Five minutes with alumna Sue Paterson
Congratulations to alumna Sue Paterson whose debut novel The Department of Certainty has been published by indie publisher Stairwell Books. Here she talks about her writing life.
When do you first remember wanting to be a writer? To be honest I’ve never had a strong urge ‘to be a writer.’ For me it was the story first. It came and lodged in my brain, pretty much fully-formed and demanding to be written.
Why did you decide to join the Creative Writing Programme? I joined the Creative Writing Programme to get the tools to write the novel. While I was doing the course I found that I enjoyed all the different writing exercises. I learned a huge amount, from the tutors but also from my fellow students.
What was the most impactful element of the course for you? Having my work critiqued and the experience of critiquing the work of others every week was very helpful. Probably the most impactful thing was the positive vibe and the encouragement to just keep going. I’m grateful to the Creative Writing Programme. I don’t think that I would have written the novel had I not had the advice and encouragement from the tutors and fellow students.
You started writing The Department of Certainty on the course. Tell us about your novel and the inspiration behind it? The novel sets up a ‘what if’ world where our brains are populated by competing departments. Jessica is in the ‘real world.’ She is a child protection social worker who decides that she will kill herself before the end of the day. Colin works in Jessica’s soul and much of the action takes place inside Jessica’s brain. He and his friends are in a race against time to prevent Jessica from throwing herself into the Thames. Their task is to work out who or what is responsible for Jessica’s suicidal thoughts and to try to steer her away from death on Vauxhall Bridge. I’m intrigued by the fact that we have no access to most of what is going on in our brains. So how is it that we make choices? Why are we responsible for our actions? In terms of inspiration, maybe the Beano’s Numskulls? Some folk have asked me whether I got the idea from the Disney film ‘Inside Out’ which has a similar theme. But no, I was already working on my novel before the film came out.
How did you finish your novel and get your publishing deal? It took me over a year after the course to finish the first draft and then it was redrafting and redrafting. I got some helpful feedback from my beta readers, further redrafting and then the laborious process of sending submissions out to agents and independent publishers. I had sent out thirty-four submissions before I got lucky with Stairwell Books who are a small independent publisher. It is pretty soul-destroying as mostly you don’t even get a reply to your carefully thought-out submission. In retrospect I think that I would have been better to have concentrated on independent publishers rather than agents.
Do you have a ‘day’ job in addition to your writing career and, if so, how do they complement one another? While I was writing ‘The Department of Certainty’ I was fortunate to be working part time. The ‘day’ job was in social work, like that of my protagonist, so the work informed my writing.
Are you interested in following in Sue’s footsteps? Our two-year Creative Writing Programme starts later this month – based in Brighton or online at different times throughout the week. If you’re interested why not sign up for a taster session being held this week so you can see if the course is for you.