Author interview with R.R. Haywood
Meet one of Jodi's favourite authors
Let’s start with the traditional opening while I struggle to get my brain in gear. Why and how did you begin writing?
I started in May 2012 while I was still a serving police officer. I’d read a brilliant book called Three Feet of Sky by Stephen Ayres which I later learnt was self-published. I’d always wanted to write and thought I’d give it a go. The Undead Day One was my first attempt and I was only ever going to do seven books in The Undead series and use them to teach myself to write. Fast forward twelve years and I’ve written close to fifty books. (Thirty-Three of them in The Undead.)
Do you plan it all meticulously beforehand with notes and diagrams and things, or do you just pick up a pen or open your laptop, think ‘What the hell?’ and just wing it?
I hold tutorials mainly on TikTok called The Writing Class for the Working Class, aimed at people like me who never got beyond high school but who want to become writers. I’m always telling new writers, ‘Don’t Plan!’
For many people, planning a novel exhausts the creative desire to then actually write it. I recommend jumping in with the ideas swirling around in your head. That’s what I always do. The plans come later when that first initial burst of creative energy has waned and you can start bringing shape and form to the story. Of course, if that doesn’t work for someone they can always go back and try making a plan. There are no rules!
You’re a massively prolific writer and almost every month brings something new and different. Do you have a favourite book or a favourite character? And why?
Oh good gosh! I couldn’t pick one. Could any author? I love so many different genres and have oodles of influences. Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series influenced me to write epic immersive stories. Terry Pratchett influenced me to place genuine characters in extraordinary and often absurd settings and how to use humour to drive stories without them ever becoming comedies. I love your series, The Chronicles of St Mary’s and how it uses truly unique Britishness within a time-travel sci-fi setting. (I’m not just saying that because it’s you asking me these questions!)
It was those books and so many more that helps me shape my own characters and settings, but I couldn’t choose one favourite book.
Which book was the most fun to write?
The Undead is my longest running series, so that would be the story that captivates me the most. But honestly? Whenever I am asked that question, I immediately think of whatever book I am currently writing! I guess you have to have that level of love for it to make it work. At the moment I’m developing a new parallel world / time travel novel that sits within my Extracted / A Town Called Discovery universes. The main character slips into a new parallel world every three days. That’s enormously good fun to write.
If you couldn’t write what would be your second choice of occupation?
I would have stayed in the police. It was often a very hard occupation, for obvious reasons, and it does grind you down, but I loved it.
Do you ever have an urge to go completely off-piste and do something completely different? A bodice-ripper, perhaps or a cosy detective story, just for the sheer hell of it?
Yes! All the time. Perhaps not a bodice-ripper, although you can never say never. I have started a cosy detective story that is a tongue-in-cheek look at the tropes in police procedural stories. I love playing with new styles and genres.
If Netflix or similar suddenly bounced out of the woodwork to announce they wanted to film or serialise your books would you regard this as a blessing or a curse?
Most of my projects are at varying stages of interest from production companies. I’ve been Optioned a few times, with some getting quite far along the process but getting squashed because of things like Covid, and then the US writers strikes. GASLIT is getting good attention too. Of course there is the genuine fear of something being made poorly. I wouldn’t let anyone else make The Undead. If that gets made, I’m on set every day watching it all like a hawk 😂
Which book would you take to a desert island with you? Other than one of yours or one of mine, of course?
The Dark Tower series (which is eight books, I think) I know that’s cheating. I read them a very long time ago and I’d love to go back and see how they read now. But it’s such a big series it’s quite daunting to re-start.
Serious question – how easy or hard is it for you to go back and re-read your own work?
That’s a question only another author would know to ask. I find it very hard. I see only the flaws and how I could have made it better. I think for most authors, by the time we finish all the edits on a novel, we’re right on the line of starting to hate it. I think that’s actually healthy. It means you’ve reached the deepest level of awareness for it that you can. So going back to one of them, even further down the line, can still be hard.
What are your plans for future books? What can we look forward to in the coming months?
Changing Worlds, the parallel world / time travel is underway at the moment. I’ve always got a sort of batting order in my head for what’s next. GASLIT 2 has just bumped itself up that list because the first book is doing so well.
I’m also keen to do a DELIO 2. That was a very successful novel for me about how an AI takes over the world. Sadly, it all went a bit wrong in the edits and it put me off developing the next one. Time has passed now though, and I still get a lot of requests for it.
I hope to get back and finish the cosy detective story I started too.
Lots to do!
Biography:
RR Haywood is a Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Amazon, and Audible bestselling author with over 4 million books sold and nearly 40 Kindle Bestsellers. As one of the top ten most downloaded indie authors in the UK, Haywood has captivated readers worldwide with his diverse storytelling.
His creations include the global sensation EXTRACTED, the riveting CODE TRILOGY narrated by Colin Morgan, the phenomenal UNDEAD Series, the blockbuster DELIO, PHASE ONE. The chart-topping A TOWN CALLED DISCOVERY. The satirical FICTION LAND, narrated by Game of Thrones star Gethin Anthony, has been hailed as "an outrageously funny tour de force." Haywood's latest release, GASLIT, a dark noir psychological thriller was an instant Amazon bestseller in multiple countries.
A former police officer, Haywood now resides with his dogs on the north coast of the Isle of Wight. He entertains audiences and shares his expertise on TikTok with his Writing Class for the Working Class.