AS YOU WELL KNOW, if you search online for tips on how to write a book, you will yet mixed results, some from people who have never written much more than that blog post to which you will be sent if you click on the link. I’ve got a better suggestion, one that will lead you straight to well-published, well-received writers talking about the work.
Let me introduce you to The New York State Writers Institute’s YouTube channel, a treasure trove of talks, interviews and readings, specifically on how to write a book. Any book. Fiction. Non-fiction. You name it.
In the years since the great William Kennedy founded The New York State Writers Institute, more than 1,200 writers have come through lecturing, reading, teaching afternoon masters classes, all for free, all open to the public, and many of which are on film.
Like the great playwright Edward Albee? He’s here, as is James Gleick, whose most recent book, Time Travel, is currently being hailed as one of the top ten of 2016. Have a thing for Joyce Carol Oates? Got her right here. How about the wondrous Mary Gaitskill? Absolutely. Richard Russo? Twice.
I love these, so much so that I have conducted some of the interviews with the writers, most recently with the great William Kennedy on the topic of adaptation (see above), specifically celebrating the 30th anniversary of the film Ironweed, which he adapted from his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. I also recently interviewed John Krakauer for the Institute, and have been a featured writer there myself.
Don’t live close enough to attend? Stop asking Google for advice on how to write a book and instead, subscribe to the YouTube Channel and, while waiting for next year’s lineup of writers, check out who is already on tape.
Enjoy.
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