Femi Kayode, author of 'Gaslight' - CWA nominated writer discusses writing through a Nigerian lens, chapter titles giving control, and being in the perfect place
Writer's Routine
Dan Simpson
4.9 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 8 December 2023
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Femi Kayode's debut 'Lightseekers' was a book of the month in many national newspapers, it was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award, and was a commercial success.
His follow up is 'Gaslight', it's the second in the Phillip Taiwo 'Whydunnit' series. Following the investigative psychologist who has been urgently called in to investigate the disappearance of the 'First Lady' of a Nigerian mega-church.
We discuss why he's interested in the why, rather than the who or what, also what he's learned from a varied life of work and studies all around the world. You can hear how his family take him leaving the home to write alone, also what he tells himself when he's struggling getting the draft done, and the boring fonts that keep him focused.
We chat about chapter titles, why he's perfectly happy with where he is right now, and what a Nigerian spin on crime fiction really means.
Support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine
Get 10% off Plottr at go.plottr.com/routine
@writerspod
writersroutine.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, welcome along to writers' routine. This week we're chatting to Femi Kiodi. His new novel is Gaslight. It's the second in the Philip Tywo, Why Done It Series. We chat about boring fonts that keep you focused, |
| 0:22.6 | also why he's not interested in finding out the who and the what. |
| 0:26.6 | And you can hear what he tells himself when he's struggling getting the draft done. |
| 0:30.9 | Don't put the pressure of the perfect sentence. |
| 0:33.5 | Don't put the pressure of the perfect word, you know. |
| 0:36.3 | I mean, I don't know when those things happen to forget the name of a main character that write, |
| 0:41.7 | you know who. |
| 0:43.5 | I'm going to be working, you know, because I truly truly believe that you cannot critique a blank page. |
| 0:50.1 | There is more with Femi Kodi in this week's Writers' Routine. |
| 1:03.9 | Yes, welcome along to the show. |
| 1:06.3 | This is Writers Routine, and my name's Dan Simpson. |
| 1:10.8 | Thank you so much for listening in and for following and sharing and subscribing and doing all of that. |
| 1:15.7 | This is a show where we take a look through an author's working day, where we try and help and steal, steal probably some secrets just to help us plan our day and our lives around trying |
| 1:23.7 | to get the book published. And in almost 300 episodes of this show, the biggest debate that we |
| 1:29.9 | have is whether you need to be a panzer or a plotter. What about you? Do you meticulously plot? Do you |
| 1:37.2 | outline? Do you know exactly where your story is going? Or do you make it up? Do you fly by the seat of your |
| 1:43.4 | pants? Well, if you're a pants, |
| 1:46.2 | here is something that might help. We are supported this week by the writing software |
| 1:50.7 | Plotter. And even though it's called Plotter, it works really well for Pancers too. It's got all |
| 1:56.4 | the tools on there to assist in taking the few ideas that you have and fleshing them out. It's like having a |
| 2:03.9 | notebook with you on your computer all the time, so it's always there, and it's a notebook that gives |
| 2:10.1 | you help because they've got proven plot templates from some of the best writers around, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
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.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.