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!
Towards the end of my interview with Freya Berry, author of The Dictator’s Wife and The Birdcage Library, I do my usual thing of asking what’s coming next. Her reply was to say that while developing ideas for her third book it occurred to that it might be the most challenging one of all. An author’s first book is about simply seeing if you can get to the end, which is a huge achievement. The second book is to prove that the first one wasn’t a fluke, and so with the third book she is “trying to be ambitious” as she develops her ideas. And she’s right to think that. It’s hard enough to get one book published, but few authors get beyond three books, particularly in when working in traditional publishing, and those that sustain a career do so by continuing to surprise and delight their readers. Yes, there are authors who have great careers by seemingly writing the same book over and over (naming no names, but there are some very formulaic books out there), but as AI threatens the livelihoods of writers everywhere, I think that style of cookie cutter fiction won’t be enough to appeal to readers. A writers’ voice needs to develop and grow over time and a reader will join them on that journey. In the podcast I give the example of Terry Pratchett, whose Discworld books started as brilliant and funny parodies of the fantasy genre, but as the series continued his themes and characters deepened and became their own thing the parody elements fell by the wayside. His voice is what we kept coming back for and AI might try to parody that, but it will never truly have a voice of its down.
I had a bit of revelation while recording this week’s podcast. As is traditional, me and Mr D discuss the interview with our guests — this week it’s the brilliant duo of Heide Goody and Iain Grant — and at one point Heide brings up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a theory of human motivation and is often represented as a pyramid, with our most essential needs at the bottom, rising up to self-actualisation and transcendence…
Heide told me how she and Iain would use this in their writing to help develop their characters’ needs and wants. My little revelation came in my post-interview chat with Mr D when it occurred to me that the bottom layers of the pyramid — the basics of survival: food, water, health, security, safety — are the stakes that we find in good genre fiction. Then a little further up we find belonging, love and esteem, which is what we love about romance novels and contemporary fiction. Then above that are the things that we associate with finding meaning in life: cognitive needs and higher planes of existence and all the kind of self-indulgent stuff that bores us in literary fiction (insert smiley face)… So my tip for you writers is if you want to appeal to as many readers as possible, then go for that lower half of the pyramid.
Of course we discuss much more, including the essential elements of cozy crime and how being a writer opens doors that are usually shut. In the extended version for our Patrons Mr and Mr D offer tips for co-writing. If you want to support the podcast and get loads of extra material like this you can do so by clicking here.
There comes a point in this week’s interview with Katherine Faulkner, author of excellent domestic thrillers like Greenwich Park and The Other Mothers, where she talks about making changes to her British prose for the American market: replacing pavements with sidewalks, trousers with pants etc. This is a commonplace practise now, particularly in the commercial thriller genre, but it does wind me up that this is very much a one-way street. Growing up, I devoured all kinds of American culture, including the likes of Stephen King and Mad Magazine which were stuffed with Americanisms. If I didn’t get a joke about Spiro Agnew (Mad were always making fun of this guy) then I had to find out for myself who he was. This usually meant asking my parents or going to the library. It opened my mind to a new culture and I learned a lot. So why is it that publishers and agents don’t think that the good folk of the United States can’t cope with pavements, nappies, biscuits and other Britishisms? I’ve got lots of American friends, and I’ve been there a couple of times, and the people I met were smart and curious about the world. I’m fairly sure they could cope with a few words outside of their own experience. I know authors fear getting one star reviews from people who can’t cope with the word ‘colour’ spelled with a U (I saw one such example just the other day), but I think living in fear of folk who are so blinkered isn’t exactly the artistic ideal we should be striving for.
When it came to writing Back to Reality, me and Mr D agreed to not make any such changes, but instead we would have a glossary in the back explaining what some of the stranger terms meant (including Colin the Caterpillar Cake and a Cheeky Nando’s) and we’ve never had any complaints. And I’ve just published the Witches of Woodville books in the US on Kindle and I’ve not changed a word. No puzzled readers yet. Mind you, my stuff has never been big in the US, so maybe that’s why? It’s possible that I might be working on a thriller with another writer late this year and I’m sure this will come up, so watch this space. In the meantime, enjoy this interview with Katherine. And in the extended version, me and Mr D discuss keeping the reader in the forefront of your mind and I offer a few tips for editing your first draft.
There’s a point in this week’s podcast where it all clicked for me. Katie Fforde — the multi-million selling “Godmother of Romance” — was telling me how she would read Mills & Boon romance novels on the sly when she was supposed to be working. What she understood was that books can be addictive and that if you want readers you have to feed that addiction. It’s what we mean when we talk about keeping the reader on the hook, and it’s an important lesson to learn.
There’s tons more, including tips for finding time to write around a busy life. And in the extended version, Me and Mr D go to town on celebrity authors and I give tips for writing historical fiction. To hear that, you just need to support the podcast. We’ve got over 130 Deep Dives exclusive to our Chart Topper supporters here!
JD Kirk (real name Barry Hutchison) is a phenomenal writer, having written over 200 books in a little over ten years. Many of these were children’s books, which would be shorter than a regular novel, but they all have a beginning, middle and end and anyone who tells you writing kids’ books is easy is a liar. You learn how to write by doing it, and you’ll learn even more by finishing something, and if you finish over two hundred of the bloody things you’ll learn an awful lot about story, character, structure, theme and how they’re all intertwined. It’s that ten thousand hours theory on steroids. Barry was a real treat to talk with and his tales of naysayer teachers, and getting inspired by librarians and the legendary Iain Banks will hopefully inspire you, too…
In the extended version, me and Mr D discuss the secret to writing crime fiction (actually, a secret that applies to any genre), dealing with publishers and something called The Unicorn Compromise. To hear this and hundreds of hours of bonus material you can support the podcast here.
Mark Stay Writes 