Donald Maass podcast

.
.
I know I've mentioned before how I love to listen to Barbara DeMarco-Barrett's Writers on Writing podcasts when I'm doing the dishes, or sitting in an airport, or driving long distances. During this last long bout of travel (the last for a bit, I pray!), I enjoyed a number, but one in particular stood out for me: an interview with NY literary agent Donald Maass. I've read Donald Maass' book Writing the Breakout Novel -- and I wish I had it here with me now in my office in Mexico, because there are a number of interesting things he has to say in it.

Before writing the book, Maass made a systematic study of the novels that made the NYT bestseller list, wishing to identify what it was about a novel that made it outstandingly popular. I'm not attempting to be a Danielle Steels or Stephenie Meyer, but I do appreciate insights into what makes a story compulsively addictive. I like when a book has me deeply hooked: I love it ... and that's what I'm after.

Two things stood out in this particular interview for me:

One, that a compelling main character should be deeply conflicted right from the start: he or she must want two things that cannot co-exist.

The other thing he had to say that gave me thought was not so much about writing as about promotion: his belief that promotion and publicity isn't what sells a book — that what sells a book is the book itself. I'd like to believe that, but I'm not convinced. I don't think it's an accident that the Josephine B. Trilogy sold very well in the countries that invested a great deal in promotion (and conversely).

Podictionary podcast

.
.
I've started to listen to Charles Hodgson's Podictionary podcast. It's great ... especially for writers. I've added it to my essentials.

Podcasts I couldn't do without

.
.
I subscribe to three podcasts. I listen to them while doing excercises, the dishes, the laundry, driving. They are all writing-related, and I highly recommend them.

Writers on Writing: interviews with writers and agents on the craft and business of writing. As a writer, a reader and a teacher of writing, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett knows the subject well. The interviews are invariably inspiring and informative. I just listened to a wonderful interview with script doctor John Truby and have ordered his book, The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller. (Click here to listen to the interview.) I really like Truby, and this sounds like the perfect book for me right now.

The other podcast I love is put out weekly by the New York Times Book Review. It's snappy, short, informative and entertaining.

My third favorite I used to listen to on the CBC every Sunday afternoon at 3:00, usually as I made soup. My life is not so easily patterned these days, and so I appreciate the freedom of being able to listen to Eleanor Wachtel's Writers & Company whenever I please.