. After that, once I’ve settled in, I’m quite methodical.
Pen and paper or straight to the keyboard?
You’ve never seen my handwriting, have you? 😉 For both readability, and speed, it’s got to be straight to keyboard!
How important is research to you?
Because one of my series is historical (WW1) I have had to put an enormous amount of research time in, most of it will never be directly used, but I like to think the feel of it comes through anyway. I will research everything, from the important stuff like battles and their outcomes, down to whether or not a train service is likely to have run on a certain day, or a ferry made a crossing at a given time … even the weather local to where I’m writing about, at the time I’m writing about it. So many seemingly irrelevant things I have put in my books are entirely accurate, but most people will never know half of them. It’s quite a nice feeling, actually!
How do you go about researching?
I often buy books on the subject, but I also watch films and read online articles. Getting the voice right has a lot to do with it, so I try to read first-hand accounts wherever possible. When I started work on The Oaklands Manor trilogy (1912-17) I read hardly anything except Edwardian and WW1 memoirs for almost 2 years.
How do you store everything; ideas, research, images that catch your eye?
Mostly in my notes documents, and I have a bookmark tab with sub-tabs for WW1 or other subject-specific pages. I do sometimes use Scrivener for the organisation benefits – storing images and sound clips – but I always do my actual writing in Word. Can’t quite make that leap just yet!
Tell us how that first draft takes shape?
Once I have the basic shape of the story, and enough details to get me started, I will pretty much sit down and go at it until it’s done! (work and, you know, life, permitting!) I have a separate document called “scene dumps” which I use when I write a scene I’m desperate to get down but it’s not yet time for, then I’ll just drop it in at the right moment. Mostly though, it’s written from start to end with very little jumping around.
Are there any rituals you have to do or items you must have with you while writing that draft?
Before I start writing, I have to clear my head and the best way I’ve found to do that, is to play a few rounds of Bejeweled Blitz. With the sound off, it’s a very very relaxing thing to do, and it lets me get in the right frame of mind for whatever I’m writing. Well, that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it …
Does the outside world exist or are you lost to us for a period of time as the magic works?
Being a single mum I don’t have the luxury of shutting everything else out, and leaving it to someone else just for a while, but if I’m on my own in the house it’s a common thing for me to begin swimming back to reality and realise an awful lot of time has gone by without my noticing it! So I suppose, given the right set of circumstances, the world is just something that happens to other people when I’m writing!
What does your work space look like?
My laptop sits permanently on a card-table that I just pull out and put in front of my sofa. The sofa’s quite high, and I now have a memory-foam backrest, so it feels a bit more businesslike than just ‘sitting on the sofa.’ But I don’t have an office, or a proper desk, so it’s all a bit rough and ready, really! I have all my research books under the coffee table, so nice and close to hand.
Edit as you go or just keep getting words out?
Just keep bashing on, usually. On rare occasions I will go back over something I’ve written, but only if something’s niggling at me about it. And if I find myself with a spare hour during the day I’ll do a bit of a random proof-read of a page or two, just to help with the over-familiarity problem inherent in the self-editing stages.
I see many writers counting words in a day. Word counter or other method of keeping track of progression?
I won’t set a daily target, but at the end of each ‘session,’ be it a day, or half a day, I’ll check the number of words I’ve done, and how much progress has been made through the book as I usually know where I’m headed word-count-wise.
So, that first draft is down. Roughly how long did it take? And what shape is it in?
I would say it took about six months – my books tend to run to around 110k pre-edit. I’ll often add a good many more though; my most recent book is sitting at 118k. As far as the shape it’s in – it will have altered drastically from the initial intention, I can more or less guarantee that! It will have take a turn somewhere along the line, and maybe even switched genre because of it. It usually needs fleshing out in several places; I’m often so anxious to see what happens, I will press on, and sometimes a scene will be almost skeletal until I go back and incorporate the elements that have become necessary later.
In what format do you like to read it through, ereader, paper or the computer screen?
I’ll read on the computer screen for the initial pass-through, and then, when I’ve done the bulk of the edits, I’ll print it out and read it through on paper, with different coloured pens to hand. However, even then I’ll have a ‘notebook’ open on my laptop, so I can quickly type out corrections.
What happens now that first draft is done?
I’ll leave it for as long as my schedule allows, then go back in with a (hopefully) fresh pair of eyes, and try not to laugh/cry/delete the entire book. Then I’ll get a grip, congratulate myself for having actually written the damned thing, and get to work again.
Thanks for digging into the depths of the first draft. It’s been a pleasure having you.
You can find Terri on her website, Twitter and Facebook
A Rose in Flanders Fields
1917. Driving an ambulance through the mud in Flanders, aristocrat Evie Creswell is a long way from home. At Oaklands Manor all she had been expected to do was to look pretty and make a good marriage. But with the arrival of World War One everything changed…
And Evie, to the horror of her family, does not choose a husband from her blue-blooded set; instead she weds artist Will Davies, who works as a butcher’s apprentice. Soon she is struggling nightly to transport the wounded to hospital, avoiding the shells and gas attacks – her privileged home life, and her family’s disappointment at her marriage, a lifetime away.
And while Evie drives an ambulance in Belgium, Will is in the trenches in France. He withdraws from her, the trauma of his experience taking hold. Evie has the courage to deal with her war work, but it breaks her heart to think she is losing Will’s love. Can their marriage survive this terrible war? That is, if they both get out alive…
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Alex J. Cavanaugh says
Congratulations on your success, Terri.
I tend to circle a bit as well. Although you probably don’t circle as long as I do…
Terri Nixon says
Thank you, Alex! I like a bit of circling, but often my impatience wins through and I quite often swoop before I’d planned to! 😉
Margot Kinberg says
Rebecca – Thanks for introducing Terri.
Terri – Thanks for sharing your draft process with us. I know just what you mean about handwriting; mine’s illegible, so I always go straight to the keyboard too. And I agree about the importance of research, especially for historical and other series where you really have to be accurate. I wish you much success.
Terri Nixon says
Thank you very much, Margot. My handwriting is really quite appalling at times, although I’m sure it never used to be. Lack of practice, I suppose! On the plus-side, my typing has got pretty fast!
writeanneAnne Stormont says
Interesting interview. I’ve some things in common with Terri while writing a first draft. I enjoy the research to a point, but then become impatient to just get on with it. All the best with the books, Terri and thanks Rebecca for posting.
Terri Nixon says
Very kind of you, Anne, and thank you for reading. Research is fun, but it sometimes becomes a bit of a time-suck, doesn’t it? So easy to become distracted! I wish you the best of everything with your own work 🙂
Jacqui Murray says
I love the way you plan the story, Terri. I find I get my best inspiration in my peripheral mental vision–when I’m thinking of something else. Suddenly, an unrelated idea pops out. Maybe something like what you described above.
Or not. I lose something by the time I transcribe!
Terri Nixon says
Hi, Jacqui, and yes, you’re quite right … sometimes you can try too hard to ‘have an idea’ and it can get frustrating! But then, just when you’re supposed to be thinking about something else, your brain starts itching, and bingo!