Hello, welcome along to this week's writer's routine. We're chatting to Eleanor Shearer. Her new novel is River Sing Me Home. It tells the story of a mother desperately trying to find her children.

We talk about why her ancestors look over her writing, also why plotting is a very emotional thing for Eleanor.

And you can hear why she likes to start at the end.

What enables me to say, right, this is a novel and I can write it, is the ending.

Usually the ending image, sometimes right down to the literal last line that might not change that much between how it comes into my head and what it

ends up being on the page. But it's only when I've got an ending in mind that I think, and it feels

really satisfying that the idea of how this book is going to end. That's when I'll get started.

And I know friends who, because they've got that ending image in mind, they'd think, oh, I'll just write it then because it's in my head and I know what it's going to be. If I did that, I don't think I would ever finish my draft. When the going gets tough and you're in that middle third and you think it's the worst thing that anyone's ever written. The only thing that keeps me going is thinking I just really need to earn emotionally

that ending. I want to get to that ending. So that's why I can't write out of order. I just have to feel

like I'm making my way, sometimes crawling my way towards that ending that I want to reach so much.

There is more on the way, storytelling and lots more this week in a brand new writer's routine.

Yes, welcome along, it's writer's routine. My name's Dan Simpson. This is the show. If you're

new to the podcast, it does what it says on the tin.

We take a look through an author's working day to see how they get stuff done, to see how they take an idea, how they plan, their workspace, their workday and everything else that fills up the hours to give them the best chance of getting it down onto the page and fingers

crossed getting it published this week we're with eleanor shea her new novel is river sing me home

it's all about rachel set free in 1834 in the caribbean and her journey to find her children

who were sold taken and sold from her to many other plantations.

It's her fantastic journey to find them again.

We talk about heritage, about why it's so important to her.

Also why family trauma from hundreds of years ago still echoes through her mind today.

You can hear about the exhibition that she went to which gave her that very first kernel of an

idea so many years ago. We talk also about the small tricks that she uses to keep her writing

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