What's So Hard About Writing?

Hattie Crisell is on a mission to get our most-read authors, poets, journalists and screenwriters to spill their secrets. Following the success of her podcast In Writing and the book of the same name, Hattie sits down with Emma Jane Unsworth for an honest, uncensored conversation about the creative process behind Emma’s new novel, Slags. Hattie will also share the wisdom and wit she’s gathered from literary icons like David Nicholls, Maggie O’Farrell, Michael Rosen, and more.

Published in November 2024, Hattie’s book In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation uncovers the mysteries of the creative process, asking: Where do ideas come from? How do stories find their shape? What happens when confidence falters or the work fails – and what does success look like? The answers, gathered from interviews with our most-read writers, range from the thought-provoking to the hilarious. Taken as a whole, these inspiring interviews amount to an insider’s guide to the writing process: its disciplines and demands; its ecstasies and agonies; its coffees, word counts and publishing hurdles. Most of all, they reveal how it really feels to write and be read.

Emma Jane Unsworth is the acclaimed author of Animals and Adults. Her new novel, Slags, is a no-holds-barred, frank and heartfelt exploration of sisterhood, friendship and teenage obsession. Emma’s insights into her writing journey also feature in Hattie’s In Writing, adding a unique perspective to the art of storytelling.

Hattie Crisell is a freelance writer based in London. She is a contributing editor of Grazia magazine and her writing regularly appears in The Times, Telegraph, Elle, Vogue, and You among others. Since 2019 she has produced and hosted the podcast In Writing with Hattie Crisell, interviewing writers of all kinds in their studies. In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation was published in November 2024. Website / Instagram @hattiecrisell

‘This book is BRILLIANT. I stormed through it in one go. It’s one of the best books about writing I’ve ever read, and certainly the most reassuring.’ Stuart Heritage

‘[In Writing] is filled with so much accessible wisdom for writers, and is written in such an inspiring, energising way that I’ve found I’ve written more while reading it than I have in months. It’s given me my writing mojo back’ Jennie Godfrey, author of The List of Suspicious Things

Emma Jane Unsworth is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter. Her first novel, Animals, was adapted into a film, for which Unsworth wrote the screenplay. Her second, Adults, was a Sunday Times bestseller. She also writes for television and various magazines. Slags is her third novel. Instagram @emjaneunsworth

‘Her best yet – funny, gritty, delightfully feral and, as ever, painfully truthful’ Dolly Alderton

‘The strongest prose stylist of our age. Slags is so brilliant, warm and funny. Women are going to be extraordinarily grateful for her putting to the page the difficult stuff and making it funny. That’s her magic trick. Slags is the most distressing funny novel I’ve ever read, like I May Destroy You was the most distressing funny show I’ve seen. It’s a huge compliment because it takes such courage and clarity of vision – and there’s no other author in England who warrants it as Unsworth does’  Emma Forrest