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On Making Writing a Process By Rachel Grosvenor

August 25, 2023 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

When people hear that I’m a writer, many ask what my process is. It’s a good question and a fair one, and is debated back and forth in writing groups, online, and wherever creatives dwell. Books have been written on it. Thousands of words have been flung into the air, debating the best process for writing a book. So, as the author of four books (my debut, The Finery, is being released on 25th August 2023!), here’s my personal motto on the subject…

If you don’t write, nothing will change.

There it is. That’s the phrase that keeps me coming back to the blank page again and again. What do I want to change? Simple. I want more words on that page so that, ultimately, a novel arrives in the space before me. I want to give a reader the gift that Tolkien, Kate Atkinson, Margaret Atwood and Terry Pratchett give to me: joy.

The process of writing looks different to everyone. Stephen King writes every day, and this suggestion is often repeated in the creative writing classroom. As a writing coach who spent years teaching writing, it’s something that I have heard time and time again. But here’s the thing you should bear in mind…writing every day does not work for everyone. It doesn’t work for me for the same reason that working out every day doesn’t work for me. I need time to let my muscles rest.

I began writing The Finery prior to the pandemic, and it really came alive during that first lockdown. I spent lockdown in New Zealand, having visited on my honeymoon and found the borders closing (ultimately, I ended up spending two years there!). So, my lockdown experience was a little different. In a fancy garden shed I had rented last minute on Airbnb, outside Christchurch, the world of Professor Wendowleen Cripcot came to life. New Zealand seemed fantastical to me because I had never visited before. I tasted fruit from the feijoa tree, marvelled at the sounds of the tui bird, and took socially distanced walks with views that astounded me. And I read. There was something magical in the air during those lonesome six weeks, so far from home. Professor Cripcot’s world fell from my fingers, informed by the new world around me, the strangeness of being away from people, and the space to write and research.

When lockdown lifted, I moved to Wellington. There, I began volunteering at Katherine Mansfield’s house, complete with a glorious space to write. I read her words and was fascinated. There was an interesting mirroring of our experiences in a way: I was living in New Zealand and dreaming of my life in the UK, and she had been living in the UK and remembering and dreaming of her life in New Zealand. Mansfield had had a complicated relationship with Aotearoa, but even so, to sit in her childhood home and edit The Finery felt like a real gift.

So, if asked what my process was for writing The Finery I would have to say it was this: write, whatever the circumstances. Write, because if you don’t, nothing will change. Write, because it is the most glorious escape. Write, because it brings you joy. What else is there? Some find a rigid structure useful, others a loose one. If you write every day, wonderful, and if you don’t, hey, me neither. Ultimately, here’s what I have learned about process: just don’t stop writing.

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Rachel Grosvenor is a writer from Birmingham, UK, with a PhD, MA and BA in Creative Writing. With a passion for telling fantastical tales, Rachel has written poetry and short stories for reviews and anthologies worldwide. www.rachelgrosvenorauthor.com. Twitter: @rgrosvenorautho. Facebook: @RachelGrosvenorAuthor. Instagram: @RachelGrosvenorAuthor

The Finery (Fly on the Wall Press, £10.99, eBook £5.99) is available from all good bookstores

THE FINERY

Tyranny is in the air in the city of Finer Bay, and Professor Wendowleen Cripcot would like to be left alone, thank you very much. The memories of the last one hundred years are quite enough to be getting on with, if only these young upstarts from the government body, The Finery, would stop trying to control her every move. With the eyes of a dictator upon her, there are not many places to hide…but Wendowleen has never been one to back down from a fight (just ask her pet wolf), and insurrection is brewing underground.