The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience

How #1 NY Times Bestselling Author Dennis Lehane Writes: Redux

Aug 30, 2024

35:53

NOTE: This is an updated replay of my amazing chat with #1 New York Times bestselling author and screenwriter-producer Dennis Lehane. His latest novel, Small Mercies, was an instant NY Times Bestseller named an Amazon Editors' pick for Best Books 2023. Stephen King said of the book “Small Mercies is thought-provoking, engaging, enraging, and can’t-put-it-down entertainment.” Enjoy!

New York Times bestselling author and screenwriter-producer, Dennis Lehane, spoke to me about what he learned from Clint Eastwood, working on "Mr. Mercedes" with David E. Kelley, and his new Apple TV+ show "Black Bird."

Dennis Lehane is the bestselling author of 13 novels including four adapted into films of the same name: 2003's Academy Award-winning film Mystic River, directed by Clint Eastwood; 2007's Gone Baby Gone; 2010's Shutter Island directed by Martin Scorsese, and 2016’s Live by Night directed by Ben Affleck.

His latest is the limited Apple TV+ series, Black Bird, described as a "...fascinating, ripped-from-the headlines story [and] true-crime drama..." based on the 2010 memoir by James Keene and Hillel Levin, “In With The Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer, and A Dangerous Bargain for Redemption."

"Jimmy Keene (Taron Egerton), cuts a deal with the FBI to enter maximum-security prison for the criminally insane and befriend a suspected serial killer, Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser)."

Black Bird premieres globally with the first two episodes on Friday, July 8, followed by one new episode weekly every Friday.

Lehane was a staff writer on the acclaimed HBO series "The Wire" and also worked as a writer-producer on HBO’s "Boardwalk Empire" the Netflix series, "Bloodline," and a writer and producer on the television adaptation of Stephen King’s "Mr. Mercedes."

[Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm]

[If you’re a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen]

In this file Dennis Lehane and I discussed:

Why he sucked at everything except writing and playing pool

How he landed a literary agent while parking cars

Dealing with impostor syndrome early on

Why he prefers screenwriting to novel writing today

Why narcissists have no place on a TV set

And a lot more!