Ava Glass, author of 'The Chase' - Thriller writer discusses unknown London, switching up timelines, and finding character through flashback

Writer's Routine

Dan Simpson

Arts, Books, Hobbies, Leisure

4.9 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2023

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ava Glass has worked with spies and understands the mechanics of their job. She has taken all that experience and written 'The Chase'. It's the first in the 'Alias Emma' series, and tells the story of a brand new spy, tasked with transporting a wanted Russian target across London in less than a day. The book has already been Amazon's Book of the Month, and is optioned for TV.

We talk about how the logistics of travelling quickly through a big city without being noticed became much clearer as she wrote. You can hear why a switch in timeframe saved the book for her, and why even though she wanted to treat it like a regular job, she had to mix things up.

You can heard how she got to know her character through flashbacks, why she plotted it very tightly for adrenaline, and how the idea all came on a frantic plane-ride.

Save 10% on writing software Plottr! Click here - go.plottr.com/routine

Support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine

@writerspod

writersroutine.co

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Ahoi, hello, welcome along to a brand new episode of writer's routine. This week we're chatting to Ava Glass. Her new book is the first of the Alias Emma series. It's called The Chase. We talked through why she wanted to treat writing
0:22.9	like a regular job, but then had to mix things up along the way. Also, it's always good to listen to
0:28.2	advice from Stephen King. And you can hear about the big switch-up that really helped her plan
0:34.5	her day around her writing. I write differently all the time. I used to write late at night.
0:39.3	I can't seem to do that anymore. At least not right now. My energy levels aren't the same.
0:43.3	I write really well in late afternoon.
0:46.3	And so I want to take advantage of that. So I block out my afternoons.
0:50.3	Nobody can schedule me an interview or an appointment appointment I won't go see my dentist during
0:56.9	those hours those are my writing times and I literally block them in my calendar because that's that's
1:02.4	going to compress my time and it just plays to my strengths so I say listen to Stephen King find your
1:09.2	time and trust it don't worry you don't have to write like anybody else writes.
1:13.6	If the best time for you is 2 in the morning until 6 in the morning and you don't mind that, amazing.
1:19.6	I wish that was me. I would love to do that. Find your time and write then.
1:23.6	There is more with Ava Glass in this week's Writers' Routine.
1:36.4	Yes, welcome along to the show.
1:37.5	My name's Dan Simpson.
1:42.5	This is Writers Routine, where we take a look through an author's working day and space to see how they plan everything out to give them
1:45.7	the best chance of getting their ideas into words, getting it down, and then hopefully
1:50.0	published. Now, this week's episode is brought to you by Plotter. I'm very excited that for a little
1:55.8	while Plotter are helping to power this show, just like they can power your writing. Plotter is a writing tool that
2:02.4	does what the title says. It plots. It helps you plan your books the way that you think. It lets you
2:08.8	outline faster, organize smarter, and turbocharge your productivity. Now, when you get the software
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dan Simpson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Dan Simpson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.