Not Too Busy To Write

Abigail Bergstrom is a literary agent and consultant, former editor, and now debut novelist. What A Shame is a darkly funny novel about grief, friendship and dabbling in the occult. Abigail talks about the challenges of having a lot of knowledge of the industry whilst writing and having to take her agent hat off in order to write, removing the constraints that made writing feel like 'work' and being conscious of the exchange that happens when we give up other things in order to write on the side of a demanding full time job. Bergstrom Studio is a 360 degree literary consultancy, offering editorial consultancy and representation. As an agent Abigail represents multiple best selling authors and has some excellent advice for those who are going out on submission.LinksBergstrom StudioWhat A Shame - Abigail BergstromWet Paint - Chloe Ashby Beautiful Country - Xian Julie WangYou can find Abigail on Instagram @abigailbergstrom and @bergstrom.studioAnd Penny on instagram @pennywincer

Our writing lives don't always look the same. Depending on which phase you're in, drafting, editing, submitting, publishing or promoting - our rhythms and routines change according to what phase we are in. Ali and Penny are currently in different phases to each other and to where they each were a year ago. Today's episode is about where they are at and how that changes how they sit down and get the work done. They are both now juggling multiple projects at different stages and how that has necessarily changed their writing routines, in ways that are both good and a challenge.

Caribbean-American writer Charmaine Wilkerson's incredible fiction debut, Black Cake is a sweeping family tale about inheritance, memories and secrets. Charmaine discusses the layering of multiple timelines, much like the layering of a cake or the layering of conversation. She also talks about channeling the characters, allowing herself to follow them and see where they take her and having a quarter of the book written in various files before she was certain it was a story. Black Cake is out in the UK on 3rd February 2022 and in the US on 1st FebruaryLinksBlack Cake - Charmaine WilkersonAnother Life - Jodie ChapmanBeautiful Country - Qian Julie WangOlga Dies Dreaming - Xochitl GonzalezThe Final Revival of Opal and Neve - Dawnie WaltonWho They Was - Gabriel Krauze

Cathy Rentzenbrink is a Sunday Times best selling author of The Last Act of Love, A Manual for Heartache, Dear Reader and Everyone is Still Alive. Her latest book, Write It All Down, is all about writing from life. Cathy talks about how her first memoir started because she need to write it out of her, how she's learned to trust the process of writing, even though she's still filled with self doubt and learning that external validation of our writing doesn't magically fix that doubt. A wonderful episode filled with advice from the most generous of writers.LinksWrite It All Down - Cathy RentzenbrinkThe Last Act of Love - Cathy RentzenbrinkEveryone Is Still Alive - Cathy RentzenbrinkThe Virgin Suicides - Jeffery EugenidesWithout Warning And Only Sometimes - Kit De WaalYou can follow Cathy on Instagram @catrentzenbrink and twitter @catrentzenbrinkYou can follow Penny on Instagram @pennywincer and twitter @pennywincer

It's that time of the year and Ali and Penny have a chat about where they are at with their writing projects and if they are where they hoped they would be. They talk about some big successes and failures, places where the path diverged and where writing projects went off in a new direction. They talk about letting go of projects as well as taking on new projects you didn't imagine you would do. They also look ahead to some 2022 writing goals.LinksLife Writing Group Coaching with Penny WincerStill Life - Sarah WinmanGhost Stories - M R James

A bit of a tongue in cheek question this week... Where do ideas come from? Ali and Penny talk all about ideas, sniffing them out like a blood hound, scratching away at them to see if they are interesting and following our curiosity. For us both, it's all about interacting with the external world and creating a habit of looking for and developing ideas. We also talk about having fallow times and abundant times and how they are both important in a writers life. And of course, we talk an awful lot about reading......LinksMy Body - Emily Ratajkowski

Ali and Penny come together to discuss life writing this week. They have both used different approaches to life writing and they discuss why they made the choices they did and how they might do it differently in the future. It's also an episode in which Ali reveals she doesn't really like memoirs (even though she just wrote one) and Penny that she hopes her life is going to be boring enough in the future that she never feels compelled to write one (although she's very partial to the essay).LinksSwimming In Hampstead ladies pond - Daunt BooksUpon This Rock - Essay by John Jeramiah SullivanConstellations - Sinead GleesonI am I am I am - Maggie O'FarrellThe English Heretic Collection: Ritual Histories, Magickal Geography - Andy SharpMy Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa MoshfeghYou can find all the books mentioned on the podcast at Bookshop.org

Julia Silk is a an agent with Charlie Campbell Literary Agents. Julia spent many years as an editor before becoming an agent who represents a wide range of fiction and non-fiction authors. We talk about what exactly an agent does, how agents find and nurture authors as well as how agents deal with rejection (yes they get rejected too!). She also talks about the common problems that she sees in manuscripts, including really figuring out what the point of your book is and the importance story and how to write a captivating cover letter. It is a packed epsiode full of gold for submitting writers.Julia Silk is currently open for submissions You can find Julia on twitter @juliasreadingLinksSisters - Daisy JohnsonNine Perfect Strangers - Liane MoriatyIf This Is a Man - Primo LeviEat Up - Ruby Tandoh You can find all the books recommended on the podcast at our Bookshop.org shop - Not Too Busy To Write Recommends - buying through our bookshop supports independent booksellers as well as supporting the podcast

Huma Qureshi is a former Guardian and Observer journalist and is the author of the memoir How We Met and her latest book Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love, is a short story collection about the distance between people - between mothers and daughters and between lovers. It includes the "The Jam Maker" which won the Harper's Bazaar Short Story Prize 2020. We talk about what drove Huma to set herself the challenge of writing 10 short stories in a fairly short period of time, the importance of short story prizes as a way of setting yourself deadlines and challenges, and how motherhood both affected her confidence as a writer but also gave her an urgency to get the words on to the page.LinksThings We Do Not Tell The People We Love - Huma QureshiHow We Met - Huma QureshiSense and Sensibility - Jane Austen A Ghost in the Throat - Doireann Ni GhriofaYou can find Huma Qureshi on instagram @humaqureshiwriterYou can check out all the book recommendations from the podcast at our bookshop on bookshop.org which helps support independent booksellers

Claire Lynch is an author and academic whose first book Small: On Motherhoods is a memoir about her experience of becoming a parent and the tiny things that are really the biggest things in life. We talk about finding a structure that reflect what the book is about, perspectives in both life and the page and the joy of capturing those early childhood in writing. Claire also discusses the winding publishing process and the previous iterations that the memoir had before it took on this final form. LinksSmall: On Motherhoods - Claire LynchBeautiful World, Where Are You? - Sally RooneyLost Cat - Mary GaitskillMonument Maker - David KeenanYou can follow Claire Lynch on twitter @DrClaireLynchDon't forget to check out our Bookshop.org page where you can purchase any of the books mentioned on the podcast. Buying through bookshop.org helps support independent bookshops and the podcast