Meet Nikki Smith: From Pantser to Plotter - Join Us at the Naxos Reading Retreat!

We're thrilled to welcome bestselling author Nikki Smith to our Naxos Reading Retreat this May! As Nikki prepares to launch her exciting new revenge thriller "THEY HAD IT COMING," she's shared some fascinating insights into her writing process, inspirations, and the realities of life as an author.

In this candid Q&A, Nikki reveals her journey from being a "pantser" with her debut novel to becoming a dedicated plotter under the pressures of publishing deadlines. She discusses her writing habits (strong coffee with lots of milk is essential!), research adventures that might have landed her on watch lists, and the sobering realities of author incomes.

Nikki's new thriller, set in Bali, explores how far people will go to protect their secrets when two couples reunite in paradise—with not everyone making it home. Already receiving glowing praise from authors like Louise Candlish and BA Paris, this promises to be her most gripping work yet.

Read on to discover more about Nikki's creative process, her advice for aspiring writers, and which famous authors she'd most like to be stuck in a lift with!

Q1 How has your approach to plotting or pantsing changed from your first book to your most recent?

My debut was written as a pantser, but my first attempt to write Book 2 turned out to be much more difficult than I expected and as a result, I am now much very much a plotter! I think a lot of authors don’t anticipate how different the writing process is when you are under contract with a publisher – when I wrote my debut, I’d had years to think of a good idea, and there was no time pressure (other than from myself!) to finish it in a certain period of time. Once you are signed by a publisher, you have specific dates by which your next book has to be delivered, and you are often promoting one book while writing the next, so you really can’t afford to write tens of thousands of words and then realise the book has changed direction and you need to delete them all, or write an entire idea that the publisher decides isn’t quite what they are looking for.

In every book I write now, I run the idea past my editor before I start writing, together with an outline / synopsis and I plan my books on an excel spreadsheet. The plot does sometimes change as I’m writing, but I no longer feel as if I’ve written myself into a corner, or get to 30k words and wonder if the book still has legs.

Q2. Do you ever start writing a story without knowing the ending?

No – I always think I know the ending of a book before I start writing, but things do change during the writing process, and sometimes this changes the ending I originally had in mind (hopefully to something better!)

Q3. What’s your favourite way of getting the story down – dictation, keyboard, paper and pencil, phone?

Definitely a keyboard. I can type much faster than I can write. I also often type into notes on my phone if I’m sitting waiting somewhere in the car, or travelling on the train and don’t have my laptop and then I transfer these into my Word document. I do have a different notepad for each book with random thoughts or character outlines in it, but the actual story goes straight into Word.

Q4. How do you like your coffee?

Strong, but with lots of milk. And plenty of cups during the day!

Q5. How long does it take you to write a book?

This seems to vary a lot depending on which book we’re talking about! I can write a first draft in 4 months if I have to, but it will take me at least another 6-8 weeks to edit that to get it into a format that I’d be happy for an editor to read. But obviously, after my editor has read it, she will then send me edits to do – structural edits, then line edits, then copy edits, then a proof read – so basically the entire process takes around a year from start to finish.

Q6. Where do you do your writing? At the kitchen table? Study? Café? Sofa?

I try to write at my kitchen table but I sit on a refurbished Aeron chair to try and protect my back and shoulders as I’ve learned how sore these can get after hours and hours at a keyboard if I don’t look after them properly! I also like writing in bed – snuggled up under the duvet when it’s cold – but if I do that, my back kills me the following day.

Q7. Whose books would you like to have written yourself?

Oh – there are too many to mention! In the last couple of years, I’d say that books like We Begin At The End (Chris Whitaker), The Death of Us (Abigail Dean) and All of Us Are Broken (Fiona Cummins) are all books that I would have love to have written.

·Q8. You have a new novel coming out in May! Can you tell us about it?

Yes! It’s called THEY HAD IT COMING and it’s a revenge thriller about two couples who reunite in Bali after leaving London, only to discover that no matter how far they travel, they can never escape their secrets—and this is one trip from which they won’t all make it home….

I think it’s my favourite book yet & feel very lucky that it’s had some lovely early praise from so many other authors including Louise Candlish, Jo Callaghan, Trevor Wood, BA Paris and Lesley Kara. Perhaps one of my favourite quotes came from Andrea Mara who said it had ‘Breathless pace, exquisite setting, deep dark secrets - this is absolutely everything I want in a novel. Brilliant, I loved it.’

Q9. What’s the most surprising thing you learned while researching for your book?

I was really interested in the effect that digital nomads are having on places like Bali. The idea of a ‘nomad’ suggests a kind of wandering traveller, but many of the digital nomads in Bali are Westerners from places like the UK or Australia who settle for years in one area and work remotely for foreign companies from a co-working space. They live like ex-pats and although they do bring certain benefits to the Balinese economy, they are also causing huge issues such as over-development, over-crowding, traffic pollution and environmental damage. I thought it was important to explore some of these issues in the book as well as hopefully writing an entertaining thriller.

Q10. Which famous writer, living or dead, would you like to be stuck in a lift with?

Stephen King or Lisa Jewell.

Q11. What’s one piece of advice you’d give to aspiring authors?

There are so many pieces of advice that I wish I’d known when I started writing (avoid publishing your debut novel six days after the country goes into lockdown in a pandemic would be one of the first!!) I think there are probably two really important things I have learned – firstly, find a group of other authors to ‘talk’ to – it’s invaluable to build friendships with others in the industry who understand the ups and downs of the publishing process. Secondly, don’t compare yourself to anyone else. Publishing is a rollercoaster and there will always be authors who look like they are doing amazingly – but social media is often a case of smoke and mirrors, and comparing yourself to others only means you end up feeling very despondent!

Q12. What's one misconception about being an author that you'd like to clear up?

That we all earn a lot of money! Some authors are fortunate and do earn a lot of money, but these are much fewer than you would imagine. The average author income is now only £7k per year, so most of us have to do other jobs alongside being an author. Royalty rates for traditionally published authors are only 7.5% on a paperback book, so if a book sells for £8.99, the author only sees 67p of that – you can begin to see how many books you have to sell to make a decent living!

Q13. What's the weirdest thing you've ever googled for book research that might've put you on a watch list?

My daughter actually commented on this when I told her I was looking up ‘what is the street value of 100g of ketamine and 100g of cocaine.’ I honestly dread to think what watch lists I’ve been added to as a result of my various research.

Q14. What's the most random object within arm's reach right now that you could turn into a murder weapon in your next book?

There’s a large glass lamp on the table next to me which would kill someone if it was smashed over their head – and there’s also the lead of my laptop hanging off the table which one of my characters could use to strangle someone with!

Q15. On the subject of food, do you snack whilst writing? If so, on what?

Dark chocolate, almonds and biscuits. I have to not buy them in the shopping because if they are in the house, I just can’t stop eating them.

Q16. Do you write short stories or flash fiction?

I have written a couple of short stories which have been published in the Sunday Express Magazine – and I’ve written another one to coincide with publication of They Had It Coming in May this year – do look out for it!

Q17. How do you celebrate finishing a book?

Generally I collapse in a heap, have a large glass of wine and reward myself by binge-watching a box set of a series I’ve wanted to watch but haven’t let myself start whilst I’m writing before tackling all the cleaning, washing and admin…