London Writers&#x27; Salon – Details, episodes &amp; analysis

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#113: Lyn Slater — How to Reinvent Yourself At All Ages, Becoming An Accidental Icon, The Reality of Going Viral, Blogging for Pleasure, Writing Memoir & Moving Beyond Fame

Episode 113

samedi 17 août 2024 • Duration 01:02:50

Lyn Slater on going viral with her blog, Accidental Icon in her 60s, writing memoir How to Be Old and starting a Substack in her 70s and why getting older can be the most invigorating phase of life—full of rebellion, reinvention, connection, and creativity.

ABOUT LYN SLATER

Lyn Slater is a cultural influencer, model, writer, content creator and former professor. She started Accidental Icon in September of 2014 and has since garnered a loyal fan base of almost a million followers across platforms. Her memoir is How to Be Old: Lessons in Living Boldly from the Accidental Icon

RESOURCES & LINKS

📄 Interview Transcript (unedited)
Accidental Icon
How To Be Old
Lyn’s Substack
Lyn’s Instagram
“Three Iconic Girls”
Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
“How Millenials Became the Burnout Generation” by Anne Helen Peterson
Cassidy Sachs, Lyn’s editor

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

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#104: Rupal Patel — Lessons from the CIA, Building A Creative Practice, Prioritising Time & Writing Non-Fiction

Episode 104

samedi 4 mai 2024 • Duration 01:06:55

Rupal Patel, an ex-CIA agent and author of From CIA to CEO on applying CIA tools to your personal and creative life. Plus she gives us tips for how to create more time and how to pitch a non-fiction book.

RESOURCES & LINKS

📄 Interview Transcript (unedited)
From CIA to CEO
Rupal’s TED Talk, My Unexpected Discovery About Working at the CIA
Rupal’s website

ABOUT RUPAL PATEL

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Rupal Patel is a born-and-bred New Yorker now living near London. Her unconventional career as a CIA analyst and successful entrepreneur has taken her from dusty briefing rooms in jungles and war zones to the gilded halls of NATO and Capitol Hill. As a CEO, leadership consultant, and strategic advisor, she now helps founders, corporate leaders, and next-generation change-makers lead in powerful, meaningful ways while building mental toughness and unshakable resilience.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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A dilemma for Nick Clegg as Lord Rennard apologises

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#014: Cathy Newman — Juggling Creative Projects, Writing News Stories and The Power of Creative Collaboration

Episode 14

samedi 25 juin 2022 • Duration 49:13

Why are creative partnerships so powerful? How can we work on multiple creative projects at one time? In this interview, we talk to the award-winning investigative journalist and Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman, we discuss her non-fiction book It Takes Two: A History of the Couples Who Dared to Be Different which is all about the power of collaboration. We deconstruct how she writes news stories, books, and her research process. We also explore the idea of creative partnerships from Beyonce and JayZ to Clement Attlee and Winston Churchill, how these partnerships are like a ‘dance’ and how we might spot our own creative collaborator.

ABOUT CATHY NEWMAN

Cathy Newman is an award-winning investigative journalist and Channel 4 News’ first female main presenter. Cathy is also the author of Bloody Brilliant Women: Pioneers, Revolutionaries & Geniuses Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention, and her latest book, It Takes Two: A History of the Couples Who Dared to Be Different.

SHOW NOTES:

[03:41] Cathy’s love for music, and why she shifted from music to writing

[05:15] Playing in The Commons, and about her music group, The Statutory Instruments

[07:40] Transitioning from writing journalistic articles to writing for TV

[10:10] Some examples of what Cathy’s writing process for TV looks like

[14:19] How she stays on top of things, including the tools she uses

[16:18] The inspiration behind her book It Takes Two

[19:19] The themes that unify the power collaborators, including competitiveness, muses, and the idea of the power couple

[22:34] The pas de deux and the concept of balance in relationships

[26:20] The partnerships and collaborations that have helped Cathy with her career

[30:18] How to find and form creative partnerships

[33:39] The writing and research process for her book

[43:24] Self-doubt and responding to positive and negative reception

[45:40] The power of reading and how it’s helped Cathy in difficult times

QUOTES FROM CATHY:

“I was fascinated by the idea that a coupledom is a dance and whether that's a work relationship, a romantic relationship, and as part of the research, I read, um, a German sociologist called Georg Simmel, who talked about this concept of dyads and why this relationship of two is so crucial. And here's what I felt was quite revolutionary, was that he was talking about the need for balance and a horizontal type approach to any relationship…you've got to be finely tuned and balanced for the dance to work.”

RESOURCES

Connect with Cathy Newman:

Twitter: @cathynewman

Instagram: @cathynewmanc4

Links from the show:

Manhunt: Closing in on a British Paedophile

Ukraine conflict: Military actions unfortunately connected to human loss, says Sergei Lavrov

‘You’re being emotional’: What happened when I asked Sergei Lavrov about the blood on his hands

Bloody Brilliant Women: The Pioneers, Revolutionaries and Geniuses Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention by Cathy Newman

It Takes Two: A History of the Couples Who Dared to Be Different by Cathy Newman

The Statutory Instruments - UK Parliamentary String Quartet

Georg Simmel - A German sociologist, philosopher, and critic.

Serial podcast

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

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CREDITS:

Production by Victoria Spooner. Artwork by Emma Winterschladen

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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Instagram picture we mention at the start of the show

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#013: Selina Lim — Writing Authentic Dialogue for TV, Writing about Sex, Love & Drama, and A Peek Into a Writers’ Room

Episode 13

samedi 18 juin 2022 • Duration 39:51

In this episode, Selina Lim, BAFTA-nominated screenwriter (Sex Education, Hanna) shares her screenwriting journey from her first BBC script to earning a BAFTA nomination, and how she broke into the industry as an outsider. Selina also gives us a peek at the inner workings of a writers’ room on hit TV shows - including the roles, exercises they use, and how writers collaborate inside it. We deconstruct what it takes to write a great scene, including sex scenes, what it means to write authentic dialogue and the importance of knowing our characters.

ABOUT SELINA LIM

Selina is a BAFTA and BIFA nominated screenwriter currently writing on series 3 of Sex Education (Eleven/Netflix) and season 3 of Hanna (Amazon/NBC) and has previously written for Hollyoaks (Lime Pictures/Channel 4) and was in the writers’ room for The Night Manager Series 2 (The Ink Factory/AMC).

SHOW NOTES

[02:42] Selina talks about how she became one of the Sex Education writers and her experience of being in an online writers' room

[07:22] How she started as a screenwriter

[13:24] The dynamics in a writers' room

[17:01] How to understand a character's role in your story and why it’s important to know your characters really well

[19:45] How a writers’ room function, how writers ideate and collaborate

[22:14] Writing a scene and knowing the bigger picture

[27:08] Creating a scene's structure, why she believes you should "write drunk, edit sober", and showing instead of telling

[29:32] On writing sex scenes

[32:14] What makes good and authentic dialogue?

[33:34] Selina shares what helps her understand her character more

[36:04] Dealing with self-doubt

QUOTES FROM SELINA LIM

“What is the work that the scene is doing? Why is it there? You have to ask so you know what emotional beat you are hitting.”

RESOURCES:

Connect with Selina Lim:

Website: selinalim.co.uk

Twitter: https://twitter.com/muppet0013

Instagram: instagram.com/selinalim888

Links from the show:

TV Shows mentioned:

Others

Playing Ball - a short written by Selina for BBC
Painkiller - a 15-minute short film

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

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Facebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalon*

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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#011: The One With Matt & Parul — Why We Created This Podcast

Episode 11

samedi 11 juin 2022 • Duration 20:59

We have published 10 episodes and we realised that we had never really introduced ourselves…

So, we’re going to talk a little about where we’ve come from and why the London Writers’ Salon exists and what this podcast means to us. We’re going to do this by interviewing each other!

ABOUT MATT AND PARUL

Matt Trinetti and Parul Bavishi are the co-founders of the London Writers' Salon (@WritersSalon) and the creators of the Webby-nominated Writers' Hour where they write with hundreds of writers every week day. The Salon began as an in-person monthly interview series in central London and has since evolved to become a global community. In addition to the daily Writers' Hours, they host weekly interviews with writers and run workshops to help writers get published. They have partnered with organisations like Soho House, Allbright and Women's Prize for Fiction.

Matt Trinetti is a writer, publisher, TEDx speaker, and facilitator. In addition to running LWS, Matt designs programs to help unfulfilled professionals pursue creative work, start businesses, and reinvent their careers. Matt's work has appeared in Quartz, Observer, Creative Mornings, and on his blog GiveLiveExplore.

Parul Bavishi has been an editor for over a decade. In addition to running LWS she helps thriller, YA and non-fiction writers level up their craft and get published. She previously worked as an editor and literary scout at Quercus and Random House.

RESOURCES AND LINKS:

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

Escape the City

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CREDITS

Artwork by Emma Winterschladen

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON

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#012: Anthony Anaxagorou — Push Past Self-Doubt and Think Like a Poet

Episode 12

samedi 11 juin 2022 • Duration 01:02:23

How does a poet see the world? How can we move past self doubt and keep writing after rejection? In this episode we talk to Anthony Anaxagorou about how his journaling practice helps him generate ideas for his work, what his editing process looks like, and why he might spend eight or nine hours working on a single poem. Anthony is candid about his experience of failure and rejection, shares why we should be wary of the temptations of ‘prize culture’ (always seeking validation through the next prize), and why it’s crucial to develop our own internal value system to sustain ourselves and our writing. He even reads us some of his poetry!

ABOUT ANTHONY ANAXAGOROU

Anthony Anaxagorou is a British-born Cypriot poet, fiction writer, essayist, publisher and poetry educator. His second collection After the Formalities was shortlisted for the 2019 T.S Eliot Prize. He was awarded the 2019 H-100 Award for writing and publishing, and the 2015 Groucho Maverick Award for his poetry and fiction. He’s the founder of one of London's leading poetry nights, Out-Spoken, and the independent publisher Out-Spoken Press.

SHOW NOTES

[03:22] The experience of writing a book during the pandemic

[04:41] Anthony talks about his uncle and how he influenced him as a writer

[08:07] On failures and why it's important to ask yourself searching questions and see rejection as part of your job

[11:48] What is prize culture and why does Anthony think it's dangerous?

[14:06] Measuring success and creating your own value system

[15:04] Anthony reads his poem, "Uber"

[18:31] On being dissatisfied with his own work

[21:53] On why he carrys a notebook with him all the time, and a writing habit he got from Lydia Davis

[22:34] Anthony’s morning writing exercise

[24:15] Anthony talks about his writing process, including 7-8 hours of focusing on one poem

[27:43] How do you stop feeling intimidated by the academic side of poetry?

[31:32] Anthony reflects on what "pushing your writing as far as it can go" means to him

[34:32] Anthony shares the exercises he gives to his students to help them in writing a poem

[36:38] What is the loaf of bread analogy, and why is playing with timelines when you write essential?

[37:40] Resolving the poem and the idea of leaving the reader with questions

[39:15] How do you know when a poem is done?

[43:33] On being in conversation with the reader and why the writer is only half the conversation

[46:13] Anthony shares how he started his London-based Out-Spoken open mic nights

[49:44] Anthony reads his poem, "After the Formalities"

QUOTES BY ANTHONY:

“The more you read, the more you get a sense for how poems work. And it's literally just from reading and you get a sense of where things end and where is an interesting place to end. If you think along the lines of—if you think the word interesting as opposed to kind of definitive. Then it kind of—it swaps. I just want to be interesting on the page. I don't want to be correct. I don't want to be certain. I want to be interesting.”

RESOURCES:

Connect with Anthony:

Twitter: @Anthony1983

Facebook: anthonyanax

Website: anthonyanaxagorou.com

Links from the show:

After the Formalities by Anthony Anaxagorou

How To Write It by Anthony Anaxagorou

Suppose a Sentence by Brian Dillon

Uber by Anthony Anaxagorou

After the Formalities by Anthony Anaxagorou

Authors/Poets mentioned:

Don Paterson
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Emily Dickinson
Ocean Vuong
Matthew Sweeney
Jericho Brown

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

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CREDITS

Production by Victoria Spooner. Artwork by Emma Winterschladen

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON

If you’re enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!

#010: Casper ter Kuile — Writing Rituals, Digital Sabbaths & Finding Meaning in Everyday Moments

Episode 10

samedi 28 mai 2022 • Duration 47:38

During times of enormous change, how can you harness the power of ritual to create stability and creativity? How can ordinary practices, such as writing, help us find meaning and cultivate deeper spiritual lives? We talk to author Casper Ter Kuile (The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities Into Soulful Practices) about the difference between habit and ritual and how to turn habits into meaningful rituals. We explore Casper’s journey in publishing, how he moved past the first draft and his practices for overcoming the pitfalls of comparison.

Casper ter Kuile is the author of The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices, co-host of the award-winning podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, and co-founder of startup Sacred Design Lab - a research and design consultancy working to create a culture of belonging and becoming.

SHOW NOTES

[03:18] Casper talks about his 24-hour tech sabbatical and why rest isn't just about preparing us for the workweek

[07:45] Why Casper, an atheist, was drawn to Harvard Divinity School to study and the surprising pull of community, ritual and tradition in the religious community

[11:18] How his observation of the growing disaffiliation from religion and the fraying of our connections with each other led him to explore the power of ritual

[13:11] The difference between habit and ritual and how to turn habits into meaningful rituals

[15:51] Why we should develop our ability to be choiceful

[17:23] An observation of connection practices during the pandemic, including the absence of ritual

[19:57] Applying the triptych: intention, attention, and repetition to his writing

[22:23] Casper talks about moving past a terrible first draft of his book, The Power of Ritual, and how he landed his book deal

[27:14] How Casper deals with self-doubt and imposter syndrome, including going on long walks

[29:25] Casper shares how he balanced researching and studying while he was writing his first book, also how he deals with the pitfalls of comparison

[31:13] Casper shares advice from Seth Godin for when you're having self-doubt

[32:43] On how to move away from introspection, and writing not just as something to make you great, but as a gift

[35:08] Casper shares how accountability is important in creating practices in new communities

[36:14] How to both hold on and let go of a growing community

[38:23] Casper shares the origin of his podcast with friends, Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, and the community it built

[41:50] What are the things that started and changed as the podcast community grew, and how did it even bring the community closer?

[44:44] A parting note - understanding the sufficiency of the gift that you have to give

QUOTES:

“Think of writing, not as something that is going to make you great, but as a gift to someone who might need it."

RESOURCES

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For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

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CREDITS

Production by Victoria Spooner. Artwork by Emma Winterschladen

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON

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#009: Polina Marinova Pompliano — Growing Your Newsletter, Dealing With Self-Doubt and Criticism & the Future of Media

Episode 9

samedi 21 mai 2022 • Duration 46:53

How might we launch our newsletter and build a loyal following for our writing? How can we monetize our newsletter to six figures and beyond? In this episode, we interview Polina Marinova Pompliano who quit her job at Fortune in 2020 to focus on building her weekly Substack newsletter The Profile, where she profiles interesting figures like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Brandon Stanton, the creator of Humans of New York. We talk about tactics for growing a loyal and paying readership, how she develops ideas for her newsletter and the importance of feedback to improve our writing.

Polina Marinova is a former Fortune Magazine editor and writer, and founder of newsletter The Profile where she studies the world's most successful people & companies. She’s written for CNN, CNN Travel, Business Insider, Yahoo Finance, Boston Herald, Food & Wine Magazine, Odyssey, The Hustle and more. Polina is part of an emerging trend of writers who are looking ahead to the future of media and content and considering what it might take to start a media company on their own terms.

SHOW NOTES

[02:39] Polina shares what gave her the courage to quit her job at The Fortune and dedicate her time to The Profile despite the pandemic and why you only need 100 true fans

[06:42] Polina shares how she's become good at time management over the years, and how she stays productive

[09:06] The importance of sharing your work with the public and opening yourself up to criticism and feedback as a writer

[11:56] How Polina deals with feedback today versus how she dealt with it in the past

[13:00] What Polina learned from writing articles and getting feedback, and how she used them to get more readers

[15:33] Polina talks about her relationship dynamic with her husband who's also a writer, and how their differences help her get a business perspective for her newsletter

[21:07] Polina shares the tools and systems that have helped her to be better at writing

[27:42] The challenges Polina encounters in writing newsletters and what keeps her writing

[29:15] Polina shares some newsletters that inspired her, including James Clear's blog

[30:51] The business side of The Profile: how Polina grew her newsletter, and how she focused on quality content

[31:58] Monetizing The Profile, and what made Polina’s readers convert to a paid subscription

[34:09] Polina shares some of the ways she earns from The Profile

[37:07] Why you don't need a massive following to monetize your work

[37:33] Polina talks about her future goal of building a human interest company

[38:32] The future of newsletters and why it's the perfect time to be a writer right now

[41:30] On dealing with self-doubt and criticisms, and why patience and consistency is important if you want to start a newsletter

QUOTES:

“So I think a lot of times people think they need this massive, massive following to monetize anything. It's not true. As long as you can prove that the audience is really high quality and really engaged and they actually click and they actually open, and they actually read it.”

“The best piece of advice I heard was from Kat Cole, who's the president of Focus Brands. She said that every time you get a piece of feedback, the first thing you should do before you reject it—before you think it’s stupid is accept it and try and be like, okay, if this is true, then what can I do about it?...Accept it as truth before you outright dismiss it. Because after a while, that was not the only email I got like that. I got a number of them that were very critical, but it made me have thicker skin. It made me evolve in my writing. And by the end of my time there, I'd like to think that my voice, my tone, how I wrote, [the] people really liked because it was me and I wasn't trying to be somebody else.”

RESOURCES

The Profile

Fortune Magazine - an American multinational business magazine
The Messy Middle by Scott The Messy Middle by Scott Belsky
Maria Popova - Bulgarian writer
Chefs Table - Grant Achatz Episode
Single Supplement newsletter - Nikola Slawson
NFTs and a Thousand True Fans - Article from a16z.com (Andreessen Horowitz’s website)
Sara Blakely - Founder of Spanx
Shane Parrish - Author, founder of Farnam Street
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Josh Wolfe - Investor, founder of Lux Capital
Business Insider - American news website
The Hustle - Newsletter
Bessemer Venture Partners - American venture capital firm
The Washington Post - American daily newspaper
The New York Times - American daily newspaper
The Wall Street Journal - American business-focused, English-language international daily newspaper
Brandon Stanton - Author of Humans of New York

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For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

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CREDITS

Production by Victoria Spooner. Artwork by Emma Winterschladen

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON