Iain Allan Mills
Who are your favourite Scottish writers?
I’ve never really gotten over Alasdair Gray, Neil Miller Gunn, and Ian Hamilton Finlay.
What is your favourite Scottish novel or short story and why?
Lanark landed in my lap at the right time and hit hard – the dreamlike qualities reflected a lot of life’s processes at that time. I remember thinking, “If anyone ever asks me what my favourite book is I now know.”
What piece of writing of yours are you most proud of?
Relaxing Music for Dogs – I’m not very sure how enjoyable it is to read but it was the first time I started, held onto and finished a piece of writing. It was the first piece of writing that I wrote and the first piece of writing that was accepted for publication.
What is your 274 Miles story about?
Love, endurance, and parental alienation.
Tell us about your writing process.
I tend to need three things – a vivid dream, a memory of life lived, and a deadline. I build a process, narrative and structure around that. I now begin every piece with Hemmingway’s “start with something real” principle and then just type out what’s in the mind inspired by Kerouac’s “first thought best thought” principle to get something done, and then refine in my own time and space(s) until it feels like a circle is complete.
If you have one piece of writing advice, what would it be?
Finish it and begin again.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m writing some short stories with the London Writers Salon and reading some classics (Zola / Borges) to inform a novella – feels like natural progress from short stories.
How can readers connect with you and read your work?
Best place to find all and any work, and me, is Substack.