I wrote a book. A novel, to be exact. It was published in Finland a week ago.
If you’re based in Finland / know Finnish, it’s available to purchase in quite a few bookshops, as audio/e-book across the usual platforms, or alternatively you can borrow it from your local library.
If you read it let me know what you think - unless you hated it in which case please do not contact me!!
Publishing a book is a big milestone in one small person’s life, so to mark this milestone in mine I’ve conducted an interview on publishing a book with myself. The interviewee is currently lying on her back, under a Moomin duvet, the laptop propped on her stomach in a way that really tends to irritate her lumbar spinal cords. Her face is dry after a shower, she’s forgotten to moisturise, and her facial expression is stern. Here’s what she had to say.
Q: Congratulations. How do you feel having published your debut novel?
A: Thank you! Honestly, I don’t know. Excited? Normal? Anxious? Surreal? I think I had a much bigger “oh my god this is insane I am SO happy” moment when I heard the news that the novel was going to get published in the first place, which was in October 2023. By that point I had been working on it for 5ish years without any guarantee it would ever see the light of day, so getting the good news felt euphoric.
Q: What is the novel actually about?
A: Great question. It’s called This is not a romantic comedy in Finnish, and indeed it is not. The novel does explore romantic relationships and the protagonist’s longing for one, and I do hope that it’s funny too, but it also explores loneliness, anxiety, the limitations of one’s body, power dynamics and so on. It follows a woman, Maija, who lives in London and works at a TV production company which produces cheap true crime shows. The company gets a commission to make a new show about Japanese serial killers, and Maija gets to go on a research trip to Japan. Once there, she can’t stop thinking about her first love from ten years ago, a man who she met while living in Tokyo as a young woman. Things didn’t go amazingly back then, and Maija wonders if the reason she hasn’t found love since might be buried in the past. The novel moves in two timelines and two cities.
Q: Is it autobiographical?
A: I’d say the novel and its characters are complete fiction except for those parts that aren’t. In terms of the emotions and feelings explored, I’m always attempting to write from a place of truth.
Q: Yeah yeah. But is Maija you?
A: She is probably a version of me in my 20s. But she’s also in some ways more mature and confident than I was. Maija comes across as anxious, but I was SO MUCH MORE ANXIOUS. It would not have made good literature. She’s also a bit more rigid than me, or that’s what I’d like to believe at least hehe. I definitely have asked similar questions to the ones Maija is asking in the book throughout my life.
Q: How long does it take to write a novel?
A: I was very slow, it took me all in all 7ish years from start to finish. I was working full-time throughout the writing process, so I could only write during the weekends. I also had long periods when I couldn’t touch the manuscript at all, for example during the pandemic. I was just too anxious/depressed. I sincerely hope writing my second novel won’t take seven years...
Q: How did you get it published?
A: I was contacted by my now-editor. She had read some of my essays online, and was wondering if I had any aspirations to write long prose. And so began a very long and arduous process!!
I was very lucky because I was contacted by my editor, which gave me the kick in the butt I needed. I’m bad at motivating myself, I need deadlines, structure, someone to cheer me on. It’s a profession/hobby very prone to self-criticism and anxiety so you need someone to pour you over with validation.
The reason why I was contacted in the first place was because I had put some of my writing online, so I think sharing your work is always a good idea. I’ve been writing on all kind of random blogs and other mediums through the years and never really thought that that could lead into anything, but it did and I am very happy about that!
Q: Writing a novel sounds long… Any tips to get going?
A: I feel u buddy. It is so long… But I do also love it. My day job is in film and TV, which means working with scripts, and I find writing prose incredibly liberating compared to scriptwriting. In TV/film you have to think about the budget - can I set this in space, will any streaming service fund this now that they’re all broke, is it giving ELEVATED MAINSTREAM??? Whereas when you’re writing a novel you don’t need to give a fuck!! You can set a single novel not only in space, but in ten different planets if you want. It’s only words!! Secondly, scriptwriting needs to be economical. You can’t write paragraphs after paragraphs of a character’s inner dialogue into stage directions, because an audience will only know what they can see or hear on the screen. Whereas in prose, again, you can do anything! I’m not in any way saying that novels are “better” than TV or films, screenwriting is such a hard craft, but as a writer who dabbles their toes into both prose and screenwriting I find the novel a creatively inspiring and freeing medium to work in.
In terms of tips… For me, the hardest part is getting my butt on the seat and starting. I will avoid it at any cost. I assume this is the case for many if not most writers. What works, kind of, for me is ditching any grandiose plans e.g. writing x hours every day, committing to writing before/after work, writing 8 hours on a Saturday/Sunday and so on. I won’t stick to those rules anyway, and then I’ll feel bad about not sticking to them. And now that I’m feeling bad, I need to cheer myself up aka go binge 4 hours of reality TV which leads to zero writing. So. I would start with a simple, modest goal: every week I will write an hour. So maybe that’s one hour on a Sat/Sun morning. Or 30 mins here and the other 30 there. That’s it. And then just stick to that - an hour a week. For me, what works the best is trying to be consistent with low expectations and low goals, rather than writing 6 hours on one day and then not touching the MS for months. Although that happens too. (This tip is especially for people with full-time jobs wanting to start writing in their spare time, if you’re writing full-time on a grant etc. then perhaps one hour a week isn’t quite enough, although who am I to judge!!)
The thing is to not wait for a wave of inspiration to hit you, but to just get your ass on the seat. I know by now that if I just sit down and stare at the screen for some time, something will always come out. A little bit like going on the toilet. If you stick to the hour, what often happens is that you’ll find yourself wanting to write for longer. And then you can increase your weekly goal to 2 hours, 3 hours and so on. And sometimes you’ll need a week when you just CHILL during the entire weekend and don’t even think about writing and that is okay too.
When your manuscript gets longer I recommend Scrivener, a novel-writing software. At some point handling a large mass of text on Word became very clunky and labourous, so I tested Scrivener and got quite into it. It prevents me from getting too overwhelmed, as you can organise everything into neat chapters and it’s easy to keep track of notes, ideas, what you’ve deleted and so on. You can trial Scrivener for a month or so to see if you like it.
Q: Most enjoyable part of the whole writing process?
A: I quite enjoy editing, controversially. Probably because it’s my literal day job. Then the rare moments when you feel the flow. Also writing a really juicy/funny/sad scene.
Q: And the least enjoyable?
A: Producing word count… Also known as writing, lol.
Q: Will the novel be translated into English?
A: Translated? Absolutely. Published in English? I don’t know, I would love it if it did.
Q: What’s next, will you write another novel?
A: Yes, I bloody hope so. I’d also like to write a screenplay for a film.
Q: Thank you Paula, it’s been a pleasure.
A: Cheerio old chap!
Thank you for writing this Paula. 🩷 Really resonated with me about keeping the bar low and going easy on yourself re word counts etc. Can’t wait to read the book! Such a huge achievement!!!