Happy New Year, everyone! Let’s start the year off right with an interview with Elan Samuel, the host of the Write Right podcast. I connected with Elan online through the podcast’s co-hosts John and Craig, who are in my writing accountability group. Elan is a full-time writer, though in very different worlds. By day, he writes for a tech company in Silicon Valley. By night, he writes for himself and for his book review blog, The Warbler Books. As one third of the Write Right Podcast, he tends to ramble about his feelings about writing on an (almost) weekly basis.
Write Right podcast
What is the Write Right podcast about?
Write Right was initially intended to serve as a podcast for writers by editors—and for the first ten episodes (the entirety of the first season), that’s what it was. Those episodes were hosted by a group of editors from Story Perfect Editing Services. After the tenth episode, we looked at the format, cast, and content and decided to take the podcast in a slightly different direction. We still talk about editing from time to time, but the podcast covers the writing life in general—beyond words on a page, how does being a writer affect our relationships, jobs, decisions, and emotions?
How is the Write Right podcast different from everything else out there? How does it stand out?
While I’d like to think that we’re vastly different from all the other podcasts out there, we probably aren’t too far off from the current landscape of writing-focused shows out there. We’re inspired by other podcasts—Writing Excuses in particular—and some of our format might feel familiar as a result. Where we do stand out, probably, is in the meandering nature of our discussions. Often, a seemingly innocent topic will lead to us discussing a tangentially related sociological topic before we’re wrangled back to focus. It’s quite fun to lose track of the thread with the guys.
How did the Write Right podcast come to be?
As I mentioned earlier, we started Write Right as a podcast about editing fiction, so that new and indie writers would have a reference point for their work with editors. That’s because the crew from the first season was made up of (most) of the staff of Story Perfect Editing Services, which John and Craig jointly own. We used to advertise the company with the podcast (and vice versa), but that felt odd, so we decided to switch up the format. We no longer do ‘ad’ breaks, and while the co-owners of Story Perfect are the co-hosts, we are no longer ‘sponsored’ by the company, so to speak.
Who will benefit from listening to the Write Right podcast?
We hope that anyone who writes will benefit from listening to the podcast. I’ve found it tremendously helpful to have some of my more loony-seeming circuitous ways of belittling myself and my writing either dismantled or acknowledged by other writers. It’s easy to feel alone as a writer, but we’re all alone together. Write Right, we hope, can serve as a connection to that unity of experience.
What is the best writing advice you were ever given?
Writing every day might not make you a better writer
but eating a pinecone every day definitely will
you eat that pinecone
you eat it raw— Sam Sykes (@SamSykesSwears) May 30, 2017
Want to connect on Twitter? Go and check @writerightpod for the Write Right podcast, @bonbonelan for Elan, @warbler_books for The Warbler Books, and @storyperfected for Story Perfect Editing Services.
Do you want to be interviewed next?
Check out the guidelines and/or email me at marielle@mswordsmith.nl.