James Smythe

With our current online writer in residence, Matt Haig, writing so eloquently about genre snobbery at the moment, covering books and genres we haven't in the past has been a lot on my mind recently. Having followed James Smythe on Twitter last year, on the recommendation of previous online writer in residence, Hannah Berry, I quickly became impressed with his productivity and attitude towards genre. James has had two books out in the last 12 months, with another due in April and one more towards the end of the year. He is certainly prolific.

And a great writer too. He's been compared to Iain Banks, Kazuo Ishiguro and J M Coetzee. He writes brilliantly literary dystopian tales like The Testimony and The Machine, as well as an ongoing sci-fi series called The Explorer. He writes for computer games as well.

But, enough from me, here's James on non-disclosure agreements, genre snobbery and solitude.

Hello James, how are you and where do we find you today?

I'm very well, thanks. I'm on a train, heading back from a day of teaching my university students on the South Bank.

Before we talk about The Explorer, you had The Testimony out last year and The Machine out in a few months. And you're working on a sequel to The Explorer... where do you get all the time?

I basically forget to do interviews like this one for two weeks because I'm ploughing through first drafts. It helps to be forgetful and bloody-minded. Also, write every day, even when I don't want to. That helps as well.

Tell us about The Explorer. It's a claustrophobic book set in the loneliest place in space. What inspired you to write it?

I wanted to write something small and lonely, and where the narrative was as close and lonely as the main character. First person narratives need to draw you in, to convey an emotional reaction that you feel, I reason. And, bluntly, I was quite lonely when I wrote it. Isolated, certainly. (Not in space, mind you: Horsham.)

And I dictated a lot of it, or read it out aloud. I wanted it to work as literature, first; but there are sections where, in order to convey emotion, reading it to check pauses and syntax was the best option.

The book has been really well received. It's been compared to writers like Coetzee and Ishiguro. What do you think about attitudes to sci-fi and much as you may like those authors, do you feel you need those types of comparisons to find a wider fanbase?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Ha ha.

...some people are snarky about the fact that I love every sort of literatureSorry. So, yes, those are lovely comparisons. Barking, but lovely. I don't know. I know that some people are snarky about the fact that I love every sort of literature - legitimately, I couldn't give a toss about genre if it's well-written - and I read a lot of everything. My three favourite novels of 2012, one was loosely crime, one was loosely literary fiction, one was loosely SF. (Hawthorn & Child, NW, Jack Glass, if you must know.)

So there we go: I like the concept of loosely. I like novels that steal from genre, or couldn't give a fig what genre they are in the first place. Write from story and character, and the rest will probably come.

Some writers like to focus on one specific genre: they write that, they read that, they think nothing but that, and that's great. I don't think that'd work for me, though.

You write computer games as well. Can you tell us what you're working on at the moment and why you think so many authors are turning to writing stories for computer games?

Bluntly, there's a fair chance that more people will play a game I've written than will ever read one of my novelsI can't tell you my last couple of things, I'm afraid: that industry is NDA'd up the wazoo. However, I think it's an interesting medium to tell stories in. Simple as that. It's a tough industry - you still aren't the arbiter of a narrative, and you're reliant on so many other forces it's like the early days of film, still (see: Hitchcock's process with writers), but it's thrilling to see somebody playing what you've written.

And you reach audiences. Bluntly, there's a fair chance that more people will play a game I've written than will ever read one of my novels. Sad but true fact.

Keep everything. Be brutal. Cut everything.Writers often find they don't have the time to write. How do you get so much work done? What is your secret and what is the key to being a motivated writer?

Write every day. Write even when you don't want to. Keep everything. Be brutal. Cut everything. Editing shouldn't be editing; it should be rewriting. Remember: you love this, and it's important to you, so why the hell would you ever do anything else?

My secret is that this has been my dream, and I don't want to fuck it up. So I work hard.

Who are your favourite sci fi authors and what do you like about the genre?

I love Adam Roberts, recently. I'm going back through his back catalogue after Jack Glass, and I think he's amazing. I love Iain Banks, I love Vonnegut, I love Bradbury, I love Atwood, I love Bester, I love Mieville, I love Jensen, I love Gibson, I love Beukes.

I like stories that give me something that makes me think. That's it. SF can touch a very specific section of that, as well: it can make me wonder What if?, which I love.

...some people simply can't understand why I read SFHow can we approach breaking down so-called genre snobbery?

We can't. That's brutal, but we can't. I wish we could, but some people simply can't understand why I read SF, and some can't understand why I read literary fiction. If I could beg something, it would be that every writer read more outside their genre. If they read writing rather than perceptions of genre, they might really push themselves.

I can't fathom why, for example, we all - writers, readers, whoever - wouldn't at least try and read Mantel's Booker winning novels. She's won two now; they must be pretty good, right? Try them. Why the hell not?

What have you got to lose?

(That's my attitude, at least. I am aware it isn't one that everybody shares.)

Tell us about The Testimony. It's feels very different to The Explorer and like an episode of Black Mirror.

Yes. That's a very nice comparison to make! It's weirder than The Explorer, certainly. I wanted to write something that made readers question their own place in the universe, which is a ridiculous thing to try and do. Better writers than I might manage; instead, I wrote an apocalyptic thing that, I hope, does some things that haven't been really done before. 26 narrators, all explaining what happens when the entire planet hears what might be the voice of god, and we follow them as the world collapses. I love a high concept idea…

What can you tell us about the sequel to The Explorer.

Okay. So. It's set some time after the first. It is different, sort of. Mostly. It has some twists. It's probably - hopefully - not what you expect.

Oh, and maybe a bit of body horror. That's all I'll say.

What else are you working on?

I've got a novel called The Machine out in April. It's a very dark story about memories and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder - acronym ed.) and how far humans will go to regain their lives when they're taken away from them.

After that, Explorer II (which will have a proper title soon enough), and then next year a novel that doesn't have title - it's provisionally called K&R - which is about torture, addiction and lies. (It's not a comedy.)

Both of those are going through the editorial process right now…

What is the best book you've read recently?

Can I do a list? Because 2013 has been a stellar year for me so far. First Novel by Nicholas Royle, Gun Machine by Warren Ellis, The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, The Glass Republic by Tom Pollock, Oathbreaker's Shadow by Amy McCulloch, The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz, Adrift On The Sea Of Rains by Ian Sales. They're all totally stellar.

The Testimony (Blue Door)and The Explorer (Harper Voyager) are out now

James Smythe's website

Follow James on Twitter