Will Dean: This Book Was Nerve-Wracking To Write

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands of the U.K. After studying law at the London School of Economics and working in London, he settled in rural Sweden where he built a wooden house in a vast forest, and it’s from this base that he compulsively reads and writes. His debut novel, Dark Pines, was selected for Zoe Ball’s book club on ITV, shortlisted for the National Book Award (U.K.), The Guardian’s Not the Booker prize, and was named a Telegraph book of the year. He is also the author of The Last One, First Born, The Last Thing to Burn, which was shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and The Chamber. Follow him on X (Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram.

Will Dean

In this interview, Will discusses the research that went into writing his new thriller novel, The Chamber, his advice for other writers, and more!

Name: Will Dean
Literary agent: Kate Burke at Blake Friedmann
Book title: The Chamber
Publisher: Emily Bestler/Atria/S&S
Release date: August 6, 2024
Genre/category: Thriller
Previous titles: The Last Thing to Burn, First Born, The Last One
Elevator pitch: And Then There Was None meets The Last Breath

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What prompted you to write this book?

I am fascinated by dynamics of trust and control. As soon as I discovered the hidden and extreme world of Saturation Diving, I knew I had to set a story inside a hyperbaric chamber. It’s a locked-room environment where the six expert divers can’t leave, even if they want to, even if there is a killer among them. Emergency decompression takes four days minimum. I wondered how the human psyche, no matter how calm and professional, would cope in those circumstances. I pondered how they could trust each other. And how, ultimately, they could trust themselves.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

From idea to publication usually takes 3-5 years. I start with an image that pops into my head, usually when I’m about to fall asleep (my most creative time). Here, I “saw” a face at a tiny porthole window, and I witnessed the helplessness in that diver’s eyes. Sat divers are like astronauts: completely unflappable. I took six months researching the myriad effects of pressure, of breathing “heliox” gas, of “bubble brain” (the long-term effects of sat diving). I enjoy reading extremely tense real-world stories, and realised this environment would have that Hitchcockian element of a ticking clock or bomb. This book was nerve-wracking to write.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

I researched many stories and first-hand accounts of life at pressure. Some were too gruesome to include in the book. It’s necessary to learn a lot—far too much, really—in order to intrinsically know what to include (without slowing down the pace). 90 percent of what I learned never made it into the final book, but I still needed to know about those things.

A few random learning moments: When you breathe a helium/oxygen mix, you can’t taste much. Sat divers often use hot sauce so they can enjoy their food. They all need good ears and sinuses in order to do the job. I thought divers would dread going down in the diving bell to work on the seabed, hundreds of feet beneath the surface, but the divers I read about looked forward to the freedom of it. This was usually the only time they got to stretch their legs and enjoy a sensation of space.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

Although I spend months, or years, visualizing a story before I write it, I don’t tend to write many notes (except for technical research). I learned this from On Wiring by Stephen King. He said, “I think the writer’s notebook is the best way to immortalize bad ideas.” By spending so much time imagining the key scenes and atmosphere, I have enough confidence to begin writing. But by not making notes the story form is relatively fluid as I put it down. This means I am often surprised by my own endings. I like it that way.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

Tension. An exploration of human psychology in extremis. And an understanding and appreciation of what these exceptional divers do each day. When I fly over the North Sea or the Gulf of Mexico, I look out of the airplane window at those seemingly empty waters and think about the brave women and men working hard on the seabed.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Read. Read well and read often. Read books written 50 years ago and read current bestsellers. Read outside of your genre, and outside of your comfort zone. A tennis player gets better by playing superior opponents. A writer improves by reading exceptional authors.

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