Hello dear Off-Topic Readers, So many of the avid readers I know also write in one form or another, so on the basis that maybe you do too, I thought I’d share some books and podcasts that I enjoy around that. But even if you don't write yourself, perhaps you’re as fascinated as I am in hearing about the processes involved and quite a few of the recommendations that follow are also just interesting from a reading perspective (I think, anyway).
Have you tried the Death of a Thousand Cuts podcast? It's a weekly thing (I assume, I'm only a dozen in and there's lots more) where the host takes an opening piece of prose submitted and, well, demolishes it*. And deservedly. It can be toe-curling, but the prose can be toe-curling too and listening to it makes you feel a lot better about your own instincts. Not all the submissions are terrible - the ones I've listened to there's been one that you actually want to hear more from.
*Is very very rude but also very very informative. You can hear that it sucks, but the host pinpoints specifically why, and how it could be better, and makes you (me) go "ohhhh, that's why".
You have to keep adding eggs to every post to earn nicknames like Eggs Florentine :-) And I put the shells back in the box momentarily before moving them to the compost caddy - in the interests of keeping them off the worktop (I dump everything else on the worktop without compunction but feel raw egg demands a particular cleanup effort or something); is that wrong?
I don't really think of myself as a writer and have always been really resistant to 'journalling' despite EVERYONE constantly banging on about how beneficial it is, but in the past few weeks I've tried this very simple 'writing intervention' and am amazed by its effectiveness: https://youtu.be/XsHIV9PxAV4
Suleika Jaouad's Isolation Journals newsletter (https://theisolationjournals.substack.com/) has writing prompts from different people every week. I've never followed a single one of them but like reading them anyway... x
Florence, I love listening to the Penguin podcasts. Interviews with authors I love and some I've not heard of.
Have you tried the Death of a Thousand Cuts podcast? It's a weekly thing (I assume, I'm only a dozen in and there's lots more) where the host takes an opening piece of prose submitted and, well, demolishes it*. And deservedly. It can be toe-curling, but the prose can be toe-curling too and listening to it makes you feel a lot better about your own instincts. Not all the submissions are terrible - the ones I've listened to there's been one that you actually want to hear more from.
*Is very very rude but also very very informative. You can hear that it sucks, but the host pinpoints specifically why, and how it could be better, and makes you (me) go "ohhhh, that's why".
You have to keep adding eggs to every post to earn nicknames like Eggs Florentine :-) And I put the shells back in the box momentarily before moving them to the compost caddy - in the interests of keeping them off the worktop (I dump everything else on the worktop without compunction but feel raw egg demands a particular cleanup effort or something); is that wrong?
I don't really think of myself as a writer and have always been really resistant to 'journalling' despite EVERYONE constantly banging on about how beneficial it is, but in the past few weeks I've tried this very simple 'writing intervention' and am amazed by its effectiveness: https://youtu.be/XsHIV9PxAV4
Suleika Jaouad's Isolation Journals newsletter (https://theisolationjournals.substack.com/) has writing prompts from different people every week. I've never followed a single one of them but like reading them anyway... x
This is a wonderful post for writers and those thinking about writing. Thank you!