Category: authors

Coming Soon on the Creative Differences Podcast: Mike Shackle!

Welcome to Mark Stay’s Creative Differences, a monthly livestream where I talk to writer friends about those little things that make a big difference to their craft and careers in the hope that we can give readers some insight to the creative process, and writers and other creative folk some practical advice that they can actually use!

For the next livestream recording on TUESDAY 19TH NOVEMBER, 2024, I’ll be talking to MIKE SHACKLE! Mike is the author of the LAST WAR fantasy trilogy and he writes crime thrillers as Michael Dylan. Originally from London, Mike Shackle has lived in Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, New York and Dubai before settling down with his family in Vancouver. In that time, he’s sold washing machines, cooked for royalty, designed a few logos, and made a lot of ads. Ideally, he’s happiest day dreaming over a cup of tea. I hope you can join us live!

you can listen to previous episodes here
OR WATCH THEM ON YOUTUBE

When Do You Know When You’re Ready to Start Writing a Novel? Zoë Richards

This month’s special guest Zoë Richards reveals what she needs to know before she can start a writing project…

TRANSCRIPT

MARK: What’s the thing that makes you think you’re ready to start writing on a project?

ZOË: The thing that makes me say, just go for it: I’ve got to know what the ending’s going to be. Once I know where this is going. And I think, again, that goes back to reports that I used to write. So what do I want out of this report? I want the execs to give me 3 million pounds for autism services. I have to say, spoiler alert, I never got 3 million pounds for autism services for children. It never, never happened. Great report, Zoë, the best we’ve ever seen. No, we haven’t got any money for you. Yeah, that didn’t work. However, the process worked of knowing that’s my ultimate aim, that I need them to know that that’s what we need, what’s going to get me there. And so it’s the same thing when I’m ready to write. Once I know where I’m going,

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE ON YOUR FAVOURITE PODCAST PROVIDER

Or watch the whole episode on Youtube…

Zoë Richards on the Creative Differences Podcast

Zoë is the author of Garden of Her Heart, and host of the podcast, Write Damn It! An experienced coach with more than 35 years working on mindset, Zoë shares a ton of practical advice for writers including how to deal with self-doubt and rejection.

WE DISCUSS…

How stand up comedy helped Zoë’s writing

How to rethink your attitude to resilience

Great tips for writing a synopsis

Writers’ flow and getting started each day

Building characters using their childhood trauma

How to get people to show up at book events, and much more…

LISTEN ON YOUR PREFERRED PODCAST PROVIDER HERE

LINKS

Some of the following are affiliate links and may earn me commission…

GARDEN OF HER HEART

WRITE, DAMN IT! PODCAST

ZOË’S WEBSITE

SLOW HORSES ON APPLE+

HISTORY HITS WITH DAN SNOW

THE EXAMINER

TIMESTALKER

AFTER THE STORM BY GD WRIGHT

THE MOON’S A BALLOON BY DAVID NIVEN

BOA: WHIPLASH

MY BOOKS

THE GREEN ROOM

ME IN CONVERSATION WITH BEN AARONOVITCH AT OXTED LIBRARY

Thanks to: Emily Stay for production assistance, Kai Newton for the edit & Dominic Currie for the jingle

I’m on the Publishing Rodeo podcast!

I was delighted to chat with Sunyi and Scott on the splendid Publishing Rodeo podcast. We focused on trying to be positive in what can be a challenging industry, and I discuss the contradictions of publishing by contradicting myself several times! Just do as I say, don’t do as I do…

S2 Ep34: Challenging Tradpub’s ‘Culture of Defeatism’

Speedy First Drafts with Rachel Lynch

I recorded this fun interview with bestselling author Rachel Lynch before I left the podcast at the end of 2023 (I think there’s one more in the vaults to be released!). We chat about how she can bang out a first draft in six weeks, writing gripping openings, making characters relatable, researching PTSD, writing about the super rich and a ton more…

The Tiny, Weird Obsessions of Writers with Julie Owen Moylan

There’s a lovely bit in this week’s Bestseller Experiment podcast with novelist Julie Owen Moylan where she talks about writers wanting approval, ‘We want to get our homework marked.’ And it’s true, we set out as writers with dreams of our work getting great reviews and being loved by all… But one of the lessons you learn as soon as people start reading your stuff is that you can’t please everyone. It’s a fool’s errand and you’re much better off writing to please yourself first. And that can start by leaning into what Julie calls her ‘tiny, weird obsessions’. These are the things that you think no one will get. The thoughts, jokes and peculiarities that you think are completely unique to you. And they probably are, but that doesn’t mean others won’t understand. Because all those strange little idiosyncrasies are your voice. That’s what makes you unique and will make you writing unlike any other. Some people won’t get it, but those who do will absolutely love it. Be true to yourself. Be weird.

Harriet Muncaster on the Bestseller Experiment: Creating Worlds

I saw a blog by a writer recently declaring that we should all aim for perfection. Their point being that once the book is out there, then you don’t have an opportunity to change it (which isn’t strictly true) and that we should all aim to make any book we write the best it possibly can be.

I agree that I want anything I write to be the best that I can do, but perfection…? Not sure it exists. And it can be the enemy of creativity, especially when you’re starting out. The idea of creating something as polished and perfect as your favourite author’s latest tome is intimidating at best, crippling at worst. Over time I’ve discovered that creating is a process of failing a little less each time. With each draft, each book, each script I’ve learned something that helped make the next one a little better. But it’s never perfect.

There’s a moment in this week’s interview with the brilliant Harriet Muncaster where she says she held off from starting a project because she wanted it to be perfect. Which meant for a long time she didn’t do anything at all. Then she eventually realised that, ‘If you don’t start something, then it never really develops.’ So if you’ve been putting off that novel, script, artwork, whatever, because you were worried that it wouldn’t be perfect then today’s the day to start it. It won’t be perfect. Nothing ever is. But as you work on it you will discover that it just might be better than you ever imagined.

Also in this week’s episode me and Mr D discuss being child-like and end up being very childish. And in the extended version I finally talk about my role in the Nautilus TV series and what’s happened at Disney+. You can listen to that by becoming a Chart Topper supporter here.

True Grit with Sarah Moorhead on the Bestseller Experiment

It was a delight to welcome back Sarah Moorhead to the Bestseller Experiment podcast this week. There’s a moment early on when she talks about creating great characters and how the ‘grit in the oyster makes the pearl’. I think the same can be said about Sarah who found herself in the perfect storm of her debut being launched in lockdown at the same time as she was dropped by her agent and publisher. There are few authors who could bounce back from that, and Sarah has done it brilliantly with her new novel The Treatment. Get inspired and have a listen/watch below and if you want more like that, there’s an extended version for podcast supporters where Sarah answers listener questions on resilience, self-belief, plotting, structure, why learning to write is like learning to drive and much more! You can get access to that and hundreds of hours of extra material by becoming a Chart Topper supporter of the podcast here.

Linwood Barclay Lie Maker

This is not to suggest that bestselling author Mr Barclay is a big fibber (The Lie Maker is the title of his latest thriller), but to be fair that’s what writers do for a living: make stuff up and pass it off as the truth. And Linwood Barclay gives us a ton of tips how to do that in this week’s episode of the podcast here…

This was a special episode for a few reasons. Not least that Mr D got to join me for the whole interview (he’s a big fan of Linwood), and that Linwood reveals all sorts of stuff about authors like Ross Macdonald and Stephen King, but we also get very excited about his Gerry Anderson Supercar model made by legendary film and TV model maker Martin Bower. If you want to skip straight to that bit (and you should because it’s a thing of beauty), it’s here…

Falling Between Genres: Teresa Driscoll on The Bestseller Experiment

Teresa Driscoll had a huge career change in 2017 when she switched from writing family dramas to thrillers with her novel I Am Watching You. She went from going out of contract and the potential end of her writing career, to selling a million copies. How did she manage that? With I Am Watching You she wrote a thriller, pure and simple (actually these things are never simple to write, but you know what I mean). She tells me in the interview that her family dramas were just a little too dark for readers of that genre, and not thriller-y enough to qualify for that genre. So she decided to go all-in with thrillers and started selling in big numbers. That’s not to say that writing a novel that offers everything that genre readers want will make it a guaranteed success, but it can certainly increase the odds.

My Witches of Woodville books fall between genres and categories. They’re not quite fantasy, not quite horror, and they’re not quite YA and that can make them tricky to sell. One of the most common comments I get on reviews is, “I don’t normally read stuff like this, but I really enjoyed it.” I’m fine with that, even if it means fewer sales, because they’re the books I wanted to write… But I’ve also embarked on a top secret project with another author that will be a thriller, pure and simple. We’re both hoping that this will give us the kind of success that authors like Teresa have enjoyed.

We also discuss why Teresa stopped watching TV for a year, perseverance, Dame Edna Everage, and owls. And in the extended version for podcast supporters I give tips on writing settings. If you want to support the podcast then click here and if you’re a chart topper supporter you’ll get access to hundreds of hours of extra writer-y goodness.