Hayley Doyle, author of 'Love, Almost' - West End actress turned writer talks about juggling life and work, overwriting, and playing with genre.
Writer's Routine
Dan Simpson
4.9 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 22 July 2021
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week we're chatting to Hayley Doyle! She's an actor who has starred in the West End, appearing in Mamma Mia and others. Recently, she's turned her hand to writing, publishing two novels, 'Never Saw You Coming' and her newest one, 'Love, Almost'.
It tells the story of Chloe, whose boyfriend of just 5 months dies, so to come to terms with things, she does all the many things they had planned to do together, alone. We talk about when she first had the idea for the story, how it came to her quickly and almost fully-formed. You can hear how she plays with what readers expect from genre fiction, giving them it but also pulling some surprises along the way.
We discuss how she juggles work, family and lockdown, and how things have radically changed over the last year. Also, how music helps her ideas, and how acting influences her writing. Hayley is a Liverpudlian, and we chat about how heritage affects the way you tell stories, and particularly why Scousers are so good at it!
You can get a copy of 'Love, Almost' here - https://amzn.to/3xXMEcz
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello morning, afternoon, evening. Welcome along to writers' routine. This week, we're chatting |
| 0:13.7 | to Haley Doyle. She's an actor and a Western star turned author who's just released her second book, |
| 0:24.0 | Love Almost. We talk about why her writing life is essentially just juggling, juggling lockdown, juggling family, and juggling anything else |
| 0:29.7 | that can be thrown up into the air. Also, you can hear why a risky late edition has been so well |
| 0:35.8 | received in the book. And we talk about overwriting. |
| 0:39.8 | How much control do you really have about doing a little bit too much? |
| 0:44.3 | I never think that what I'm writing won't get used. |
| 0:47.7 | I don't go into it thinking I've got to write this because I need to get it out of my system and then I'll delete it. |
| 0:53.4 | It's more that I write it and I think it's okay. |
| 0:57.1 | And then I'm like, ah, no. |
| 1:00.3 | Or then an editor will say, I really like that. |
| 1:03.0 | Can you save that for a different story? |
| 1:05.5 | There is more on the way with Haley Doyle in this week's writer's routine. |
| 1:16.8 | Music with Haley Doyle in this week's Writers' Routine. Yes, welcome along. It's Writers Routine. My name's Dan Simpson. Thanks for being there for |
| 1:22.2 | streaming, following, downloading, however you're listening. I really appreciate it. |
| 1:26.8 | This is the show where we take a look |
| 1:28.9 | inside an author's working day. And this week, it's Haley Doyle, actor, writer, scouser. We talk about |
| 1:37.6 | all three really, in some detail, how her acting life, starring in Mamma Mia on the West End, |
| 1:43.4 | influenced her writing. You can also hear |
| 1:46.2 | how she balances planning and plotting with her desire to be spontaneous. And on the scouse thing, |
| 1:55.0 | coming from Liverpool, I'm always fascinated by geography and by heritage and how that shapes |
| 1:59.7 | what character you have and also how you tell |
... |
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