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Elizabeth Day talks Motherhood, Fertility, and Failure at UEA Live by Louise Collins On 27th October, UEA Live was joined by Journalist and podcast host, Elizabeth Day, in discussing her current projects and latest novel, Magpie. Day starts off by joking about the plot twist of the book, and the trouble she has explaining Magpie without spoiling it. Magpie is a psychological thriller focussing on a young woman, her partner, and their new obsessive lodger. The book has themes of motherhood, mental illness, fertility and what it means to be a woman. As a writer, Day only understands her themes once she’s finished writing, truly realising what interests her as she completes more books. One of her recurring themes is the idea of what constitutes mental illness, pointing out that we have a history of ‘othering’ mental illness. In explaining this, she says she “wanted to show how someone can live with a serious mental condition” whilst showing “a great deal of humanity” remains, especially considering how demonised mental illness can be in literature. Her writing has a focus on unreliable narrators, but it’s important to her that they’re always sympathetic. “We’re all unreliable narrators in our own mind,” Day claims, which is why she doesn’t
want to create unlikeable characters, Day is a journalist, hosts her podcast as it ignores the multifaceted nature of How to Fail with Elizabeth Day, and mankind. has several non-fiction books published. All these occupations link together for Day, like a mosaic, as her podcast explores the human condition which feeds into writing her characters. Her journalistic training helps her meet deadlines, and the broadcasting, she claims, “has just been a delightful present.” When describing her array of careers, she claims, her favourite of them all is writing books, as “I do genuinely feel most myself when I’m in the flow writing on my own.” When asked about her writing In giving advice to new writers, process, Day explains she is a very Day states, “the key to great writing is character-first novelist. Rather than authenticity.” If you’re trying to write drowning in post-its scribbled with like other people, you’re more likely to plot points, she had a sheet of paper fail than if you write as yourself from with character description and basic your experiences. Day emphasises setting points. It is more important for that your voice is unique, and you’re her to write into the voice of the char- best when being yourself. Whilst disacter and to understand them. Howev- cussing her podcast, and how it has er, with Magpie this was different. She inspired her in her own life, Day says, knew, at the start, what the themes of “talking about failure has an extraordithe novel were and what the major nary way of stripping back your preplot twist was going to be. By having tence and making you vulnerable and three characters set in one house, she honest.” After hearing this, I, for one, heightens the sense of claustrophobia know which podcast I’m listening to next. and oppression her narrators feel. As well as being a fiction novelist,
“the key to great writing is authenticity.”
Photo: Louise Collins
