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The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Category Archives: Craft of Fiction Writing

Episode 455: Elif Shafak!

16 Saturday Jan 2021

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode

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Episode 455 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

In this week’s show, I talk to the novelist Elif Shafak about the importance of the structure of literary novels, the sublime oddity of the mind, how politics deepen literature (so long as politics don’t drive literature), how research itself generates creativity, and how inclusive literature is the richest literature.

TEXT DISCUSSED

NOTES

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.


Episode 455 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Episode 446: Phil Klay!

14 Saturday Nov 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode, War

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Episode 446 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Photo by Hannah Dunphy.

On this week’s show, fiction writer and veteran Phil Klay and I discuss finding the right form for a novel, war literature, and winning the National Book Award.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

NOTES

Scribophile

  • TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.
  • Starting on Nov 15, register with Miami Book Fair Online in order to stream its free events, including a debut poet panel moderated by yours truly.

  • Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

Episode 446 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Episode 440: Dmetri Kakmi!

03 Saturday Oct 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Autobiography, Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode, Horror

≈ Leave a comment

Episode 440 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Photo by Jon Rendell.

On this week’s show, I talk to Dmetri Kakmi about existentialism in horror, the performance of identity, the structure of memoir, and many other things.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

NOTESScribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Check out The Diaries of a Sozzled Scribbler, as transcribed by Dmetri.

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.


Episode 440 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Episode 439: Chuck Palahniuk!

26 Saturday Sep 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode, Postmodernism

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Tags

Adjustment Day, Chuck Palahniuk, Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life after Which Everything Was Different, Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, Stranger Than Fiction, The Invention of Sound

Episode 439 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

On this week’s show, I talk to novelist Chuck Palahniuk about The Invention of Sound, Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life after Which Everything Was Different, Adjustment Day, the 18-month rule, how to stay productive, how to keep invested in the work, the genius of Ira Levin, the value of mentors, and how to remix Invisible Monsters.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

NOTESScribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Check out Episode 332, when Vanessa Blakeslee and I discussed Chuck’s Stranger Than Fiction.

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.


Episode 439 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Episode 433: Darin Strauss!

15 Saturday Aug 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Craft of Fiction Writing, Creative Nonfiction, Episode

≈ Leave a comment

Episode 433 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Darin Strauss

Photo by Robert Birnbaum.

On this episode, Darin Strauss and I discuss the utility of outlines, the utility of abandoning outlines, love, pain, stream-of-consciousness, love, Lucille Ball, Fred Trump, Coney Island, the semiotic intimacy of television, and love.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

The Queen of TuesdayChang and EngThe Real McCoyMore Than It Hurts YouHalf a LifeThe Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.


Episode 433 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Episode 429: Lindsay Ellis!

18 Saturday Jul 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode, Film, Science Fiction

≈ 6 Comments

Episode 429 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Ellis.2.credit Emily VanDerWerff

Photo by Emily VanDerWerf.

In this week’s show, I talk to novelist and video essayist Lindsay Ellis about science fiction; the structure of novels; exploring character interiority; alien invasion narratives; Chomskyian linguistics; the joys of making academic arguments about pop culture outside the academy; Transformers; and author platforms.

TEXT DISCUSSED

Axiom's End

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Check out Lindsay Ellis’s youtube channel!

Or these vids.

The music for today’s show is by Modal Plane, used by permission. Check out more of his music over at Circuit Church.

Modal Plane

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.


Episode 429 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

 

Episode 428: David James Poissant!

11 Saturday Jul 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

David James Poissant, Lake Life, The Heaven of Animals

Episode 428 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

David James Poissant

In this week’s show, I talk to my friend David James Poissant about novel-writing, sex scenes, The X-Men, graphic art, focus, and many other things.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Lake LifeThe Heaven of Animals


This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.


Episode 428 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Episode 418: A Discussion of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, with Vanessa Blakeslee!

02 Saturday May 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode

≈ Leave a comment

Episode 418 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

The Hero With a Thousand Faces JV

Vanessa Blakeslee and I discuss the classic of comparative mythology, Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. While this is a work of scholarship not directly intended for creative writers, its lessons are of immense value to anyone writing adventure, fantasy, or science fiction. We reference Star Wars, The Matrix, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, The Bible, and Pinocchio, among other works, and mention the trials of academic discourse that are meant to be confused with the belly of the beast.

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Consider donating to City Lights Books to sustain it and/or buying a book online from Powells.

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame Cover


Episode 418 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Episode 417: Jazon Z. Morris!

25 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode

≈ 1 Comment

Episode 417 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Jason Z. Morris

This week I talk with the novelist Jason Z. Morris about structuring a novel, learning the confidence to write a novel, how the peer review process in science helps in receiving creative writing criticism, and the fun, diverse conversations to be had at the faculty cafeteria at Fordham at Lincoln Center.

TEXT DISCUSSED

Thicker Than Mud

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Consider donating to City Lights Books to sustain it and/or buying a book online from Powells.

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame Cover


Episode 417 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Episode 412: A Discussion of Douglas Glover’s The Erotics of Restraint, with Vanessa Blakeslee!

28 Saturday Mar 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Blog Post, Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode, Vanessa Blakeslee

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Douglas Glover, The Erotics of Restraint: Essays on Literary Form, Vanessa Blakeslee

Episode 412 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing.)

This week, my occasional co-host, Vanessa Blakeslee, and I discuss Douglas Glover’s latest collection, The Erotics of Restraint: Essays on Literary Form. We explore his insights on time and plot construction, as seen the works of Alice Munro, Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, and others.

John & Vanessa Flash 2

Photo by Shawn McKee.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

The Erotics of Restraint

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

If you are looking for a happier view than your own window yet again, try my scenic views of Walt Disney World playlist.

*

Check out my adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame Cover

And check out Vanessa’s books, too.

Perfect_Conditions_Front_CoverJuventudTrain Shots


Episode 412 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing.)

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