Gaby Chiappe 3

Do you outline?

Oh God do I! Dialogue isn't so hard to get right. But structuring and outlining, it's a real uphill struggle for me. And up until even two or three years ago I kept thinking maybe I should stop working for a bit and go and actually learn formally how to structure things. I didn't because I couldn't – it was just impractical to stop working in order to learn something that I seemed to be learning on the job.

I sweat blood over it. I think it's really, really hard. And maybe it's just me, but I think it's the hardest thing, outlining. I tend to think in moments, almost like seeing tiny little clips of film in my head, tiny little moments that don't amount to story. But getting whatever is contained in those moments, whatever emotional charge is contained in those moments articulated in story terms, I do find really, really hard.

Years ago somebody said to me that at the end of the scene something must have changed or what's the point in having the scene? That actually scenes which just explore characters will never survive to final draft, not in television. And if you're going to have space to create texture you need to get your story moving. It's got to be so robust and moving so cleanly if you're going to get yourself any breathing space to have moments which feel like they're not just about driving the story forward.

What I'm saying, I think, is that once you get your story pushing really hard and happening really organically and easily and without lots of creaks and hokey moments that's when you find room to get a bit more texture in. Whereas I think a lot of writers can write sharp, good dialogue quite easily, it's the skeleton that you need. Why is the dialogue happening? What's the dialogue doing? Where's it taking you?

What's your writing routine?

The day looks for me like my children's school day. So they go to school in the morning and I work till I pick them up from school, three fifteen. And that's inevitably not enough time so I work in the evenings. And sometimes at weekends, although it's harder to get steam up at the weekend.

It's also good to have time when you switch off. You start something and rather than thinking "Today is my first day of draft one, I will do this," it's hard to keep your mind off the burden of the four or five drafts to come, and it's kind of overwhelming. So it's quite hard to switch off from that. And when it's going badly it's hard to switch off because you're panic-stricken and desperate to get it going right. And when it's going well it's hard to switch off because it's the biggest buzz when it's going well.

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