The Five Rules Of Writing: Recent Episodes
Strong Words Magazine
I'm Ed Needham, editor of the fabulous literary magazine Strong Words, and this is my podcast, The Five Rules of Writing. In each episode, I speak to a most excellent writer in a particular genre about how they do it.
If you'd like to know more about Strong Words and specifically how to subscribe, head to http://strong-words.co.uk/.
Freya Berry’s recent debut The Dictator’s Wife features a chilling portrait of a late eastern European tyrant’s partner, as she prepares to go on trial for her life. Here the author describes her five rules for creating such an intimidating and compromised anti-heroine.
The Dictator's Wife: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/freya-berry/the-dictators-wife/9781472276339/
@FreyaBBooks
Zoë Somerville's recent novel The Marsh House concerns a single mother's Christmas visit to the creepy Norfolk coast, and her reading a life of a previous resident of her dilapidated cottage while nature does its best to frighten her. Here she shares her Five Rules of Writing on how to create pure rural fear.
The Marsh House: https://headofzeus.com/books/9781838934675
https://zoesomerville.com/
@zessomerville
Writer Christina Patterson, whose most recent book is Outside, the Sky is Blue, a crystal-clear account of the havoc visited on her family by illness, on her Five Rules of Writing memoir.
https://christinapatterson.co.uk/
Outside, the Sky is Blue: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/christina-patterson/outside-the-sky-is-blue/9781472282651/
@queenchristina_
Jan Carson, whose most recent novel The Raptures concerns a spate of deaths at a rural Protestant Northern Ireland primary school, on her five rules for writing about the province.
@JanCarson7280
The Raptures: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1115884/the-raptures/9780857525758.html
https://www.jancarson.co.uk/
Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine.
Richard Balls, author of the superb Shane MacGowan biography, A Furious Devotion, on his five rules for interviewing someone who has little desire to cooperate.
@RichardBalls
A Furious Devotion: The Life of Shane MacGowan: https://omnibuspress.com/products/a-furious-devotion-the-life-of-shane-macgowan-published-on-7th-october-2021
Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: https://strong-words.co.uk/
Tom Hodgkinson, whose magazine is devoted to the quest for maximum satisfaction from minimum effort, on where writing fits with this equation.
@idler
The Idler: https://www.idler.co.uk/
An Idler's Manual: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/IDLERS-MANUAL-by-TOM-HODKINSON/9781901170344
Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: https://strong-words.co.uk/
First-time author of the sublime Mrs March, Virginia Feito shares her five rules on writing "a gloriously grotesque antiheroine."
Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine.
Lesley-Ann Jones, Fleet Street survivor and writer of the recent Love of my Life about the relationships of Freddie Mercury, on how to write a rock biography.
Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: https://strong-words.co.uk/
Buy Love Of My Life here: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/lesley-ann-jones/love-of-my-life/9781529362343/
@LAJWriter
https://www.lesleyannjones.com/
Rob Davis, guitarist with glam nobility Mud and co-composer of Kylie's Can't Get You Out of My Head, on how to write hit records.
Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: http://strong-words.co.uk
Author and editor of the Londnr culture website Nina-Sophia Miralles, on her five rules of writing about the ultra-haughty fashion bible, Vogue magazine.
@Londnr
https://www.ninamiralles.com/
Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: http://strong-words.co.uk
Author and publisher Jay Glennie, who specialises in deeply researched records of the making of classic films, on the five rules of getting A-list movie folk to share their stories.
Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: http://strong-words.co.uk
Film director, screenwriter and bestselling French author Jean-Baptiste Andrea, on writing his second novel A Hundred Million Years and a Day, one of Strong Words' 20 best books of 2020.
Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine.
Buy A Hundred Million Years and a Day: https://belgraviabooks.com/product/a-hundred-million-years-and-a-day-pb-b?i=1
Music writer and author Pete Paphides, whose autobiography Broken Greek describes the vital role played by the Top 40 in his formative years, discusses his seven (!) rules of writing about one's own infancy.
Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine.
Buy Broken Greek here: https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/titles/pete-paphides-2/broken-greek/9781529404425/
Ancient historian Tom Holland, author of bestselling works on Julius Caesar, the first Roman emperors, Persia in its imperial pomp and a history of Christianity, on turning the remote past into a gripping read.
@holland_tom
Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: http://strong-words.co.uk
Dr Gillian O’Brien, historian and author of the superb “The Darkness Echoing,” on her “dark tourism” itinerary of Ireland’s “places of famine, death and rebellion.”
Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: http://strong-words.co.uk
In episode 8 of The Five Rules of Writing, Scarlett and Sophie Rickard describe how they turned Robert Tressell’s “intimidating” Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists into a dazzling page-turner of a graphic novel.
Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: http://strong-words.co.uk
In episode 7 of The Five Rules of Writing, Dylan Jones, the GQ editor and author of entire libraries on music, politics and culture, provides instruction for those wondering how to write an oral biography.
Presented by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine.
In episode 6 of the Five Rules of Writing, Matt Wesolowski, creator of the "Six Stories" brand of podcast-as-novel ultra-creepiness, on how to scare your readers witless.
Brought to you by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: https://strong-words.co.uk
In episode 5 of the Five Rules of Writing, David Hepworth, the journalist, broadcaster and writer of several bestselling volumes on how rock music changed the world, shares his views on how it's done. You won't be needing a chair.
Brought to you by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: https://strong-words.co.uk
In episode 4 of The Five Rules of Writing, Sabine Durrant, a masterful creator of unnerving domestic tension, sheds a little light on her techniques, including a superb method for surprising yourself.
In episode 3 of The Five Rules of Writing, novelist Mark Billingham shares some of the keys to writing bestselling crime stories around calculating psychopaths, including the need to keep your killer in plain sight, and the correct number of twists permitted per plot.
Brought to you by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: http://strong-words.co.uk
In episode 2 of The Five Rules of Writing, novelist and Liverpool FC obsessive Anthony Quinn talks about how he set aside his fiction writing toolkit to compose an appreciation of Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, even going as far as to sit through press conferences in German, a language which he doesn't speak.
Brought to you by Ed Needham and Strong Words Magazine: http://strong-words.co.uk
Raising the curtain on Strong Words' debut episode of The Five Rules of Writing is novelist Tammy Cohen. Join us as she reveals the compositional commandments that enable her to write chilling psychological thrillers with one hand and, as Rachel Rhys, pulsating historical drama with the other. From the ideas you should instantly reject to drowning out your annoying inner critic, here’s how novels are made…
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