Sarah Alderson, writer of 'The Stalker' - Author and screenwriter talks about writing for TV, strategic thinking, and the 10-day drafts
Writer's Routine
Dan Simpson
4.9 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2022
⏱️ 39 minutes
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Summary
Sarah Alderson is busy. Busy, busy, busy. So busy, she takes a break from her writing job to write the novels she loves. Sarah works as a screenwriter in LA for S.W.A.T on CBS, and finds tiny slithers of time to get books down. In the past, this has led her to getting a draft done in 10 days.
She's written YA, psychological thrillers, her novel 'The Weekend Away' has been adapted for Netflix, published romance stories under a pseudonym, and her new novel 'The Stalker', is out now. It's about newlyweds Liam and Laura, honeymooning on a secluded island, who realise quickly... they aren't as alone as they thought.
We talk about the quotes that help her carry on, also why she escaped the world to start her writing career, and why she's become strategic in her plotting in order to get stuff done quickly. You can hear about life in a bustling, competitive L.A writer's room, why she started planning after 10 novels of pantsing, and why she's begun saying no.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, welcome along. It's a brand new episode of writers' routine this week chatting to Sarah Alderson about her new novel, The Stalker. |
| 0:17.7 | Now, Sarah is busy. Busy, busy, busy, busy working on novels and working as a |
| 0:22.9 | screenwriter for Tully in LA, too. We talk about how she makes time for novel writing and amongst |
| 0:29.4 | all the other writing that she finds herself doing. Also, how her ideas come from circumstance |
| 0:35.4 | rather than outright inspiration and her favourite thing about |
| 0:40.5 | the way that she thinks. |
| 0:42.0 | Not having that feeling of, oh, not good enough is, or perfectionism just is, is so |
| 0:49.2 | unhelpful if you're trying to write. |
| 0:51.1 | Like, I think it stops a lot of people from pursuing their dreams. And I'm |
| 0:56.6 | very lucky I'm not a perfectionist. I think it's a great, great asset in the industry I'm in, |
| 1:03.4 | because it means that I don't get caught up in my head. Stick around. It's a suitably busy one |
| 1:08.5 | this week with Sarah Alderson. |
| 1:24.9 | Yes, welcome along. It's Ritesy routine where we take a look inside an author's working day. |
| 1:27.9 | My name's Dan Simpson. Thank you for finding us. Thank you for following and sharing. I hope your 2022 has started full of words. Someone who I'm sure it has done. Sarah Alderson, |
| 1:37.5 | our guest this week, she surrounds herself with words all of the time. She's written Y.A. Young |
| 1:43.9 | Adult. She's published psych thrillers, |
| 1:45.6 | friends like these in her eyes and the weekend away, which has been adapted for Netflix. |
| 1:50.1 | She writes romance as well under a pseudonym. Also writes for telly for the show SWAT over in the |
| 1:56.1 | States on CBS. And her new novel is out now. It's called The Stalker about Liam and Laura newlyweds |
| 2:03.5 | spending their honeymoon on a remote island when they realise they aren't alone. We talk about why she |
| 2:10.2 | takes holidays from her work to write more stuff to write her actual stories. Also what it's |
| 2:17.0 | like writing with a competitive team |
... |
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