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We talk about how they taught themselves filmmaking by building a mental archive of films, how a single frame can unlock an entire scene, and why adapting a book spirit often requires stepping away from its words. This How I Write episode is an exploration into how two directors think together, and how a deeply human story becomes something monumental.

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This episode is brought to you by Basecamp, the world’s simplest, most effective project management platform. Check them out at https://basecamp.com and tell them David Perell sent you.

Fareed Zakaria is one of the world’s leading journalists. Maybe you’ve seen him on CNN. Maybe you’ve read his books. Or maybe you’ve read his articles in the Washington Post.

This conversation is a university-level seminar in the craft of writing, which builds upon the thousands of articles Fareed’s written over his career. It’s a guidepost for anybody who wants to write non-fiction. How do you develop expertise? How should you structure your days? What kinds of deadlines should you set?

We also talked about how The Great Gatsby shaped his perspective on America, when to rely on anecdotes vs. data, and the skills that’ll remain scarce as AI breaks through the Turing Test and becomes a hyper-competent writer.

The through-line of Fareed’s work is a philosophy of purposeful practice: watching all his TV performances to see how he can improve, reading great writing to absorb what excellence looks like, and using the deadlines of TV and newspaper columns to write consistently.

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Tom Junod is famous for writing essays that have defined both people and events. He wrote a piece called "The Falling Man" for Esquire, which is the canonical piece about 9/11. Later on, he wrote the iconic "Can You Say...Hero?" about Fred Rogers, also for Esquire.

What's unique about this conversation is that it's both practical and deep, but it all comes to a head at the end. In this climax, we get to talk about his bookshelf, and it fast becomes one of my favorite things that's ever happened on How I Write. Enjoy!

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Adrian Tchaikovsky came on the show to talk about how he writes fantasy and science fiction. He won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for his book, Children of Time, and has written more than 60 books and novellas.

He spends his life thinking about how to make believable worlds and how to build characters that have weight to them. My favorite thing is how he writes a fight scene, how he thinks through the pacing and all the action. If you want to write imaginative stories filled with wonder and fantasy, you're going to like this episode.

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Elif Shafak has a way of writing that's lush and enchanted. She writes about real things in the world: water, houseboats, ordinary things that we stopped seeing. And she infuses them with life and wonder so that we can see the world fresh again.

Elif has written more than 21 books, and she's the president of the Royal Society of Literature, which has had fellows like J. R. R. Tolkien, Rudyard Kipling, W.B. Yeats, and Margaret Atwood.

You'll notice that her writing advice is different from what you normally hear. She wants to help you splash your personality onto the page, how to write with soul, and how to unlock your wild imagination to do it day in and day out until you're left with a finished piece of writing.

00:00:00 Introduction

00:02:02 Making small things feel enchanted

00:04:39 How to avoid fake wonder

00:07:22 Elif’s writing routine

00:09:13 Writing at night

00:11:11 How heavy metal helps writing

00:18:07 What makes characters feel real

00:19:55 Fixing a story

00:22:15 Writing like children

00:26:09 Which senses matter most

00:32:32 Taking risks after being successful

00:34:12 Soft vs hard writing

00:38:59 Elif’s editing process

00:43:27 How poetry influences her writing

00:48:30 What English can’t express

00:51:46 Writing as if you’re “drunk”

00:55:04 Why freedom comes first

00:57:04 Lessons from favorite writers

01:06:44 Rumi’s influence

01:10:22 Spirituality vs religion

01:15:07 How cities shape writers

01:17:11 James Baldwin’s influence

01:18:22 Melancholy and humor

About the host

Hey! I’m David Perell and I’m a writer, teacher, and podcaster. I believe writing online is one of the biggest opportunities in the world today. For the first time in human history, everybody can freely share their ideas with a global audience. I seek to help as many people publish their writing online as possible.

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Henry Shukman is a poet, author, mindfulness teacher and Zen master. He has studied meditation for 35 years, principally in the Sanbo Zen lineage. His most recent books are Original Love (HarperOne) and the Zen memoir, One Blade of Grass.

He is also the co-founder of the acclaimed single-path meditation app, The Way. He has taught at Google, the New York Times, Harvard Business School, and the Institute of American Indian Arts. He has written several award-winning books of poetry and fiction, and his poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Guardian and Sunday Times. He has a degree from Cambridge and an MLitt from St Andrews.

Learn more about Henry's latest book, Original Love: https://henryshukman.com/writing/original-love

Deepen your meditation with The Way: https://www.thewayapp.com/howiwrite

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Every so often, I'll re-publish some of my favorite How I Write interviews. This classic episode is with Ward Farnsworth, a law professor and former dean at the University of Texas School of Law who has written popular books about clear thinking, language, and philosophy. His books include Classical English Style and works on rhetoric and legal writing.

Get 60 days free Readwise Reader at https://readwise.io/davidperell/

Check out Ward's website: http://wardfarnsworth.com/

00:05:09 Example 1 (King James Bible)

00:07:25 Example 2 (Winston Churchill)

00:12:01 Example 3 (Winston Churchill)

00:15:35 Example 4 (King James Bible)

00:18:34 Example 5 (Abraham Lincoln)

00:23:13 Example 6 (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.)

00:26:56 Classical English Rhetoric

00:27:56 Example 7 (Abraham Lincoln)

00:30:15 Example 8 (Abraham Lincoln)

00:32:04 The only app I use to read articles [Readwise Reader]

00:33:31 Example 9 (Winston Churchill)

00:36:09 Example 10 (Lloyd Bentsen)

00:38:50 Example 11 (JFK)

00:42:16 Example 12 (Abraham Lincoln)

00:43:56 Example 13 (Henry Fielding, Tom Jones)

00:45:48 Example 14 (King James Bible)

00:47:58 The 3 Techniques, explained

00:52:40 Practical advice for everyone

00:56:24 The ideal writing curriculum

About the host

Hey! I’m David Perell and I’m a writer, teacher, and podcaster. I believe writing online is one of the biggest opportunities in the world today. For the first time in human history, everybody can freely share their ideas with a global audience. I seek to help as many people publish their writing online as possible.

Follow me

Apple: ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-write/id1700171470⁠

YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@DavidPerellChannel⁠

Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/2DjMSboniFAeGA8v9NpoPv⁠

X: ⁠https://x.com/david_perell

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This episode brings together the moments from How I Write in 2025 that have stayed with me the longest. These are the clips I revisit when I need to be reminded why writing matters.

Robert Macfarlane talks about wonder as something you have to actively protect. Jayne Anne Phillips explains why the memories we keep from childhood reveal who we are. Paul Harding makes the case for aiming higher than feels comfortable and learning from the writers who shaped you.Henrik Karlsson shows what it means to really look at the world instead of getting trapped in your own words. Alain de Botton reveals how the news narrows our thinking. Lulu Cheng Meservey talks about writing that feels alive rather than polished to death and Mitch Albom tells a story that shows why storytelling is a craft of emotion as much as technique.

And then there is poetry. Dana Gioia and David Whyte both treat poems as part of a life, something to memorize, perform, and return to when everything feels confusing or heavy.

This episode is a reminder that writing is not just about words. It is about attention, courage, honesty, and the way we make sense of being alive.

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Jonathan Franzen is one of the most influential novelists alive today. He sees fiction as the most fundamental human art, and in this conversation he explains how he actually makes it: the discipline, the daily grind, and the psychological spelunking required to write characters who feel startlingly alive.

Franzen has always had an outsider’s eye. He questioned the hype of the Internet long before it was fashionable, and he’s been ruthless in diagnosing the spiritual emptiness of modern consumer life. Practically, more than anything else, this episode is about how he develops rich characters. For Franzen, the people are the story. When they’re real and true, fiction has a way of getting to the core of the human experience in a way that gives people a visceral experience, as if they’ve lived the story firsthand.

About the host

Hey! I’m David Perell and I’m a writer, teacher, and podcaster. I believe writing online is one of the biggest opportunities in the world today. For the first time in human history, everybody can freely share their ideas with a global audience. I seek to help as many people publish their writing online as possible.

Follow me

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-write/id1700171470

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DavidPerellChannel

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2DjMSboniFAeGA8v9NpoPv

X: https://x.com/david_perell

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