Question: Could you describe your typical writing day?
P. J. Moroney: There isn’t one.
I used to read about the habits of great writers and wonder what would work for me. Some of them got up bright and early and wrote till lunchtime and took the rest of the day off. Others were the opposite. I reckon at least one wrote standing up. I think Henry James dictated his novels.
I haven’t had the luxury of a routine. I was a working man, so I wrote when I could, which was mostly on the weekend. I think, in general, I write more in the afternoon than in the morning. I need to get into the day first. I feel I write better in the winter than in the summer, but that’s probably my imagination. I’m pretty disciplined, considering.
Early days, I wrote everything long hand. Eventually, I began to write using my PC, and I still do that, but do a lot of writing on my iPad now, too, away from my desk. Occasionally, I’ll jot a thought or an idea or a scrap of dialogue in a notebook or one of the apps on my phone. When the words come harder, I try to change things up and might head out to the garden or a local cafe with a notebook and a pen.
Things might change when I get rich and famous.
Question: How do you approach the development of your characters?
P. J. Moroney: I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t think I have an approach. As for development, it’s all in my head.
Most of it’s in my head. I’m not one of those writers who use cue cards or who do a lot of research. Character development is pretty organic – they’re just there on the page, and they grow from that.
It’s not something I’ve ever thought about much, maybe because it’s always seemed so natural. I guess I have an idea of the major characters when I start something, but most of their growth is spontaneous, and the minor characters sprout into being along the way. Character informs action, but I like to let it flow.
There are times when I get stuck – when it doesn’t come so naturally. I expect that. People are complex, and even if these characters are my creation, I want them to be as authentic as possible – that is, think and act in ways that are true to the person. Sometimes, I will create characters that vary from my personal experience of life, and so I have to reach to make them authentic. It can be hard to get the nuance right and true to personality. Occasionally, I’ll ask someone better placed to review what I’ve written to get their perspective. Otherwise, in those cases, I spend a lot of time trying to inhabit their character to see and act through their eyes.
The rest of the time, it just happens. You get to know these guys so well that it becomes second nature as if you’re spirit writing for them. You put them in the room and let them perform. The starting point for me is understanding what they look like, and from that, everything flows – their tics and idiosyncrasies, how they talk, what they say, their attitude to life and their flaws, and all the rest of it.
Question: Do you ever base your characters on real people?
P. J. Moroney: Not really. Not completely, anyway.
Of course, what I know of human nature and people comes from interacting with characters every day of my life. It’s natural that you’ll pick up things and use them along the way, mostly without being aware of it. How someone walks, say, or the verbal tics someone might have, as well as character traits, and so on, but it’s all pretty anonymous.
Occasionally, I will take the look of someone and use them, extrapolating from that into character and history – a different person altogether.
Back in the day, when I got pissed off with someone, I would sometimes think I’ll fix them up someday by using them as a nasty character in one of my stories, but I’ve never done that. There is no character I’ve written that is even 50% of anyone I know. Most of them are organic creations but often around the seed of a trait or attitude or look. They’re born in my mind, but they come to life on the page. I think of them as real people once they’re written.