A behind-the-mic look at my podcast debut on The Funky Writer Show.
🎧 Listen here: The Funky Writer Show
In mid-June, I joined The Funky Writer Show for a lively forty-minute chat about writing, research, and the inspiration behind my novel Do Not Keep Silent.
The Funky Writer Show is a fun podcast about writing. The host, Robert, is a lovely, friendly New Yorker whose goal is to help writers like me build connections and platforms to discuss their work.
BEFORE THE SHOW
Two days before the show, the host Rob Batista set up a brief Telegram conversation with me to give me some idea of what to expect. I provided one or two questions to ask, but the rest were all him. He also asked if I wanted to give a five-minute reading from Do Not Keep Silent, so I spent some time working out which segment to read. In the end, I chose the first section of the book, which describes a mass break out attempt from the siege of PolyU in 2019. It’s tense and exciting and contains valuable details, but upon reflection, I wonder if I should have chosen a slightly lighter section with a touch of humour that showed more character development. After all, my stories tend to be character-focused and I like to balance even the darkest plots with lighter moments.
DURING THE SHOW
Rob is very good at putting people at their ease – and a good thing too; I’ve never been on a podcast before and was quite nervous. Although some of the questions caught me off guard, I enjoyed the process of reflecting about my writing, particularly the research element and the genesis of Do Not Keep Silent’s main characters. Robert used that word – “genesis” – fairly early and for some reason, it lodged in my brain. I ended up echoing it several times! On one occasion, I wanted to talk about how a story or character gestated over a long period of time, but ended up talking about its “genesis”!
There were also a few more umms and errs than I would have liked – first show nerves, I guess – but as the show went on I found my groove. Also, I’m not used to reflecting about writing in such detail. I think perhaps by blogging more about it, I will improve my fluency when talking about writing.
During the five-minute reading, I was always conscious it was a live recording and was nervous about making mistakes. I should have had more faith in myself and used my enthusiastic-teaching-projection-voice!
ENTER BERTIE THE CAT, MY EVIL ANTI-MUSE
Some of Rob’s questions were wide-ranging. For example, the first question was “Give me some background of your life before you started to become a writer.” I found myself rambling about childhood reading. At this point, Bertie, our noisy cat wandered into the room. In X posts, I refer to him as my evil anti-muse, because he does his best to stop me from writing.
During lockdown, I was once teaching a live online video Maths lesson to my class of six-year-olds. Bertie came inside demanding his breakfast. He was so loud the children couldn’t concentrate on my voice and I had to stop the lesson to feed him. Now, mid-podcast and not wanting a Meowgate repeat, I stood up as I’d reached the Enid Blyton part of my answer and ushered him out before he started meowing, Somehow, while getting Bertie out, I managed to pull myself together and construct a relevant answer; for once, my anti-muse helped.
THE MAIN TAKEAWAYS
I’m truly terrible at self-promotion. After the podcast a friend who listened to the interview gave me some valuable advice: “You’re not selling yourself, you’re selling your writing.” In other words, I think I need to think of myself more as a salesman than a writer when it comes to the promotional aspect of an interview, possibly building my pitches around the question, “Why should someone buy your novel?”
When I was a student teacher (back in 1992!), a very experienced teacher told me that the key to teaching is enthusiasm. Deliver a lesson enthusiastically and you have a far greater chance of engaging all the children in a class. I enjoyed The Funky Writer Show interview, but I think I needed to show my enjoyment, allowing my passion for writing to creep into my voice more.
Oh—and next time I’m doing an interview, I should probably make sure Bertie is locked out. He helped this time, but his powers of destruction are real.
I also learned that I very much enjoyed being given the opportunity to talk about myself and my writing, and want to thank Robert for giving me the opportunity. He really is doing a great service to independent writers like me. As a result of my experience with him, I’m looking forward to my next podcast appearance.
🎧 You can listen to the interview here and make up your own mind about the interview. If you have any useful tips or comments, I’d love to hear them.
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