I’m in the depths of edits of THE END OF GODS and I’m loving it… Does that make me a weirdo?
Tag: fiction
Creative Differences is One Today
Creative Differences, the monthly podcast where I talk to writers about the little things that make a big difference to their writing process, is a year old today! It’s been such a treat to chat to authors, and to have writers and readers like your good selves joining us on the livestreams and asking such excellent questions of the guests.
If you’ve not dipped in, then there’s never a better time to start. I’ve interviewed bestselling and award-winning authors like Sarah Pinborough, Nadine Matheson, Gareth L Powell, Tracy Buchanan, Rowan Coleman and Nicola May, and debut authors and writers that I just really like. You can find them all on Youtube or on your favourite podcast provider…
Or you can watch them all on this Youtube playlist…
And there are bite-size clips here…
And if you’re a writer looking for guidance in this crazy world of publishing, then you can join me in the Green Room…
Twice a month, I run live sessions on Zoom where you can ask me questions about the craft of writing, your WIP, or the business of publishing. The sessions are fun and informal and chatty. You can send me questions in advance. They’ll be recorded live and saved on Kofi for exclusive access to Green Room supporters.
I’m running this via Kofi, where you can join by clicking on the Green Room membership tier for £20 a month. There’s no long term commitment. With Kofi, you can support for just a month, or for as long as you like.
My goal is to be able to give supporters advice that will make a real difference to their writing and career, because the way I see it: having worked in this industry as a salesperson, bookseller and author for over 30 years, I’ve made every mistake, so you don’t have to.
Thanks again to everyone who has supported the podcast by listening, sharing or leaving a rating/review with their podcast provider. It makes a huge difference!
Passive Aggressive or Punctuation?
A learned debate on the use of punctuation in messaging apps from the Creative Differences podcast, featuring contributions from professors Rowan Coleman and George Stay …
Or watch it on Youube…
GD Wright LIVE tonight, 28th August 2025
Join me LIVE tonight 8PM BST with GD Wright, bestselling author of Into the Fire, on the Creative Differences podcast where we discuss the little things that make a big difference to the creative process…
OR ON YOUTUBE…
Rowan Coleman: “I Was a Bit Grumpy…”
Special guest Rowan Coleman, bestselling author of Never Tear Us Apart, reveals how a research trip to Malta started with her being ‘a bit grumpy’ but resulted with her making a magical connection with the island…
TRANSCRIPT
MARK: You went to Malta to research this. So what’s your process when you go to a place to research? Do you have like a shopping list of things to do, or do you just step out the hotel and go, right, where do I go now?
ROWAN: I was a bit grumpy about it, actually. Because, believe it or not, because the island itself is… but it’s sort of tied up with my own feelings about my relationship with my father. And so I was like, well, I expect I’m just gonna hate it and it’s going to be rubbish and I won’t like it. But when I turned up, it was the opposite. I did actually feel weirdly, immediately connected to it. And my shopping list is… I don’t really have a specific set of things for this book, because I first visited before I started writing it, really. If I’ve written a book already, like with The Summer of Impossible Things, I knew that I wanted to get to various locations in Brooklyn. But for this book, I was just getting a sense of the island for the first time, and so I just let it lead me. And it’s very small. It’s about the size of the Isle of Wight. And so the first thing that drew me were the ancient temples, and there are many Mesolithic temples on the island that are absolutely magical and fascinating. And that kind of was like my my first step on a very organic journey into putting all the components of the book together.
Or watch it on Youtube…
Rowan Coleman: “I Forgive Myself…”
Special guest Rowan Coleman, bestselling author of Never Tear Us Apart, reveals how forgiveness has become part of her creative process…
TRANSCRIPT
MARK: What small thing has made a big difference to your creative process?
ROWAN: I think the thing that’s made the biggest difference to my creative process is forgiving myself. For not… Sometimes going quite slowly to sometimes just doing small bits at a time. I am a late diagnosed, unmedicated ADHD woman, and I used to think… I was convinced that I had a very strict writing regime and sat at my desk from 9 to 5, and wrote every day, and I didn’t realise that this was, in fact, not true until I took my kids with me to a book event when they were quite young. And I was saying this and I heard this laughter from the back of the hall, I was like, what? Why are you laughing, darling? “You don’t do that. All you do faff around all day on the internet.” (laughs) I thought, that is true. That is all I do. So now I sort of just think, well, if it’s not… if you can’t… you know, sometimes you have to write when you have to write because we all have multiple things that we’re juggling, you know, proper jobs and, teaching courses and all that stuff. And sometimes you just have to go, right. Well, this is my time to write, and I have to write, but if it’s… if I can’t be that disciplined, I just say, all right, well, it’s not happening today, but it will happen tomorrow. And you only write ten words. That’s fine, because that’s ten more words and you’ll add to it tomorrow. And I sort of just let myself off the hook and I don’t let myself feel shame about it anymore, which is a big part of growing up with neurodiversity. Undiagnosed neurodiversity particularly is kind of constantly feeling that you’re not trying hard enough. So I try to tell myself now that I am, in fact, trying hard enough, and it does somehow work out in the end. I don’t know how, but it does.
MARK: Yeah, I think the moral of the story is be kind to yourself and don’t invite your kids to book events.
ROWAN: I mean, I don’t know what’s worse: that one, or when they came when they were a little bit older and were sitting in the front row on Switches.
Or watch it on Youtube…
Rowan Coleman: What Would Charlotte Brontë Do? | Mark Stay’s Creative Differences Episode 12
Bestselling and award-winning author Rowan Coleman joined me to discuss her new book Never Tear Us Apart, revealing how a family photo inspired her to research in Malta, why she wrote her next book, The Good Boy, under a pen name, then there was something about quantum physics, and ultimately she asks the question we all want an answer to in any situation: What would Charlotte Brontë do? This was a really fun chat with tons of great advice for writers.
Or watch it on Youtube…
LINKS
ROWAN’S SUBSTACK ON QUANTUM PHYSICS
Bookmarked Interview
There are some fun questions (and answers!) in this Q&A that I did for that most-excellent thriller writer Max Elwood on his blog. To find out what book I think should be adapted as a movie, how I organise my bookshelves, and why I think Amazon is both the best and worst thing to happen to publishing, click on the image below…
What’s the Most Non-Writery Thing I Do?
I was delighted to be featured on the Author Interviews site for an all-new batch of questions. I reveal my favourite writing tools, the most non-writery thing I do, and my favourite scene from The Corn Bride and more. Click on my grinning mug below for the whole interview…
Nicola Whyte: Planning the Middle
Special guest Nicola Whyte, debut writer of 10 Marchfield Square, reveals how she plans the middle act of her novels to avoid overwriting…
Or watch it on Youtube…
TRANSCRIPT
MARK: What small thing has made a big difference to your creative process?
NICOLA: I think planning the middle, really. Because I used to plan the end and then, you know, your characters do their decisions, and then it would be like, hey, guess what? This 90,000 word novel is 130,000 words. And now I’m like; if I know the middle, it is much easier to stay on track. I think that’s probably the biggest change for me. I think in terms of, yeah, stopping me from going absolutely bananas. But also like a piece of information like… we talk about the German market: I was in a, a workshop with Imogen Cooper, and she said that if you translate a book into German, it adds almost a third onto the length of the book. When you consider translation costs, and paper costs, and ink costs and all the rest of it, it was like, whoa. Because up to that point I was like, it’s not that big a deal to cut some words, but actually, you realise in terms of making it appealing… So those two things together really focus me on not overwriting, not just enjoying myself forever and meandering off down wherever, and just keep me focused.
MARK: So yeah, yeah, I see that’s a very good point. The German editions of my books are quite chunky, but I just thought it was because they were a slightly smaller format. But that makes complete sense now. And when you when you talk about planning the middle… because for many people this is one of the most difficult parts, because the opening is all fun and games, the middle act is where you need to escalate and things have lots of consequences and sooner or later you have to tie these things up. How are you planning that middle?
NICOLA: So it’s that big shift. What’s the big change that is going to happen? That gear change. So when I’ve decided like what’s the big turning point, where everything sort of goes up a gear, once I know what that is, then it keeps me on track. And it means that my characters are never… You know, it’s like keeping the target in sight so they can’t veer off too much. You know, if you do what the characters want you to do, you will end up so far away from where you need to be. And editing for word count is probably one of the most painful versions of editing. When you’re trying to shave off 40,000 words and you’re going, ‘I can’t possibly!’ but you have to. Learning the hard way is also a very big motivator.
Mark Stay Writes 