Good morning! This is the sixth instalment of a series called Me & My Desk, which exists because I find other writersโ work routines and work environments fascinating.
You can read about Andrew OโHaganโs desk here, Clover Stroudโs desk here, Emma Gannonโs desk here, Poorna Bellโs desk here and Polly Vernonโs desk here.
If you want to read all the desks in one clump, go here. Posts older than 4 weeks automatically put themselves behind the paywall, but you could always click on this.
Lisa Jewell has sold 10 million books and topped both The New York Times and The Sunday Timesโs bestseller lists, but she still mostly writes from her (not especially serene) kitchen table.
Lisa started off writing โchick lit,โ which is what โbooks that women loveโ used to be called in the 90s and 00s, never mind that many of them contained better writing and more emotional intelligence than any number of male authorsโ hardbacks with moody black and white photography of e.g. fog on the jackets. Gah.
Anyway - Lisaโs first book, Ralphโs Party, was the bestselling debut novel of 1999. Sheโs written 23 more since. In 2013 she wrote The House We Grew Up In, which marked a clear change of direction, away from romance and towards psychological suspense (as a keen student of her work, I think the clues were always there and that this was not so much a pivot as an evolution). She ramped that up in subsequent novels, which include Then She Was Gone, The Family Upstairs, The Night She Disappeared (โinsane suspenseโ - Lee Child) and None of This Is True.
Her newest, out last week, is Donโt Let Him In, the sort of book you cancel the rest of the day for. She is at the peak of her considerable powers and Iโm thrilled she answered my questions.
What is the desk?
The โdeskโ is my kitchen table. We had our house renovated in 2018 and the designers asked me about a writing space. I said I had no need of a writing space as I wrote in coffee shops. Then Covid happened and even after they reopened all the coffee shops, I just wanted to stay home. I did put a desk in the spare room in the basement, but I never use it as itโs too basementy. I also have desk in my own bedroom which I use in emergencies.
Where is the desk?
Itโs in the kitchen but is currently overrun by my seventeen-year oldโs A level studies. She's doing three art subjects, including fashion, so it's not just books, itโs fabric, a sewing machine, sketchbooks, paper cutters, Pritt sticks, it's everything. So, Iโm currently writing on my lap on an armchair in the living room.
What do you look out onto?
When Iโm in the kitchen, I look out at the street, but from this armchair in the living room I am overlooking a two and half acre communal garden in full late-April splendour.
How does sitting down at the desk make you feel?
Good. Always good. Not sitting at the desk makes me feel bad and like I should be sitting at my desk. Unless it's the weekend. I donโt work at the weekends.
When do you write - are there set hours?
I do work-related and domestic admin between 9 and 1, I walk the dog between 1 and 3, I write from 3 to 6 or 7.
Daily word count, or as the spirit moves you?
Daily word count is my religion. A thousand words a day during first half of book, fifteen hundred to three thousand words a day for the second half of the book. Towards the end it might go up to five or six thousand words a day. Itโs all about words. That's what books are. I'm obsessed with word counts.
Do you wander to and from the desk, or stay at it until you're done?
I stay until Iโm done, apart from making a cup of tea or two.
Are there pens? Are there notebooks? Are there photos? Are there small weird talismanic items?
No pens, no photos, no talismans, just a notebook that I always have trouble locating as I use it so infrequently โ it mainly contains birthdates of my characters, and key dates in the plot so I can keep things vaguely in place on the page. But apart from that, I donโt make any notes, itโs all freewheeling in my head.
Is there a dog or a cat?
There is both. There is Daisy my three-year-old Romanian rescue. She has a big chunk of German Shepherd in her so likes mostly to hang out by the front door, but sometimes sheโll come and sleep under the table near me when I work. Then there is Ivy, a very sassy, abnormally small golden cat who sits behind the lid of my laptop and occasionally takes a swipe at my fingers as I type.
Longhand, Scrivener, Word, Pages, something else?
Word. Since October 1996. Never used anything else
Do you listen to music, and if so, what?
No, I used to before I had children, each book had an associated playlist. Then I had children and felt like I needed silence so I could hear them while I worked, be it playing with the childminder, or napping in their rooms.
Do you use internet-blocking apps like Freedom?
No. I did for about a week and I hated it. Piss off, Freedom, Iโm an adult. I've learned to embrace the internet while I write. I've learned that I can rarely write more than for or five words in a row, that I need the internet to keep me at my desk whenever I lose my way (roughly every minute and a half) โฆ
The least intrusive, rabbit holey-way for me to browse the internet when Iโm meant to be writing is to do random fantasy Rightmove searches. For some reason these searches vibe well with writing and I find it really easy to swing back and forth between the two without ever getting so distracted that I stop being productive.
Are there desk snacks? Is there desk tea?
I have been on the 5:2 diet for nearly ten years so desk snacks are dependent on what sort of food day it is. On a non-fast day there will be many snacks. I alternate between sweet and savoury. Sweet will be biscuits, or single chocolates like those mini-Cadbury eggs or tiny Tony Chocolonelys in a box. Savoury will be bread sticks, crackers or cottage cheese straight out of the tub.
Do you have an ergonomic chair?
No, it's just a dining chair, but I do use an anti-sciatica cushion.
Do you wear proper clothes and shoes, or e.g. jogging bottoms and socks?
I always get washed, dressed and most of the time, made-up before I write. This is mainly because I still take my youngest daughter to school every day, though I am in the dying days of that, she finishes school forever in two weeks and then Iโll have more options re writing attire. I still think Iโll want to dress properly though, just because I always have done.
Is your phone in the room when you write?
Yes, always close at hand.
Do you resent or welcome occasional interruptions by adult humans? If welcome, how many is too many?
Hugely resent. Hugely. Particularly if itโs my husband. My daughters I'm more forgiving of, because theyโre not my husband. If itโs in the earlier, non-deadliney stage of the process, Iโll be perfectly pleasant to him, but when he cannot read the room during deadline days, when he cannot hear the insistent jabbing of my keyboard, pick up on my monosyllabic replies, my Marge Simpson responses to him trying to engage me in a conversation about use-by dates in the fridge, then I become very very unpleasant.
What's the first thing you do when you leave your desk for the day?
Head directly to the sofa and watch TV.
Huge thanks to Lisa for doing this. Here is Donโt Let Him In on Bookshop, at Waterstones and on Amazon. I highly, highly recommend it.
Thank you so much for your good wishes underneath Saturdayโs post. I started trying to answer them but it made me too moved.
I have nothing but good news - he was in theatre for TEN HOURS yesterday, during which I almost lost my mind, but the ward round has just been and the surgeons are delighted. Heโs moving to the normal ward today. All being well he can come home in 7-10 days - a miracle in itself as we were told 2-6 weeks. Also the robot stitched his scar and you have never seen anything so neat and geometric. The whole thing is extraordinary. So I am knackered and feel slightly deranged - I think this post is probably quite typo-rich, sorry - but just unspeakably happy and relieved.
Now I am going to start compiling my summer reading list. I may be a few days because obviously thereโs a lot going on. Also, can you believe it about The Salt Path? I can, actually. All very well to be wise after the event but I was highly suspicious of the idea of someone with a terminal illness doing that much walking. Sophie Heawood, herself a memoirist, is very good on it all.
Back soon. Have an excellent Tuesday and do please kindly leave this post a โค๏ธ if you liked it. Thank you!
Ah so glad your partnerโs op went well and that he is recovering quickly. Must be a big relief! I shall add โDonโt let him inโ to my summer reading list - and look forward to seeing what else you have on yours. Iโm already taking about a monthโs worth of reading with me on an imminent 7 day trip - but Iโm always open to *even more* suggestions. โบ๏ธ๐As for the Salt Path - whatever the facts may be, and I guess they will play out in due course, there is something slightly unpleasant about the gleeful character assassination now going onโฆ..before the facts are fully known. I thought the same about the Observer piece - there was a distinct undercurrent to it. So I have largely switched off from
It. Possibly if and when we get there, Iโll read the court judgment in the looming legal claim. But apart from that my interest is limited. Whether it was a work of fiction or fact the book itself, at the time I read it was, enjoyable. The only bit that bothered me was the (alleged) treatment by the court of them as litigants in person. My experience of court and LIPs is that judges will generally do their utmost to accommodate lay defendants (to a point). Will be interesting to see where it ends up, but I have otherwise largely been ignoring the speculative gossip/column inches about it on here and other channels. Lord knows there are far more pressing matters requiring our focus ๐. x
Wonderful news!