Vivian Dies Again is a time-loop mystery, in which our protagonist, Vivian, must solve her own murder to keep from being killed again, and again, and again.
How did you approach writing a time-loop narrative with so many different plot strands?
Haha, yes, it was hard! I’m a logic geek, and I planned this book meticulously on Excel spreadsheets. I didn’t start the action writing until I’d nailed down every piece of logic in every scene. I worked everything out down to the minute, to every last tiny clue or reveal, all mapped out over the different lifetimes.
Of course, once I started writing things went off-piste, as they always do. I just made sure I always updated my spreadsheet and looked at the knock-on effects, plotting out the sequences and ‘dependencies’ like I was writing a project plan.
Even with all that planning I wrote the book ‘wrong’ several times before I wrote it ‘right’. I’m really happy with how Vivian Dies Again ended up, but I’m sure there’s a more efficient way to write a book than this!
I can safely say the book is easier to read than it was to write.
We all know a Vivian, someone who is the life of the party but doesn’t quite realise that the party is winding down and everyone around her is settling into their domestic lives. She’s hilarious but maddening.
Where did that character come from, and do you love her or are you infuriated by her?
I LOVE her. But that’s because I don’t have to spend time with her.
I couldn’t have her as a friend. Irresponsibility sits better on a twenty-year-old than a forty-year-old: it gets less charming by the year.
In terms of where the character came from, I’m sheepish to tell you all my characters come a little bit from me. Not just the main characters, and whatever age or gender or background: I have a lot of different personalities in there(!), I steal from myself a lot. If I feel any hint of insecurity or pride or fear, I’m nicking it for a book, twisting or exaggerating it until it does something different and fits what I’m trying to do.
And like Viv, I notice that my life is increasingly different from my peers. I don’t have children or any caring responsibilities, beyond a (very needy) dog, and now I write for a living, I don’t even have a ‘proper’ job where I need to be at a certain place at a certain time. I look at friends, with their serious jobs and their schedules mapped out on family planners, in both fear and awe.
I should point out, in my defence, Viv and I might be similar in this, but we are very different in other ways. We differ in the extent of the partying, and I’m much more responsible than Viv. I don’t let anyone down, and I’m a lot less selfish.
But her heart’s in the right place, and she means well. She’d be fun on a night out, but I definitely wouldn’t lend her any money. Or trust her to feed my dog.
Jamie, the long-suffering, sleep-deprived waiter, is Vivian’s only ally and the only other character aware of the time loop.
Did you always plan on having someone else in the know, able to help Vivian unravel the mystery?
Jamie was initially born of necessity. As I started working through the logic of Viv dying again and again, I came across so many logical stumbling blocks. For example: if someone keeps murdering Viv, how is she not able to immediately identify who has killed her? It wouldn’t work.
So I decided I needed Viv to forget what happens each time, and start each loop afresh, with no memory. Which meant I needed to bring another character into the time loop, one who remembers, and who is able to bring Viv and the reader up to speed.
I came up with the idea of a reluctant stranger: someone Viv meets for the first time that day, who gets caught in the time loop with her and remembers details from the loops before, but, crucially never sees her die, so can’t identify the killer. I love their ‘mismatched buddy’ team, as the two have to work together to piece together the clues and forge a kind of friendship.
I really felt Jamie’s frustration, exhausted in the never-ending day he’s found himself in, and having to work with someone as maddening as Viv. Poor guy.
As well as being a compelling whodunnit, Vivian Dies Again is also very funny.
Did you have any comedic influences in mind whilst writing?
Nope! I had no comedic influences in mind because I didn’t originally intend the book to be a comedy. My aim had been to write a Serious Crime Novel, but when I sent a draft to my agent, she told me that wasn’t what I’d done, that I’d written a comedy. Again. (This isn’t the first time this has happened.)
So I sighed and leaned into my fate, fully embracing the humour now, and started stuffing the book with one-liners. I had a lot of fun wringing humour out of the complex relationship dynamics, dynamics that may be wryly relatable if you don’t come from a John Lewis advert family.
Comedy is an odd genre to write. It’s so subjective, and one person’s ‘hilarious’ is another person’s ‘meh’. It’s the one part of the craft I deliberately don’t study or think about, and it’s an instinctive thing. Things are either funny to me, or not, I don’t know why – if I make myself laugh with an extract, it’s a good sign, and it’s staying in!
In terms of general comedy influences, I’m probably most influenced by the comedy of awkwardness, of humour like Peep Show or Curb Your Enthusiasm. My favourite recent TV Comedy is Such Brave Girls. It’s bleak and dark and wonderful.
If you could give Vivian one piece of life advice, what would it be? And do you think she would take it?
I love this question!
I would tell her not to wear brand new and untested spike heels to a party where she’ll have to stand up for hours.
I would also tell her to stop buying dodgy diazepam off the internet, because you don’t know what they put in that stuff!
She would have walked away by now but, if she was still in earshot, I’d point out it’s rude to keep taking your housemate’s moisturiser. And maybe don’t sleep with other people’s husbands in the toilets at funerals…?
She definitely wouldn’t take this advice. Even though, deep down, she’d agree with it all.
