Nick Harkaway: “The problem is always earlier than you think”

Nick Harkaway is the author of several acclaimed books, including Angelmaker, a gangster-spy thriller featuring a clockwork Doomsday machine. His next book — a story about fatherhood, political intrigue, heroism and comic books — is out next year.

We asked him about his writing.

Was there a specific moment that made you follow the path you’re on? An inspiration? A revelation?

I went to a development meeting for the movie I was trying to write — emphasis on “trying” — and I realised that I was getting notes written in Starbucks over the previous half hour which made no sense, and that I would have to write a draft based on these notes, and that draft would then get canned for being awful. Which it would be.

And I thought: “I’m getting married soon, this makes me miserable, my future wife hates that this is my life and so do I, and to Hell with this, I’m writing a book instead.”

What’s the one thing you’ve learned over time that you wish you knew when you started out?

The problem is always earlier than you think. You can chip away at it from where you found it and that will take you a month, or you can go right back to page one and work out how it arises and fix it in 20 minutes on page four.

And the important thing about this is that even when you know it is true you still don’t know that it is true, and you will screw around for a week or so trying to fix the problem where you found it, because that is probably part of fixing it on page four.

I should have this engraved on the case of my laptop, or tattooed on my eyelids.

A version of this interview first appeared in the email newsletter from digital longform publisher MATTER. Sign up today to receive a weekly dose of great stories, enthralling links and insightful tips.

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