Robert Whitlow, author of 'Guilty Until Innocent' - Suspense Thriller author discusses keeping characters fresh, being relaxed about getting the words done, and why the secret is consistency
Writer's Routine
Dan Simpson
4.9 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we're chatting to Robert Whitlow, prolific writer of over 20 bestselling novels. His new one is 'Guilty Until Innocent', a legal thriller that looks an an old case being reopened, and the two lawyers who have to prove the convicted's innocence against the odds.
His debut novel, 'The List', was adapted into a successful movie starring Malcolm McDowell. In fact, four of Robert's novels have been adapted for the big screen, and Robert still divides his time between writing and working as a local attorney. You can hear how he seperates his day, energy and creativity for that, and why he thinks the secret is to relax and be consistent... it's to discover your 'writing bio-rhythm'
Faith plays a huge part in Robert's work, and we figure out why that is, how organic it can ever be, and whether he's bothered about how a reader's opinion towards religion might change with his writing. It's led him to win the prestigious 'Christy Award for Contemporary Writing' in 2001. He reveals why he loves editing, how he wrestles characters back to his ideas, and why he needs a few drafts to really figure out who his protagonist is.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, welcome along to a brand new episode of writer's routine, where this week we're chatting to Robert Whitlow. |
| 0:15.9 | Robert has published more than 20 novels, mostly legal thrillers, which makes sense as he works as a part-time |
| 0:23.2 | lawyer. We talk about why he needs a few goes round, a couple of drafts to properly figure out his |
| 0:30.1 | main characters. Also, why he's really quite chilled about how he gets the words down. And you can |
| 0:37.3 | hear why the secret to writing |
| 0:39.3 | he thinks is figuring out how to do it best and simply being consistent with it. |
| 0:44.3 | I call it your writing biarrhythm. How much time in a day can you dedicate to the creative |
| 0:52.3 | process and really perform it at your highest level of capability? |
| 0:58.0 | Some folks can sit in there for hours, 10 hours, 8 hours, and just, you know, make it happen. |
| 1:07.0 | I learned pretty early on that I am pretty good for maybe two hours, two and a half, |
| 1:14.7 | and then I'm kind of done. |
| 1:17.4 | I can still work after that, but it seems like it has a tendency to get a little flatter. |
| 1:23.2 | It's all on the way in a brand new episode of writer's routine. |
| 1:33.7 | Music all on the way in a brand new episode of Writers Routine. Yes, welcome along to the show. |
| 1:36.7 | My name's Dan Simpson. |
| 1:37.7 | This is Writers Routine. |
| 1:38.8 | If you've never listened before, thank you for being there. |
| 1:41.9 | It's the podcast where we take a look inside an author's working day. If you're not following us and subscribed to our |
| 1:49.6 | substack channel yet, we're talking about seasonal novels. Where I am in the UK, |
| 1:57.1 | well, I actually spoke too soon because it's been raining all week, but like spring instantly sprung. |
| 2:03.7 | This glorious, 10 days of glorious sunshine appeared from nowhere, and it just really wanted me to consume, to walk through as many like springish novels as I could if that makes sense and that led us to thinking |
| 2:19.5 | about different seasonal novels so as soon as it turns to autumn is there something that you like |
... |
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