DAVID WHITEHOUSE
The novelist, journalist and scriptwriter tells Lynne Hackles how he tries to cultivate a work ethic
Lynne Hackles
My Writing Day
David Whitehouse is a journalist and screenwriter. He’s also an award-winning novelist. ‘I write fulltime but that might be journalism, or scripts, or treatments for ideas… it’s whatever is most pressing, or more likely to pay the bills,’ he says. ‘It saddens me to say writing books is always at the bottom of that pile, and I’m constantly digging to get to it.
‘I try to keep office hours of 9-6, in a bid to convince myself I’ve a Calvinist work ethic. I rent a desk away from my house for this reason. I need to commute, need to convince myself that writing is a normal job when it doesn’t always feel like one. I usually run out of steam by 4pm, regardless of whether it’s a good writing day or a bad one.