Claire Dyer's Writing Toolkit

WRITING TOOLKIT gives you an idea of an author's writing process through the tools they use. The tools can be anything (real or virtual) that they think is essential for their writing - serious, fun or even a fetish (that they're willing to own up to)! 

I am delighted to welcome 

CLAIRE DYER

AUTHOR OF THE LAST DAY

TO SHARE HER WRITING TOOLKIT

FOR HER BLOG TOUR

The Last Day was published on 15 February 2018 by Dome Press. 

Swimming

I swim every other morning and find it invaluable for clearing my head. As I swim, all I do is make sure I know which length I’m on and then let my mind wander. Many plot points or next sentences have come to me this way.

Silence
I don’t like noise when I’m writing: the best place for me would be a cottage on a remote hillside with only sheep for company. Unfortunately, real life isn’t like that and so I normally have to contend with building noise, traffic noise and when my husband is working from home, his music!

Footrest

I couldn’t write without this. It’s been invaluable in getting me to sit up straight when I’m at my desk. 

Sleeplessness
I love that moment when the day is over, the house is quiet and I’m lying in bed staring into the dark. Like with swimming, these are the times that I see things more clearly and in the quiet, can listen to what my characters are telling me.

Facebook and Twitter
Keeping in touch with people on social media is such a comfort. Being able to provide support to others and seek it for myself reminds me that I’m part of one big writing community.

TV
I obviously value my friends but I also love watching ‘Friends’ reruns on TV or, if I have a bit more time, I adore murder mysteries such as Morse, Lewis, Poirot, Foyles War, etc. For me, watching these programmes is like kicking off my shoes, getting under a blanket and having forty winks.

My characters
I couldn’t write without them. There’s that marvelous moment when I’m writing (at about 40,000 words) when they move in to my head and my heart and it’s almost as though they start dictating the plot. I see and hear them so clearly that when I reach ‘The End’ I find I mourn their going.

Boiled eggs and soldiers
This is what I promise myself after swimming and after a daily target of 1,600 words. If I’ve done both of these things and ‘Friends’ is on TV, making myself boiled eggs and soldiers is a little slice of heaven!

THANKS FOR TAKING PART, CLAIRE!

About Claire Dyer

Claire Dyer’s novels, The Moment and The Perfect Affair and her short story, Falling For Gatsby are published by Quercus.

Her poetry collections, Interference Effects and Eleven Rooms, are published by Two Rivers Press.

She has an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway, University of London and teaches creative writing for Bracknell & Wokingham College. She also runs Fresh Eyes, an editorial and critiquing service.

In 2016, Claire penned and performed a poem for National Poetry Day, called The Oracle, for BBC Radio Berkshire. 

Find Claire on her website, on her Facebook page and on Twitter - @ClaireDyer1

About The Last Day

Published by Dome Press (15 February 2018)

Publisher's description

Every ending starts with a beginning; every beginning, an end. 

Boyd and Vita have been separated for six years when Boyd asks if he can move back in to the house they both still own, bringing with him his twenty-seven-year-old girlfriend, Honey. 

Of course, Vita agrees: enough water has travelled under enough bridges since her marriage to Boyd ended and she is totally over him; nothing can touch her now. Boyd and Honey move in and everyone is happy - or so it seems.

However, all three are keeping secrets.

Here's a snippet of my review: 'This was one of those books that I had to read out loud at various points to appreciate the author's well-crafted words and beautifully observed character descriptions and interactions. It's tightly plotted, with a underlying sense of mystery about events to come.'

Read my full review here.

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The Last Day by Claire Dyer

The Last Day 
By Claire Dyer
Published by Dome Press (15 February 2018)
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher 

Publisher's description

Every ending starts with a beginning; every beginning, an end. 

Boyd and Vita have been separated for six years when Boyd asks if he can move back in to the house they both still own, bringing with him his twenty-seven-year-old girlfriend, Honey. 

Of course, Vita agrees: enough water has travelled under enough bridges since her marriage to Boyd ended and she is totally over him; nothing can touch her now. Boyd and Honey move in and everyone is happy - or so it seems.

However, all three are keeping secrets.

My verdict
The Last Day is an emotional read with flowing poetic prose. This was one of those books that I had to read out loud at various points to appreciate the author's well-crafted words and beautifully observed character descriptions and interactions. It's tightly plotted, with a underlying sense of mystery about events to come.

The story focuses on three main characters - Vita, her estranged husband Boyd and his young girlfriend Honey. This sounds like a recipe for disaster, but this book isn't a love triangle. It's told in the first person through Vita's eyes and through both Boyd and Honey in the third person. Yet through the author's beautiful writing, I felt that I got to know the characters equally well - their thoughts, beliefs and inner turmoil. I was living their lives with them.

The Last Day is a story of relationships, love and marriage, grief, loss and tragedy, life's ups and downs, secrets, deception and lies. It's very much a story of people, rather than places, and is heartbreaking, compassionate and poignant. It's about who we love and how we love. What drives us and what breaks us. How secrets, and life events, can make us stronger but also weaken us. As the book evolves, secrets bubbling under the surface gradually spreading their wings towards the final page.

The Last Day reminded me of the importance of living each day to the full, as we never know what's coming next. No day can be like the previous ones as our lives are constantly changing, and every day influences the days ahead of us - for better or for worse.

I recently found these two quotes on 'last days'. Which path in life one do you follow?

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