Author I go loopy when I’m writing
Best- selling author Elif Shafak has said she writes her books listening to the same song up to 80 times on a loop.
The Turkish writer’s novels, which include The Forty Rules of Love and The Bastard of I s t anbu l , have been translated into 47 languages.
Speaking on Deser t Island Discs, Shafak said listening to death metal helps create “calmer fiction”.
She said: “I hate silence, I panic when there’s too much silence.
“I always write with music and on repeat. Sometimes I listen to the same song, maybe 75 or 80 times while I’m writing.”
Introducing one of her song choices, death metal band Arch Enemy’s track War Eternal, she added: “S omehow when I’ m listening to these songs, I produce calmer fiction.”
The mother of two, who l ives in London and is the most popular female novelist in her homeland, also writes non-fiction and song lyrics.
She told presenter Kirsty Young her country “deserves better” af ter its recent referendum, which increased the powers of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
She said: “It was a very unfair campaign, it was very one-sided. People who dared to say no were intimidated or lost their jobs.
“On the day of the referendum, the electoral board changed the rules.
“I don’t want anyone in Turkey to have that much power, it doesn’t matter who – it’s just not healthy.”