A writing podcast for writers and curious readers, featuring interviews with authors, poets, agents and editors. Twice chosen as one of Writer’s Digest Magazine’s 101 Best Website for Writers. Vermont-grown.
Episodes
Monday Dec 07, 2020
Monday Dec 07, 2020
Author and educator Martin Puchner, whose new book is The Language of Thieves: My Family's Obsession with a Secret Code the Nazis Tried to Eliminate (Norton).
This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously suggested by my guest, Martin Puchner. Take one piece of research, a photograph, a document, an object and contemplate not only what it says, but how it got into your hands. How many people handled it before you? What kinds of institutions, and the people working for them, preserved them? How did these objects come into being and how did they survive? Hopefully, in asking these questions, you’ll discover the biographies of these objects. They will become full interlocutor and not just props.
Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion.
I also spoke with Martin Puchner in 2018. You can listen to that conversation here.
Music: Aaron Shapiro
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Tuesday Jun 18, 2019
Tuesday Jun 18, 2019
Author Heidi Diehl, whose debut is Lifelines (HMH).
This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously suggested by my guest, Heidi Diehl. Think about an event or a time that has been important in your character’s life but does not appear in the pages of your story. Write two versions of what happened. One should be 3-5 sentences, and one should be a full-fledged scene, spanning a couple of pages. If the outcome sparks something that feels important to include, than you should of course use it. But, as Heidi reminds us, even if you don’t use that particular scene in your story or novel, it can be useful as an exercise. Exploring our characters’ histories can give us a sense of who they are and help us bring them more vividly to the page.
Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion.
Music Credit: Aaron Shapiro
Saturday Jan 21, 2017
Saturday Jan 21, 2017
Interview with Gregor Hens, author of Nicotine, out this month from The Other Press.
This week's Write the Book Prompt is to write about denying yourself something you love.
Good luck with your work in the coming week, and please listen next week for another prompt or suggestion.
Music credits: 1) "Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) "Filter" - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students).