Interviews from 2012

 “I’ve a drawer full of good story ideas, from one line concepts to full synopses – and I can’t write them until I’ve found what sort of rhythm they should have. Sometimes it honestly takes years.”   – The Lair’s Just So, So Special: Robert Shearman, AngelaSlatter.com (2012). Read the full interview.

 “I could never watch horror movies as a kid, or even a young adult – I recoil from gore, and the slightest suggestion of Satan-spawned children from The Omen from school friends was enough to give me nightmares. So when I became a writer, I never expected I would gravitate towards horror at all.”   – EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Robert Shearman on Remember Why You Fear Me, SF Signal (2012). Read the full interview.

“Short stories are strange things. . . Short stories are much more like rollercoaster rides: everything is so much more compressed, so you work hard at making sure every single word counts, and you pack in all the shocks and thrills and loop-the-loops that will make it entertaining.”   – INTERVIEW: Robert Shearman, Neon Magazine (2012). Read the full interview.

Interviews from 2010

“Every single little thing you could laugh at Daleks about, I tried to make it so you couldn’t any more.”   – Interview: Doctor Who writer Rob Shearman on Dalek, Writing on the Wall and new book Love Songs for the Shy, Liverpool Daily Post (2010). Read the full interview.

“I *love* short stories, precisely because their comparative brevity allows you to be somehow more epic than longer stories allow . . . in short stories you can surprise the reader by doing genuinely colossal things, life-overturning stuff – and then suddenly narrow in on to the smallest and most intimate moment imaginable.”   – INTERVIEW: Robert Shearman, Fantasy Book Review (2010). Read the full interview.

“For my first ten years as a full time writer I wanted nothing more than to be working in the theatre, both as writer and director. And my twentysomething self would be appalled, I know, at how I’ve tried to spread my wings subsequently, and try different media. But I still see myself really as a playwright, and feel most comfortable taking a theatrical space and trying to transform it into something else.” – Interview with Robert Shearman, Kasterborous (2010). Read the full interview.

“The joy of theatre - and also the terror of it! - is that you never escape the verdict of your audience. You may think you have written the smartest or funniest thing ever, but night after night, as you sit in that darkened auditorium, listening to the reaction of strangers around you, you're given a pretty honest wake-up call. There's no sound more grim, or more undisguised, than an audience who is bored.” – Robert Shearman Interview (with Charles Tan), Shirley Jackson Awards Blog, (2010). Read the full interview.

Interviews from 2009

“There's nothing quite as amusing as watching other people struggle even more fifully with dealings of the heart than we do! I've told some people to think of it as a self-help manual. Read the stories, squirm at the awkwardness and the really appalling sex…”   – Rob Shearman interview: his brand new book, writing Doctor Who and resurrecting the Daleks, Den of Geek (2009). Read the full interview.

Interviews from 2008

“When I write short stories it’s out of a sudden rush of enthusiasm for a premise or concept—and part of the joy is setting it up to surprise the reader with what little tricks I may have up my sleeve! But I can’t wait too long, I want to share what’s exciting me so much, and a few thousand words in I can’t resist it any longer and have to let the reader into my confidence.” – On the Couch . . . with Robert Shearman, Good Books Guide, (2008). Read the full interview.

Interviews from 2005

"There was always something a bit clinical about the previous Doctors - they never showed fear. But Russell said 'Who wants to watch a hero who's never frightened of anything?'. Hence the Doctor's terror when he realises he's in a cell with a Dalek. I think Chris has made him far more real, in a way, than his predecessors." – Interview with Robert Shearman, SFCrowsnest (2005). Read the full interview.

"They're like inhibited children. And they're just the sort of things that just go around and exterminate whatever they want without any morals or any fear of anyone getting cross with them because they just don't care enough about anything else." – Writing the Dalek, BBC One (2005). Watch the full interview.

Articles from 2012

“In a genre that frequently tired or reliant on unconvincing pile-ups of adjectives to convey horror, Shearman stands out: he can turn kindness itself into something unbearable.”   – Scary stories for Halloween: Granny's Grinning by Robert Shearman, The Guardian (2012). Read the full article.

“The problem is that writers feel like frauds. When I pick up a book, any book that’s not by me, and I see all those pages filled with words, all that prose neatly laid out and looking so confident, I can’t but help believe there must have been something mystical that made it happen. And every writer I know, deep down, suspects that there’s some magic formula that makes it easy for everyone else... except him.” – Robert Shearman: "Writing is a bit of a sod", Napier University: MA Creative Writing Blog (2012). Read the full article.

Articles from 2011

“...whilst my post as resident writer will mean I can encourage fellow writers, I can't wait in turn to be encouraged by them, to find a new context to my prose and script writing, and to bounce off their enthusiasm.”   – Dr Who writer in Napier University role, BBC News (2011). Read the full article.

Articles from 2005

“Writing for radio is great fun and it reminds me why I am a writer. I think radio has all the breadth of theatre – you can do pretty much anything you want – set a story in real time or spread it over 50 years in a way that’s not really possible in television.”   – The final frontier – Robert Shearman, The Stage (2005). Read the full article.

Articles from 1999

“During the light comedy, Shearman raises some interesting points, noting a nation's disrespect and disinterest in historical events marked by thousands of deaths.” - Knights in Plastic Armour Review, What’s On Stage, (1999). Read the full article.

Podcasts from 2013

Episode 151: Live with Robert Shearman and Howard Waldrop, Notes from Coode Street (2013). Listen to the podcast.

Podcasts from 2012

Dr Who writer Robert Shearman in Adelaide for Writers' Week, ABC News (2012). Listen to the podcast.

Episode 17: ‘Houses Without Doors’ and ‘Queenpin’ (plus ‘Hope: A Tragedy’), The Writer and the Critic (2012). Listen to the podcast.

Nine to Noon: Feature Guest Robert Shearman, Radio New Zealand National, (2012). Listen to the podcast.

Episode #130 – Interview with Rob Shearman, The Doctor Who Podcast (2012). Listen to the podcast.

Podcasts from 2010

Episode 8 – Robert Shearman, a ‘Madman with a Book’, Adventures in Time, Space and Music (2010). Listen to the podcast.

Episode 246: Paul Cornell & Robert Shearman at AussieCon4, Box Cutters (2010). Listen to the podcast.

The Doctor Who Podcast Episode #53: Interview with Rob Shearman and Toby Hadoke, authors of Running Through Corridors, The Doctor Who Podcast (2010). Listen to the podcast.

Podcasts from 2008

Big Finish Special – ‘How The Doctor Changed My Life’, Impossible Podcasts (2008). Listen to the podcast.

Episode 115, Doctor Who: Podshock (2008). Listen to the podcast.