The Secret Library Podcast

It was such an honor to speak with Natalie Goldberg, whose work I've admired for years. In discussing her most recent book, Three Simple Lines, I was struck again and again how beautiful it was that haiku masters, many writing centuries ago, are still able to touch our lives in the present. Natalie shares her passion for haiku and and how she transformed her love and curiosity about such a revered...

As writers, we often prefer hiding away in our private worlds, but eventually we need to share our work to make the impact we dream of. But... this doesn't look the same for everyone. Since so many writers are taught that visibility in writing = social media, I invited Alexandra Franzen back on. A writer with numerous books to her name, she doesn't participate in any social media, because it doesn...

Throughout this season, I've been amazed at the depth of these discussions. I originally planned for a less intense season this go-round, given the year we've all had, but this topic refused to stay on the surface of things. Wrapping up another theme, in this final solo episode on The Nourished Writer I share many of the discoveries I've made throughout this wild ride of a year. What's kept me ins...

I hadn't planned to have Sarah on this season, since we've had so many episodes together, but when it came time to wrap recording, it felt wrong. We came to this episode without notes, without a specific topic other than to explore what was nourishing each of us as writers at this point in time. As we come to the final weeks of the madness that has been 2020, Sarah and I also explore what our goal...

I must confess: I was dying to post this episode the second we finished recording it. Many of you have heard me recommend Helen's helpful YouTube videos as well as her encouraging online presence overall. I loved these videos and suggestions so much this year, and they were a delight to my audience as well. And yet, there was a price to pay to create at the pace Helen was setting. This week, we lo...

This summer, I started challenging writers to get out the fancy notebook they've been saving and start writing in it. We called it #fancynotebookchallenge, and it felt like a fun and silly way to make writing a special occasion. But as I dug further, as has been the case with many topics this season, there was a lot more to it. Mark + Fold has long been one of my favorite stationers, and their dia...

Amie McNee has been speaking up about the creative process for years. She's boosted many of us with her gentle-yet-fierce handwritten messages on instagram, where she shares as @inspiredtowrite. I adore Amie's work, and when she put out an episode debunking hustle culture on her podcast, Unpublished, I knew she was a must for this season. Amie and I could have done a whole season rather than just...

Has there been another title this fitting to the moment released this year? I doubt it. And how perfect that it was decided years in advance, as a favorite saying of Jacqueline's father's during the hard times after the second world war. Reading this memoir, and discussing it with Jacqueline, was a wonderful reminder that we can get through so much more than we think. As a fan of the Maisie Dobbs...

I'm so grateful to welcome Greta Solomon back to the show. With her bright approach to life and incredible insight into the writing process, I always love to have writers who also teach and coach on the show. Greta and I had such an exciting conversation about taking good care of ourselves and how to stay connected and inspired as part of my Write Free course this past summer, and it didn't feel f...

It's entirely possible that I've recommended Emily and Amelia Nagoski's book Burnout to every student I've had in the last 18 months.  As someone who's experienced burnout in a number of contexts, I was no stranger to the topic, but this book was an excellent resource for anyone finding it hard to separate from writing after a tough scene, writing about painful subjects, or struggling creatively i...

Tana French finished her last book in February 2020 As we discussed, this was a brilliant stroke of luck, finishing right before everything turned upside down. However, this isn't the first time she's written through challenging times. Her challenge has also been dealing with the darker aspects of human nature through each of her novels, so we got down to specifics about how she writes dark storie...

If we want to write, we must learn to ask for what we need. Thankfully today's guest, Kemi Nekvapil, has written a beautiful book called The Gift of Asking to help us with this often challenging task. In addition to learning how to speak up, how to choose ourselves, and to ask for what will allow us to write, Kemi shared generously in this episode from inside the experience of working on her third...

Earlier this year, Rachael Stephen taught a workshop called The Story Toolkit In this presentation, she thoughtfully did away with one of the biggest hassles most writers face: how do I keep track of my ideas? Sometimes being a nourished writer isn't just about what you take in, it's about how you store what you put out. Rachael is also an expert in The Plot Embryo, an outlining method that I've f...

Esmé Weijun Wang was the second-ever guest on this podcast. Her novel, Border of Paradise, had recently come out to great acclaim and we had a delicious discussion about fiction and taboo. In the years since, she‘s written an equally lauded book of essays, The Collected Schizophrenias, which explores the complex constellation of this illness and her relationship to it. Esmé has also worked to buil...

We often avoid talking about money when we talk about writing. I have loved Sarah Von Bargen for years, as her blog Yes and Yes has been an ongoing source of inspiration and insight around nurturing yourself without blowing all your savings. Being a nurtured writer involves introspection that we excavate with gusto this week: what do you really enjoy doing? How can you reward yourself in a way tha...

Many people have shared the challenges of transitioning from writing for themselves to writing pieces they hope will find readers and an audience As I was pondering this delicate balance and the mindset shift that accompanies it, my thoughts went immediately to Trina O'Gorman. I've followed and admired her for years under her account @ninjatraveling. She began this account as part of a conversatio...

The Secret Library Podcast Season Three begins September 17th. The theme this season is: The Nourished Writer. In crazy times, I couldn't think of anything more important than taking good care of ourselves as writers. Can't wait to see you back here next week with our first episode. https://www.secretlibrarypodcast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. This is a public...

And so, we come to the end of Season 2. It has been quite an adventure releasing this season in such a crazy time, but I've never been more grateful to be a podcaster than I am right now. I hope this season has been useful to you, whether you're currently revising a project or not. As I share in this solo wrap-up, revision was my achilles heel for so many years. If I can remove the fear I had for...

Memoir presents a tricky twist on the revision process: the challenge of memory. Susannah Conway is back on the show this week to discuss revision and memoir. Writing about real life presents a special challenge: recreating scenes and mining our past to get the emotion of the moment on the page. No matter how much we journal, no matter how intense these moments in our lives were, they are, by nece...

Simon Van Booy has been, since late 2018, my editor and mentor for this novel. I first met him when he appeared on the podcast and I knew he understood the sort of book I wanted to write. In this episode, we talk about the challenges faced and the mindset necessary to keep going and reach the end of your book. My work with Simon has been instrumental in writing a better book, staying focused on co...

What a gift to have Sue Monk Kidd on the show. Even with decades of experience, and numerous bestsellers to her name, Sue Monk Kidd was so intimidated by the idea of writing a novel about the fictional wife of Jesus that she didn't write it the first time it came to her. She waited nearly ten years before it popped up again in her mind, and only then did she write The Book of Longings. As we talke...

Years ago, Stephanie Scott read a news story about a woman who had been murdered in a case that involved a marriage breakup agent. This industry, and the fact that the marriage breakup agent claimed to love the woman he was accused of murdering, stuck in her mind. After a ton of hard work and research so extensive on the Japanese legal system that she was made a member of the British Japanese Law...

Julie Parker is quite the force: author, podcaster, and creator of the Beautiful You Coaching Academy. On this episode, we talk about everything from the practical steps she took during revision, to the relationship she has with her intuition and how that carried her all the way through the process. Not every step is easy when writing a book, and Julie's wisdom will help you navigate the entire pr...

I fell in love with Hannah Dennison the moment I met her. And I had had to take the Underground, two trains, a taxi, a tiny plane the size of a bathtub and ride in the back of a little trick to get to the writing retreat I took with her off the coast of Cornwall. It was worth it. Hannah has a list for every situation. Since she writes mystery, they have titles like "ways to kill someone" and "meth...

Revise like an editor. When considering revision, I knew we had to bring in an editor to speak to the nuances of editing vs revision, as well as the places where they overlap. Tasha has been on the show before, helping us heat up our sex scenes as well as plan out NaNoWriMo, but she also works as an editor, so I'm delighted to have her back on to provide the editing point of view. It can be tough...