Writing Rubbish by Jess Butterworth

A few months ago I attended Martin Creed’s art exhibition: What You Find, held at Hauser and Wirth in Somerset.

The things that really stayed with me afterwards were the sculptures created from the rubbish he discarded during the process of creation for a piece of art. For example, there was a tower formed from a tissue roll inner tube, a jar of pasta sauce and a tin full of coffee grinds, amongst other items.

You can see some of his work here: Martin Creed Hauser and Wirth 

This got me thinking. What would the pile of rubbish look like for my first novel and what story would it tell? There would definitely be hundreds of used teabags,

pens that have run out of ink and pages of scribble that I’d already typed up.

I know in a period of many deadlines during my MA, where I began Running on the Roof of the World, my rubbish would have consisted mainly of chocolate wrappers, jars once containing oats, and banana skins. And of course there would be the boring, universal stuff like toilet rolls, but mixed within it would be hints of research adventures such as bus, train and event tickets. The little things that make it unique.  

 

Book Two took me less time so the piles would be smaller. It would reflect my geographical move from Somerset to Seattle and there would probably be more coffee grinds than teabags. 

Mainly though, I thought this was an interesting perspective to look at a piece of art from. There is so much that goes into creative work that is unseen. 

What would your piles of writing rubbish be?

Jess Butterworth 

@j_t_butterworth (Twitter)

@jessbutterworthauthor (Facebook)