Writing Process and Advice for Authors

I watched through the mirror as Clementine crossed the room and sat next to the girls on my bed What does Trad wife mean? Hello and welcome to the Happy Place Book Club with me, Fern Cotton. Who said that word to you? Today, Yesterear by Carol Claire Burke Trad wife, Jessa said and giggled She threw her head back and said it again. Trad wife It almost seemed possible Clementine might hear the mechanical clicks of my brain as it whirred into warp speed, sorting through five hundred possible answers to that question My eldest daughter was like me just in likeness But in disposition too She held her intelligence like a knife behind her back Now that she was creeping toward womanhood I found our similarities a bit unnerving watchatching a clone of myself walk slowly toward me from a far away point in the distance. What would happen when she arrived? I'm aware this isn't the kind of thing you're meant to feel about your own daughter But motherhood is its own kind of curation which is to say Every woman I know lied to me about what it would be like before I became one myself Right, now Natalie Hella is a Tradwife influencer online. She's got the perfect life, a brood of beautiful children and a handsome cowboy husband who eats her homemade bread and jams in their gorgeous red barn. What her millions of followers don't know is that she's got a whole army of hidden staff and industrial kitchen appliances helping her out thenen, one day, she wakes up eighteen hundreds and is forced to live this traditional fantasy for real. You will not see the mad twist in this book coming. I bloming well didn't. It's absolutely incredible. Even as I was reading the twist, I was like Wight What is going on I'm so delighted that we picked yestery year as our happappy placelace book club read for me because you have been loving it too. Here's Deff Hion, I absolutely love Jes it. What I found really interesting was the way that it explored how easy it was to romanticize the past, whereas the reality as if people were actually to go back there I don't think they would be able to cope. I know I certainly wouldn't I found the main character really believable and scary really similar to a lot of Tadwife influencers that we kind of see, which is again, scary. And one of the bits that really stuck for me was the fact that she thought she was experiencing like part of a reality TV show 's quite a scary in a way because when you think about it, reality TV has become so extreme and outlandish that she could almost rationalize that the abuse that she was suffering was that There's something that people would actually watch and accept ook handled it in a really clever way and it was just very interesting to kind of see. Well, Steph, Vicky's got some thoughts on main character Natalie too. Hello Fern and Hay Plays Book Club What a book yester year was, I absolutely adored it What I wasn't expecting from yester Year was how deeply unsettling it was to read. It's almost like I had a knot in my stomach when I was reading it. because it was so uncomfortable at times. Part of the reason for this is that Natalie is such an unlikable main character And we as readers are not used to protagonists who have next to no redeeming qualities when they are portrayed as not a typical evil person I had several theories whilst reading the book as to what the ending would be and how it would play out But I was thrilled to discover that I was completely wrong Finally, upon finishing and reflecting on the book I also loved the contradictions and differences between the life choices of Natalie and her college roommate Rena as they go down very different paths, but neither was without judgment, struggle, and complications. emphasizing the fact that no matter what choices women make in life We can never win in this society And this is Taylor. She's got some great takes from the writing itself abbsolutely devoured yesterar. I found the story totally gripping from the get go I thought the writing style was really interesting because you felt kind of uncomfortable when you were reading the book And it was almost like you were watching it from the outside kind of like following her on social media and getting two sides of the story. felt like it covered really good themes in terms of the manosphere and other amazing topics like femininity, social media and this idea of you know, perception and basically the two sides to every story. I've recommended it to so many people As you lot, I've just got into it there. There are so many meaty topics in this book, the manosphere, motherhood, religion, modern feminism So I was really fascinated to hear from Carot how she managed to weave such heavy topics into a fiction so seamlessly. And of course, I had to talk to her about the fact that Anne Hathaway is turning Yesterar into a film Podcast powers the world's best podcast Here's a show that we recommend Hello, hello, It's Brooke Deavvard from Naked Beauty. Join me each week for unfiltered discussion about beauty trends, self care journeys, wellness tips, and the products we absolutely love and cannot get enough of. If you are a skincare obsessive and you spend twenty plus minutes on your skincare routine, this podcast is for you. O if you're a newbie at the beginning of your skincare journey, you'll love this podcast as well because we go so much deeper than beauty. I talk to incredible and inspiring people from across industries about their relationship with beauty. You'll also hear from skincare experts. we break down lots of myths in the beauty industry. If this sounds like your thing, search for Naked Beauty on your podcast app and listen along. I hope you'll join us R right, let's do it. here's the show. Hello, welcome to Happy Place. and welcome to the UK. Thanks for having me. This is so fun. I am so thrilled to meet you because this book Holy shit, I don't even know where to begin. dont know I don't even know what to say. L I from the second I started reading the first page. I was like, I am In. Oh I love it. and I couldn't put it down. One of those books where I was like, you know, come back from work deal with the children, get into bed, I've got heavy eyes. and then actually know it's midnight and I'm still, I think I've read it in about three days. Oh, this makes me so happy. It's genius. Thank you. It's genius. Now there are many themes in this book which jump out. You've got the sort modern day tradwife You've got social media and the sort of ask reality that we sort of constantly see on there and can't differentiate between. Is this someone's reality or not? You've got sort of internalized misogyny going on, you've got money and power. There's so many interesting themes Was there an initial one that you were like, I wantna write about this? No, you know, the themes really weren't on purpose. I think it was because I knew the general conceit that I wanted, like the idea of this woman waking up in a different time period. And I had never written a thriller before and I had also never written comedy. And so when I found Natalie's voice It was almost like she was obsessed with these things. And so then I think that if I had tried to include all these themes consciously, it would have not worked. Or at least like you know, I like to think that it works. And I think I would have been really jammed down with it. And I think because I was just focusing on Natalie It just kind of came. And then in later drafts, you can edit it and start to really think about it. But with the first draft, I think it was really just her obsession with motherhood or with the modern workplace or what have you, that kind of came out as an aside and I didn't really think about it too hard. Oh, it's so clever because I think also I don't know how it feels in the States at the moment, but in the UK, there is a lot of conversation around the whole tradwife situationics masculinity. And we're really sort of seeing those themes rise up culturally in terms of documentaries that we're watching and more factual stuff that we're reading. So to weave it into a fiction seems so Perfectly timed. was that kind of a coincidence or it just on your mind? Can I tell you, So I sold this book two years ago and when I went to auction with it, I spoke with a bunch of editors in New York. and there were a small handful who said, We've got to rush this becausecause it won't be relevant in a few years And I'm not happy that it's relevant. Like wouldn't it nice. I would happily have taken my book no longer being relevant for a world where this, you know was solved, but it is funny when I think about it that over the last two years, so much has happened that I think makes this book more relevant than ever before. But really no, when we were writing it, there was I mean, there was a period of time rightit for I sold yester year where we thought in the states we were going to have our first woman president. So there have been so many different political moments that have taken place in the past two years. And yeah, the Manosphere is one example that has just exploded in conversation in the last two years. Oh my God. I there's a documentary over here at the moment. Yeah. Yeah. yeah yeah. And it's fascinating. I think you would absolutely well you won't love it because you'll feel deeply angry, but it's very, very interesting watching The interaction between Louis Thou and the men that are kind of holding in the manosphere quite actively in the manosphere while. Natalie, the protagonist, as you say, is obsessed with motherhood But she's obsessed with the idea of it rather than doing it. She actually to me seems to hate every partart of it, was that quite complicated to Yeah right. It was complicated because she also wants so badly for it to work Like Natalie is someone who has been told her whole life that motherhood would come naturally to her. So I think she almost feels an entitlement to it in a way, which is interesting. And yeah, she's very cold. like she has a very transactional relationship to it. And I think, you know, so many books about motherhood are very sensual or like about the body and talk a lot very fairly about how motherhood changes the body. And Natalie never thinks about that at all. Like she doesn't think about how breastfeeding changes, you know, her nipples or how it really feels. And I think that part of it is because she's kind of dissociating. Yeah. But I think also it speaks massively to whether you're like Natalie or not, the societal pressures for women, in particular when it comes to parenting are so huge and disproportionate that all of the weights of parenting or a lot of it is put on the female in the relationship. If they're in a heterosexual relationship the pressure to be the perfect mum. And I think when I look back at my mum's generation, parenting was like Fed them, clothe them, love them. so much. We're done. Yeah. And now it's this exactly what Natalie is aspiring to, which is this perfect. from the outside, parenting where everyone looks a certain way and they're doing baking and everything's natural and everything's organic and everything's amazing. And I think a lot of us are feeling that pressure and going They seemed mad? Yeah. Did you wereere you around for the tamagotchi craze? Oh yeah, yeah. I feel like kids have become like the most complicated tamagotchi of all time. And they're already complicated. Like I've spent time with newborns before and like it's already A very intense experience regardless, but the idea that your child continues to be complicated and not just the care of your child, of keeping them alive and keeping them loved, but the performance of care and the idea of other people seeing you as the right type of parent. I mean, I am like amazed at how intense and frankly, judgmental conversations are Even just between women about are you breastfeeding or giving your kid formula? you know, what school what type of childcare? Do you have a nanny? Do you do daycare? And the irony is that most people just make these decisions based off of what they can do. Ely It's just about survival most of the time. I mean, it absolutely is. And I think you're so right the new sort of visual medium of seeing parenthood as something performative if it's online. And some people do a very good job of showing their reality and the ups and downs and the mess of being a parent. But of course you also get those Instagram pages or YouTube, whatever where it all looks perfect and then you start to compare yourself to other people Oh my God my kid doesn't eat kale or you know whatever it might be. It's kind of This whole new realm of parenting that is there for us to see whereas know ten, twenty years ago it would be, what are my mates doing? Are we kind of got the same set of values here? Are we kind of all trying our best? Whereas now it's like, o my go, my kids haven't got matching outfits and they're not clean all the time or whatever it might be. It's a whole ' other layer.tally. Yeah, it is Obviously there are a lot of different political themes in this book, but I think my experience of writing it was realizing how universal these struggles are regardless of what your politics are. L the pressure of being the right type of mother, the right type of wife, I don't think it ever goes away. And I think that that's something that we could find more common ground on, not to use like a really annoying phrase, but it really was something. like I've had so many interesting conversations with deeply religious, deeply traditional women in the states while on Tor And the amount we have in common is staggering. Like it's just everyone is up against the wall. How interesting, So when you're having these conversations, because know, Natalie isn't particularly liable character, whichich again is a very But both liberal and conservative women don't like it. So that's kind of. Well, that's handy, but I think it's tricky to write a book with a protagonist who's unlikeable and keep people along with the character because you can easily go ditching her, I don't want to know about her, but you're so intrigued and fascinated by her psyche. Yeah that you want to know where she ends up mentally and how she manages to navigate it. It's a very tricky thing to do. But I'm interested. So when you're having these conversations with people that may align with Natalie's religious beliefs or political beliefs or the way that she wants to live her life. And you're writing about her in quite an unlikable way. How does that go down with people that resonate with her You know, before the book came out I was more worried about it. and I really was worried that she would just be too off putting. I love her, but I am aware, you know, I've been writing for a long time. I got my graduate degree in writing. so I know the game with unlikable women. And I think what's been really amazing is that so many women see her struggle And I think that experiencing that struggle on the page allows people to have a little bit of catharsis of their own. And so for example, when women come up and talk to me about Natalie The first forty five seconds are about, oh my go, she was so difficult, but I also loved her. But then we are very quickly talking about their lives. And so someone is saying, you know, my postpartum experience was really rough. And it was really cathartic to read that. or like, you know, I have gone down these rabbit holes of what type of birth I want to have medicaid or home birth or what have you, or you know, my mom didn't have access her finances. My dad totally controlled the finances and when they got divorced, it was a nightmare. And so it's so interesting how I feel like Natalie is almost a Rar shock test and women are immediately thinking And again, not everyone, some people might hate her, but the women I've spoken with really seem to connect not with her personality, but with the adversity that she moves through, and that's what they're more fixated on. Yeah, I get it, 'cause she's just coping in the best way that she can. Yeah, and she might not be relatable, but what she's going through is very common. Yeah The twist Are we doing spoilers or no I don't think we're going to say what the twist is because I want people who are listening to this who haven't read it. I know to just have their own experience. I'm going to be very careful with the words that I choose, but I didn't I didn't understand what was happening in the twist until I was literally deep in. was like Oh, right. like you're so you just the way that it unfurled is so smart. Oh than smart I mean, how Howful Beuse you could have gone in so many different directions. Yeah how it panned out. Like you said, you had the initial idea. Yes. You wanted your protagonist to experience a different time in history So you could have laid the book out in a completely different way, but the way that you just kept it, the momentum going and then this twist, honestly, it blew my mind. Oh, thank you. Yeah. I mean Twists are very controversial always. So I knew that it just had to be something, it had to be the twist that I would live with. It was like this has to be for me because any twist you write onlyn a certain number of people are going to find it satisfying. And so I knew from the jump what it was going to be, and I will say I didn't I didn't figure it out smoothly, like it was really a trial and error all the way. but We, me and my UK and U.S. editors worked so hard to layer this out so that if anyone reads the twist, I really wanted it to be a book that like when you find out the twist, it doesn't feel like, well, now I'm done. I really wanted it to feel like something of, oh, I feel like if I could reread this, it would still be meaningful. Yes. So there are so many easaster eggs. We work so hard to make it feel like If anyone ever wants to read it again to better understand it or just to enjoy it, every scene should be felt differently. And that was what I really want. More than like the landing of the twist, I wanted it to feel like something that held up under multiple rounds of scrutiny, and that was really important to me. mean does withithout giving away so hard anything. The bit where she finds What she thinks is the head of a microphone Yeah in the yard. wouldn't leave my brain I was like What does it mean? Yeah, And I just couldn't figure it. honestly, it's so clever It's so clever. Now you this has already been sold as a film. This has been made being made. It's being made. It's being made. I mean, that must be a huge trip. somethingomething that You've dreamed up in your head. I can't even imagine that process of you've got the words, you've got the structure of it, and then it's quite literally brought to life. Yeah, I mean, I' sure I'm sure you've had plenty of these moments in your own career because you're such a multi hyphen it. I don't think I will process that for another decade. I feel very lucky and I sold the rights shortly after I sold the book and I remember when I found out the people who were interested in it, I still haven't fully processed it, but it's an unbelievable team. Obviously, Anne is is at the lead of it. and then it's basically like an all woman team at Amazon and it's just These people care so much about this story and Its going to be amazing. I think it' be amazing You you sat with Anne Hathaway to chat about the whole project, the book. Have you I've had a few conversations. ye. Yeah. she's brilliant. I have, I mean I already got the sense of that before I met her, but she is like truly an artist. and I remember I was kind of nervous going through that process because it's a lot and I just felt really out of my depths And I felt of overwhelmed and that was the meeting where I finished it and just thought it has to go to her And my agents were like, okay, hold on because now we have to go through negotiations. but I just said It's only going to go to her. you want your baby to be in the best hands. You want to see it come to life in the way that you would imagine it to be fitting? Yeah, and I wanted it to go to someone who was enough of an artist that it doesn't to me, I don't need the book to be a one to one faithful adaptation. I want someone to take this story and turn it into a movie. And a movie has totally different advantages than a book An artist worth their salt would know that. and would be like, here's how we're going to take the essence of this And then make it cinematic. And those were the conversations I had where I was like, you understand this really well. And how much letting go do you have to do in that process? Because obviously it is somebody else's adaptation of your story. Does that sit okay with you? Tot I totally let go from the jump. I think it's because I've had such a dissociative experience from the jump that it was very easy for me to be like, all right, click that part of my brain off, cllick that part of my brain off But no, I mean, I don't feel precious about it. I think I wrote my novel I think that they will make certain changes to make the movie better. and I think that's great And that's kind of it is Yeah. Holy shit, imagine that moment where you're sat in a c. I don't know if I'll be able to watch it, to be honest. I feel like that' mayaybe that'll be when my brain clicks back on. like I cannot wait. do we have a timeline? Do we know? I don't think I can talk about timeline, but I know that they're chugging along. I think that's what I can say. I am buzz I mean, I've told everyone who will listen about this literally every friend, I'm like, you have this is the one novel you have to read this year. I am literally buzzing about it Podcast powers the world's best podcast Here's a show that we recommend What if you laughed all through your commute? Or if you heard the funniest story while at the gym? Well, now you can. I'm Jamita Jamil and guests on my new podcast, Wrong Turns share their most mortifying and hilarious disaster stories. I'm talking people like Maay Martin, Bob the Drag Queen, Katherine Ryan, Jake Johnson, Margaret Cho, Simon Pegg Badley and so many more. so listen wherever you get your podcast wrong turns. where dignity goes to die ACast helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. ACast. com I would love to know more about your process in, okay, you've got the idea of it's landed in your head. You know you've got to flesh it out. What's your process in actually getting that down on paper Is a certain time of day you like to write? How long do you like to write for? The first draft of this was very urgent, and I do think that it shows in the pages. very much just me figuring out plot and the emotional experience of the characters. And I wrote that very quickly over about a two month period in the winter. And it was very yeah, it was crazy. It was just me waking up, I had a job at the time. so I would wake up at like four in the morning and write. and then you know I would do work and then I would write at night. And I already had an agent at the time, which was amazing. So she was very in on this and I was sending her pages. And so we were working very quickly And then once I sold the book, I was able to kind of sit back with my editors and really think like, what Again, it's hard to talk about the research that I did and didn't want to do without talking about spoilers. I'll just say There were decisions about what to research, what elements of that to incorporate into the fiction, what to manipulate, what to invert. Like there are so many different elements of that and that took a lot of time. And then making the twist land. Yeah. The twist, I always had the same twist, but it was nowhere near as interwoven as I will say that this one is now. And so yeah, I really That was what took the most time was sitting with that and just feeling like, okay, does this actually all work God. I mean, yeah, there are moments I guess where I've only written one fiction myself, but where Everything starts to fit together like a little puzzle, like, o, and now we are in the place feel makes sense Yeah It is truly the best feeling in the world. Okay, so the process is, you're getting up at four, it's urgent. You're getting it out. for anybody out there who is thinking I've got an idea and I really want to get this out of me and start writing my debut fiction whether it's for farm or you actually want to get it out there. Have you got any tips? What would you tell people who are in that position Oh, I mean, you just can't stop. I wrote for a decade. You know, this is this obviously it's, you know, my debut novel, meaning my first published novel, but I've been writing and chasing ideas since I was twenty. So I think that there is a certain element of like you have to believe in yourself to a delusional degree. And again, I'm sure this is something that you can relate to in a number of ways. The level of rejection that you move through as an artist, would take down an elephant. And every single artist I have met who has succeeded has the same exact story, which is a delusional belief in themselves. Like I could list and something that helps me is start to look at Origin stories like Greta Gerwig, I know applied to every screenwriting graduate school and was rejected from all of them. Tanahasi Coatates talks about this. So many famous books were rejected by dozens and dozens. to kill a Mcking Bird was rejected, I think from seventy editors until someone published it. So I really think people often view it as like, how do I make this one project work And my thing is, you don't know which project is going to work. Yeah. You just have to do every project. If you want this to be your life You really just have to keep doing it until it works because otherwise it's too easy to kind of give up. Yeah, Do you know what I was having this exact conversation with a very good friend of mine last week And he writes and short comedy scripts and he acts in them too. And he' had one really great project that had done very well online and is now on a second and a third one. And he's like, oh, I don't know if they're landing as well. And we had this whole chat about All of it's worth it because it's more mileage, your learning. Yeah, it's more practice, it's more learning, it's more feedback. and some of that feedback like you say is so painful. Yeah. Has there ever been a point where you've thought I'm going to give up or I'm gonna stop E other day. I will say, the reason I so this this novel came from a time period in the winter where I was on TikTok The reason I was on TikTok that winter and the reason I became aware of Tadwives was because I had just submitted, I had finished my second novel, my second manuscript that I was working on the previous summer. I shopped it around, No one wanted it radio silence in New York, that fall, I reached out to my agent who I still have, who I love, and I just said, I think I need to be done with writing for a year. I was just so exhausted, so burnt out. And so this novel essentially came out of me feeling like I had given up. And I think it's really indicative of By this point I had developed such a muscle for writing, it really was just like I remember when I started writing it, I just kind of told myself, well, if this one fails too, you've just lost two months. You just lost a few months. So you just really have to comfortable with this idea of failure because You know, it's not this book has done really well, thank goodness, but I might write another manuscript and then trash it. Like it never ends. It's really just a lifestyle Well, exactly and what a healthy way to look at it because I think if you're constantly changingy when I'm crying my bactly It still hurts. Do you know what it's such a sort pertinent conversation because I halfway through two novels Oh one I started writing, I was really into it and then I had a bunch of stuff happening in my life, so I just naturally pressed paores. and I couldn't get back into it. I'd left it too long and I was like I don't remember these guys, like who are they? and what do they feel? And I just thought, And then I had another idea started writing it, got halfway through, and then I started to have doubts about one part of it that sort of blocked me, and I've never really had that. when'm blocks the point of And I don't think I can continue with it. Or I certainly feel like you did that winter where you were like Burn out. I've written Lots of books on the trot and I maybe need to not write so I like it again. Yeah. That's the thing. it's you cannot tie cannot tie your creativity to one project. And I have a few friends that I've spoken with who are like, If this one just doesn't work, then that's when I'm gonna quit. And I've been there and I've felt that a million times, but I think I realize now the secret is you don't know which one's going to work. I've loved every project as much as I love this book.. I've been as proud of every project. No one works on books for years unless you feel like there's something there, however small that kernel is So people always ask me like, how did you know this one was different? And I'm like, I didn't. You think I would have spent years on those other novels if I didn't think those were gonna work? L That's so good to him. I think I'll sit here and I'm so in awe of this book and your writing and your skill and your talent, and you could think, o, I'm never going to have a book that lands that well or resonates. But like you say, you don't know. you love all the projects you're working on as much. It's just something it's the right timing, it's the right you, and you've obviously put hours and hours into this to have the skill to write this in two months. but I think there is a certain amount of O people at the right time are resonating with that story. R. And it comes to life. Well and. And Tanahasi Coats has talked about this where The longer you stick it out, the better you are. and all of a sudden, you are one of the best people in the game. And so I've loved everything I've written, but I think this is probably the best thing I've written so far, not because of some magic, but because I have ten years of effort. And so I think that's another thing is like I try to tell myself, well, if I just stick it out for another year, you've got another year under your belt and I think I felt that way with yester year. Yeah, oh my Godd. well, it is just phenomenal. I can't wait for everybody in our book club to go out and get this book and discuss it because there are so many themes to talk about, so many angles at which you could come at this storyline and have a really deep debate about which we can't do too much of because I don't want to know. I just don't w want to spoil too much because it is one of those books where you just need to start and within the first page you're like, I was so intrigued with Natalie. from the fucking get go, like from the first page Who is she Why does she think like this? and how is this going to end? It's just brilliant. Thank you so much. I mean, I felt the same way. I'm grateful