Who Wants to Write a Book? Here is the Better Reading On Writing Podcast Series

‘Daily, listeners were contacting me saying that they loved the podcast but wanted to know more about how the writers managed to do what they do. Do they have a special place to write? Do their characters take over their waking life? Do they have conversations with them or do they research like method actors and try to experience the things they put their characters through? There was endless fascination’. Cheryl Akle Founder of Better Reading

With over 300,000 downloads the Better Reading podcast, Stories Behind the Story has given readers ‘behind the scenes’ access to many of their favourite authors. From national treasures such as Tom Keneally, to debut authors like Holly Ringland, there is a strong desire to know where their story came from and ultimately about their lives. Something that has also intrigued many podcast listeners, not so much the step-by-step process but how an author writes and thinks and creates.

In response to this, Better Reading has created a six-part series Better Reading On Writing. The series is not a ‘how to’, rather an inspirational and highly entertaining listen for those who are intrigued about the minds of authors, their processes and their worlds.

In one episode, Candice Fox talks about her jaw-dropping experience of lunching with Bill Clinton and meeting a serial killer on death row on the same day, all in the name of research! Trent Dalton talks about how you need to ‘open up a vein’ when you set out to write and Melina Marchetta finds material everywhere including in the aisles of the supermarket where the most revealing of conversations happen in the most ordinary of places.

“I have my own little thing that I write, and I stick up on the wall every time … the heart of every story comes down to three things: pity, fear and catharsis.” – says Dervla McTiernan

Hand-picked from the writing success stories of 2019, listeners are guided through the creative life of five bestselling authors and one publisher while they share with us how they do it and why they do it. In each episode, Cheryl Akle and the author dicusses one aspect of writing or the business of writing. Accompanying this are also fascinating soundbites from other authors on writing such as Ben Okri, Tim Winton, JR Lonie, Minette Walters, Lee Child, Michael Robotham and more.

The series (specifics of each episode below) includes a number of multi-award winning authors including, Trent Dalton author of Boy Swallows Universe (who has won amongst many awards 2019 Indie Book of the Year Award, the UTS People’s Choice Award at the 2019 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and the 2019 Australian Book Industry Awards), Melina Marchetta most known for the internationally bestselling Looking for Alibrandi, and Candice Fox who is award winning in her own right but now also collaborates with James Patterson, which has sky-rocketed her writing career.

This companion podcast is for everyone: writers, teachers and students, would-be authors, and readers who love hearing how their favourite authors work. We are so happy to share it with you.