The Writing Life

Writer and teacher Jenn Ashworth discusses the nuances of short stories vs. novels, including character development, modular storytelling, and the appeal of short fiction in uncertain times. She also shares insights on crafting compelling narratives and the challenges in promoting short story collections in the publishing industry.

How to write about love in its various forms with Maddie Mortimer.  Maddie is the author of Maps Of Our Spectacular Bodies which won her a 2022 Desmond Elliott Prize.  The first part of our conversation was about her Desmond Elliott Prize win, but we soon started talking about the novel, writing craft and writing love. This episode features the section of the conversation about writing love, from the intimate and tender to the physical and visceral, from the romantic to the familial.  As part of the Early Career Awards, we regularly publish our free EC Packs - bundles of advice, interviews, audio and video to help writers tackle particular areas of writing. We have packs on Editing, Beginnings, Structure, Plot, World Building and lots more. Access them for free on our website. This podcast forms a part of our new Early Career Pack - on the subject of love. It includes exercises, articles and indeed, this episode of the Writing Life.

This episode is a Writing Life special to celebrate Noirwich, the 2022 Norwich Crime Writing Festival here in our fine city. The festival featured Ukrainian-born American and French artist and writer, Yelena Moskovich. Yelena has written for Vogue, The Times Literary Supplement, Paris Review and many more. She has also just released her third novel, A Door Behind a Door, an exploration of the post-Soviet diaspora. We invited our friend, creative writing tutor and the godmother of domestic noir, Julia Crouch whose 7th novel The Daughters came out earlier this year, to interview Yelena. Strap in for a lively discussion about routes to becoming a writer, identity as a writer, ownership of your art, reading, what is crime writing, ideas of Hell and much much more. Image copyright Beth Moseley

This month, we discuss revision. To help us understand how, when and why writers should revise, rewrite and redraft our work, we speak to writer and NCW course tutor, Lynne Bryan. We discuss the importance of revising one’s work, how revision is different for different types writer, when to do what kind of revision, and the role of third-party feedback. This is a great discussion for anyone doing creative writing. Lynne received her MA in Creative Writing in 1985. Her first book - Envy At The Cheese Handout - was a collection of short stories back in 1995. Two novels, Gorgeous and Like Rabbits followed in 1999 and 2002.  She’s co-edited six anthologies of short prose, her work has been broadcast on Radio 4 and her story – ‘A Regular Thing’ – was made into an award-winning short film in Denmark. Needless to say, Lynne knows her stuff, so this is an invaluable discussion for anyone who writes.

We talk to international bestselling writer Mohsin Hamid about his new book, The Last White Man. The conversation covers the key themes of his new novel: race, transformation, freedom, loss - as well as his journey into writing fiction, and, how a story is only ever half-told, until it finds a reader… Many will know his Booker shortlisted novels The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West. And some may also know his other novels Moth Smoke and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia - and a non-fiction book, Discontent and its Civilizations. He writes regularly for The New York Times, the Guardian and the New York Review of Books. Born and mostly raised in Lahore, Pakistan, he has since lived between Lahore, London and New York.  

Author and teacher Ashley Hickson-Lovence discusses the nuances of balancing story and plot in writing, emphasizing key plot devices and strategies for keeping readers engaged. The podcast also delves into the interplay of story and plot, the importance of theme in novels, and crafting unique narratives while breaking literary conventions.

Learn how to structure a novel from Ian Nettleton, covering characters' wants and needs, conflict, narrative tension, and building scenes. Explore quests, commitments, and resolutions for a compelling story. Delve into balancing structure and creativity, tools like Scrivener, three-act structure, and the impact of reversals in storytelling.

This is a special episode to celebrate our City of Literature programme at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival. As part of the festival, we organised, curated and hosted a series of events at the legendary spiegeltent as well as talks and our publishing fair, here at Dragon Hall. Called Wandering Words, we commissioned five poets and five sound designers to create an interactive digital experience. This episode hosts the poems and the soundscapes.

What is translation and how is it experienced? In this episode, three translators explore their experiences of inhabiting multiple languages in a portrayal of life in translation, of translation as a part of everyday life, of translation as survival, and of people as translated beings. Interviews with Kavita Bhanot, Yovanka Paquete Perdigão and Nariman Youssef. Made by Gitanjali Patel and Miia Laine as part of the Visible Communities residency at the National Centre for Writing.

Novelist Megan Bradbury and Sam Ruddock from Story Machine Productions discuss the role of research in writing. Megan describes how she went to New York to research the geniuses who lived there, to bring her novel to life. She also talks about working with Professor Pete Wilde on NCW’s Translating Science project.  Megan explains how different types of research can become a regular part of your writing routine as well as helping to inspire stories and characters, while making worlds feel rich and authentic. She describes some of the more immersive and unusual methods that help her get inspired, build characters and develop the creative process. Browse our online creative writing courses.