Robert Murphy, author of 'To Hunt a Killer ' - News reporter talks about co-writing, telling stories from real-crime, and hitting deadlines

Writer's Routine

English - September 01, 2022 17:23 - 50 minutes - 68.7 MB - ★★★★★ - 263 ratings
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Previous Episode: Lexie Elliott, author of 'How to Kill Your Best Friend' - When the title comes before the plot, how lockdown changes writing spaces, and finding the story's voice

Next Episode: Emily Houghton, author of 'Last Time We Met' - Re-drafting, making rom-com unique, and how to write an entire book on your phone

Robert Murphy has worked as a news reporter for many years. Over the last decade or so, Robert followed the tragic story of Melanie Road. Melanie was murdered in Bath in 1984, after a year long enquiry with 94 arrests being made, no-one was charged. Then in 2009, Detective Superintendent Julie MacKay found something that changed everything.

Julie has co-written the story with Robert. We talk about how that worked, how he discovered every facet of the story, and moved that into a plot. You can hear how much thought they gave to the standards of genre fiction, when dealing with true crime and peoples lives - how much can you manipulate the story to be gripping and thrilling, when you're talking about such a tragic tale?

We discuss how he organises a full-time creative job, with a creative hobby, and what his home life is like with a partner who also writes... and works in TV news.

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