“The most fun you can have wit

“The most fun you can have with your clothes on” An interview with Paige Nick

Dominique Valente chats to Sunday Times humour columnist and bestselling author Paige Nick about writing, her collaborative choose your own adventure erotica novels, and why we should all laugh until Oros comes out of our noses, even when we aren’t drinking Oros …

“The most fun you can have wit

I chatted with SA Sunday Times columnist and copywriter, the hilariously funny Paige Nick, author of A Million Miles from Normal, This Way Up and the co-writer of a series of choose-your-own-adventure erotic novels; The Girl Walks in series: A Girl walks into a Bar, A Girl Walks into a Wedding, and coming soon, A Girl Walks into a Blind Date.

Did you always want to be a writer growing up?

I don’t have a particularly good memory of my childhood. But then to be honest I don’t have a particularly good memory of my adulthood so far either. But I do remember always loving books and reading, and I almost always knew I wanted to be in advertising.

Do you have a favourite book that you wrote — or is that like having a favourite child?

I have a bit of a soft spot for my first novel, A Million Miles from Normal, but I haven’t read it since I signed off the printer’s proofs in February 2010, and I’m sure if I had to read it now I would be horrified and I’d have to move to another planet out of sheer embarrassment.

They say writing a novel is like being pregnant and that the book becomes the author’s child in a way, would you say that is how it is for you?

My books keep me up at night, give me grey hairs and I worry about them constantly, so I guess you could say they’re exactly like ones babies.


Do you ever think of your characters as if they are real? Like, “Geez Stella would love this, or wow that would be awesome for Poppy”

Not quite like that, but all of the characters in whatever I’m working on at the time chatter away non-stop in my brain. I feel like a mental patient when I’m knee-deep in a book. And the only way to get them to shut up is to write down what they’re saying.

You’ve now taken the plunge to be a full-time writer, freelancing on the side — what has that been like and how do you manage your time?

Just over a year ago I quit my full-time job in advertising to freelance in advertising, but it’s really been full-time freelancing. So I’m still working in advertising five days a week, with my writing on the side. My ultimate goal is to create a better balance between the two. I’ll get there.

Tell us about your latest exciting (and very sexy) books?

It has been very exciting. My author friends, Sarah Lotz and Helen Moffett and I have written a series of choose-your-own-adventure erotic novels, which we managed to sell into twenty-one countries around the world. The first two books, A Girl Walks into a Bar, and A Girl Walks into a Wedding are already out, with the third book, A Girl Walks into a Blind Date, following in the second half of this year. They are sexy and really fun, and it’s been such a cool adventure so far.

Was it hard writing an erotic novel collaboratively?

Not at all, it was the most fun you can have with your clothes on in front of a computer. Both Sarah and Helen are such pros and all three of us are complete workaholics, so it was a pleasure and an honour to write with them. We also all have such different skills that we slotted together really well. PS: Sarah Lotz’ new novel called The Three just hit shelves, and is about to take the world by storm, even Steven King gave it a shout. I highly recommend it.

Since you wrote them do you find that you’re now seen as an authority of sex — a ‘sexpert?’

I’ve had a sex-themed column in the Sunday Times since 2010 and now the erotica, so I think it has perpetuated the myth.

Do you have a favourite word?

No, but I have a favourite unfavourite word. Graunch. I can’t stand it.

What’s your favourite part about being a writer?

I love all of it. I’m so lucky to have found a way to make a living doing something I can’t live without doing.

What’s your worst?

Tough one. I think it’s the public persona part. These days authors are expected to get up in public and talk about how they write, and that’s very unnatural for me. I’d much rather be off doing it.

Do you have a favourite author?

Jim Crace. His writing is lyrical and utterly enthralling. I discovered his novel Being Dead on the bookshelf at my parents’ very out of the way holiday house a few years ago. It was signed by the author, and nobody knows where it came from. I read it all night, finishing it at dawn. He’s a genius.

What’s the best advice for writing that you ever had?

It’s the most boring advice in the world. Just write. Even if you don’t know what to write, just write, every day, write.

What do you say to people who call your books chick-lit — or don’t you mind the label?

I’m not really bothered what people call my books (unless they call them crap, that bothers me a bit).

Humour is such a central theme in your writing — how important is humour to you in your life and work, and to the world in general?

I think life can be so complicated and serious and heartbreaking at times, particularly between the pages of newspapers, that it’s of utmost importance that we laugh often, loudly and until Oros comes out of our noses, even if we weren’t drinking Oros at the time.

Connect with Paige

Follow her on Twitter

Visit her website and blog A Million Miles from Normal