CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2021 – Interview with Ruth Ware

RUTH WARE is shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for her novel ONE BY ONE and in our third interview, we asked her a few questions about the novel and her writing.

How does it feel to be on the shortlist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger? 

It’s such an honour – I’ve never been up for a dagger before so I keep pinching myself!

If you could summarise ‘One by One’ in ten words, what would you say? 

A luxurious retreat in the French Alps ends in murder..

What’s your writing process – do you jump straight in, or plan and plot first and in which ways has lock-down affected your writing process, if at all? 

I always know the ending – I think with crime that’s pretty much essential in order to play straight with the reader and lay sufficient breadcrumbs for them to have a chance at figuring out the solution. I know some writers who jump in without knowing anything, but I would find that too nerve-racking. What if I set up a crime I couldn’t solve? The rest is up for grabs though; part of the fun of writing, for me, is finding out what happens along the way.

Lockdown was a creative disaster for me – mainly to do with having a house full of family, with kids needing constant feeding and help with homeschooling., but also the whole experience gave me a kind of creative paralysis. However I think my subconscious was working overtime while I wasn’t writing, because I’ve come out of lockdown full of ideas.

Which thriller writers do you most admire? 

So many! I could write an essay just on this alone – but limiting myself to just five… Daphne du Maurier, Erin Kelly, Steph Cha, Lisa Jewell, Riley Sager. That misses off a whole slew of writers I LOVE though.

What makes a killer thriller? 

I wish I knew! I feel like every book I have to try to rediscover how to write. I just try to give myself the task of giving the reader a reason to turn the page. I think if you do that, page after page, you won’t go far wrong.

^{Photo by Gemma Day}

The winner of the 2021 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award is announced on July 1st, stay tuned for the next shortlisted author interview with ROBERT GALBRAITH tomorrow.