This month’s special guest Tracy Buchanan reveals how her dog inspires her creativity…
TRANSCRIPT:
MARK: What small thing has made a big difference to your creative process?
TRACY: Oh, having a dog in my office. A small thing: it’s walks. I know that sounds really… Going out for walks when I get stuck on something or trying to come up with ideas. And that’s what my dog — my dog assistant is snoring at the moment — comes in. So that’s that is a small thing for me, because if I’m sat there and I cannot figure out this plot hole, if I go out into nature, walk around… It untangles. So I’d always recommend that to anyone: going out for walks.
Join me with bestselling author Sarah Pinborough on the livestream that looks at the little things that make a big difference to the creative process.
Sarah Pinborough is an award-winning and New York Times, Sunday Times, and internationally bestselling author and screenwriter who is published in over 30 territories worldwide. Having published more than 25 novels across various genres, her recent books include Behind Her Eyes, now a smash-hit Netflix limited series; 13 Minutes that’s she’s developing with Carnival/NBC, The Death House that she’s adapted herself for Compelling Pictures, and her most recent book Insomnia which she adapted herself and is now streaming on Paramount+ And she’s hilarious, wise and has a lovely dog called Ted. Do please join us live as you’ll have the opportunity to ask Sarah questions on the night (and just before her big America tour!).
It’s going to be so much fun. Put that date in your diaries now…
Tracy Buchanan is the bestselling author of the Dr Vanessa Marwood thrillers and she runs one of the best author groups on Facebook and is a brilliant advocate for authors.
We discuss: Which comes first: research or plot? If authors can still earn a living from writing Growing maggots for research purposes And much more!
Edit by Kai Newton Production assistance by Emily Stay Jingle by Dom Currie
My apologies for the quality of my mic for this episode. I had a dodgy connection and sound a wee bit toppy!
I had a great time talking to Tom Pepperdine about my writing process in great depth. This gets very nerdy, very quickly. This is an excellent podcast for writers, so do check out the backlist, too…
There are two authors named Mark Stay on Amazon and Goodreads. Which one am I?
TRANSCRIPT
Hello folks, I’m Mark Stay… Or am I?
If you pop on to Amazon or Goodreads you’ll see that there are two authors with the name Mark Stay. It’s not much bothered me before, but the other day I noticed that the other Mark Stay had a one-star review for their latest novel, On the Leaden Shore, and I thought I’d have a look and I discovered that the poor guy had received a not great review because he wasn’t me… That hardly seems fair on the other Mark, so, to be clear, this is me: if there’s magic and witches and, occasionally robots and spaceships, it’s probably me.
This other Mark is from the suburban Midwest of the USA and in his bio says he comes from a large religious family and he does seem to write about supernatural stuff, but from a Christian perspective. Here are his books…
Me? Well, I’m from London and no fan of religion so I guess that makes me the Anti-Mark Stay.
So, once again (and this time, demonstrated via the medium of these socks that my daughter bought me a few Christmases ago): dragons and wizards and shit: me.
Christian stuff: that’s the other Mark.
Me…
Not me…
Me…
Not me…
I hope that’s clear. Always read the author bio. And happy reading.
Join me with bestselling author Tracy Buchanan on the livestream that looks at the little things that make a big differences to writers.
Tracy writes gripping thrillers that delve into the darkest corners of family, psychology and forensic investigation. Her books explore secrets, lies and the dangerous choices people make when pushed to the edge.
And, as a child, she crafted stories using cut-outs from her mum’s Littlewoods catalogues! She also runs one of the best writers’ groups on Facebook and is a brilliant advocate for authors. It’s going to be a really lively one, so pop the date in your diaries now!
MARK: What’s the thing that makes you think that you’re ready to start writing on a project?
NADINE: Because I’m a planner; once I’ve done the plan. If I haven’t done a plan and I’m like, well, yeah, it’s like… if there’s no outline, then I wouldn’t be comfortable writing. Because I know what would happen. I would just get to 20,000 words and then that would be it. I’ll just be… I don’t know what I’m doing with the story. But, and I say, it doesn’t need to be a, you know, a beat by beat by beat outline of the whole story. But it’s a general one. And once I’ve got that in place: okay, now I’m ready to start writing,
MARK: It kind of occurs to me, that’s the point in the story where you need to start making serious choices, story choices that have consequences. You know, the first 20,000 words you’re introducing people, you’re having fun, setting everything up. And then it’s like: we can start making serious decisions now. So it’s kind of scary, isn’t it? You don’t know where you’re going.
NADINE: I think that’s exactly it. I’ve mentioned this for my own podcast recently, I was writing this book, and I had a character called Nick. I didn’t have a plan for it. And, you know, the beginning’s, you know, all the set ups, that’s all the fun stuff. But then I got Nick into… Nick got released from prison, and then he went home. Now he’s sitting in his dad’s house, sitting in his dad’s kitchen. And to this day, he’s still there cause I’m like… I don’t know what to do with you now. I don’t know what. I don’t know what to do. So to this day, Nick is still sitting in his dad’s kitchen.
MARK: What small thing has made a big difference to your creative process?
NADINE: What I do now… Before I just used to write my first draft — and it sounds like a big thing, but it’s not, it’s a small thing — I write the first draft, and then after that, then do the rewrite, brief re-structure, whatever. That’s the second draft. But now I don’t. I write up to act two, and then once I finish act two in the first draft, that’s when I start doing the rewrite. Because now I’m doing the rewrite, I have a clearer idea of how… I’ve fixed everything now, so I know exactly how that last third is going to finish. And I started doing that. I think with… I think I did it with The Kill List, and I think it was just a timing issue I had. Like, a personal time finishing, I thought, I’m not going to get this done if I wait to finish it. I thought, let me just start rewriting it now. When I did that, I thought, this is a better way for me to work. So that’s what I do now.
MARK: And when you get to that two thirds point, you just plough on and get straight through to the end.
NADINE: Yeah, because I’m not thinking… When I’m writing that first draft, I’m already thinking, well, I already know I need to change this now. I need to change this character, put it in a different location, or I’m just going to get rid of that subplot. I just know these things aren’t going to work. And by the time I’ve done the second draft, I’ve already done that. And then I said, that last third is… I can’t say seamless, but it’s a lot smoother. I’m not fixing things.
MARK: Yeah, it’s so weird because I’ve just done that myself actually. You know, I’m talking about trilogies being hard. I got about I was 80,000 words on this, and the ending is there, and I’m kind of thinking, hmmm… And then I’m writing, I thought, ‘Oh, that’s what this is about!’ So I’ve realised, actually, what it’s about. So I’ve had to go back and sort of, you know, make changes. And now the ending just feels so much… Not, like you say, not easier, but I know where I’m going now. I know I’m going to do it. Yeah.
NADINE: You have a much clearer… There’s no debris in your path. That’s the best way.
MARK: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s a lot less cluttered, isn’t it?
Nadine Matheson is the bestselling author of the DI Henley crime thrillers and presenter of the Conversation Podcast.
We Discuss:
Writing as a planner Nadine’s great tip for finishing first drafts Why not reading the small print was great for her career We have a fun rant about META and book piracy And much more!
Mark Stay Writes 