Jul 28, 2026 · 33 min · 12 segments
In this episode, hosts Beth and Mary from the *Writing Magazine* and *Writers Online* team sit down with **R R Haywood** (Richard), a powerhouse of British science fiction and horror. As an Amazon…
R. R. HaywardGuestBethHostMaryHostYeah.
It was interesting what you were saying there about the momentum and the saggy middle, 'cause I wanted to ask you about that 'cause it is, you know, such a long book, but it's so fast-paced.
How ...
If you could maybe give our listeners some tips on how they can avoid that saggy middle, 'cause that's a problem that-
... a lot of writers have.
[laughs]
So on TikTok I do- I do, well, I was doing it for a little while, the writing class for the working class when I do little short videos giving writing tips to, to people like me that haven't been able to access things like creative writing courses.
Um, because a lot of people out there, particularly working class people that, you know, don't have the money, don't have the time, they just wanna ...
Um, and I, and so I'm just giving little tips, and I'm saying it's about blending.
A lot of authors, unfortunately, they start off with trying to shove all the information at the reader straight away, so they'll drown a story straight away in backstory.
You keep it, chop it all up into little pieces, and then just sprinkle it through.
Um, and people like Stephen King wrote a book called On Writing a long time ago, but still massively relevant.
For the most part, you need the minimal amount of description possible because let writer- let readers use their imagination.
Yeah.
It was interesting what you were saying there about the momentum and the saggy middle, 'cause I wanted to ask you about that 'cause it is, you know, such a long book, but it's so fast-paced.
How ...
If you could maybe give our listeners some tips on how they can avoid that saggy middle, 'cause that's a problem that-
... a lot of writers have.
[laughs]
So on TikTok I do- I do, well, I was doing it for a little while, the writing class for the working class when I do little short videos giving writing tips to, to people like me that haven't been able to access things like creative writing courses.
Um, because a lot of people out there, particularly working class people that, you know, don't have the money, don't have the time, they just wanna ...
Um, and I, and so I'm just giving little tips, and I'm saying it's about blending.
A lot of authors, unfortunately, they start off with trying to shove all the information at the reader straight away, so they'll drown a story straight away in backstory.
You keep it, chop it all up into little pieces, and then just sprinkle it through.
Um, and people like Stephen King wrote a book called On Writing a long time ago, but still massively relevant.
For the most part, you need the minimal amount of description possible because let writer- let readers use their imagination.
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