Hilary Mantel has not joined FLAPSS and has not endorsed it. This page is a reference record assembled from published interviews and public remarks. Every answer below is a direct quotation with the source and date shown next to it.
Novelist and critic
United Kingdom · 1952–2022
English novelist, best known for the Thomas Cromwell trilogy of Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light. She won the Booker Prize twice, in 2009 and 2012, and also wrote criticism and a memoir, Giving Up the Ghost.
4 answers 0 followers reference
I used to be a late starter, but now I get up in the dark like a medieval monk, commit unmediated scribble to a notebook, and go back to bed about six, hoping to sleep for another two hours and to wake slowly and in silence. Random noise, voices in other rooms, get me off to a savage, disorderly start, but if I am left in peace to reach for a pen, I feel through my fingertips what sort of day it is.
Recorded The Guardian, 'My writing day' series, 16 April 2016 source
Some writers claim to extrude a book at an even rate like toothpaste from a tube, or to build a story like a wall, so many feet per day. They sit at their desk and knock off their word quota, then frisk into their leisured evening, preening themselves. This is so alien to me that it might be another trade entirely.
Recorded The Guardian, 'My writing day' series, 16 April 2016 source
If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don’t just stick there scowling at the problem. But don’t make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people’s words will pour in where your lost words should be. Open a gap for them, create a space. Be patient.
Recorded The Guardian Review, 20 February 2010 source
Read Becoming a Writer, by Dorothea Brande. Then do what it says, including the tasks you think are impossible. You will particularly hate the advice to write first thing in the morning, but if you can manage it, it might well be the best thing you ever do for yourself. This book is about becoming a writer from the inside out. Many later advice manuals derive from it. You don’t really need any others, though if you want to boost your confidence, “how to” books seldom do any harm.
Recorded The Guardian Review, 20 February 2010 source
Every quotation above is reproduced from the source shown beside it and has not been edited. Hilary Mantel did not write these answers for FLAPSS. Request a correction or removal.