Tag: how to write a novel

MIKE SHACKLE on the Importance of Notebooks (and ambition)

This month’s special guest Mike Shackle reveals how he knows when to start working on a project…

TRANSCRIPT

MARK: What’s the thing that makes you think you’re ready to start writing on a project?
MIKE: I have lists of ideas that I want to write that go back years. I write a Witchfinder, I write a Michael Dylan book. Right now it’s the Witchfinder. I should be writing a fantasy
for the next couple of months. It’s like a little production line, but I have all these notebooks everywhere with different things that I’m working on, just so I can keep the ideas straight in my head. With the books that I write, my ambitions, and what I want to write. I they push me on and they’re the devil on my back, but they’re also the cheerleader saying, you can do it.

LISTEN TO THE WHOLE PODCAST

Or watch it on Youtube…

Write, Damn It!

In a sort of podcast exchange scheme, I was delighted to be invited on Zoë Richards’ Write, Damn It! podcast (she, of course, came on my Creative Differences podcast last month).

We discuss self-publishing and the quirks of traditional publishing and… I also sound quite maudlin at points as I was in something of a low point when we recorded this as you’ll hear (though chatting with Zoë cheered me up no end). So if you want to hear me to sound a little bit like Marvin the Paranoid Android, then do check it out…

LISTEN TO THE WRITE, DAMN IT! PODCAST HERE

Episode 130 Author Confidential with Mark Stay – Write, Damn It! with Zoe Richards

Mark Stay got a part-time Christmas job at Waterstones in the 90s and, despite being working class and quite lippy, somehow ended up working in publishing for over 25 years. He  wrote in his spare time and sometimes those writings got turned into books and films, including the Witches of Woodville series from Simon & Schuster, and the 2023 Warner Bros. horror movie Unwelcome. Nautilus, the #1 Amazon Prime TV series, was based on his treatment.Mark was also co-presenter of the award-winning Bestseller Experiment podcast, which has inspired writers all over the world to finish and publish their books. Born in London, he lives in Kent with Youtube gardener and writer Claire Burgess and a declining assortment of retired chickens.You can find Mark here: https://markstaywrites.com/all-the-links/The Green Room can be found here: https://markstaywrites.com/the-green-room/And Creative Differences podcast can be found here: https://markstaywrites.com/the-creative-differences-podcast/His books: SF&F and horror: https://markstaywrites.com/books/ Robot Overlords, Gollancz, 2015The End of Magic, Unbound, 2019The End of Dragons, Unusually Tall Stories, 2024The End of Gods, Unusually Tall Stories, coming 2025The Crow Folk, The Witches of Woodville I, Simon & Schuster, 2021Babes in the Wood, The Witches of Woodville II, Simon & Schuster,  2021The Ghost of Ivy Barn,  The Witches of Woodville III, Simon & Schuster, 2022The Holly King,  The Witches of Woodville IV, Simon & Schuster, 2023The Corn Bride, The Witches of Woodville V, Simon & Schuster, coming 2025Film & TV:Robot Overlords, 2014, Tempo/BFI: https://markstaywrites.com/robot-overlords/Unwelcome, 2023, Warner Bros: https://markstaywrites.com/unwelcome/Nautilus, 2024, Moonriver, Disney, Amazon Prime and AMC (based on my treatment):  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15286302/ Support the showJoin me on Substack – here – for more insights into writing and being published, as well as mindset tips and tools. You can subscribe to get access to much more from me, including workshops and coaching.If you would like to show your love for the podcast, please consider buying me a coffee through BuyMeACoffee.com. This gives you an opportunity to make a small, one-off donation – you are not committed to regular payments. Making the podcast earns me no money, and in fact costs me a fair bit, but I do it for the love, and because I have such fun talking with wonderful authors. Even if you can't afford to buy me a coffee, simply letting me know that you love the podcast means a lot to me. Please take a moment to leave a star rating, write a review, or share the episode with others you know who will benefit from listening in, or you can tag me in social media when you share an episode that you love with your followers.My website is http://www.zoerichards.co.uk where you can discover how you can work with me, and you can find me on TwiX and Instagram as @zoerichardsukAnd finally my debut novel, Garden of Her Heart, is out now and you can buy your copy here.Happy writing, and may the wo…

And don’t forget, you can watch my Creative Differences interview with Zoë here…

Or…

LISTEN ON YOUR FAVOURITE PODCAST PROVIDER HERE

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

Episode 2 with LJ Shepherd

My special guest on the podcast this month is LJ Shepherd, author of the stunning debut novel The Trials of Lila Dalton. We discuss first lines and …

Episode 2 with LJ Shepherd

Join me live with author LJ SHEPHERD on Friday 20th September

Join me live with author LJ SHEPHERD on Friday 20th September.
LJ Shepherd is author of the stunning debut novel THE TRIALS OF LILA DALTON, which has…

Join me live with author LJ SHEPHERD on Friday 20th September

My Last Ever Episode of the Bestseller Experiment Podcast

Merry Christmas! That’s if you celebrate, if not then Happy Monday! Mondays have been ‘New Podcast Day’ for the last seven and a bit years, and today marks the release of my last ever episode of The Bestseller Experiment as co-presenter. Why am I leaving? I explain myself in full here. And rest assured that this isn’t the end of the podcast: Mr D will continue and it’s going to be amazing.

What will I be up to in the meantime? Well, stand by for an update in the New Year. Until then, here’s our special Christmas episode where I share some of my favourite moments, outtakes, and we get a visit from a very special elf…

The Very Entertaining Mike Gayle

Can’t think of a better author to wrap up 2023 on the Bestseller Experiment with than Mike Gayle. He’s celebrating 25 years of his amazing debut novel My Legendary Girlfriend and he’s got a new one out, A Song of Me and You. We chat about keeping warm in the winter (we’re middle aged writers, so this is relevant!), how to make unlikeable characters engaging, and the really important lesson he learned from being the agony uncle for the teen magazine Bliss in the 90s…

Jake Lamar Makes Words Sing

As if getting notes from an editor wasn’t stressful enough, this week’s podcast guest Jake Lamar recounts a time when he got his edit notes while recovering from a heart operation in an intensive care unit. He tells me that during recovery he found that writing was ‘Even more of a solace.’ And he’s right. Even as I’m typing this I’ve just had some notes come through on a project, and while it make me groan and think, ‘Here we go again…’ this thing we do is still better than spending a fortune commuting on a delayed train to an office that’s designed to grind me into submission. So I’ll take these notes on the chin and get on with it. It’s a privilege that I’m all too aware of.

We discuss all sorts in this week’s episode, including jazz, making your writing sing, and I recount that time I was in a minibus from London to Manchester with Joe Hill, Joe Abercrombie, Joanne Harris, Brandon Sanderson and more…

Soft Linkage with Graham Hurley

Soft Linkage sounds vaguely filthy (or that just might be my warped mind), but it’s a concept that the brilliant Graham Hurley — author of 49 books and counting — came up with when pitching his series of Second World War thrillers to his publisher. They naturally wanted a central character that the reader could follow through the war, but Graham wanted to tell the stories that fascinated him without having to shoehorn the same protagonist into every novel. And it really works. His latest novel, The Blood of Others, is well into the series but anyone could pick it up and if you love WWII thrillers you definitely should.

We also discuss the benefits of long publisher lunches, searching for the Titanic (yes, really) and writing in a genre you’re not a fan of. Full disclosure: I used to sell Graham’s books when I worked at Orion so there’s a little bit of nostalgia in here too. Enjoy!

Fight for your Rights with Fiona Valpy

A surprising number of traditionally-published authors don’t realise that their publisher only owns the rights to their novel for a set period of time. It’s usually five years, and yes there are caveats in contracts meaning that they can retain the rights for longer if the book is still “in print”, and print on demand technology can complicate this arrangement, but… there’s a good chance that one day you’ll get the rights back to your book. It happened recently with me and The End of Magic and opened the door for me to write a sequel.

Fiona Valpy discusses this and much more in this week’s episode of The Bestseller Experiment!

And in the extended version for Academy members and podcast Patrons, me and Mr D discuss reissuing books with new titles, why you should think of your books as lifetime assets, research when you can’t travel, and much more! If you want to support the podcast and keep us going click on this here link.