Lisa Owens is a writer who quit her job as an editor at independent publisher Profile Books to study creative writing at the University of East Anglia. Her debut novel Not Working was published last year by Picador about a girl called Claire who quits her job to “find herself”. We talk about her writing process, the importance of writing down your observations, how to self-edit and how to go about getting your first book published. We also talk about the potential narcissism of only reading non-fiction and why it’s sometimes awkward introducing yourself as a writer at dinner parties. AND *that* annoying question: “so what do you do?” For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy