Anna Woods and moments of light in the darkness

It’s something I struggled with for a long time before I found an approach that worked for me. Short stories are quite contained, and I’m able to hold an entire story in my head. As you say, LIT is quite long and it’s much harder to have that macro view with a novel. After a few failed manuscripts, I realised I was writing as though a novel was merely a long short story. To counter this, I studied story structure. 

As you and your readers know, crime and suspense novels tend to hit the same major beats. Once I understood those key moments, I had a scaffold to build the story around and it became easier to tell. 

At first I was intimidated by writing suspense, as plot has always been difficult for me. But I mine a seam of darkness and violence in my published stories. While I needed to find a new structure to write LIT, the tone and voice are similar to my earlier work.

Your novel’s back story has three youngish architects — Billy Lovelace, Virginia (Gin) Ishak, and Clarissa (Clary) Taylor – setting up LIT Architects. When Billy disappears, the practice effectively becomes IT, that still unusual thing, a female-led architecture firm. How have Gin and Clary been getting on as both business and life partners in the lead-up to the novel’s beginning?

They are at that interesting phase of life, the transition from their twenties to thirties, and are considering what they want, and what is important to them. So many of our decisions in those years determine the course of our lives, and Gin and Clary are feeling the weight of that.Pressure from Clary’s family around marriage and children is fracturing their relationship. They bonded over an extreme event – Billy’s disappearance – but the intoxicating first flush of their relationship has dissipated, and the differences in their worldviews have becomeapparent. 

Meanwhile, the practice is struggling with the loss of Billy, and money is a constant source of friction for them. Gin doesn’t feel Clary is contributing her share, but Clary doesn’t feel the same financial pressure as Gin. Some readers have noted that Clary seems aloof, but what we are seeing is the fraying of their relationship. As LIT begins, Gin is holding on to something that is already slipping away.

The novel’s action begins with signs that after three years Billy is back in town. Gin’s not happy about this: ‘He was supposed to be dead. He promised.’ The story is told from Gin’s point of view, in the first person, and in retrospect. Did you have to do much experimenting in regard to POV, voice, and other aspects of telling a mystery?

Initially, I wrote in alternating points of view, between Gin and Clary, but despite the benefits of an unreliable narrator, giving the reader access to both their thoughts made it difficult to hide parts of the puzzle. I also toyed with a mid-way POV shift, but that also had drawbacks from a plot perspective. I decided instead to stay in Gin’s head and explore her psyche. As the story unfolded, I realised keeping the reader trapped in Gin’s point of view, questioningeverything she says, helps mirror the state of being gaslit.

In terms of telling a mystery, I had to be careful about the timing of certain revelations. It is a slow burn, but there were many pieces that had to be laid out for the events of the second half to make sense. Gin is smart, so I couldn’t rely on simple misunderstandings to drive the plot forward. It forced me to understand her psychology – why she makes the choices she does. The truth for Gin, and the reader, is a slow dawning realisation, which is how gaslighting works in real life.

‘It wasn’t as though A— was the first person to blackmail me. She wasn’t even the first that week.’ Gin hasn’t been an angel. Nor has Clary or Billy. Perhaps they should call themselves LIE Architects? Is there any future for these characters in another piece of fiction?

Ooh, LIE architects, I love that! Without giving any spoilers, the ending is quite definitive, so I don’t know how I would pick up these characters again. Perhaps if I did, it would have to be twenty years later, to give them time to marinate in their bad choices. I’m not one for speculative fiction, so I’d have to wait for our own timeline to catch up. What I’m working on now does have echoes of LIT. It’s another psychological suspense set in a creative world (the main character is a performance artist). There is a long history of performance artists who shock and provoke, so it is proving a lot of fun to write.

As we’d expect of an architect, Gin is highly observant when it comes to Auckland buildings and interiors. She also registers reactions to various foods and drinks. How much effort (or fun) was needed for you to amplify this part of her character? 

I loved this part of the writing process. One of my writing teachers once told me: your obsessions turn up in your books. I think it’s fair to say I’m obsessed with the built environment and how it affects our moods. I’m interested in beauty, whether that is in buildings, art, nature, words, or a good plate of food. Noticing the small things helps me connect with the wonder of the world. And while I may have written a dark book, I do believe the world is such an unlikely and wonderful place. I wanted to capture moments of light in the darkness.

Thanks very much for your responses Anna.