This week’s episode is the first in a new series, Words in Progress, where we speak with writers and writing professionals about a specific aspect of writing craft. Today’s inaugural episode with Nina Sadowsky focuses on Themes in our writing.
Nina Sadowsky has a new book out – Convince Me – and betrayal is a big theme in the book. She explains, “…By examining where people are broken and damaged, I can figure out how we heal.”
Here is some of what else Nina has to say…
On the big picture:
“A lot of my philosophies about writing are about marrying that sense of what is universal in terms of craft to that authentic original singular voice.”
On What is writing?
“For me, writing is always the answers to a series of questions that I’m posing to myself. And then I rely on theme, character, and craft to answer those questions.”
On universal truths:
“As a writer, one of the things I’m always interested in is that there is no one absolute truth.”
On what writers need to ask themselves:
“Did every scene advance these four things: plot, story, character, and theme.”
Nina gave us so much to think about and she gave an exercise we can do ourselves. She asks writers to do the following exercise:
A one paragraph statement of theme(s) about your work + one scene that you think is representative of those themes as explored through your character(s).
And if that wasn’t enough she offered a critique on their exercise on theme +
a signed copy of her latest novel, Convince Me, to one lucky listener! Enter here!
Listen to the whole episode for more insights from writer and teacher Nina Sadowsky. Subscribe at www.gameofbookspodcast.com so you don’t miss next week’s episode – the GOB Club featuring Best Selling author Hank Phillippi Ryan!
