Good Writing Podcast

Emily has Ben read an Anton Chekhov short story about a sad lady’s sad day and discuss occasion for story. Why is this the day that you tune into your character’s life? How can we as writers make a story feel complete?
On the way, Ben and Emily get derailed by a difference of opinion sparked by George Saunders’s analysis of the story. Should you consider the reader’s interpretation and anticipate the reader’s reaction to your story as you’re writing? Ben says no. Emily says absolutely yes. Tune in for the pros and cons!
Read a different translation of “In the Cart” by Anton Chekhov
Buy George Saunders’s writing craft book A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (and his short story collection Tenth of December)
Catch up on the viral writer conversation of Parul Sehgal’s “The Case Against the Trauma Plot”
Other recommendations from this week:
Out to Lunch, a jazz album by Eric Dolphy
Owed, a poetry collection by Joshua Bennett
Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns.
Twitter: @goodwritingpod 
Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

We discuss Richard Brautigan’s novel Trout Fishing in America and the way he seems to have no interest in following any sort of rule when he’s writing. The phrase “Trout Fishing in America” can be anything; a character, a place, the phrase itself, or maybe even something more, something spiritual. Ben and Emily talk about why that’s cool and why it’s weird.
Trout Fishing in America (1967) - buy it here (or read a weird PDF of it here.)
Read Jenette Winter’s (as well as few others) ten rules for writing here.
You can rent Jaspar Mall on Amazon, but I don’t want to link that so here’s a link to the film’s official twitter
Here’s where you can buy John Darnielle’s new novel, Devil House.
Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns.
Twitter: @goodwritingpod 
Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

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 story “Walkdog”
Other links from this episode:
Buy Sofia Samatar's short story collection Tender (2017) so you can read her hilarious and inexplicable short story "How I Met the Ghoul"
Listen to a craft interview with Sofia Samatar on Storyological or read one with Uncanny Magazine
Ben’s other podcast Three Lokos for music, movies, and pals hanging out
Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns.
Twitter: @goodwritingpod 
Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

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/ Illustrations by Ned Asta
Mystifier’s Instagram Page. Their Bandcamp.
Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns.
Twitter: @goodwritingpod 
Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

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 podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns.
Twitter: @goodwritingpod 
Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

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 process: “Toni Morrison, The Art of Fiction No. 134” 
“Girl with Rope” by Cherri Buijk in Catamaran Literary Reader
Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns.
Twitter: @goodwritingpod 
Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

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 Tamsyn Muir (2019) from Tor Books
Check out Autostraddle’s book recommendations
Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns.
Twitter: @goodwritingpod 
Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com

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. Yeager
Shadow and Claw (the first two books in the Book of the New Sun series) by Gene Wolfe
I’m a Writer But podcast.
New World on Netflix.
Good Writing is a podcast where two MFA friends read like writers and lay out craft ideas for fellow writers to steal. Co-hosted by Emily Donovan and Benjamin Kerns.
Twitter: @goodwritingpod 
Email: goodwritingpodcast@gmail.com