Richard Milward / Features / Untitled Books

I get withdrawal symptoms if I go a few days without writing.

Richard Milward

After the success of his bold debut novel Apples, which revisits the Garden of Eden on a Middlesborough estate, Richard Milward is hard at work on his second novel.

Trainspotting is a mad masterpiece, and proved to me you can just write how you want, about whatever you want.

Where are you right now?
My freezing bedroom in South Tottenham, London

How do you write?
The first (and sometimes second) draft is always pencil on paper... I write quite prolifically, but only for about an hour or two a day. It all spews out. Then I type up on the laptop, print out, and scribble all over it for a few more drafts.

What keeps you writing?
It's a drug. I get withdrawal symptoms if I go a few days without writing - like tetchiness, mood swings. I've hardly taken a break from it since I was 12 years old.

Who do you write for?
Myself, definitely. If I wrote for anyone else, the books would be a lot more watered down, I think. I gain tons of pleasure from messing about with stories, structure, etc... Obviously, nowadays I'm aware people will actually read whatever I'm writing, but as soon as you start compromising yourself for anyone else, you might as well give up.

Do you discuss your work with anyone?
No. I keep my cards completely to my chest until I feel the work's absolutely finished. Then only the publisher and agent sees it. I'm so stubborn about just following my own vision, however wacky or daft it is. That's the fun of it.

How do you know if your work is good?
I don't know. If it gets me excited, hopefully it'll get someone else excited too. "Good" stinks of mediocrity though. I'd rather write something outstanding or completely awful and wrong, than just plain "good".

Do you have any unwritten characters in mind?
A few. Most of them are inanimate objects, though.

Which book do you wish you'd written?
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. The innovation with language is so incredible, and he did it in such a short space of time, too...

What is your literary guilty pleasure?
I want to get my hands on this pulp fiction novel from the sixties called 'LSD Orgy'. It sounds very delectable.

Which writer made you want to write?
Irvine Welsh. Trainspotting is a mad masterpiece, and proved to me you can just write how you want, about whatever you want.

Who's the most exciting author writing today?
Salvador Plascensia. The People of Paper is a gem - really beautiful and obscure.

If you weren't writing, you'd be ... ?
An unsuccessful painter.

What next?
The new novel, "Ten Storey Love Song" is due in Spring 2009. It's about sex, death, sweets, paint and racists.

Thursday, 24 April, 2008