Good Writing Podcast

How can we make sure our readers pick up on key information when our narrator is cagey or not willing to admit the full truth? We look at how a master, Sofia Samatar, does it in her short story "Walkdog." It has both a reluctant narrator ("Emilybait") and a weird form ("Benbait"). We also discuss the "line" between "literary fiction" and "science fiction and fantasy." Read Sofia Samatar’s short st...

Sentence length can be used to pull the reader into the text, and a long sentence can force them to stay there. Fernanda Melchor’s Hurrican Season presents the reader with a seemingly impenetrable block of text that keeps their eyes locked the page, even whenthey might want to turn away. Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions by Larry Mitchell w/ Illus...

The Good Writing podcast gets its mind blown by the author of Pearl Death, Negative Space, and Amygdalatropolis; B.R. Yeager! We discuss Blake Butler’s 2014 novel 300,000,000 and how it uses a single page to break down the barriers between book and reader, author and audience, and maybe even reality and fiction 300,000,000 by Blake Butler (2014). B.R. Yeager’s Neutral Spaces Good Writing is a podc...

The Good Writing podcast welcomes its first guest, short story writer and fellow MFA friend Cherri Buijk, to discuss historical fiction. What makes historical fiction feel authentic? We discuss freewriting about the parts of history that you can’t wrap your head around and resisting the temptation to moralize. A Mercy by Toni Morrison (2008) Toni Morrison’s Paris Review interview about her writing...

We all love a witty protagonist with quips. But how can a writer stay true to an ironic voice while still getting the characters and readers to care about the story? We discuss Gideon the Ninth, a fantasy debut novel about lesbian necromancers in space with a hilarious and irreverent point-of-view character. Ben and Emily also share two of their wilder “Florida Man” stories. Gideon the Ninth by Ta...

While we often think of the plot of our stories as their bedrock, I (Ben) actually think it is the world in which they take place. Without the world, there is nothing to motivate the story from the outside, there is no context in which the story takes place. In this episode, we discuss what it is that allows for something as large as the entire world to show up on the page. Pearl Death by B.R. Yea...

The world of literature is difficult one to navigate, especially for those just starting out. A strange cornerstone of becoming part of the literary world is the literary magazine, a place where new writing is published without the need of being placed into the format of the book. Writers often find the submission process difficult and discouraging, and we are no exception. Today, we discuss what...

One of the many things that make The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1963) an absolute banger is how deep inside the narrator’s head we are. But what can you do as a writer when how your point-of-view character sees the world is flawed? How can you give a point-of-view character a developed and interesting worldview while still giving your readers enough clues to interpret the world you’ve written diffe...

Jarett Kobek lets you know from page one where he stands with his politics, and his work is only stronger for this. Ben and Emily discuss why it’s important to understand that your politics will show up in your work whether you want them to or not, so it might be a good idea to make them obvious. An excerpt from I Hate the Internet (2016) Good Writing is a podcast where two friends read like write...

Sure, sure, everybody wants to know the plot summary. But why does the plot matter? How can you as a writer make your readers care about the plot? After a detour about the job market for English majors (bummer alert...), Emily compares three novels that open by flashing forward to a short story from a literary magazine that mixes flash forward in throughout. Today's sources of craft inspiration: “...

How can the base-level choice of what perspective (first, second or third person) is used in a piece of writing be used as a way for a reader to gain perspective on a character? Dorthe Nors’ novella Minna Needs Rehearsal Space (translated by Mishka Hoekstra) uses a close third person and a unique approach to paragraphs to allow the reader to read the titular character’s opinions in the same way th...

This episode is as American as Olive Garden, and then we celebrate by going to Disney World. How can writers use setting to draw out characters’ internal drama and make their characters confront their conflicts? “Why I Take All My First Dates to Olive Garden” by Kristen Arnett (2019) No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (2021) Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like...

Brian Evenson is a writer of literary horror, whatever that means, and he shows us how writers can smartly use information’s absence to allow for a more interactive reading experience. Did Ben use the word “ontology” correctly in this episode? He’s not quite sure, to be honest. “ Altmann’s Tongue ” (1994) by Brian Evenson Good Writing is a podcast where two friends read like writers and lay out cr...

Grammar alert! A complicated sentence and a clever description make Emily do a double-take in our first episode. Plus, even Jane Austen put her first manuscript in a drawer and came back to it later. CTRL+F for this sentence here (Pride and Prejudice is in the public domain) Listen to two friends book club this chapter on the Pod and Prejudice podcast  Good Writing is a podcast where two friends r...

Welcome to the Good Writing Podcast! We're a new podcast where two fiction writer friends nerd out on writing craft.   Subscribe to the show if you're: ☑ a writer looking for inspiration ☑ a book nerd looking for passion ☑ one of our friends or family members   Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns.   Want to get in touch? Email us at goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com . or check us out at https...