I always said i'd never write a sequel until and unless I found a story that really grabbed me, and took the characters to new and interesting places. I'd never do a simple 'and then the next day this happened' sort of sequel, other than (possibly) as a short story.
If I did write a sequel, it wouldn't have that title, though!
I"m just interested - is there an appetite for a sequel?
Not sure that I'd want Christine to suffer any more, as she might have to if there were a sequel... I prefer to think of her happy and enjoying life, but then again...
Not in a story that find a broad readership, not only by resonating with first publication readers but with those who come to consider reading it subsequently.
Is there a sense. Steve, in which you've directly built on the start made with Before I Go to Sleep in your subsequent novels, Second Life and Final Cut? Female Protagonist / First Person POV / Literary Thriller?
Three's a trend though. As a reader I've enjoyed the opening of all three novels. I've lately realised and been reflecting on why it is quite a number of the of the novels that have struck and stick with me over the years have been written in the first person.
Maybe a story written, or maybe mined, in the same or similar vein if not a sequel?
Sebastian Faulks has, I've felt, 'gained' when he's written stand alone and separate yet at the same tenuously linked novels such as those in his loose French / War themed trilogy of Birdsong, Girl at the Lion d'Or and Charlotte Grey.
Depends. I guess, on if and how writers sense there are discernible and abiding themes in the stories they seem to work-up.
How many developmental revisions did your book go through and how long did it take you to complete them? Based on your experience with your editing and revisions of this novel, what are some lessons you learned that you carried over to your subsequent novels? Thank you!
Hi Barbara - great questions! I lose track of how many edits it went through. But I'd say at least five or six significant ones. I wrote the first draft in about 7 months, then edited it for a further 4 or so before giving it to my agent. We then worked on a few more edits for about 4 months, I'd guess. So a little over a year before it was ready to send to publishers. In terms of what i learnt - how long have you got?! It's always an ongoing learning process, I can now see the things I'm going to take out so can avoid putting them in in the first place. And I've learnt to trust the reader more, so I am now more concise in my first draft, rather than overwriting and then having to trim it down. I also now resist the temptation to rush in and start writing (my favourite part of the process) and instead I do some planning work first (my least, but I'm learning to enjoy it). I also learnt that if I'm struggling with something during the editing stage, it's almost always the book trying to tell me to take it out. The delete key is your friend!
Thanks! Great fan of the book. As your first book, how was the process of writing it in terms of writing routine, research, outlining…also, what made you decide that a) this is the idea I want to do as my first book, and b) feeling that the book was ready for publication?
Hi - and thanks, glad you enjoyed it. I was working, albeit part time, during the writing process, so I was writing mainly on evenings and weekends and my days off. I did research amnesia generally, but not in as much detail as you might think. It was more important for me to get the feel of what it might be like to suffer with amnesia, than to get the science one hundred percent correct. I read some accounts of people living with amnesia and dementia (or more usually people living with the who have the condition), so that I could get an idea of the reality of it. My answer to Graeme's question on this thread should tell you you about the outlining etc.. As for the idea? It just came to me and I couldn't let it go, so that's how I knew it was what I wanted to write. And I was lucky enough to meet an agent who told me to get the book 'as good as you can get it' before sending it to her. So that's what I did — I just worked and worked and edited and edited until I felt I was just tinkering round the edges, at which point I knew I needed someone else's input.
Hi Steve, I really enjoyed the book - very clever and twisty. You may have mentioned this already, but did you plot the book in advance, or did the story develop as you wrote it? If it was the latter, how much of the story did you know before you started writing the book?
Hi Graeme - and thanks. I'm very happy you enjoyed the book. I didn't plot it in great detail, or at all in fact for most of it. I had the idea for the opening for a week or two before the idea for the big twist/reveal came. And then it was 'just' a case of writing towards that revelation. I wrote a lot of stuff that I ended up taking out. About three quarters of the way through I sat down and figured out, in a fair bit of detail, how Christine would come to discover the truth of her situation, so the last quarter was plotted before I wrote it. But until that point certainly, the story was largely developed as it was being written, albeit with a clear idea of where it was headed.
Thanks, Steve. It's very interesting, the whole panster v plotter debate. Personally, I think a lot of writers take a hybrid approach. I always plot my books in advance (usually with a very detailed chapter plan), but I generally end up moving away from the plan and changing the story as ideas come to me when I'm writing. However, towards the end of the book I usually do a revised chapter plan for the latter part to ensure everything is tidied up and makes sense, which sounds a bit like what you did with Before I Go to Sleep.
Sorry this is so late - and perhaps a bit niche and you might not remember! Was the house Christine grew up based on anywhere - or her current home, come to that. The description very much reminded me of my grandparent's house in Birmingham (and I know you're a Midland boy too)
No such thing as too late Martyn, and the nicherer the better (is that a word? I made it up). The house she lives in in the book was based on a friend of mine's house. She hasn't worked out that it's her house, yet, so I doubt she will. And her childhood home was based on the homes of my childhood, though I don't think I was thinking of a specific one. So yes, a working class midlands house. I'm so pleased you saw that - I must've done something right...!
> The Niche Maker or/and The Niche Maker's Apprentice?
> The Last of the Noble Nibelungenlieder Nichemeisters?
Just riffing, on the spark of 'niche'... as a starter in stepping out on to the well trodden road of wondering where do novel-length stories, and their titles, spring from?
When, I wonder, specifically did the story that blossomed as 'Before I Go to Sleep' find its title? Or did it happen vice versa Steve, that the title was there from the get go and 'commissioned' you to write forth and send it out into the world?
One follow-up question, Steve. Do you enjoy writing? This is something I struggle with. I'm not sure I really enjoy it, as in "have fun" doing it. Are there any strategies you use to get more enjoyment from the process and not let the natural frustrations of the act of writing overwhelm you?
Oh that's the million dollar question. I enjoy having written. Sometimes I enjoy writing. I think if a third of the time it's OK, and a third it's great, then I can put up with it sucking for the last third. It's not 'fun', as such, though I do enjoy losing myself in it, when that happens (which is by no means always). Whenever I'm reluctant, I liken it to jumping into cool water - not fun at first, and I never want to do it, but I know once I'm in it'll be fine and I might even enjoy splashing about. I also, especially in first draft stage, remind myself that nothing I write is ever set in stone. Again, the delete key is your friend!
Do you ever find that yourself finding it hard to get fired up with a draft that, intentionally or due to being otherwise distracted, you've spent time away from? Or do you adhere to a regular writing regime Steve?
Too long away and it’s harder to get back into the flow of the work. That’s why I try to do a little bit most days, weekends excepted. Unless there’s a natural break (I just had ten days off as I was at the end of part one).
Hi Alex - as I say in my answer to Barbara's question here, it's hard to say. At least 2 or 3 drafts before I submitted it to my agent, and then at least the same number after, once I'd had her feedback. There was then a period of about 3 weeks where I worked intensively on it and changed loads, but was that a new draft, or five new drafts...? Hard to say... Then there were a couple of drafts once the book was sold to an editor, though of course with each subsequent redraft less was changed, and certainly less of the story. I'd say the work I did with the agent was to fix a number of plot 'holes' that I'd thought I'd get away with before she gently (or not so gently) told me I wouldn't. I remember in particular her saying I needed a really good reason for Christine's best friend Claire to have abandoned her. I couldnt' just say she'd 'been busy.' Hence the one night stand...
How do you handle your drafts Steve? Retain lots of versions in progress or just what you sense are, in whatever ways, milestone drafts: 1st Draft, 2nd Draft, 3rd Draft?
How much writing were you doing before doing the faber course, and how confident were you that you had a book that would go on to be this successful? Thanks
Hi - interesting question! I've written, on and off (but mostly on) my whole life. The only thing I'd published was a little bit of journalism (op-eds, really) for a London listings magazine a few years before I did the course. I'd written a lot of fiction, but nothing I'd consider finished. So I'd written lots, in the same way I that someone learning to play the piano has to practice lots. And in answer to your second question, I wasn't confident at all. I knew the book I was writing was the best thing I'd ever written, by a long way, and I knew therefore that it was the best chance I'd had until that point (and may ever have) to get something published. But I never dreamt that it would go on to be as successful as it eventually was. Not in a million years.
It's locked safely away and will never see the light of day! (Actually, some of it's not too terrible. But the novel-length pieces certainly betray my immaturity of style)
Hi Diane - well that's a tricky one! There's plenty I'd do different in the writing of it. Passages I now cringe at, slightly, and definitely I can see how my writing has improved over the years. This is as it should be, though! In terms of bringing it to market, I'm not sure. That was largely in the hands of my publishers, and they did a pretty good job to say the least. So no, I'm not sure I would...
This AMA is a great offer Steve. I'd be particularly interested in what you may have to share about the writing of Part One.
It is a long and very effective opening. As it ends I really want to press on, into Part Two, to get to read
> what Christine has been writing in her journal?
> what insights / clues it will offer regarding her amnesia?
> more about the two clearly significant characters and motivations of Husband Ben and of Dr Nash ( neither of them leaves this reader with other than a sense of unease as he moves on from the last full stop of Part One)?
So in wondering how was Part One written three 'thoughts' have occurred to me:
> all but done and dusted, a clear foundation in place, before you were in a position to write on into unfolding in Part Two?
> or continuously reviewed and revised throughout the time in which your were working on the novel?
> or was it, possibly, actually the last chunk of the text to be fully fleshed out... when you had clear understanding of how you needed to make it work to hook and hold the story as you knew it would unfold?
May not be able to drop in at 8pm this evening but will look for to checking back... thinks.
Hi Rob - with the exception of a first chapter that I took out, the book was written in order and therefore Part One was written first. I didn't tinker with it, before moving onto Part two, though I could only move on once I'd reached the 'Dont Trust Ben' moment. I was writing the rest of the book knowing that I could and would go back and change Part One in the light of what I wrote, though. So your second option is the closest, but it was more fine tuning than actually fleshing out. Great question!
So your story developed as a linear endeavour, getting to end of first drafting in steps that worked from 'beginning' through 'middling' to 'ending'... and then the intensive iterative process of reading, reviewing, revising, re-reading cycles became your focus and carried over the line with your 'finished & ready for reading by your literary agent?
Were there any points in which your found your momentum slowed by become too closely concerned with getting a particular section or sections 'just right' first time?
The sustained psychological insight of the first person narrator and the way SJ builds the suspense over the course of the novel are sheer genius. How about you, Rob?
Thank you so much for teeing up this AMA correspondence thread Steve. A really welcome conversational feel to to, thanks not just to you but of course also to peer 'Compendistas' for chipping in such a battery of genial questions.
Someone has emailed me with the question:
'Hi Steve
Isn’t it time you wrote the sequel: After I Wake Up?'
I always said i'd never write a sequel until and unless I found a story that really grabbed me, and took the characters to new and interesting places. I'd never do a simple 'and then the next day this happened' sort of sequel, other than (possibly) as a short story.
If I did write a sequel, it wouldn't have that title, though!
I"m just interested - is there an appetite for a sequel?
Not sure that I'd want Christine to suffer any more, as she might have to if there were a sequel... I prefer to think of her happy and enjoying life, but then again...
No one gets away entirely without suffering…
I know right :)
Not in a story that find a broad readership, not only by resonating with first publication readers but with those who come to consider reading it subsequently.
Is there a sense. Steve, in which you've directly built on the start made with Before I Go to Sleep in your subsequent novels, Second Life and Final Cut? Female Protagonist / First Person POV / Literary Thriller?
I guess but I don’t want to be tied to that…
Three's a trend though. As a reader I've enjoyed the opening of all three novels. I've lately realised and been reflecting on why it is quite a number of the of the novels that have struck and stick with me over the years have been written in the first person.
Maybe a story written, or maybe mined, in the same or similar vein if not a sequel?
Sebastian Faulks has, I've felt, 'gained' when he's written stand alone and separate yet at the same tenuously linked novels such as those in his loose French / War themed trilogy of Birdsong, Girl at the Lion d'Or and Charlotte Grey.
Depends. I guess, on if and how writers sense there are discernible and abiding themes in the stories they seem to work-up.
How many developmental revisions did your book go through and how long did it take you to complete them? Based on your experience with your editing and revisions of this novel, what are some lessons you learned that you carried over to your subsequent novels? Thank you!
Hi Barbara - great questions! I lose track of how many edits it went through. But I'd say at least five or six significant ones. I wrote the first draft in about 7 months, then edited it for a further 4 or so before giving it to my agent. We then worked on a few more edits for about 4 months, I'd guess. So a little over a year before it was ready to send to publishers. In terms of what i learnt - how long have you got?! It's always an ongoing learning process, I can now see the things I'm going to take out so can avoid putting them in in the first place. And I've learnt to trust the reader more, so I am now more concise in my first draft, rather than overwriting and then having to trim it down. I also now resist the temptation to rush in and start writing (my favourite part of the process) and instead I do some planning work first (my least, but I'm learning to enjoy it). I also learnt that if I'm struggling with something during the editing stage, it's almost always the book trying to tell me to take it out. The delete key is your friend!
Very helpful answer. Thank you so very much!
No worries - I noticed a mistake in my response so i've edited it a little...
Thanks! Great fan of the book. As your first book, how was the process of writing it in terms of writing routine, research, outlining…also, what made you decide that a) this is the idea I want to do as my first book, and b) feeling that the book was ready for publication?
Hi - and thanks, glad you enjoyed it. I was working, albeit part time, during the writing process, so I was writing mainly on evenings and weekends and my days off. I did research amnesia generally, but not in as much detail as you might think. It was more important for me to get the feel of what it might be like to suffer with amnesia, than to get the science one hundred percent correct. I read some accounts of people living with amnesia and dementia (or more usually people living with the who have the condition), so that I could get an idea of the reality of it. My answer to Graeme's question on this thread should tell you you about the outlining etc.. As for the idea? It just came to me and I couldn't let it go, so that's how I knew it was what I wanted to write. And I was lucky enough to meet an agent who told me to get the book 'as good as you can get it' before sending it to her. So that's what I did — I just worked and worked and edited and edited until I felt I was just tinkering round the edges, at which point I knew I needed someone else's input.
Hi Steve, I really enjoyed the book - very clever and twisty. You may have mentioned this already, but did you plot the book in advance, or did the story develop as you wrote it? If it was the latter, how much of the story did you know before you started writing the book?
Hi Graeme - and thanks. I'm very happy you enjoyed the book. I didn't plot it in great detail, or at all in fact for most of it. I had the idea for the opening for a week or two before the idea for the big twist/reveal came. And then it was 'just' a case of writing towards that revelation. I wrote a lot of stuff that I ended up taking out. About three quarters of the way through I sat down and figured out, in a fair bit of detail, how Christine would come to discover the truth of her situation, so the last quarter was plotted before I wrote it. But until that point certainly, the story was largely developed as it was being written, albeit with a clear idea of where it was headed.
Thanks, Steve. It's very interesting, the whole panster v plotter debate. Personally, I think a lot of writers take a hybrid approach. I always plot my books in advance (usually with a very detailed chapter plan), but I generally end up moving away from the plan and changing the story as ideas come to me when I'm writing. However, towards the end of the book I usually do a revised chapter plan for the latter part to ensure everything is tidied up and makes sense, which sounds a bit like what you did with Before I Go to Sleep.
Yes thats' sort of what I did, and certainly very close to what I do now...
Sorry this is so late - and perhaps a bit niche and you might not remember! Was the house Christine grew up based on anywhere - or her current home, come to that. The description very much reminded me of my grandparent's house in Birmingham (and I know you're a Midland boy too)
No such thing as too late Martyn, and the nicherer the better (is that a word? I made it up). The house she lives in in the book was based on a friend of mine's house. She hasn't worked out that it's her house, yet, so I doubt she will. And her childhood home was based on the homes of my childhood, though I don't think I was thinking of a specific one. So yes, a working class midlands house. I'm so pleased you saw that - I must've done something right...!
Titles to conjure up a story from?
> The Nicherer?
> The Niche Spotter?
> The Niche Maker or/and The Niche Maker's Apprentice?
> The Last of the Noble Nibelungenlieder Nichemeisters?
Just riffing, on the spark of 'niche'... as a starter in stepping out on to the well trodden road of wondering where do novel-length stories, and their titles, spring from?
When, I wonder, specifically did the story that blossomed as 'Before I Go to Sleep' find its title? Or did it happen vice versa Steve, that the title was there from the get go and 'commissioned' you to write forth and send it out into the world?
One follow-up question, Steve. Do you enjoy writing? This is something I struggle with. I'm not sure I really enjoy it, as in "have fun" doing it. Are there any strategies you use to get more enjoyment from the process and not let the natural frustrations of the act of writing overwhelm you?
Oh that's the million dollar question. I enjoy having written. Sometimes I enjoy writing. I think if a third of the time it's OK, and a third it's great, then I can put up with it sucking for the last third. It's not 'fun', as such, though I do enjoy losing myself in it, when that happens (which is by no means always). Whenever I'm reluctant, I liken it to jumping into cool water - not fun at first, and I never want to do it, but I know once I'm in it'll be fine and I might even enjoy splashing about. I also, especially in first draft stage, remind myself that nothing I write is ever set in stone. Again, the delete key is your friend!
Do you ever find that yourself finding it hard to get fired up with a draft that, intentionally or due to being otherwise distracted, you've spent time away from? Or do you adhere to a regular writing regime Steve?
Too long away and it’s harder to get back into the flow of the work. That’s why I try to do a little bit most days, weekends excepted. Unless there’s a natural break (I just had ten days off as I was at the end of part one).
Hi SJ. How many drafts did you do before you submitted to your agent. How many before submitting to editor. And how many after that?!
Hi Alex - as I say in my answer to Barbara's question here, it's hard to say. At least 2 or 3 drafts before I submitted it to my agent, and then at least the same number after, once I'd had her feedback. There was then a period of about 3 weeks where I worked intensively on it and changed loads, but was that a new draft, or five new drafts...? Hard to say... Then there were a couple of drafts once the book was sold to an editor, though of course with each subsequent redraft less was changed, and certainly less of the story. I'd say the work I did with the agent was to fix a number of plot 'holes' that I'd thought I'd get away with before she gently (or not so gently) told me I wouldn't. I remember in particular her saying I needed a really good reason for Christine's best friend Claire to have abandoned her. I couldnt' just say she'd 'been busy.' Hence the one night stand...
How do you handle your drafts Steve? Retain lots of versions in progress or just what you sense are, in whatever ways, milestone drafts: 1st Draft, 2nd Draft, 3rd Draft?
How much writing were you doing before doing the faber course, and how confident were you that you had a book that would go on to be this successful? Thanks
Hi - interesting question! I've written, on and off (but mostly on) my whole life. The only thing I'd published was a little bit of journalism (op-eds, really) for a London listings magazine a few years before I did the course. I'd written a lot of fiction, but nothing I'd consider finished. So I'd written lots, in the same way I that someone learning to play the piano has to practice lots. And in answer to your second question, I wasn't confident at all. I knew the book I was writing was the best thing I'd ever written, by a long way, and I knew therefore that it was the best chance I'd had until that point (and may ever have) to get something published. But I never dreamt that it would go on to be as successful as it eventually was. Not in a million years.
Thanks. Interesting to see the work before the ‘break out’, as it were!
It's locked safely away and will never see the light of day! (Actually, some of it's not too terrible. But the novel-length pieces certainly betray my immaturity of style)
Do any of these novel-length pieces still hold the seed of future reworking Steve?
Hi Steve as your debut novel is there anything you would do differently to bring this book to market?
Hi Diane - well that's a tricky one! There's plenty I'd do different in the writing of it. Passages I now cringe at, slightly, and definitely I can see how my writing has improved over the years. This is as it should be, though! In terms of bringing it to market, I'm not sure. That was largely in the hands of my publishers, and they did a pretty good job to say the least. So no, I'm not sure I would...
Thank you for your honesty 🙏
I received this posting several days after it was relevant…..!
Quality standard could do with a bit of a boost, maybe?
Sorry to hear that Chris - I think it's in the hands of Substack itself though. I'm still checking comments if you'd like to ask a question...
This AMA is a great offer Steve. I'd be particularly interested in what you may have to share about the writing of Part One.
It is a long and very effective opening. As it ends I really want to press on, into Part Two, to get to read
> what Christine has been writing in her journal?
> what insights / clues it will offer regarding her amnesia?
> more about the two clearly significant characters and motivations of Husband Ben and of Dr Nash ( neither of them leaves this reader with other than a sense of unease as he moves on from the last full stop of Part One)?
So in wondering how was Part One written three 'thoughts' have occurred to me:
> all but done and dusted, a clear foundation in place, before you were in a position to write on into unfolding in Part Two?
> or continuously reviewed and revised throughout the time in which your were working on the novel?
> or was it, possibly, actually the last chunk of the text to be fully fleshed out... when you had clear understanding of how you needed to make it work to hook and hold the story as you knew it would unfold?
May not be able to drop in at 8pm this evening but will look for to checking back... thinks.
Hi Rob - with the exception of a first chapter that I took out, the book was written in order and therefore Part One was written first. I didn't tinker with it, before moving onto Part two, though I could only move on once I'd reached the 'Dont Trust Ben' moment. I was writing the rest of the book knowing that I could and would go back and change Part One in the light of what I wrote, though. So your second option is the closest, but it was more fine tuning than actually fleshing out. Great question!
Thanks Steve.
So your story developed as a linear endeavour, getting to end of first drafting in steps that worked from 'beginning' through 'middling' to 'ending'... and then the intensive iterative process of reading, reviewing, revising, re-reading cycles became your focus and carried over the line with your 'finished & ready for reading by your literary agent?
Were there any points in which your found your momentum slowed by become too closely concerned with getting a particular section or sections 'just right' first time?
I'm here! Ask your questions below!
I don't really have any questions, but just wanted to say what an amazing achievement this book is, and it's rightly cited as a classic of the genre.
Thank you Elizabeth. I appreciate your kind words
What, if I may ask, are some of the qualities in Steve's Before I Go to Sleep that make it a stand out read for you Elizabeth?
The sustained psychological insight of the first person narrator and the way SJ builds the suspense over the course of the novel are sheer genius. How about you, Rob?
Thank you so much for teeing up this AMA correspondence thread Steve. A really welcome conversational feel to to, thanks not just to you but of course also to peer 'Compendistas' for chipping in such a battery of genial questions.
Glad I managed to get in earlier than expected.