Better off Read

Due to Covid the session I was chairing with Andy Southall and Bridget van der Zijpp for the 2022 Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts was cancelled. I'm really grateful that Andy and Bridget agreed to record a session where we talk about their books under the session theme of Time, Love, Memory.

Andy Southall speaks about his new novel Both Feet in Paradise (The Cuba Press)

Due to Covid the session I was chairing with Andy Southall and Bridget van der Zijpp for the 2022 Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts was cancelled. I'm really grateful that Andy and Bridget agreed to record a session where we talk about their books under the session theme of Time, Love, Memory.

Bridget van der Zijpp speaks about her new novel I Laugh Me Broken (Te Herenga Waka University Press)

In the third episode in the Character season of Elements, I talk to Tatyana Kulida about character and how it relates to her work. We use Henry Miller’s book ‘To Paint is to Love Again’ as a starting point for this discussion.

Here is a link to Tatyana’s website

In the second episode in the Character season of Elements, I talk to Tara Black about character and how it relates to her work. We use René Magritte's 'The Treachery of Images' as a starting point for this discussion.

Some of the things we talk about are:

Here is a link to Tara's website

We talk about the books of Scott McCloud Understanding Comics, Making Comics, Reinventing Comics. Here is a link to Scott McCloud's website

In the first episode in the Person/Character season of Elements, I talk to Rachel O'Neill about character and how it relates to their writing. We use Andrea Arnold's film Milk as a starting point for this discussion.

CW: Please be aware that Milk contains the death of a baby and deals with the grief resulting from this. Here's a link where you can watch Andrea Arnold's film Milk

Here's a link to Rachel's blog

Here's a link to Rachel's Instagram

In the fourth episode in the Point season of Elements, I talk to Kirsten McDougall about point of view and how it relates to her writing. We use as starting point for this discussion first-person perspective.

Some of the things we talk about are:

Here’s a link to Kirsten’s new book She’s a Killer

Here’s a link to Maggie Shipstead’s book Great Circle

Here’s a link to Olga Ravn’s book The Employees

Exercise:

Think of three people who you saw yesterday. Now write three first-person perspectives of yesterday. What does each person choose to tell you about their day?

In the third episode in the Point season of Elements, I talk to Ebony Lamb about point of view and how it relates to her work as a photographer and song-writer. We use as starting point for this discussion Ebony's portrait below.

Which you can see here: https://better-read.com/2021/09/08/ep-103-elements-17/

Some of the things we talk about are:

Here's a link to Cassie's website which includes information about all of Cassie's work

Exercise:

Cassie and I talk about using existing structures. Maybe you could think of a 'type' of story - a romance, a whodunit, a first contact novel. Now spend 30 seconds writing everything about that type of story that you know. Now take another type of story and write it in using your list. So, you might end up writing a romance using the rules of a murder mystery, or a first contact novel as a noire detective story.

Here's a link to Pip's article 'The story of a take-down'

In the second episode in the Point season of Elements, I talk to Emma Hislop about point of view and what it is to write it. We use as starting point for this discussion Daisy Johnson's short story 'The Hunt' which is part of 'The Scattering: a story in three parts' and is published in Johnson's amazing collection Fen. Here's a link to more information about Fen

Some of the things we talk about are:

Here's a link to Emma Hislop's short story 'The Game'

Here's a link to Sarah Hall's short story 'Mrs Fox'

Here's a link to Karen Russel's short story 'Orange World'

Here's a link to Emma's Instagram

Here's a link to Emma on Twitter

Exercise:

Emma's story 'The Game' does an amazing job of limiting what the point of view character knows. Think of an object. Name three facts about this object. Now get three people in the room with this object and give each of them one of the facts about the object but not the other two. Each of them wants the object. Now write the dialogue.

First of all, thank you so much for helping us reach 100 episodes. I am very grateful to everyone who has been on the podcast and everyone who has listened. Thank you.

Show notes at: https://better-read.com/2021/07/09/ep-100-elements-14/