May 2018 – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 102—Jane Friedman on The Business of Being a Writer

Jane Friedman, everybody! Her latest book “The Business of Being a Writer” is the best book on the biz I’ve ever read. Wish I had it 10 years ago.

By Brendan O’Meara

Tweetables by Jane Friedman (@JaneFriedman):

“You can’t expect to remain static.”

“You have to decide how you want to live in this ecosystem that is morphing around you.”

“So much of my career, it’s been a process of realizing that the “book” isn’t everything.”

Promotional support is provided by Hippocampus Magazine. Its 2018 Remember in November Contest for Creative Nonfiction is open for submissions until July 15th! This annual contest has a grand prize of $1,000 and publication for all finalists. That’s awesome. Visit hippocampusmagazine.com for details. Hippocampus Magazine: Memorable Creative Nonfiction.

Okay, back in the saddle again, it’s the Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I speak to the best artists about telling true stories so you can apply those tools of mastery to your own work.

For Episode 102 of CNF Pod, I welcome Jane Friedman, the titan (though not like Thanos) of the publishing industry, whose book The Business of Being a Writer, published by the University of Chicago Press, is the best and most frank book on earning a living with words.

It debunks a lot of myths and, quite honestly, could save a bunch of people from getting into the biz on false delusions and might even save more people from pursuing an MFA (not that this is/was Jane’s intent), a degree, IMO, that leads to more debt than fulfillment, controversial as that may be. And I have one, earned on the false pretenses of career advancement, but that’s not why we’re here.

Jane talks about her upbringing in a small Indiana town, I wish it was Pawnee, but it wasn’t.

How a writing career is very much individualistic
Dealing with shame
Playing the long game
Embracing Change instead of fighting it
And getting beyond the idea that the book is the be all, end all

Thanks to Jane and to our promotional sponsor Hippocampus Magazine.

If you have a minute or two, please consider leaving a review on iTunes/Apple Podcasts. That would mean the world to me and will help this podcast reach more people looking to tell their best true story.

Episode 101—Creative Writer’s Toolbelt Host Andrew Chamberlain Brings the Hammer

Andrew J. Chamberlain, host of The Creative Writer’s Toolbelt, and the author of the book of the same name, joined me for Episode 101.

By Brendan O’Meara

Tweetables by Andrew Chamberlain (@writerstoolbelt):

“You can’t be passive and just sit back and wait for things to happen.”T

It’s The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I speak to the best artists about telling true stories: leaders in narrative journalism, podcasting, radio, doc film, essay, and memoir and tease out origins, habits, routines, tactics, so you can improve your own work.

For Episode 101, I welcome fellow podcaster Andrew Chamberlain. He hosts The Creative Writers Toolbelt, a podcast that gets real granular on the writing process. He has a fiction slant, but his experience interviewing and with ghost writing opened the door for him to come on my show. As an FYI, I went on his show not too long ago, so you should go and check that out. I’ll include it in the show notes.

Andy breaks it down for you in this episode. Many of the tools apply to fiction, but if you’re anything like me, you want your nonfiction to read like fiction so I think you’ll get a lot of tasty nuggets from this one.

Hey, if you haven’t subscribed, go and do that on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play Music, and soon Spotify, still waiting for approval on Spotify, but it’s coming, I promise.

Thanks everybody and thanks to Andy for the time.

Sign up for my monthly reading list newsletter. It comes out on the first of the month and gives you a sampling of good books and what you might have missed from the world of the podcast. Once a month. No spam. Can’t beat it.

Got any questions, concerns, problems you’re working through (in your work), please reach out:

@BrendanOMeara and @CNFPod on Twitter and @CNFPodcast on Facebook or email me brendan at brendan omeara dot com.

That’s it for me. Have a CNFin’ great week, friends.

Episode 100—Mary Karr Talks ‘Tropic of Squalor,’ Grinding Through Early Drafts, and Cellos

By Brendan O’Meara

Tweetables by Mary Karr (@marykarrlit):

“If I can get through the horribleness of the first draft, I have a chance.”

“I literally do fifty drafts of a poem.”

“Reading was socially sanctioned disassociation.”

Whoa, boy, CNFers, it’s Episode 100 of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast. 100? Here for the first time? This is my jam, the show where I speak to the best artists about telling true stories: leaders in narrative journalism, memoir, doc film, radio, and personal essay to tease out tactics, habits, origins, and routines so you can improve your own work. I’m your host Brendan O’Meara. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your pods and share with a fellow CNF Buddy.

Man…Are you serious? 100 episodes and for this special occasion we here at CNF Pod HQ bring you Mary Karr. I’m sure 99.9% of you know who she is, but if you don’t here’s the rundown:

She’s the best-selling author of The Liar’s Club, Cherry, Lit, The Art of Memoir, and five books of poetry, including her latest, Tropic of Squalor published by Harper.

Mary is a professor at Syracuse University and is best known and most responsible for the boom in memoir when The Liar’s Club kicked all our asses and showed us what a personal story could be.

We talked a lot about:

The importance of patience
Working through dozens of drafts,
The nature of talent
And cellos, yes, cellos.

She’s @marykarrlit on Twitter and Facebook and her website is marykarr.com. Be sure to stick through the end of the show where Mary reads two amazing poems from Tropic of Squalor. You don’t want to miss out on that tasty goodness.

If you head over to brendanomeara.com you’ll find show notes as well as a chance to subscribe to my monthly reading list newsletter. And, no, if you click through and buy books I don’t get any kickbacks so you can rest assured that I’m selecting books that I enjoyed and get no compensation for. Once a month. No spam. Can’t beat that.

You can also support the podcast by leaving a review on iTunes as that helps our little corner of the internet get a little bit bigger. If you leave an honest review and send me a screenshot, I’ll coach up a piece of your work of up to 2,000 words. No diggity.

That’s gonna do it, CNFers. Here’s to the next 100 CNFin’ shows up in your ears.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by the 2018 Creative Nonfiction Writers’ Conference. Now in its 6th year, the CNF Writers’ Conference is three days celebrating the art, craft, and business of writing true stories. May 24th through 26th in downtown Pittsburgh. Details at creative nonfiction.org/conference. Listeners of this podcast receive 20% off the registration price by entering coupon code CNFPODCAST during checkout.

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Episode 99—David Grann on ‘The Killers of the Flower Moon” and Why Every Story is a Struggle

David Grann’s “The Killers of the Flower Moon” is now out in paperback.

By Brendan O’Meara

Tweetables by David Grann (@DavidGrann):

“I think the real trick is telling stories chronologically, letting them unfold as they really happened.”

“I’d rather find the story and excavate it than make it up.”

“I think every story is a struggle and a puzzle.”

It’s The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I talk to the best artists about telling true stories and tease out origins, tactics, and habits so you can apply those tools of mastery to your own work.

Welcome, CNFers, my CNFbuddies, oh, I’m feelin’ good today and, boy, do I have a treat for you. But first, if you don’t subscribe to the show, go and get it on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, Stitcher, and soon Spotify and join our little tribe in this true story corner of the Internet. Continue reading “Episode 99—David Grann on ‘The Killers of the Flower Moon” and Why Every Story is a Struggle”