The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience

How NY Times Bestselling Author Emma Knight Writes: Redux


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Listen to a replay of 2025's most popular episode!


New York Times bestselling author, journalist, and entrepreneur Emma Knight spoke to me about finding the courage to write fiction, the Loch Ness Monster of motherhood, and her breakout debut novel The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus.

Emma Knight is an author, journalist, Co-Founder and Head of Brand at Greenhouse, an award-winning organic beverage company, and co-author of The Greenhouse Cookbook (2017), a national bestseller.

Her debut novel and instant New York Times bestseller, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus, is described as a “coming-of-age story, part family drama, and part campus novel.”

#1 New York Times bestselling author Carley Fortune called the book “A spellbinding debut about friendship, motherhood, first love, and the choices that bind us . . . I couldn’t put it down.”

Emma Knight also has an MA in Journalism, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Walrus, The Globe and Mail, Literary Hub, and more.

[Discover⁠ ⁠⁠The Writer Files Extra⁠: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at⁠ ⁠⁠writerfiles.fm⁠]

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In this file Emma Knight and I discussed:

The contrast of her whirlwind world tour after five years of writing

Why you can only write one sentence at a time

The process of removing your ego from the work

Taking the same advice she shared with her daughters

Why it's so much better to make things up for a living

And a lot more!

Show Notes:

⁠The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus⁠ by Emma Knight (Amazon)

⁠Emma Knight talks how debut novel is a metaphor for motherhood⁠ - Today

⁠Emma Knight on Instagram⁠

Kelton Reid Instagram⁠

⁠Kelton Reid on Twitter

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The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and NeuroscienceBy Kelton Reid

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