When She Was Bad Author Q&A 

With Karen Myers 

Karen Myers: What came first, the plot or the characters and why?

Neil: The character of Barclay came first. I was on the Random House Creative Writing course and the opening exercise was to create a character and introduced them through an object. I chose a bag, and that was the start of Barclay. That’s still the opening of the first chapter, although I had no idea it would evolve into a novel at that stage. I needed someone to find the bag but had no idea who. I decided it would open more possibilities if it was a woman and so I came up with Claire and it sort of snowballed from there.

It was an interesting way to start a book but I think in future I’ll start with the story. I didn’t have the details of the plot worked out fully until I finished my second draft – the first draft wandered all over the place as I explored the characters more than the story. 

Did you set out to write something with a twist or did it develop that way?

Neil: It just developed that way. I do like a story with a good twist so I was hoping I could squeeze one in somehow but wasn’t going to force it. In earlier drafts the revelation was revealed much earlier but in the later versions I thought it would be fun to save it for the story’s climax. Some readers have said they saw it coming, others that they were taken by surprise. The end of the story is told at quite a pace and it just seemed to fit and didn’t feel too contrived.

It’s clear that some aspects of the plot come from experience, i.e. there’s local colour. But how much research did you have to do for locations, journeys, cars etc?

Neil: ‘Don’t let your research show,’ Barbara Henderson told me and I managed to do that by doing as little research as possible!

I live in Greenwich and also know neighbouring Deptford and the Docklands well, but I wanted to steer clear of the famous landmarks in the area. One issue was ensuring I used locations without CCTV cameras – modern technology can be a nightmare when you’re writing a crime thriller – but I found that even in Docklands it was pretty easy to find areas with no cameras and poor lighting at night.

The only car I knew personally was the Karmann Ghia, which is owned by my neighbour, Graeme. I haven’t been in an Uno or Multipla for years and sadly you don’t actually see many Unos around these days. I embellished Claire’s experiences with information from a few Fiat drivers’ online communities. I did do all the journeys described, but in my less-interesting VW Golf, and at 3pm rather than 3am!

CHARACTERISATION

You’re a 50-something man, the main protagonist is a 20-something woman. You found her voice, so how?

Neil: It actually came quite naturally. I surprised myself to be truthful – I think she’s my favourite character in the book and that old cliché about stories writing themselves is certainly true in Claire’s case. There were a few times in the editing process when I had to change some of Claire’s references as they were not what a 25-year-old would be familiar with, but her actual ‘voice’ came easily.

I was left wanting more of some of the characters, and to know more of their back-story. Were you writing them with book two in mind, in terms of who would live or be free to see another day?

Neil: I always wanted to leave things open at the end but resisted the temptation to leave it on a cliffhanger – I had toyed with the idea of Claire finding herself pregnant (by Tom) at the end but decided against it was a bit of a cliché and it would limit any future stories by her having to consider her child’s welfare.

I have plenty of character back-story I will use in the second book. There’s a lot more to Barclay than discovered by Claire in When She Was Bad and it’ll be fun exploring that in the next one (and beyond). TNT’s story won’t remain untold, and you haven’t met The Shoe Woman yet…

The style is very visual with lots of popular culture and product references. Do those come from your own preferences or did you use them as you thought Claire would see the world?

Neil: I’ve never owned anything by Prada or Fiat but I do love Apple products even if I do sometimes think life would be simpler with an old Nokia phone that just does calls and texts. I think the dominance of brands and mass culture is just the time we live in and that’s how kids in their twenties view things now.

It’s also quite cinematic, given the dialogue, the pace and the way it paints pictures. Do you see yourself as a screenwriter?

Neil: I’m just getting used to describing myself as a ‘writer’, and I’m happy trying my hand at novels and short stories for now. I suppose that my dialogue and action scenes are quite cinematic but there’s no ulterior motive in writing that way except that it’s an effective way of making the reader turn the pages faster.

If so, who would you cast in the film or TV version?

Neil: I wrote Barclay with Benedict Cumberbatch (as Sherlock) in mind. Claire I saw as Claire Foy, but she can be whoever the reader wants her to be and I deliberately didn’t describe her appearance. My wife has suggested that Tom is Jude Law and I like that but I had a (young) Tom Hollander in mind as I wrote him. TNT would be the guy who plays The Mountain in Game of Thrones.

As a first-time author, how did you approach the task of writing? Computer or longhand? Storyboard? Short bursts or long days?

Neil: I’m new at this game so I’ve been making it up as I go along. This book started with the RH course I mentioned, which resulted in around two dozen short pieces which I then used as the basis for the first part of the initial draft. As the story developed though most were dropped as they didn’t fit in the story or its evolving style. A few survive: the prologue, the opening chapters, the visits to both families at Christmas. 

I type faster than I can handwrite, so I tend to only pick up the pen when I’m sketching out rough ideas. I review and edit drafts off screen though – an old preference from my days as a sub editor.

I did try using the authoring software Scrivener for the planning, but found it too complicated for what I was attempting to do. In the end I covered my office’s wall with hand-written postcard outlines before finalizing them with PowerPoint (a slide per chapter). I wrote it in Microsoft Word – I tried other writing tools but Word is still the best for writing and editing. The print edition was finished using InDesign.

There’s no pattern to my writing day and I still find myself keeping ‘office hours’, starting at around nine in the morning, an hour’s break for lunch and winding up around five. Old habits die hard.

I understand you started your career as a journalist. Do you have non-fiction in you too?

Neil: Possibly, but it’s not something I’m interested in at the moment.