Chris Hannan’s work as a playwright has been produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican (1991) and by Sir Peter Hall at the Old Vic in London (1997) as well as by the National Theatre of Scotland in its inaugural season (2006).

He often creates big central roles for women.  The Guardian hailed Elizabeth Gordon Quinn as a “monstrous and magnificent heroine”.

Four of his plays have had their world premiere at the prestigious Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, including Elizabeth Gordon Quinn and the award-winning Shining Souls. His 1990 play The Evil Doers was produced by the Bush Theatre in London and won numerous prizes including a Time Out Award, and in 2001/2 he was the Judith E. Wilson Visiting Fellow in Drama at the University of Cambridge.

In 2008 his first novel Missy was published in the UK and the US – so we thought we’d ask him about the process of creating it and his inspirations…

We always ask: are you a bookgeek?

I have known people a lot worse than me but yes, I guess so. I sometimes think of it as a shameful disease – it’s not entirely healthy, is it, the need to read EVERYTHING. It’s an addiction I try to control. I can stay out of bookstores for weeks on end.

Do you have an audience in mind when writing?

I did have an audience in mind when I wrote Missy – specific people – real people – friends – and not necessarily literary friends, just people I know. That’s partly because of the voice of Missy, she needed people to talk to, people she could be familiar with. I might change that mindset for the next book. Your job as a narrator is not to work out what people will like, it’s to take them with you wherever you need them to go. And readers do want to be taken beyond themselves. I know I do.

What’s best piece of writing advice you’ve heard?

This wasn’t given to me directly but Mark Ravenhill the Shopping and F****ing playwright always tells people he’s mentoring that when they hit a problem they will find the answer if they go back to the beginning of the story and look for it there.

Where doyou write?

I’ve just moved house and have set up office in a loft room. Got my first Mac. Gorgeous. A pleasure to turn it on. A pleasure to see it when you walk in the room.

Do you read reviews?

Yes. Obviously I want them to be good but whether they are or not they give you a lot of information you need if you’re trying to figure out what kind of book you have written. Does the book you have in your head marry up with reality – reviewers help you with that.

How different is the experience of writing a novel compared with writing a play?

Very different, I would say. Even dialogue is different. In a play the dialogue often has subtext – something going on beneath the lines which the actor is aware of and the audience only barely senses. Can there be subtext in novel dialogue?

How conscious were you of Western genre tropes and conventions, and did you set out to deliberately pervert some of them?

I wanted to write about the west as if there had never been any Westerns ever. I read tons of diaries and contemporary journals by people who were actually there so as I couldfind something different from all the Western dialogue I’d heard. When it came to Indians I was conscious of treating them as ordinary people getting on with their lives. I gave them motivations that were mainly economic. Nothing to do with nobility or love of their ancient traditions. Just simple motivations like we all have.

In his review, Simon A compared Missy to Deadwood. Are you a fan?

I began Missy before Deadwood came out and didn’t watch it until my publishers started to talk about it. But sure, I loved it.

What’s next after Missy?

I’m writing a new play for the Globe set in contemporary London and a second novel called Unearth. Can’t tell you much about it because I’ve still to discuss my insane idea with Clara Farmer (my publisher) and I feel she should be the first to know.

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