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 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

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 it’s like to submit to magazines, and the various techniques we have developed to try to make the process easier.
Also we continue our discussion of the Bell Jar.
Read Swamp Ape Review
Read Alien Literary Magazine
Ben recommends Joe Pera Talks with You
Emily recommends hyacinths for those having trouble growing plants
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

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 differently?
Other recommendations for this episode:
“So Sue Me...” by Rebecca Makkai (2014), about why you should never quote song lyrics in your short stories
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (2021) is a great model for two point-of-view characters with contrasting worldviews
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