This week we talk to brilliant author Kate Sawyer, about killing your darlings, doing character development work by watching reality TV and breaking your novel down into manageable chunks.

Follow Kate @mskatesawyer

Kate Sawyer worked as an actor and theatre and events producer, before writing several short films and then turning her hand to fiction. Her debut novel, The Stranding, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, won the East Anglian fiction prize, was adapted for BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime and is being developed for TV by Fremantle and Afua Hirsch's production company Born In Me. Her second novel This Family is a Waterstones Book Of The Month.

When Kate isn't writing, or talking to other authors about their writing practices for her podcast Novel Experience, she is busy producing the annual Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival. 

After twenty years living in London, she recently returned to her native East Anglia, where she lives with her young daughter.