Mark Stay's Blog, page 8

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: Yeah, definitely.

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Published on April 08, 2025 05:16

Nadine Matheson on Messy First Drafts

This month’s special guest Nadine Matheson reveals the benefits of a messy first draft…

LISTEN TO THE WHOLE PODCAST

Or watch it on Youtube…

TRANSCRIPT

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.

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Published on April 07, 2025 07:41

Nadine Matheson on the Creative Differences Podcast

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!

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

LINKS

NADINE’S WEBSITE
THE KILL LIST
THE CONVERSATION WITH NADINE MATHESON PODCAST
NADINE’S HURRICANE BERYL VIDEO
NADINE’S INSTAGRAM (for sunrises!)

THE ATLANTIC ARTICLE ON META & BOOK PIRACY

THE APPLE NEWS EDITION OF THE SAME STORY

THE GREEN ROOM

INDIANA JONES AND THE GREAT CIRCLE
TOP CHEF
HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET
THE STUDIO
CLASSIC FM MOVIES

COME AND MEET MARK STAY IN APRIL 2025 AT:
MAIDENHEAD
LUTON
FORT AMHERST
BANBURY
SOUTHAMPTON
BEYOND THE BOOK FESTIVAL, BRIGHTON

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Published on April 05, 2025 12:36

Will META do the Write Thing?

META (who owns Facebook) has used pirated versions of my books and those of pretty much every author I know to train its artificial intelligence software. We need the government to step in and ensure that META will #DoTheWriteThing

If you want to help, there’s a petition you can sign here…

sign the peTition

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Published on April 03, 2025 01:53

This Writer’s Favourite Podcasts

Here are my favourite podcasts that inspire me as a writer…

LINKS

FILM STORIES WITH SIMON BREW: https://filmstories.co.uk/podcast-page/episodes/

SCRIPTNOTES – John August, Craig Mazin: https://johnaugust.com/scriptnotes

THE CONVERSATION WITH NADINE MATHESON: https://www.nadinematheson.com/events/23/the-conversation-with-nadine-matheson-podcast/

YOU’RE WRONG ABOUT – Sarah Marshall https://yourewrongabout.com/

SMERSH POD – John Rain https://shows.acast.com/smershpod

AUTHORIZED – Andrew Overbye and Hannah Blechman https://open.spotify.com/show/68YhhFLKW5m6ibJJDZ147M?si=4f46a841a4d74390

COMFORT BLANKET (SEE ALSO BE FUNNY OR DIE) – Joel Morris https://shows.acast.com/comfort-blanket

ROCKONTEURS – Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt https://www.anotherslice.com/rockonteurs

SCARRED FOR LIFE – Stephen Brotherstone and Dave Lawrence with presenter Andy Bush https://scarredforlifebooks.com/#podcast

FIFTY YEARS OF SHIT ROBOTS: Matt brown and Stephen Murray https://shows.acast.com/fifty-years-of-shit-robots

BESTSELLER EXPERIMENT https://bestsellerexperiment.com/podcasts/podcast-episodes/

MARK STAY’S CREATIVE DIFFERENCES https://markstaycreativedifferences.com/

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Published on April 02, 2025 04:20

Join me and Nadine Matheson on tonight’s Creative Differences Livestream

Join me live with bestselling crime author Nadine Matheson!

THURSDAY 27TH MARCH, 8PM GMT.

Nadine’s debut crime fiction novel, The Jigsaw Man, was won by HQ (HarperCollins) in a six-publisher auction. The best-selling ‘The Jigsaw Man’ was published in 2021, has been translated into fifteen languages and has been optioned for television. Nadine is also the presenter of The Conversation podcast, which for my money is one of the best British podcasts for author interviews. Nadine is a brilliant writer and really insightful on the craft and business of writing. You are not going to want to miss this one! Join us live and be part of the podcast.

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK

Or on Youtube…

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Published on March 27, 2025 03:30

Book Review: The Corn Bride by Mark Stay

Excitement filled the Emporium with the arrival of The Corn Bride by Mark Stay. Quickly followed by the usual scramble and squabble to see who would …

Book Review: The Corn Bride by Mark Stay

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Published on March 15, 2025 01:54

A Corn Bride Thank You

Thanks to all those readers who helped make the publication day of The Corn Bride so amazing! And would you be up for a spoiler livestream? Let me know below in the comments…