Before turning to writing fiction, Tracey Emerson worked in theatre and community arts. As well as acting, she ran drama workshops in various community and healthcare settings, focusing on work with adults with mental health issues. Her short stories have been published in anthologies and literary magazines such as Mslexia and Gutter Magazine. Her first novel, She Chose Me, is released on October 15th 2018.
In this interview, Ogilvie editors Calder Hudson and Angela Hicks speak with Tracey about her approach to writing, her perspective on the process and on emotional memory, and about She Chose Me’s path to publication–as well as what to expect next.
I’m interested in hearing about the history of the novel. When did this idea first come to you and how did you go about developing it?
The idea came some years ago in the form of a question, which later mutated into the first line of the novel: What would she say if she were with me? I’d been thinking about a situation from my past and imagining it coming back into my life.
I began developing the idea whilst doing my PhD in Creative Writing at The University of Edinburgh. At first, I thought my premise required me to write a dystopian novel. I did and it was a spectacularly instructive failure. I went on to write a two-viewpoint literary novel that was the first step towards the finished product.
She Chose Me has come a long way, then–from dystopian novel to fast-paced psychological thriller. When you came up with the novel’s premise, did you always intend for that to be the story’s overtone? For that matter, which came first–plot or genre?
I had no intention of writing a psychological thriller. The idea came first, the genre afterwards. I think the reason it took me so long to see the obvious fit between the idea and the psychological suspense genre is that I never thought of myself as a writer who could ‘do’ plot. I never imagined I could write a story containing twists and reveals. Ideas are stubborn though. They hold out until they get the genre they want.
Why psychological thrillers? Is there something about this genre which appeals to you?
John Mullan describes the psychological thriller as the form where genre fiction and literary fiction overlap and I agree. This type of novel has room for suspense, psychological complexity and the examination of social issues; it also encourages formal experimentation, especially with chronology and viewpoint. Luckily, I love writing first-person narration, which is well-suited to a genre often reliant on the unreliable narrator.
The challenge for the writer is to find authentic ways of creating narrative suspense. You have to hook and hold the reader’s attention and you have to strive for genuine story twists. This entails wrestling with structure. You have to be solving the story puzzle at the same time as you’re writing it. This can be both a headache and a lot of fun.
Authors always have to field questions juxtaposing a ‘write what you know’ approach versus choosing to write about what they want to write about, regardless of whether or not it draws on their own lived experiences. So, in the spirit of that tradition: where does your own process fall in this discourse–one camp or the other, or a bit of both?
A bit of both, for sure. Events from my own life inspired this novel, but I had to go way beyond them to create a story that would be of interest to other people. In any scene, I can usually find some aspect of my own experience to use as a jumping off point or as a character motivation or to provide setting and background. I think most writers do this, even if only subconsciously. Perhaps this ability to draw on lived experience is what allows writers to go so far beyond it.
Some of your short stories and nonfiction have been published previously, but this is your first novel. What was that change like, creatively speaking?
It was a leap of faith. Short stories came quite naturally to me and still feel instinctive. Writing a novel was a big challenge and it took me a while to figure out how I wanted to go about it. It was all worth it, including the bottom drawer novel and the wrong turns. Now, when teaching or mentoring, I can talk from experience and am able to steer others away from the rocks when necessary.
You have mentioned on your website and elsewhere that you have a background in theatre. Do you find this informs your prose writing? Any valuable lessons learned?
Theatre has absolutely informed my prose writing, although it’s taken me some time to consciously acknowledge and appreciate that. I was discussing this topic recently with a couple of actors-turned-writers, and we agreed the drama background has given us a good instinct for pace and, unsurprisingly, an affinity with writing dialogue. I have a strong sense when writing early drafts that I’m improvising, and I often tell myself just to ‘get something up on its feet’, an expression used during theatre rehearsals. Whether working on a script or devising material, actors usually need to block out a sequence of actions that give them the physical surface of a scene. They can then rerun and refine this action whilst investigating the subtext of the dialogue and character motivation. Drafting and redrafting works this way for me. Once I’ve got something on the page, I can then start working out what’s really going on.
The concept of emotional memory is also useful–although you might not have the same lived experience as a character you are playing, you can usually find some analogous situation from your own life that arouses similar emotions; you can then access these emotions and transfer them to the scene you’re playing. I use this technique a lot when writing.
The process of researching a character works much the same way in theatre and prose-writing and many of the same techniques can be applied to both. Acting, however, often involves a more physical and sensory approach to inhabiting character, and I still like this feeling of immersion. Much of She Chose Me is set in London, and I made numerous visits there to hang out in the same areas my characters stayed in and to experience life as they might. Once I’d worked out where my main character, Grace, might live, I visited an estate agent in that area and asked what flats they had for sale. I picked one that looked right for Grace and pretended to be interested in buying it. The estate agent drove me along for a viewing, which I stretched out for as long as I could. I also took a lot of pictures. This experience helped me get a feel for Grace’s everyday life and a lot of action was subsequently set in this flat.
Writing is often thought of as a solitary enterprise; how does that conception relate to how you found writing She Chose Me–and to your writing process in general?
Writing is solitary in the sense that you alone are laying down the words on the page/screen and, for me, solitude is an essential part of that. Thus, writing She Chose Me did involve long stretches in writing jail. However, the writing process also required a huge team of people–those who helped with research, tutors and mentors, my agent, the team at Legend Press and all the writers whose novels informed my writing. Not to mention friends, family and the people I share my life with. Without all of that support and those interactions, I wouldn’t be able to be solitary.
You recently tweeted about a conversation with your niece where you described publishing this book as a lifelong ambition. Ambition fulfilled! What’s next?
I should probably clarify that writing a novel was an ambition that had lain dormant for some time. As a child, I read relentlessly and wrote short stories and loved English Literature at school. I could have followed a straighter path to becoming a writer from that point onwards, but other interests distracted me–sport, science, boys and theatre. Theatre won, but in my late twenties some lost, hedonistic years led to a spell of poor health and I turned to writing as a creative outlet. I didn’t start writing seriously until my early thirties.
In answer to your question, my next ambition is to see if I can get a second novel written and published. I’m working on one now, The Victim’s Code. It’s a psychological thriller, narrated by a man who doesn’t know if he’s a victim of a terrible crime or an accomplice to a perfect murder. I’m having fun with it! I’d also like to publish more short stories, and I’ve got material better suited to radio plays or possibly even to the stage, so I’m keen to develop my skills in these areas. And a short film script I’ve had sitting around for a while might get a dusting off at some point. In short, writing is next. Lots more writing.
You can keep up with Tracey via her website and Twitter. She Chose Me, written by Tracey and published by Legend Press, is now available in stores and online.