MY WRITING DAY
Helen Fields
The barrister turned crime novelist tells Lynne Hackles about turning the pressure up and writing in bursts
Lynne Hackles
Helen Fields was a criminal barrister and is now the best-selling author of ten crime fiction novels. As a barrister, she wasn’t writing fiction but says there was a lot of other writing involved. ‘Writing an opening speech to a jury, setting out the case coherently but in an interesting way,’ she explains. ‘Composing a closing speech, fashioning the facts the way that best promoted my case. Preparing crossexamination questions to expose case weaknesses. All of that had to be done under time pressure and to a high standard. Not so much has changed.
‘Now my day is structured around my family. We get our three children out to school/college, then he goes to the gym before work, and I get the house straight. Only then do I sit down to write. I don’t concentrate well in chaos. Typically, my writing time is from 9.30am to 2.30pm. Limited available hours help focus my mind. If I don’t have pressure to achieve, my focus wanders. I set myself a daily word count, typically 2,000, Monday to Friday. Evenings are busy – Ido ballet, Zumba, and love walking – so those hours are out of bounds.