Hello and welcome along to a brand new episode of writers' routine. This week, we're joined by

A. F. Stedman, author of the best-selling Scandar series. Now, if you've walked past a bookshop, I imagine you'll have

seen these in the window. They are a children's fiction phenomenon, all about bloodthirsty

unicorns. And that's the point of the show, right? We hear the routines of all different

types of writer across ages, across genres. There is so much to

learn. We talk about why she gets her best stuff done in the morning, but struggles to

actually get up and do it. I'm not fan of an early morning, but I wish I was. So I tend to kind

of always aspirationally set my alarm much earlier than I actually end up getting up.

But normally I'm trying to start writing by sort of a nine to half nine, I would say,

which is not terrible, but ideally it would be earlier.

Because I'm quite good in the mornings.

I'm quite productive in the mornings.

I think I do some of my best creative work when I feel like there's a lot of time ahead of me in the day. So if I've got, I've got hours and hours. I don't find that demotivating. I find it motivating because I think I can get a lot's done today. Also, you can hear why experience can actually make things tougher. I find it hard. Like, I often tell children that I find writing hard

because I think they think I would find it easy

because I'm an author.

And I think it's weird because the more books you write

actually often the harder it gets.

Because you sort of, I'm at such an early stage

with drafting my adult novel

and I can already see all the work I have to do on it, even as I'm

drafting it. And there's nothing I can do to make it into what it will become at that first stage.

Like there's nothing I can do about it. And like, I think that I find that frustrating because I'm

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