Catherine Chidgey

Can you tell us about your writing routine? How disciplined do you need to be? I’m disgustingly disciplined. When I’m in the generative phase of a novel – the painful, plodding, just-get-the-words-down phase – I work on it every day. I put in a couple of hours early each morning, before I take my daughter to school, and then I do a few more hours in the evening when I come home from teaching Creative Writing at the University of Waikato. Weekends too – often longer then. I set myself a daily word-count requirement – not a target but a requirement – and I have no option but to meet that. If I exceed it, do I slacken the pace a little the following day? Don’t be ridiculous. The counter is reset to zero each night. What drives me is the knowledge that I have far more ideas for books than I’ll ever be able to write, so I need to get as many of them down as possible in the time I have allotted to me.

Do you have any hacks or strategies to carve out time to write? Working early in the morning, as soon as I open my eyes, allows me to access a part of my brain that is still floating around in dreamland. My self-critical faculties aren’t quite switched on, meaning I can take more risks on the page, push the language and the story a bit harder than I might if the inner censor were fully awake.You live in

Cambridge – what do you love about living in a smaller town? I love the quiet. Where we previously lived, on my first day of sabbatical (i.e. writing time), they started digging up the road for a new subdivision. The windows were rattling. I cried.

What are your favourite aspects of writing or promoting a book? If I get the music right, I’m happy – I read my writing aloud to make sure it sounds the way I want. I love making contact with readers who connect with my work – there’s something special about reaching people I’d never otherwise meet.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received about creativity? I love the book on craft by Anne Lamott – Bird by Bird. It’s a necessary way for me to think about tackling a novel… just take it piece by feathery piece.

Who is your favourite character from your books and why? Tama Magpie – star of The Axeman’s Carnival (and, he argues, its true author) – is very real to me. As soon as I wrote the first lines of that book as him, he refused to shut up. I still catch myself wondering what he’s up to and who he’s offended.

To find out more about Catherine’s workshop and other events during Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival, held 8–10 May 2026 in Pae Tū Mōkai o Tauira Featherston, Wairarapa, visit booktown.org.nz.