A day in the life of a thriller writer…Robert Bryndza

 

Prior to writing crime Robert Bryndza wrote several romance novels but Robert is not a romance writer, nor is he a thriller writer. He is simply a BRILLIANT writer who I think could turn his hand to any genre.  The gripping openings and short chapters of his books ensure I keep reading long after I should have turned the lights out. The DCI Erika Foster series has been hugely popular and book three, Dark Water is now available to pre-order.

Every curious about other writers’ habits I invited Robert to take part in my blog series ‘A day in the life of…’ and give me some insight into how he spends his day as a full-time author writing thrillers – is it all murder and mayhem? I was surprised. 

 

 

A day in the life of a thriller writer… Robert Bryndza

 

The alarm goes off at six thirty, but our two dogs Ricky and Lola always seem to anticipate it by ten minutes, so by 6.20am I’ll have various sqeaky toys shoved in my face, my ears nibbled, or more disgustingly, Lola will stick her tongue up my nose.

I’d love to be able to roll out of bed and start writing, but dog walking comes first. Unless it’s raining, we take the dogs around the park opposite our flat and I really enjoy this, it gets ideas flowing and I love watching the seasons change, the sunlight on the river and meeting all the other half-asleep dog walkers.

I’ve been writing full time for a few years now, and I’ve found I work best if I treat it like a full time job. I try to sit down and write by eight thirty in the morning, and I work through until twelve. The internet needs to be off and my phone has to be hidden or there is no hope of work being done!

When I’m writing about murder and mayhem I always seem to crave a rest from it all by lunchtime, so we’ll eat in front the TV watching comedy. It can be an episode of Sex and The City, Only Fools and Horses, Entourage, Kath and Kim or Father Ted we have plenty of box sets we work through and as well as being hilarious, I think the writing is genius.

I find that I’m more productive after lunch, and afternoons are when I re-work what I’ve written in the morning. I can get really sucked into the story until I stop at three thirty. I try to write 2,000 words a day, more if things are flowing nicely.

I’ve said ‘we‘ quite a few times. My husband Ján also works from home, and we are lucky that we rarely get on each others nerves. My books are published here in Slovakia and Ján has tranaslated them all into Slovak. He is currently working on the translation of my romantic comedy Miss Wrong and Mr Right, which will be published in July. He also runs our house, my website, social media and manages the seven self-published books I have on Amazon.

I’m very lucky that he does all this, giving me plently of time to write.

I try not to write during the weekends, but I do like to use them for research. When I start a new book I buy a new notebook which becomes my bible, with ideas, research, character and place names. When I read my first draft through I will note down what happens in each chapter, any vital pieces of evidence, the names of murder victims, how they were killed, and any other important info.

As a book progresses, I become more obcessed with what I’m writing, and work will seep into weekends and evenings, and this is the time when I start waking in the night and worrying about motives, murder weapons, plot lines and pretty much everything else in between. This is when the notebook beings to fill up even more.

I realise that this all sounds idyllic and a slightly smug, so I will add that it‘s been a long journey to get here with years of rejection, and there were plenty of times when I nearly gave up!

There are days too where I procrastinate and waste time on the internet. Writing for me is never easy, I am often riddled with doubts and have to push myself to stick to deadlines.

It is, however, the best job in the world and I am thankful everyday that I now get to do it full time.

 

 

Thanks so much Robert for taking the time to share. You can visit Robert’s website here, and his books from here (UK) or here (US).