Hello and welcome along to a brand new episode of writer's routine.

This week we're chatting to Alex North, Sunday Times, New York Times bestseller.

And as I talk to you now, I imagine Robert De Niro and Michael Keaton

are busy turning his debut The Whisper Man into a blockbuster movie. He's got a new one out. It's

called The Man Made of Smoke. You can hear about the routine of the day and of the year and how

he fits in his writing around all the other things. I was always been used to kind of fitting stuff in here and there just in short bursts, you know, because I'll be working nine to five in a proper job doing where I couldn't write most of the time. So it was always finding these little spaces where I could fit writing in. And I suppose that's kind of where it comes from, kind of what I do what I do now. It's like, well, I've got exactly the same amount of time to write as I used to. So I might as well have a bit of a life and enjoy myself at the same time. I don't think I would get any more work done by sitting and working 9 to 5. I think I would just be very, very bored. Also, now with a film about his stuff being made,

how what does it feel to have an idea to write it in local cafes around Leeds

and then know it's being turned into a movie half the world away?

This sounds so ungrateful and so stupid, but I kind of don't feel that much in a way.

It's funny what you say about the rarity of it. And I sold the option

for the Whisper Man in 2018, so seven years ago. And they've renewed it a couple of times since.

And there's been screenplays that have been sent to me that, you know, it's gradually developed.

But you kind of just think to yourself, well, and that's just not going to happen, you know, because they do this, they buy stuff and then stuff never gets made. You can only believe it when you eventually see it on the screen. So I kind of just, it's just been sort of pootling along in the background kind of thing without you thinking too much about it. You can hear loads more with Alex North in a brand new episode of writer's routine.

This week's episode is sponsored by Faber Academy, whose flagship course is back.

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