Write The Book: Conversations on Craft

Jim DeFilippi - Interview #294 (5/19/14)

Interview with Jim DeFilippi, whose new novel is Jesus Burned, published by Brown Fedora Books. 

Today's Write The Book Prompt is to do as Jim DeFilippi suggested during our interview: deliver action through dialogue. In other words, think of a scene in which something happens--some action--whether it's someone robbing a bank, going for a run, taking part in a car chase or giving a gift. And get the action across, after the fact, by way of dialogue, as people later discuss it. 

Good luck with this prompt and please listen next week for another. 

Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students, now alums).

Jennifer McMahon - Interview #293 (5/12/14)

Vermont Author Jennifer McMahon, whose new novel is The Winter People, published by Doubleday. I also spoke with Jennifer in 2011. That interview is available here.

 

Today's Write The Book Prompt was inspired by my conversation with Jennifer McMahon. You may recall that during the interview, I asked about the way she used a short list of spare details and events to draw the reader into the narrative. In that opening, which is actually a journal entry, her narrator, Sara Harrison Shea, quickly lists several people: Papa, Auntie, Jacob, and Constance. She mentions a place called the Devil’s Hand, where Papa had forbidden his children to play. Most chillingly, she mentions the first time she saw a sleeper--a person she knows to be dead, who is up and walking around. For your writing prompt this week, play with openings that draw in a reader. Look at the action of a story or novel that you’ve been working on, and think about how you might list intriguing characters and events without giving too much away and without overwhelming a reader.

This might not be the right way to begin. But playing around with these ideas might open up some new avenue of storytelling for you. 

 

Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.

 

Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students, long since graduated).

New Claire Benedict Book Chat / Kenneth Cadow Archive Interview #292 (4/28/14)

A new book chat with Claire Benedict, owner of Bear Pond Books, in Montpelier, and one from the archives with Kenneth Cadow, Vermont children's author of the book Alfie Runs Away, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Claire Benedict mentioned these books in our conversation:

• Lorrie Moore, Bark

• Thomas Christopher Greene, The Headmaster’s Wife

• Jennifer McMahon, The Winter People

• Rachel Joyce, Perfect

• Roz Chast, Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

• Edward St. Aubyn, Lost For Words

• Joshua Ferris, To Rise Again At A Decent Hour

• Diana Gabaldan, Written In My Own Hearts Blood

• Lily King, Euphoria

• Herman Koch, Summer House With Swimming Pool

Today's Write The Book Prompt is to write a poem, story, scene or essay about an experience of running away. 

Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.

Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students, long since graduated).