How NY Times Bestselling Author Matt Haig Writes

The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience

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Internationally bestselling author, Matt Haig, spoke with me about how the novelist became an accidental "mental health expert," why writers need resilience, and the process behind The Midnight Library.

"The only reader you're ever going to truly know ... is yourself." – Matt Haig

Matt's the author of 20 books including the #1 bestselling memoir, Reasons to Stay Alive, five novels – including How to Stop Time – and several award-winning children’s books. His work has been translated into over 40 languages.

His latest novel is The Midnight Library, a runaway, #1 bestseller and reader favorite of 2020. It was a Goodreads Choice Awards Best Fiction Book of 2020, a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Amazon, the New York Public Library, among many others.

The New York Times said of the book, "An absorbing ... vision of limitless possibility, of new roads taken, of new lives lived, of a whole different world available to us somehow, somewhere, [perhaps] exactly what’s wanted in these troubled and troubling times.”

Stay calm and write on …

**Audio excerpted courtesy Penguin Random House Audio from The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, read by Carey Mulligan.

Note: Watch this space – I’m cooking up some extras for fans of the show in the coming weeks you won’t want to miss including the option to have episodes, extras, and added insights delivered straight to your inbox, and maybe even some Writer Files merch on the way.

This week's sponsor is Neuro. Use the code WRITER at checkout for a 15% discount.

If you’re a fan of The Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews. In this file Matt Haig and I discussed:

• His superhero origins and the blog post that became a book
• How to write "like no one's watching"
• Inconsistent routines and the power of deadlines
• Why writers need to surprise themselves
• How he got Carey Mulligan to record his audiobook
• And more!

Show Notes:

• MattHaig.com
• The Midnight Library: A Novel by Matt Haig (Amazon)
• Matt Haig Amazon author page
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
• Matt Haig on Instagram
• Matt Haig on Facebook
• Matt Haig on Twitter
• Kelton Reid on Twitter

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