For the past two years I’ve interviewed authors for a living, among the other bits of admin that constitute a nine-to-five. For the most part, it’s been as great as it sounds. After a decade of interviewing famously creative people with a brief to get a news line (a juicy bit of controversy or gossip), sitting and speaking to someone about their creative process has felt like sinking into a warm bath. I don’t always disclose that I’m also an author when I’m interviewing, I prefer to make myself as small as possible to listen better. But either way, I always end up with more than a few nuggets of advice from people who have been doing this often far longer than I have.

An hour-long conversation can warrant thousands of words of transcript, and an interview usually runs to about 1,500 words tops. In short: there’s plenty that doesn’t get published. Which is why I thought it might be fun to share some of that - particularly, the really nerdy, writing practice stuff - here. I hope you find it as fascinating as I do...