This month’s special guest bestselling author Sarah Pinborough reveals a great tip for writing in 20-minute bursts…
TRANSCRIPT
MARK: What small thing has made a big difference to your creative process?
SARAH: Cocaine! Okay, that’s a joke. (laughs)
MARK: (laughs) You might have said that a little too quickly.
SARAH: What small things made a difference to my creative process. I mean, it’s not a small thing, but obviously… Oh, actually, I do have one for this! So I use the Freedom app. You know, which turns the internet off. And my friend Harriet Tyce… because I used to just turn it off for an hour and then dick around on my phone. Pointless. But she told me to do it… There’s that thing where you do it in 20 minute bursts. So you set it for 20 minutes, and then you work… because 20 minutes you can work for. And so three lots of 20 minutes, and you’ve done, like, nearly a thousand words. And it’s much more focused. So I do try and do these 20 minute bursts if I’m not feeling it. And that does help, you know. And also I’m not a great fan of the word count thing. You know, people say I must write 2500 words a day. I think it’s better to have a good thinking time.
MARK: Yeah, absolutely. That 20 minutes is that sort of Pomodoro timer.
SARAH: Yeah. That’s the word! Pomodoro. That’s it.
MARK: Are your first drafts usually quite tidy and well structured, or are you still making big changes?
NADINE: They are the opposite of tidy and well structured. I will say that structured in the sense that… I stick very closely to that three act structure. So they’re structured in that sense. But in terms of it being tidy: no, they’re so messy. But I always say there’s freedom in the mess because I know that with the second draft I’m going to be fixing things and rewriting and restructuring. So no, that first draft is not tidy. But what I will say, I said it the other day to someone was that what I’ve realized is that my… the first three chapters of my books, they are relatively unchanged from the first draft to what’s finally put on the shelf. They very rarely… I mean, I’ll say I’ve changed a little bit in the editing process, but fundamentally those chapters one, two and three, and if there’s a prologue, they’re pretty much how they are from the very first draft to the end.
… is more than a podcast. It’s rapidly become a sacred depository of rock history. Every week, musicians Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt speak to a legend of rock and it’s never dull. What’s great is that Gary and Guy have been there and done that and can talk with the greatest musicians as peers, but they’re also fans and remember to ask the geeky questions that we’ve always wanted the answers to. Their guests have included Nick Mason, Johnny Marr and Noel Gallagher, but in many ways it’s a bit like Desert Island Discs in that the episodes that feature artists that you’re less familiar with can be the most entertaining and will have you rushing to your music streamer to download everything they’ve done. This episode with The Anchoress is a case in point…
… comes from Joel Morris, one half of the brilliant Rule of Three podcast, and this offers a similar insight to the things we love and bring us comfort, but its remit goes beyond comedy and has included Raiders of the Lost Ark, Animal Crossing, Curvy Brides Boutique and The Hairy Bikers. And even if you don’t hold these things with the same affection as the guests you’ll always come away with a new appreciation for them. This is another good podcast for writers as Joel Morris has a gentle genius for breaking down why things work so well. I always learn something new.
… does exactly what it says on the tin. Hosted by writer and broadcaster, Matt Brown and Stephen Murray, senior lecturer at Teeside University, it celebrates all the weird and wonderful robots in film and TV history. From the glory of Maria in Metropolis, to Metal Mickey, and Tobor the Great, this will (eventually) cover them all. I was lucky enough to appear on a recent episode discussing Disney’s The Black Hole and that mind-bending ending with Maximilian…
When I last posted about my favourite podcasts, Film Stories was two episodes old. Now it’s established as one of the go-to pods for great tales of films somehow getting made (it’s really hard to get a film made… really, really hard) and celebrates them all. And the presenter Simon Brew also has occasional special episodes where he interviews filmmakers about their career so far. Here’s a recent one with m’colleague Jon Wright where I was delighted to get a fanboy mention…
A brilliantly simple concept: take the things we thing we know about and challenge those assumptions to reveal the deeper story. So far episodes have included The Donner Party, Tom Cruise on Oprah’s Couch, OJ Simpson’s Trial, Tonya Harding, and The Satanic Panic. A ton of research goes into each episode and it really shows. The only caveat for Brits: the presenters and guests use the word ‘like’ like a, like, comma, and it can, like, get a little, like, annoying… But if you can filter that out (and you should: get over yourself) it’s a really rewarding listen. This episode on Beanie Babies is a real treat…
One of the few podcasts I’m still listening to all these years later, and it’s still one of the best for writers of scripts out there. The big difference is that Craig Mazin has gone from being that guy who wrote comedies, to the uber genius who wrote Chernobyl and The Last of Us, and the insights that he and John August offer are simply unmissable. The episode I always point listeners to is this untypical solo show from Craig discussing theme. This actually changed the way I write and I’ve never looked back…
Honorable mentions…
I listen to Word in Your Ear every week, which features the wonderful Mark Ellen and David Hepworth discussing music. It can get a little too grumpy old men at times, but it’s always a good laugh. I’m catching up with the Richard Herring podcast, which is often filthy and hilarious. Films to be Buried With with Brett Goldstein is always thought-provoking and made me realise that the film character that I most relate to is Kevin from Time Bandits, and Adam Buxton still gets more of out of his guests that almost any other interviewer.
Oh, and of course there’s The Bestseller Experiment. We’re still going strong after six-and-a-half years and no sign of stopping. We’ve recently started adding more additional content for our supporters on Patreon and in the Academy, and it can be over half an hour of extra material per episode sometimes, and we also have over 130 Deep Dive episodes on subjects like marketing, writing blurbs, police procedurals, forensics, beta readers and much more, so if you want that good stuff then you can get your hands on it here.
Here’s a recent episode with the brilliant Delilah S Dawson…
And that’s that for the moment. My apologies to anyone I’ve missed out, especially if I’ve been a guest on your podcast… But why not bung a link in the comments and let’s get people listening…
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