10 Ways being a journalist helped me write my book by Mary-Jane Riley

I have interviewed many people whose life was changed in an instant through accident, chance, bad luck. I've learned life is short. I wrote my book in between early shifts at the BBC. I was offered and took redundancy - a gamble that paid off. A week later my book went to a publishers' auction in Germany, then it was bought by Killer Reads, a new imprint from Harper Collins.

Writing for News Online meant I often had to juggle three or four stories at a time. In radio I could be interviewing a politician one moment, a man who collected carrier bags for a hobby the next. It was great training, as now I'm promoting The Bad Things, editing my second book and writing my third!

Not everyone will like what you write. A news story I wrote had people complaining it had a right-wing bias. Others complained it was biased towards the left. A good balance, I think.

Social media is fun, informative, fascinating, but, check before you post! Imagine this: me in a deserted newsroom at six a.m. I tweet a story about an Essex grandmother and her unusual hobby. It began to get a lot of attention, more hits than it truly deserved. Then an irate call from the news editor. In my bleary state I hadn't checked my tweet: the 'Essex grandmother' had become the 'Sex grandmother'. I wasn't popular.

I love a deadline. There is no greater motivation for sitting on that chair in front of that screen and getting on with it. Get something written, then you can make it better.

In any news story the headline and first paragraph is king. Hold your readers' attention from the get-go. Same with writing a book. Go into a scene late, come out early. Keep the pace going.

I try to keep it simple. Don't use three words where one will do. Don't use a word that'll make your reader stop and reach for the dictionary. You've lost her then. As Elmore Leonard said, try to leave out the part readers tend to skip.

A good editor is priceless. We moaned about our BBC sub editors - they were pedantic, annoying and interfering, but stories did end up stronger. I have a brilliant editor at Harper Collins - sharp and clever. I really trust her.

I have written and read a lot of news. My first book came about after I had written a succession of stories about a gruesome murder. What if, I thought, that as a journalist I had to go and interview someone who had ripped the heart out of my family? From that thought The Bad Things was born.

I have made a lot of contacts in my time as a journalist, but it has been my colleagues in the newsroom who have helped me most - not least with 'lending' me their names for characters in my books.