Write Your Novel with Yvonne Battle-Felton
Write Your Novel is an 8-part podcast series aimed at helping you, the writer, develop your novel draft.
Created by novelist Yvonne Battle-Felton, the series features award-winning writers reading from their books and conversations with the authors around an element of craft. Each episode ends with a writing exercise focusing on the technique the writer discussed. The exercises encourage you to write, re-write, and read.
Write Your Novel aims to act as a way in for writers at all stages of writing and may be listened and re-listened to in any order as you read and write along. We encourage you to read or re-read the author’s books for even more examples of the techniques at work within the novel.
Let’s write together and draft your novel.
Jennifer Makumbi: Structure
How to structure a novel is explored by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi with her book The First Woman. She tells Yvonne the decisions she made in creating a foundation for her story and structuring the Ugandan historical background, set across many decades.
Pat Barker: Developing Character
Pat Barker is in conversation with Yvonne to explore how she developed the characters in The Silence of the Girls. Complex characters help to engage readers, drive the narrative, and provide moments of empathy for a reader. Barker explains the decisions made in creating her protagonist Briseis.
Sarah Moss: Setting
Sarah Moss joins Yvonne to talk about setting within her novel Summerwater. The setting of a novel plays an important role not just in driving the narrative but also in developing the characters. Moss explains how the setting of Summerwater in a Scottish highland holiday park helped to form the basis for the novel.
Irenosen Okojie: Description
Nudibranch is the latest short story collection from Irenosen Okojie and she joins Yvonne to examine her use of description in this work. Irenosen explains how she used description within the different stories and styles in the book to explore character and develop the spaces for the narrative to play out.
Alex Wheatle: Tension
Alex Wheatle MBE joins Yvonne to discuss the device of tension in Cane Warriors. Tension can drive a story, develop character and help to grip the reader’s attention. Wheatle explains the decisions he made to guide readers through the narrative and maintain the feeling of suspense and shock in telling the story of enslaved boy Noa in the novel..
David Nicholls: Dialogue
David Nicholls joins Yvonne to delve into how he used the device of dialogue throughout his novel Sweet Sorrow. Nicholls reveals his thought processes on deciding what he wanted his characters to say, what he didn’t want them to say and how that can influence character and setting.
Carmen Marcus: Rhythm & Language
Carmen Marcus joins Yvonne to explore how she used the technique of rhythm and language in her novel How Saints Die. The story is seen through the eyes of ten year old Ellie and Marcus – both a novelist and a poet – explains how the use of particular words, sounds and silences helps to create a relationship between the reader and character.
Paul Mendez: Point of View
Paul Mendez joins Yvonne Battle Felton in conversation to examine his semi-autobiographical novel Rainbow Milk and the significance of the point of view of the main characters. Point of view includes who the narrator is and how (and when) the story will be told. Mendez explains the decisions he felt he had to make when developing the characters of Norman and Jesse.
Write Your Novel is a Sonderbug production funded by Arts Council England and supported by New Writing North, produced by Candace Wilson with music from Joe Gardner.