The Write Attention Podcast

Emotional Beats (Part 2)

In Episode 4: Emotional Beats (Part 2) Kara, Brittany, and Jeannetta discuss who they write for (themselves or a specific audience), how writing rooms have affected Kara’s craft/process and what we gain from being in community.
Kara Smith to The Write Attention podcast. Kara is a Bermudan-British screenwriter based in the UK who has worked on the HULU drama series BLACK CAKE, the UK’s highly acclaimed streaming series: HBO/Sky’s horror-comedy THE BABY, Netflix’s new genre series LOCKWOOD & CO from Joe Cornish and Edgar Wright, as well as Amazon’s ANANSI BOYS created by Neil Gaiman, among other productions.

Emotional Beats (Part 1)

In Episode 4: Emotional Beats (Part 1) Jeannetta and Brittany welcome Kara Smith to The Write Attention podcast!
 
Kara is a Bermudan-British screenwriter based in the UK who has worked on the HULU drama series BLACK CAKE, the UK’s highly acclaimed streaming series: HBO/Sky’s horror-comedy THE BABY, Netflix’s new genre series LOCKWOOD & CO from Joe Cornish and Edgar Wright, as well as Amazon’s ANANSI BOYS created by Neil Gaiman, among other productions. In the first part of this conversation, Kara, Brittany and Jeannetta discuss the cross-sections between screenwriting and fiction/poetry including how screenwriters view emotions in writing and whether you should write about what you know.Show Notes
1. La Maison Baldwin, https://www.lamaisonbaldwin.org/
2. Irenosen Okojie, https://www.irenosenokojie.com/.
3. Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, https://savethecat.com/
4. “Phenomenal Women” by Maya Angelou can be found here: ​​https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48985/phenomenal-woman
5. Mad Men, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804503/
6. “The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” by Audre Lorde can be found in Sister Outsider 
 

The Many Faces of Style

In episode 3, season 2 of The Write Attention podcast Brittany and Jeannetta discuss style in light of Miciah Bay Gault’s craft essay on style (link below) and the influence our real and adopted selves have on the form and content of the work we create. They jointly work on the exercise offered in Gault’s essay to write on loss in the style of another writer.
 
Craft essay referenced in this episode is “I Craft Therefore I am Creating Persona Through Syntax and Style” by Miciah Bay Gault, accessible here: https://hungermtn.org/i-craft-therefore-i-am-creating-persona-through-syntax-and-style/
Kurt Vonnegut essay on style, https://kmh-lanl.hansonhub.com/pc-24-66-vonnegut.pdf 
John Keene, https://lithub.com/john-keene-elements-of-literary-style/ 
Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon
James Baldwin,  Giovanni’s Room, Another Country
George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
Poor Things, https://www.searchlightpictures.com/poor-things/ 
The Lobster, https://a24films.com/films/the-lobster 
Lighthouse classes can be found here:
The Earley Scale, check out more about it here: https://brevitymag.com/craft-essays/going-cold/
Mark Doty, The Art of Description: World into Word
Donna Tartt
 The Write Attention S2E2 with Amelia Ihshak, The Emerging Reader in All of Us, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/the-emerging-reader-in-all-of-us/ 
Ward Farnsworth, Classical English Style, https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/49831663 
William Carlos Williams
Lidia Yuknavitch Corporeal Writing: https://www.corporealwriting.com/about-corporeal and https://youtu.be/o9pUjixyWI4?si=4u4VaF4gE_N3yYsT
Toni Ann Johnson
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Interpreter of Maladies

The Emerging Reader in All of Us

Brittany and Jeannetta welcome Amelia Louise Herridge Ishak to the podcast to discuss reading as a writer. Amelia comes from London, England and has an MPhil in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic and moved to Aarhus, Denmark hunting for viking myths and monsters. Norse mythology and the rawness of Scandinavian nature inspires her work. She joined the Aarhus Women Write in 2017 and took over the running of it in 2020. The three discuss early childhood reading interests and how that has influenced their writing today, what genres and styles inspire them and the other reasons why they read besides pleasure or craft.  Amelia's piece which is shared on the podcast, "The Hidden Spirit of the Forest" is available in Meet me at 19th St available here: https://archstreetpress.org/2021/11/02/the-hidden-spirit-of-the-forest/. 
 
Questions
How much has your childhood reading interests influenced the way you write or the topics you write about? 
How much have your reading habits changed since becoming a writer? Do you read more around the genres and styles you write in? Do you write in the style and genres you read in? Is this different to when you were younger/before you became a writer?
We often hear how other writers inspire or influence other writers in a positive way, but what are some things that you have read where you have thought "I never want to write like that" and learnt what not to do? 
Besides pleasure and improvement of your craft (which are some of the reasons I read) what are some other reasons you read?
As a follow up to #1, what are the other ways reading has improved your creative practice besides the writing itself? (related to your question #2)? 
References in this Episode
Learn more about Aarhus Women Writers here https://www.instagram.com/aarhuswomenwrite?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw== 
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Crescent City series by Sarah J Maas
Jane Austin
Elizabeth Gaskill
Margaret Atwood
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Goosebumps series by R. L. Stine
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier
Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
Wuthering Heights by Emile Brontë
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkein
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
Log in to the Libby App through your local library here: https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby  
“Beauty and the Beast” by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve
The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
Read Angela Carters’ (not Chambers…lol) reinterpretation of fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber
Popisho by Leone Ross
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
“A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri in The Interpeter of Maladies
Charles Dickens
Episode 1 of Season 1 of The Write Attention, “Show Tell and Practice”, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/show-tell-practice/ 
Episode 9 of Season 1 of The Write Attention, “Personal Revelation & Reader Responsibility” with  guest Collette Walker, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/personal-revelation-audience-responsibility/ 
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
 

New Year, New Vision for Your Work

As Brittany and Jeannetta bring in the new year and season 2(!) of The Write Attention podcast, they discuss time, Susan Rich’s craft essay on revision (link below), especially her thoughts on slow writing, how to connect inward to move revision forward and figuring out the start and the finish and what you’re trying to say. 
 
Show Notes
Rest as Resistance, Tricia Hersey, https://thenapministry.com/ - nap people!
Craft Essay for this Episode:  https://www.writing.ie/resources/its-not-how-you-write-its-how-you-re-write-the-art-and-craft-of-revision-susan-rich/ 
Maturing as a writer explored here in Episode #7: Place, Peculiarity & Persistence, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/place-peculiarity-persistence/, 
Episode #1, Show and Tell and Practice, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/show-tell-practice/ 
Brenee Brown, Atlas of the Heart, https://brenebrown.com/book/atlas-of-the-heart/ 
William Carlos Williams famous quote: ‘no ideas but in things’, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/68731/william-carlos-williams-the-red-wheelbarrow
Working your verbs in Matt Bell’s Refuse to be Done, https://www.mattbell.com/refuse-to-be-done

Let Go, Let Come

Join us for Episode 11, our final episode of The Write Attention podcast Season 1. Brittany and Jeannetta reflect on the conversations and lessons learned this year.  We discuss how our process has changed over a year, including how we have learned from other art forms, which guests/ideas from the podcast which have influenced us, and importantly, how to let-go and let-come in our process. 
 
Questions
What, if anything, have you integrated into your own practice or what about your practice has changed in this last year as a result of the conversations we have had on the podcast?
What other art forms have you been exploring (and how) to add to your writing practice?
What do you appreciate about your writing this year?
What would we like to explore in the next season?
 
Show Notes
 
The Book Project,https://lighthousewriters.org/  
Erika Krouse, https://www.erikakrousewriter.com/ 
Toni Morrison quote on you controlling your characters, https://www.instagram.com/p/CyV-dhjNXcX/
Arianne Reiche, Episode 7, “Place, Pecularity & Persistence” https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/place-peculiarity-persistence/ , 
Collette Walker, Episode 9, “Personal Revelation & Reader Responsibility”, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/personal-revelation-audience-responsibility/ 
Twila Tharpe, The Creative Habit, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/254799.The_Creative_Habit 
Johnny Ray Gill, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3331401/ 
Nicola Andrews, “Mentorship and Community”, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/mentorship-community/ 
Annie Ernaux, A Woman’s Story, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59452779-a-woman-s-story 
Helle Helle, https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/1203754.Helle_Helle 
James Baldwin,  https://lithub.com/write-a-sentence-as-clean-as-a-bone-and-other-advice-from-james-baldwin/
Save the Cat, https://savethecat.com/
Lauren Samblanet, Episode 6, “Support and Embodiment  for the Writing Self,” https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/support-and-embodiment-for-the-writing-self/
Episode 1, “Show, Tell and Practice,” https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/show-tell-practice/
Radical Honesty, https://www.radicalhonesty.com/

Mentorship & Community

Join us in welcoming guest Nicola Andrews to The Write Attention podcast Episode 10: Mentorship & Community.
Nicola Andrews (Māori, Pākehā) is a member of the Ngāti Paoa iwi, currently living on Ramaytush Ohlone territory. They are the winner of the 2023 AAALS Indigenous Writers Prize for Poetry, and their writing has been supported by communities including the Kearny Street Interdisciplinary Writers Lab, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Rooted & Written, and the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation. Their debut chapbook, Māori Maid Difficult, is forthcoming with Tram Editions. In their spare time, they watch dinosaur documentaries with their cat.
 
In Episode 10, the group discusses what does or does not make for a good mentor, trusting your intuition, managing the closing and building of writing communities, and what thoughts go into putting together a collection of poems or stories.
 
Nicola Andrews also reads an excerpt from their poem, "Self Portrait with the Queue" from their debut chapbook, Maori Maid Difficult.
 
You can also find Nicola here:
Website: bit.ly/NicolaAndrews
Social Media: @maraebrarian (twitter) @poi_division (Instagram, Bluesky)
 
 
Show Notes
Māori Maid Difficult at Tram Editions: https://trameditions.com/catalogue/2023-authors/
Tram Editions, https://trameditions.com/
Paper and Stick by Priscilla Wathington, https://trameditions.com/paper-and-stick-by-priscilla-wathington/ 
Weren’t We Natural Swimmers by Aliah Lavonne Tigh, https://trameditions.com/werent-we-natural-swimmers-by-aliah-lavonne-tigh/ 
RAWI, https://www.arabamericanwriters.org/ 
APAture 2023, https://www.kearnystreet.org/apature 
APAture Literary Arts Showcase: https://www.kearnystreet.org/events-blog/2023/9/11/apature-2023-literary-arts
VONA, https://www.vonavoices.org/ 
Chelsea T. Hicks, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/chelsea-t-hicks,  and Words of the People https://wtpgathering.org/ 
Craig Santos Perez, http://craigsantosperez.com/ 
Periplus mentorship collective, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-0SRWxJqx4oNbWVmbq4j9JE5INhisz76--U63UbtncM/edit 
Write or Die, https://www.chillsubs.com/writeordie/education 
 
 
 

Personal Revelation & Reader Responsibility

Join us in welcoming guest Colette Walker on The Write Attention podcast for our discussion on personal revelation and audience responsibility in Episode 9. The group dives into when they first identified as writers and share effective strategies and resources for making writing workshops work to the writer’s advantage, discussing writing the way into personal revelations or a personal journey in a project and how that may inform the character’s journey. In past episodes we have talked about show and tell. Now, we explore the audience's responsibility or role in our writing. Colette reminds us to let the audience do some work and why that is so important.
 
This episode also includes an excerpt of Colette Walker reading an excerpt from her work, LET THE DEAD BURY THEIR DEAD.
 
Show Notes
 
1. Billie Kahora, https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/billy-k-kahora 
2. The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How To Decolonize the Creative Classroom Book by Felicia Rose Chavez, https://www.antiracistworkshop.com/ 
3. Black Women’s Writer Workshop in Europe, https://sites.google.com/view/thebwweretreat2023/about 
4. Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55155120-craft-in-the-real-world
5. La Maison Baldwin, https://www.lamaisonbaldwin.fr/ 
6. Irenosen Okoji, https://www.irenosenokojie.com/ 
 

Cultivating and Caring for Our Creativity

Cultivating and caring for our creativity with full schedules is no easy task. Jeannetta and Brittany dive into questions about boundaries, balancing work, weathering those summer social invitations, and ways to feed their imagination and creativity. Working full time has changed quite a bit about daily life, but we want to stay consistent with keeping writing high on the list of priorities.  For all you working writers, parent writers, caregiver writers, have-all-the-responsibilities writers, feel free to weigh in on your own answers to the questions posed in this episode. We would love to hear from you!
 
Show Notes
1. Leone Ross - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/353845.Leone_Ross 
2. Nedra Tawwab - Set Boundaries Find Peace - https://www.nedratawwab.com/set-boundaries-find-peace-1 
3. Norrece T. Jones, Jr - https://www.amazon.com/Born-Child-Freedom-Yet-Slave/dp/0819562467 
4. Aretha Franklin - Day Dreaming - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7peQKJxsjo

Place, Peculiarity, & Persistence

Our guest co-host. Arianna Reiche, is a Bay Area-born writer based in London.
She is the author of the two-story chapbook Warden / Star (Tangerine Press), and At The End Of Every Day (Artia Books/Simon & Schuster).
She was also nominated for the 2020 Bridport Prize and the 2020 PANK Magazine Book Contest. She won first prize in Glimmer Train’s 2017 Fiction Open and Tupelo Quarterly’s 2021 Prose Prize. Her stories have appeared in Ambit Magazine, Joyland, The Mechanics’ Institute Review, Berlin’s SAND Journal, Feels Blind Literary, Lighthouse Press, and Popshot.
Her features have appeared in Art News, The Wall Street Journal, New Scientist, USA Today, The London Fashion Week Daily, Fest Magazine, Vogue International, and Vice. She also researches and lectures in interactive narrative and metafiction at City, University of London.
 
 
In Episode 7, Arianna Reiche joins us for a conversation about Place, Peculiarity, & Persistence. We discuss ways we are able to write about place and how that may challenge common conceptions, embracing strange and peculiar perspectives, persisting through life changes, and bearing the brutal bruises of editing. 
 
Questions
1. Place has a lot to do with my fiction - I just wrote a whole novel about the grounds of a theme park, and my next book is set in Berlin - but I often struggle with feeling that I've earned the right to write intimately about any given place. I find that I often sidestep writing about towns/cities/countries with real earnestness because of that, and instead adopt a lens of irony or eeriness. Or I just end up writing about the Bay Area, where I grew up, more than I probably truly want to, because no one can challenge me on my connection to it! Have you ever felt that conflict before? And more generally, how do you approach geography in your work
 
2. What does writing in earnest and with authenticity-one's OWN sense of what is authentic-look like? How do you capture it on the page to honor our own telling or to honor our truth and perspective? And how, if it all, does that challenge and expand the narratives we see present in certain spaces or among certain people?
 
3. How do you deal with feeling repelled by your own work during the editing process? It's something I've heard almost every writer I know talk about; I describe the feeling of opening the laptop for your third round of manuscript edits as poking a bruise. How do you stay enthusiastic about your own work when you're frankly just sick of looking at it?
 
 
Show Notes
1. At the End of Every Day by Arianna Reiche https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/At-the-End-of-Every-Day/Arianna-Reiche/9781668007945
2. Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez https://bookshop.org/p/books/our-share-of-night-mariana-enriquez/18486460 
3. The Age of Magic by Ben Okri https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-age-of-magic-ben-okri/20082895?ean=9781635422689 
4. The Ben Okri story about Istanbul is called “Dreaming of Byzantium” found in Prayer for the Living, https://bookshop.org/p/books/prayer-for-the-living-ben-okri/13693373?ean=9781617758638 
5. Irenosen Okojie, https://www.irenosenokojie.com/
6. Helen Oyeyemi, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/59813/helen-oyeyemi/ 
7. CA Conrad - Poetry Rituals https://somaticpoetryexercises.blogspot.com/2018/08/somatic-poetry-rituals-basics-in-3-parts.html
8. Raymond Queneau, was part of the Oulipo group, a collection of writers and mathematicians who imposed rules on writing to increase creativity. More here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/oulipo#:~:text=An%20acronym%20for%20Ouvroir%20de,and%20mathematician%20Fran%C3%A7ois%20Le%20Lionnais.
9. Kathy Winograd - https://kathrynwinograd.com/about/
10. La Maison Baldwin, https://www.lamaisonbaldwin.fr/