How I Write Elif Shafak & Robert Macfarlane: Two Novelists Have an Epic Conversation | How I Write
155 snips
Aug 19, 2026 
Elif Shafak, a Turkish-British novelist and RSL president, and Robert Macfarlane, a lyrical writer of landscapes and rivers, have a wide-ranging conversation. They trade thoughts on language’s limits and the music of prose. They discuss notebooks versus keyboards, boredom as generative, nature shaping narrative, and braided, nonlinear storytelling.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Left Hand Sent Into Exile
- Elif describes being forced to switch from left to right hand at school in Turkey, learning the word "exile" when told to hide her left hand.
- That childhood conversion made longhand illegible and pushed her toward typing.
Weave Your Novel Like A Braid
- Elif says novel-writing is non-linear: characters and timelines must be braided simultaneously rather than written sequentially.
- Her nomadic upbringing and migrations shape a cosmopolitan, braided storytelling process.
Let Sound Lead Factual Writing
- Robert models letting a subject shape language: his cuckoo field-note uses rocking rhythm, internal rhyme, then moves into folklore and biology.
- He builds sound patterns first, then layers natural history and cultural meaning.
