Ruth Ware is an international bestseller, who has just published her 7th crime thriller, 'The It Girl'.It tells the story of April, a vivacious, bright girl at the University of Oxford, who quickly draws a group of friends into her dazzling orbit. Until, one morning she is found dead. 10 years later, new information surfaces about the crime, and changes Hannah's life... her testimony was key to sending a man to prison. It means, one of her friends might have done killed 'The It Girl'.Ruth's books, 'The Lying Game', 'The Woman in Cabin 10', 'In a Dark, Dark Wood', 'The Death of Mrs Westaway', 'The Turn of the Key', and 'One by One' have all been huge bestsellers, and there's a lot of noise about her new novel.We discuss her move from YA to adult, crime fiction. Also why the hardest part of writing crime, is figuring out why someone will try to solve the mystery. You can hear how she gets through the tricky 30k word mark, and why her writing space is almost perfect.You can support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we chat to Sarah Pearse. Her debut novel, 'The Sanatorium', was the best selling debut fiction book of 2021. It was a New York Tiimes and Sunday Times bestseller, a Waterstones Thriller of the Month, and a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick.Her new one is called, 'The Retreat'. Set on an eco-wellness retreat on an island near Devon, it promises rest and relaxation, yet the locals believe it to have a cursed past. When a young woman is found murdered nearby, DS Elin Warner is called in to investigate.We chat about how her writing routine is slightly dictated by family, where she moves for inspiration, and how she changes scenes that she wrote in the first few days of an idea.You can hear how much she thinks about pacing and structure when writing genre, why her best thoughts come at night, and how she found moving from short stories to full on novels.This week's episode of the show is supported by 'Believe Me Not', the fantastic new novel by Natalie Chandler.Support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew White is a do-er. He's written factual pieces for BBC Countryfile magazine, Rail Britain, written AA Guidebooks, and runs the Walks Around Britain YouTube channel and presents its TV shows.During lockdown, Andrew found that there wasn't much call for long-form walks around the country, when everyone was told to stay inside, so found a new outlet for his creativity. He started coming up with plot-lines for his first novel. He came up with over 30 of them, and 'The Walker Mysteries' were born. The first is 'A New World', which sees DCI Charlotte Walker investigating a local mystery. We talk about how wrote a female character around 20 years younger than him, also why he chose to self-publish, and why he's currently writing 3 books at once.Also you can hear how technology really helps him as a dyslexic writer, how he spreads his creative energy across different things, and how far in the future he's thinking with these stories.Support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emma Bamford is a journalist and memoirist whose debut novel, 'Deep Water' is out right now. About a decade ago, Emma quit her job and escaped to Borneo with a complete stranger. She told this story in her memoirs, 'Casting Off' and 'Untie the Lines'. We talk about writing memoir: why other people want to read about your life, and how you keep records of adventures to write them later on.'Deep Water' tells the story of Jake and Virginie, who after a traumatising experience at sea, find sanctuary in a remote island... until the island starts to reveal more secrets than they know. We talk about the exact moment she had the idea for the story, how she reverse-engineered her scene breakdown, and how much the story changed whilst she was writing it.You can hear why she's moving house with a new office in mind, how challenging she found moving from writing memoirs to fiction, and what she does when the words aren't coming out.Support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Benjamin Wood has been shortlisted for the Costa First Novel award and the Commonwealth Book Prize, he's a CWA Gold Dagger nominee and a finalist for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year. He also lectures creative writing at King's College.His 4th novel is 'The Young Apprentice'. It looks at Charlie and Joyce, recently released from borstal and starting a new life as an architecture apprentice. Until a figure from Joyce's past creeps back into her world, trying to drag them back to their old criminal life. We talk about the separation between work and creativity, and how that's affected where he writes. Also why he uses longhand to get a different angle on a story, and what people learn in a creative writing lecture.This week's episode is sponsored by 'Waiting for Jetpacks', the new short story collection, by John Lockhart. Grab a copy here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Waiting-Jetpacks-John-Lockhart-ebook/dp/B08GM4SC68Support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mary Adkins is the author of critically acclaimed novels, 'Palm Beach', 'When You Read This', and 'Privilege'. She has used her experience of writing, publishing and also teaching, to become a writing coach. Her 'Book Incubator' programme looks to help you on the difficult journey to publishing. It uses how creative you are, how outgoing you are, and what your day is like, to plan the perfect method for your writing, and helps you write, revise and pitch your novel.We talk about why she sets up her writing space to make her think she's playing, not writing. Also how she discovered she's a morning person, and how she uses music to change her place and space. You can also hear the best tips and tricks she's learned as a writing mentor, including how to get to know your character, what to do with an initial idea, and why people find it so hard switching between writing and editing.You can support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Colette Dartford's debut, 'Learning to Speak American', was shortlisted for an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. She followed up this success with her second, 'An Unsuitable Marriage', was a Kindle bestseller for 18 months. For her new novel she's made an interesting decision. In August, she'll self-publish, 'The Mortification of Grace Wheeler'. She's done this to have more creative control over publishing, marketing and pricing, and is almost doing it as a one-book experiment. She gets deep into the reasons why she has done this, and there's some fantastic advice to help you make a similar choice.The novel is about Grace, in a marriage with a much older man, whose son leaves for University. She becomes an empty-nester, and in a bid for excitement, is drawn into an affair with terrible consequences. We talk about why she has stopped doing detailed summaries of characters, why all she needs to write is a quiet space and a laptop, and how much expert help she gets before sending the work off.Support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine!@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Janice Hallett career started as a magazine editor, journalist and speech writer. Her first feature film, Retreat, starred Cillian Murphy, Thandiwe Newton and Jamie Bell. She's written speeches for the Home Office, the Cabinet Office and many others. Her frustration at getting screenplays adapted for TV and film prompted her to start writing novels. What a decision.Her debut, 'The Appeal', has achieved phenomenal success. It's been shared widely online by book communities, sold lots of copies and was one of Sunday Times Crime Novels of 2021.It's a murder-mystery set in a tight-knit village community staging an amateur dramatic production, and is all told through emails and messages. We discuss why she set a book in this novel way, and how her career as a screenwriter helped with that.We talk about the moment she knew her book might be taking off, also why she works seven days a week, and how much she reverse-engineers a murder mystery. You can hear how she figured out who the killer was, how her characters mirror different parts of her personality, and about her newest novel, 'The Twyford Code'.You can support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Ellis started work as a lawyer, then ran his own business, and is now 5 books into his own crime series. It's all about Detective Frank Merlin, who investigates crimes during World War 2, a time in which committing crimes was relatively easy. His new book is 'Dead in the Water', which looks at how a mangled body found in the Thames and a missing piece of art are connected. We talk about how much he plans long-term for his characters, why he overwrites his first draft and how he goes about cutting it down. You can hear how he gets ideas for Frank's adventures, and why sometimes it's easier to let the characters take care of things themselves.You can support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jessica Payne had 3 failed attempts at getting published. It took a genre switch to finally get her book out there and on the shelves. Her debut is 'Make Me Disappear', about a woman so desperate to escape her sociopathic boyfriend, she's prepared to go to extreme lengths to get away.We talk about why she was so determined to get published, also how she balances a hectic work-life where her husband works 90 hour weeks, while she looks after her toddler and manages to write novels. You can hear how she got to know her characters, and how she keeps her creative time sacred.Jessica also hosts the #MomsWritersClub on Twitter, with lots of excellent writing and publication advice.You can support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.