Novelist Sarah Waters has a Ph.D. in English Literature and has won numerous awards, including a Betty Trask Award and the Somerset Maugham Award. In 2003, Sarah Waters was named Author of the Year three times: by the British Book Awards, The Booksellers’ Association and Waterstone’s Booksellers. Hotcourses interviews Sarah and talks to her about  her career and The Little Stranger…

Q. Your most recent novel (The Little Stranger, 2009) was a ghost story. Is there a memorable ghost story or scary novel that sent chills down your spine?
Sarah Waters: I’ve always enjoyed spooky stories. I read a lot of ghost and horror stories when I was a child. One that made a big impression on me is The Monkey’s Paw, by WW Jacobs. It’s about a husband and wife who are given a mummified paw they are told will grant three wishes. Only once the first wish has been made do they realise that there’s a condition attached: the wishes will come true, but in horrifying ways. It’s a great story.
 
Q. What inspired you to write The Little Stranger?
Sarah Waters: My previous novel, The Night Watch, is set in wartime London, and I found when I’d finished it that I was still really interested in the 1940s. But I wanted to tell a different sort of ‘40s story – one about post-war life. I imagined a crumbling country house with an old-fashioned family in it, unable to cope with all the changes, feeling menaced by a new society. I just let that sense of menace develop, until I had a full-blown haunted-house novel on my hands. Lots of my earlier books have Gothic moments, but The Little Stranger ended up being very Gothic indeed.

Q. The Night Watch is currently in development with the BBC. Tipping the Velvet was a huge success – how involved do you get with the process?
Sarah: When you make a book available for adaptation, you have to be prepared to let the adaptation be something distinct, something with its own shape and logic. It’s not your project any more, it’s someone else’s. So, though I am fascinated by the process, I have never tried to get control of it.

Q. What do you think about e-books and the digitisation of books?
Sarah Waters: For me, part of the pleasure of reading is holding a book in my hands, looking at its cover, turning its pages and creasing its spine. So, at the moment, e-readers don’t really appeal. Then again, I remember hating mobile phones; now I get anxious if I’m separated from mine for more than about ten minutes... I’ll be really interested to see what sort of impact e-books do have on the reading, writing and publishing processes.

Q. Describe your average day
Sarah Waters: I’m pretty disciplined about writing.  I try to be at my desk by 10am, and when I’m writing new material,  I aim to write 1,000 words a day. Sometimes that’s easy to achieve, sometimes it’s hard, but I will make myself stick to that target.  A lot of my writing time is spent in rewriting. I will print up a chunk of text, read and annotate it, then go back to the computer to try and pull it into shape. I usually switch the computer off about 4.30 or 5pm, then spend an hour or so reading: I’ve always got books on the go, for research. I treat writing like a job, and only write in the evenings or at weekends in the final few demented months, when a deadline is looming.

Q. If you hadn’t succeeded as a writer, what profession might have appealed?
Sarah Waters: I’ve always quite fancied being a dentist. I think a mouthful of teeth would be a bit like a novel in progress: a complete little world of its own. I’d enjoy going into it and trying to fix all its problems.

Q. What advice can you give to any aspiring writers out there?
Sarah Waters: First, try to develop a writing routine. Not everyone’s lucky enough to be able to write full time, but putting aside some time every day, or every week, will help you commit to your writing. Be selfish about it. Second, read a lot and try to read analytically. When I am stuck with a book, I’ll often look at other novels to see how their authors managed to make things work. Third, find readers for your own work. Not too many – too many voices can be confusing. But find people who will be honest and whose opinion you respect. Finally, be prepared to cut and make changes. Writing is like surgery, sometimes whole limbs must go.

Q. What’s your advice to writers who are trying to get published?
Sarah Waters: Find an agent. You’ll get nowhere without one. Seek out agents who represent authors whose work is similar to yours, and check their website to see if they welcome unsolicited submissions.     
 

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