John Niven, author of 'Kill Your Friends' - Global bestseller discusses feeling ready to write, switching to screenplays, and choosing projects
Writer's Routine
Dan Simpson
4.9 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 7 August 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we're chatting to global bestseller John Niven. His breakthrough novel was the hit 'Kill Your Friends', a brutal takedown of his career in the 90's music industry. He went on to write the screenplay for the movie version too, starring Nicholas Hoult. John has published 10 novels, including 'The Second Coming', 'Straight White Male', and 'Kill 'Em All'. Also, he's written screenplays for more hit movies, co-writing 'How to Build a Girl', with Caitlin Moran.
His new novel is 'The Fathers', which tells the story of Dan and Jada, who meet in a busy maternity ward. One is a TV writer and first-time father, the one is a small-tme criminal having his 6th... ot 7th kid. When a tragedy throws them together, Jada sees the chance for one last get-rich-quick scheme.
We talk about picking projects, switching to screenplays, and why he's always got a novel on the go. You can hear how much he knows before he starts writing, and when the plot starts to become clear on the writing road trip. Also, we run through how he knows when he's ready to start writing again.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, welcome along to a brand new episode of writers' routine where this week we're |
| 0:12.9 | chatting to international bestseller John Niven. John is back with a brand new novel. It's called |
| 0:19.1 | The Fathers. We talk about dealing with the mid-afternoon slump. |
| 0:23.3 | Also, you can hear how his view of important work has changed over time. |
| 0:28.8 | I mean, in the early days, I've sort of got back 15, 20 years, I think of myself primarily as a novelist who had the odd sort of affair with dabbling |
| 0:39.2 | in movies. But now in terms of income and support in the family, the movies are the main |
| 0:44.2 | job, the screenwriting is the main gig. And the novel feels like a bit of an affair sort of sideline. |
| 0:50.2 | And we run through what he remembers to keep going. |
| 0:53.0 | Very good advice I received early on was don't get it right, get it written. So the whole thing I just, with the first draft, it's just blasting it down, you know. That's not too, I don't care about it. As I'm doing it, I think I'm doing the best job I can. But it's only that terrible part of the point. I hate the process |
| 1:11.0 | of reading book. I love writing |
| 1:12.7 | the first draft. It's probably the most fun. |
| 1:15.4 | But then reading it back |
| 1:17.0 | is often the most painful. |
| 1:18.7 | It's all on the way in a brand new writer's |
| 1:20.5 | routine with John Niven. |
| 1:46.6 | Yes. Welcome along to the show. My name's Dan Simpson, and this is Rice's routine. It's a day in the life of the most successful authors in the world. What do they do? How do they plan things out? How do they deal with every other thing that gets in the way of your creativity? That's really what it's about. It's not just having the plan. It's being flexible. How do you move and roll with all the |
| 1:53.1 | changes that no doubt come along? This week, we're with John Niven. As I say, international |
| 1:59.3 | bestseller. Breakthrough was Kill Your Friends, a satire of his experience in the music business. |
| 2:07.3 | He then wrote the screenplay for the movie, which came out a few years ago with Nicholas Holt in it. |
| 2:11.8 | He's published 10 novels along the way, including The Second Coming, straight white male, killer mall too, and yeah, writing screenplays |
| 2:20.4 | for TV and for movies at How to Build a Girl with Katlyn Moran, he co-wrote that. |
| 2:27.6 | The new novel is The Fathers. It's a black comedy all about Dan and Jader, fathers who meet |
... |
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