Be Your Own Editor

As I’ve preached before, anyone who wants to be a successful writer in the days of e-everything should be web-savvy. And if you’re web-savvy, you probably know what a podcast is. If not, you should be spending more time online, both creating your own online presence and taking advantage of the many creative writing websites and, yes, podcasts out there to advise you on both writing and the book business.

Without getting too technical, a podcast is like a radio show that you can listen to (and pause!) anytime you want, either on your computer or on an audio player such as an iPod. You can find them on individual websites (e.g., the NPR website provides access to podcasts of many of their shows), and you can listen using various types of software.

What I use, and perhaps the easiest platform for finding and listening to podcasts, is Apple’s iTunes. Whether you have an iPod or not, whether you use a Mac or a PC, you can download iTunes for free. Unlike most of the music on iTunes, the podcasts available are, with some exceptions, free. And you can search for a particular topic (oh, say, “writing”) and read descriptions and reviews of podcasts that relate to that topic.

If you’re looking to learn about writing through interviews with successful writers who discuss their own process and the craft in general, you might want to start with a show called “Writers on Writing.” Hosted by Barbara deMarco-Barrett, creative writing teacher and author of Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within, the shows originally air on the radio station of the University of California at Irvine, home of one of the top creative writing programs in the country.

Usually an hour long, the shows most often feature two writers for half an hour each, which allows plenty of time for in-depth discussion. On occasion, a writer will merit an entire hour: a recent example is Noah Lukeman, who is both a literary agent and the author of several books about writing, most recently A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation.

The majority of interviewees are novelists, both commercial and literary (though leaning more toward the literary), but memoirists frequently show up, along with the odd literary agent or editor. One advantage of subscribing to “Writers on Writing” is its volume of material: you’ll find dozens of shows to choose from, and new interviews with new writers show up weekly, sometimes even more often. So there’s likely to be something to interest every writer out there. You won’t have heard of every guest, but a lot of fairly big names show up: recent guests include Meg Wolitzer, Walter Mosley, and Kate Atkinson.

Writing can be a solitary pursuit, as we all know, and hearing authors that you admire (or who are new to you) talk about how they work can provide some moral support and that ever-elusive “feeling of community.” The fact that these shows are intended not for avid readers, but for other writers makes the substance very different from an author interview you might find in a mainstream magazine. The show reminds me of Inside the Actor’s Studio—DeMarco-Barrett’s questions don’t always probe as deeply as they could, and she at times descends into a James Lipton–like fawning, but if the writer is articulate and insightful, they’ll take the interview and make something interesting out of it, just as the best actors do on Lipton’s show.

As I said, you can search for “Writers on Writing” on iTunes if you have it. (The latest version can be downloaded here—just avoid all the crap about the iPhone.) Or you can find it at its website, here. Check it out, and let me know what you think—or if you find any other podcasts worthy of mention!

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 1:36 pm and is filed under Must-reads for Writers, Web & Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.