The Writing Life

Writing About Love - A Conversation With Maddie Mortimer

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.

Partners in crime: Yelena Moskovich in conversation with Julia Crouch

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

Revision: rewriting and redrafting with Lynne Bryan

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.

Mohsin Hamid discusses The Last White Man

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.

 

How To Balance Story And Plot

In this episode, we speak to novelist, teacher and doctor of letters, Ashley Hickson-Lovence to explore story and plot. Ashley is the author of The 392 and the prize-nominated novel Your Show (which he talks a little about in our chat). We also discuss the difference between story and plot, key plot devices and how you can ensure your story has a plot that keeps people turning pages. 

Ashley is also the tutor for our Start Writing Fiction course. We also have courses on fiction, crime, memoir, historical fiction creative non-fiction and poetry. You can read more about the modules and see which course would help you in your writing.

How To Structure A Novel

Novelist and creative writing lecturer Ian Nettleton explains how to structure a novel - the devices and structural elements that can keep readers engaged, and how to ensure your story becomes a page-turner. 

The episode covers characters’ wants and needs, conflict, obstacles, narrative tension and building a compelling story scene by scene, chapter by chapter. We also discuss quests, commitments, reversals and resolutions.

Ian has been shortlisted for a number of prestigious awards including those for his novels The Last Migration and Out of Nowhere. He is also an associate lecturer in creative writing courses at the Open University and works with the National Centre For Writing on a number of our own creative writing courses.

SPECIAL: Wandering Words poems and soundscapes

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.

We Are Always Translating

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.

Research for writing with Megan Bradbury and Sam Ruddock

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. 

 

The poetry process with Khairani Barokka

Khairani Barokka is an Indonesian writer and artist living in London. She is the co-editor of Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back, the author-illustrator of Indigenous Species, and author of debut poetry collection Rope. She was Modern Poetry in Translation’s Inaugural Poet-In-Residence, National Centre for Writing’s Associate Artist in 2020 and she has been a Researcher-in-Residence at UAL’s Decolonising the Arts Institute.

Rishi Dastidar's debut collection Ticker-tape is published by Nine Arches Press, and his work has been published by Financial Times, New Scientist and the BBC amongst many others.

Okka and Rishi are poets and stable mates of independent poetry publisher Nine Arches Press. Join them for a deep dive into the unconscious process of writing poetry and what they both call 'the daze' of writing, as well as the environmental elements of Okka's writing.

Check out our upcoming creative writing online courses, designed in partnership with the University of East Anglia. On sale now