Amie Kaufman On Writing

You can find a transcript of this episode  at my website , where you can also subscribe to my newsletter, get behind-the-scenes peeks at how I write, and any other news about new books, events or the podcast. You can also submit a question for the podcast on my website. You can find me on Twitter or Instagram . 

You can find a transcript of this episode  at my website , where you can also subscribe to my newsletter, get behind-the-scenes peeks at how I write, and any other news about new books, events or the podcast. You can also submit a question for the podcast on my website. You can find me on Twitter or Instagram . 

You can find a transcript of this episode  at my website , where you can also subscribe to my newsletter, get behind-the-scenes peeks at how I write, and any other news about new books, events or the podcast. You can also submit a question for the podcast on my website. You can find me on Twitter or Instagram . 

You can find a transcript of this episode  at my website , where you can also subscribe to my newsletter, get behind-the-scenes peeks at how I write, and any other news about new books, events or the podcast. You can also submit a question for the podcast on my website. You can find me on Twitter or Instagram . 

You can find a transcript of this episode  at my website , where you can also subscribe to my newsletter, get behind-the-scenes peeks at how I write, and any other news about new books, events or the podcast. You can also submit a question for the podcast on my website. You can find me on Twitter or Instagram . 

When I think about writing from the deepest parts of myself – something I've done often – I always think of an incredible spoken word poet called Abe Nouk – his surname is spelled Nouk, if you want to look him up – who I once saw speak at a conference. He said, 'Do not be afraid to reveal yourself to your pen.' And I wrote that down, took it home, and it's been pinned up in my office for all the y...

There's nothing worse than finding yourself slowly growing more confused as you read a book – realizing that you're not sure if you're meant to know what's going on, in which case there's a problem, because you don't, or whether the author wants you to stick with them because all will be revealed in good time. How do we as writers reassure them, and show them that they should stick with us? The an...

I know we all know that feeling when you're reading a story you should be enjoying, but it's taking a while, and your mind is starting to wander, and… eventually you start to skim, or worse, you put the book down, and you don't come back. Whether this is a book you've written, or someone else's that you're reading, you can feel that the pacing isn't right. It clearly needs tightening – so how do y...

While you're waiting for us to bring you Season Two, I wanted to share another bonus episode, with some really inspiring advice about researching for historical novels from one of my favourite writers, Ryan Graudin. She's the award-winning author of a stack of novels, including my favourites, Wolf by Wolf and Invictus , two of my go-to book recommendations whenever anyone asks for a read they won'...

Ellie Marney is an Aussie crime author with a huge and loyal following – I count myself as one of her fans. She's so smart, and so meticulous with her work. She's gone behind the scenes at Westminster Mortuary in London, interviewed forensics experts from around the world to get her stories right, and lived all over the world too. She definitely knows how to kill you so well you won't even notice,...

I loved this week's question about writing morally ambiguous characters, and since we're in bonus episode territory I thought we should do something fun. So I called on one of my dearest friends, and one of the smartest and most insightful people I know, to see how she'd answer Sarina's question. Marie Lu is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of a bunch of my favourite books and is known by...

This week we're going to talk about how you convey it to your reader—because done well, your setting can contribute to the mood of your story, help shape the action, and guide the experience of the reader in ways they don't even notice. We talked last week about avoiding White Room Syndrome—the feeling that your story could be set anywhere. Let's talk now about how to weave in those details really...

Your setting is essentially a character in your story, and has so much to tell us. The location in which your story is set should matter—it should be relevant that the story takes place here, rather than somewhere else, and it should influence the way the story unfolds. Setting is so important that I've dedicated the final two episodes of season one to it—this week we're talking about visualizing...

The answer definitely isn't to avoid familiar storylines completely—sometimes a path is well-trodden for a reason. So let's get into the difference between a cliché (something we've seen over and over) and a trope (a familiar storyline or story element) and talk about how tropes might actually serve you.  You can find a transcript of this episode  at my website , where you can also subscribe to my...

There's a lot to say about the start of stories, and we'll get to more of it in future seasons. In this episode, I talk about the tip I use to locate the start of my stories - and, if that doesn't magically solve my problem, the two questions I ask myself from there. You can find a transcript of this episode  at my website , where you can also subscribe to my newsletter, get behind-the-scenes peek...

The protagonist—or the main character of your story, the star of the show—is often tricky. I've got two questions I ask myself about my protagonist that can be useful in figuring out who they should be if I'm starting, but they're also useful later as a diagnostic tool—if you think your protagonist might be a bit boring, you can ask yourself these questions and use the answers to help spice them u...

This is something that happens to everyone—I don't buy it when people say they never have writer's block. They might call it by another name, but there's no creative out there who doesn't sometimes have a moment, or a day, or a week… or longer… when they either don't know how to push forward with their story, or can't seem to make themselves. So how to you get past writer's block when it happens?...

I work hard to make my stories unputdownable; there's an art to getting a chapter just right. I've got four tips for you when it comes to keeping readers up well past their bedtime. You can find a transcript of this episode  at my website , where you can also subscribe to my newsletter, get behind-the-scenes peeks at how I write, and any other news about new books, events or the podcast. You can a...

When we hit those paragraphs that are just the author telling you stuff they want you to know about their world, we call them infodumps. We need to show readers what's different about our world, but the truth is that we don't think or speak about this stuff very often. Nobody gets on their commuter train every morning and thinks: "Once upon a time this would have been a steam train, but these days...

Building a world for your story or your series is a huge job, and though we all know the one about how the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, how do you figure out which step to take first? This isn't just a problem if you need to invent an original world—say, for a sci-fi or fantasy novel. Your novel can be set at a high school in America and still need worldbuilding. So where...

Welcome to Amie Kaufman on Writing, a short podcast that answers one question each week about how writers do what they do. If you're a writer, or you're a reader interested in how your favourite authors craft their stories, then you're in the right place. This season, we're going to cover lots of topics: worldbuilding—how to do it and how to show it—figuring out who your protagonist is and where y...