Great to get Gareth back on the podcast as so much has happened since we last had him on, but the thing I admire about him the most is his ability to stay positive in the social media sewer! He talks about that and more — including working with Peter F Hamilton, how starting a commercial thriller led him to writing his most personal book and how he wrote a book on writing almost by accident.
There’s also a fun coda to the episode as I read an extract from SC Gowland’s new book Delusions and Dragons in which there’s a cameo from two familiar shopkeepers called Mark. That delight comes at the 1:06:59 point here…
We regularly hear from people on the podcast who struggle to find time to write. I think this is because writing is romanticised as this thing where you shut yourself away from the world for an intense period of time, then emerge blinking into the sunlight with a perfectly formed novel.
Jesse Sutanto revealed her secret in this week’s Bestseller Experiment podcast: pure writing. That is, four 15-minute sessions dotted through the day where she doesn’t even stop to take a sip of water. Working this way she manages to finish a draft of a novel in two months. So if you’ve been struggling to make time then maybe give it a go… Even just one fifteen minute session a day could make all the difference.
The episode is a corker and Jesse is a delight. We also discuss writing about specifics that become universal, Terry Pratchett and Oprah Winfrey and much more. And in the extended edition for our Patreon supporters and Academy members I dig into world building. Bring your shovel and support the podcast here.
Suzie Edge has been a listener and supporter of the Bestseller Experiment podcast for many years, so it’s been such a joy seeing her rise to fame as an amazing TikTok star and a bestselling author. Her new book is Vital Organs, which delves (if that’s the right word) into history’s most extraordinary body parts. Suzie is great fun as always and regales us with some very icky historical stories and lets us know what it was like to release Mortal Monarchs, a book about dead royals, when real royals were actually dying!
And in the extended version for Academy members and podcast Patrons, Suzie answers listener questions on creating TikTok content that increases her following, balancing writing and social media, and much more! You can listen to that by becoming a supporter of the podcast here.
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.
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.
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…
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.
It’s not often we get authors on the podcast who get around to sorting their own merchandise, and it’s definitely a first when we get someone who has their own tie-in furniture and art! Damian Dibben is an extraordinary mix of author, screenwriter, actor and artist and he discusses it all in this week’s podcast.
Another first for this week’s pod is that Mr D has made a declaration to finish his non-fiction debut in 12 months’ time! I have genuinely no idea what it’s going to be, but that date is in the diary and I’ll be nudging him every week about it.
This week’s guest on the podcast was so easy to chat with for many reasons. We both write about the same time period in Britain (the Second World War), we’re both writing a series with recurring characters, and we’re both mildly obsessed with magazines. AJ’s was inspired by one, and I’ve got every issue of Empire because I’m a sad sod.
But I also really clicked with AJ when she was talking about the three things a writer needs. The spoiler’s in the title: Passion, patience and persistence. That last one is particularly necessary. Boy oh boy is it. There are so many times when I’ve come close to just giving up, Quite recently, actually. But I was chatting with an author friend who was feeling the same way and we soon realised that this is all we’re any bloody good at, so we’re going to stick with it. Things have got better since. A bit. There are glimmers of hope on the horizon! Hang in there, people. This too shall pass and all that…
Oh, and in the extended version for our subscribers we discuss writing emotional scenes, what happens at the London Book Fair, ageism in publishing, how to organise your book series bible (and I show you what the Witches of Woodville series bible looks like!). To support the podcast and get hundreds of hours of extra stuff pop along to Patreon here, or join the Bestseller Academy here.
This week’s guest is Antony Johnston who has written comics, script and novels and is also the creator of the comic that became the movie Atomic Blonde. He’s now got a new cosy crime series starting with the novel The Dog Sitter Detective. He’s had an extraordinary career. A phrase that Antony uses a couple of times is that he was in the ‘right place at the right time’ and that he benefitted from that serendipity. I don’t doubt that the timing of certain events put some wind in his sails, but in my experience I’ve found that you tend to make your own luck by working your buns off and Antony has worked very hard indeed, spotting trends and changes in the industry and reinventing himself in the manner of his heroes David Bowie and Neil Gaiman. That’s not to say that we live in meritocracy that automatically rewards hard work (far from it!), but in the creative industries you have to create in order to get noticed, and the more you create the more like you are to succeed. As Joe Abercombie put it in one of our early episodes, ‘The longer you dance naked in the rain, the more likely you are to be struck by lightning.’
And in the extended version for Academy members and podcast Patrons, Me and Mr D discuss reinvention and “flitting”, being an organised writer, how to make a short film and much more!
Mark Stay Writes 