In the first episode in the Person/Character season of Elements, I talk to Rachel O'Neill about character and how it relates to their writing. We use Andrea Arnold's film Milk as a starting point for this discussion. CW: Please be aware that Milk contains the death of a baby and deals with the grief resulting from this. Here's a link where you can watch Andrea Arnold's film Milk Here's a link to Rachel's blog Here's a link to Rachel's Instagram

Better off Read

Ep 105: Elements 19 - Character. Rachel O‘Neill talks to Pip Adam about Andrea Arnold‘s film Milk.

In the fourth episode in the Point season of Elements, I talk to Kirsten McDougall about point of view and how it relates to her writing. We use as starting point for this discussion first-person perspective. Some of the things we talk about are: Here’s a link to Kirsten’s new book She’s a Killer Here’s a link to Maggie Shipstead’s book Great Circle Here’s a link to Olga Ravn’s book The Employees Exercise: Think of three people who you saw yesterday. Now write three first-person perspectives of yesterday. What does each person choose to tell you about their day?

Ep 104: Elements 18 – Point. Kirsten McDougall talks to Pip Adam about first-person perspective.

In the third episode in the Point season of Elements, I talk to Ebony Lamb about point of view and how it relates to her work as a photographer and song-writer. We use as starting point for this discussion Ebony's portrait below. Which you can see here: https://better-read.com/2021/09/08/ep-103-elements-17/  

Ep 103: Elements 17 - Point. Ebony Lamb talks to Pip Adam about a self-portrait photographed by Ebony Lamb.

 Some of the things we talk about are: Here's a link to Cassie's website which includes information about all of Cassie's work Exercise: Cassie and I talk about using existing structures. Maybe you could think of a 'type' of story - a romance, a whodunit, a first contact novel. Now spend 30 seconds writing everything about that type of story that you know. Now take another type of story and write it in using your list. So, you might end up writing a romance using the rules of a murder mystery, or a first contact novel as a noire detective story. Here's a link to Pip's article 'The story of a take-down' 

Ep 102: Elements 16 - Point. Cassie Hart talks to Pip Adam about Butcherbird by Cassie Hart.

In the second episode in the Point season of Elements, I talk to Emma Hislop about point of view and what it is to write it. We use as starting point for this discussion Daisy Johnson's short story 'The Hunt' which is part of 'The Scattering: a story in three parts' and is published in Johnson's amazing collection Fen. Here's a link to more information about Fen Some of the things we talk about are: Here's a link to Emma Hislop's short story 'The Game' Here's a link to Sarah Hall's short story 'Mrs Fox' Here's a link to Karen Russel's short story 'Orange World' Here's a link to Emma's Instagram Here's a link to Emma on Twitter Exercise: Emma's story 'The Game' does an amazing job of limiting what the point of view character knows. Think of an object. Name three facts about this object. Now get three people in the room with this object and give each of them one of the facts about the object but not the other two. Each of them wants the object. Now write the dialogue. 

Ep 101: Elements 15 - Point. Emma Hislop talks to Pip Adam about Daisy Johnson's short story 'The Hunt'.

First of all, thank you so much for helping us reach 100 episodes. I am very grateful to everyone who has been on the podcast and everyone who has listened. Thank you. Show notes at: https://better-read.com/2021/07/09/ep-100-elements-14/

Ep 100: Elements 14 – Point. Cassandra Barnett talks to Pip Adam about a Wooden Croaking Frog Percussion Instrument.

https://better-read.com/2021/06/21/ep-99-ash-davida-jane/ Ash reads both poems at the start of this podcast but you can read ‘Kiss of the Sun’ by Mary Ruefle here https://www.ronnowpoetry.com/contents/ruefle/KissoftheSun.html And ‘pool party’ is in Ash’s collection How to Live with Mammal is published by VUP Some of the things we talk about are: Heather Christle’s The Crying Book Intan Paramaditha’s choose your own adventure novel The Wandering Vivian Gornick’s The Situation and the Story Here is an interview with David Wallace-Wells who wrote The Uninhabitable Earth: A story of the future 

Ep 99: Elements 13 – Plot. Ash Davida Jane talks to Pip Adam about ‘Kiss of the Sun’ by Mary Ruefle and ‘pool party’ by Ash Davida Jane.

In this bonus 'Place' episode of Elements, I talk to Richard Larsen about the first Glass Vaults album 'Glass' as a way to talk about place and music in place Some of the things we talk about are: We talk a lot about one of Richard's projects Glass Vaults. Glass Vaults are Richard Larsen, Bevan Smith, Rowan Pierce + friends. Bevan makes music as Aspen, Introverted Dancefloor and Signer. Signer has been releasing editions of his Isolated Dreams series of EPs onto Bandcamp at an impressively steady clip, since kicking off the low key project in October 2020. You can listen to Signer's 'Isolated Dreams EP07' here: https://www.undertheradar.co.nz/news/18545/Listen-To-Signers-Isolated-Dreams-EP07.utr Rowan Pierce is multi award winning artist who produces and exhibits work, collaboratively and individually, across a range of mediums including live performance, music, film and installation. You can see Rowan's work in Te Mauri o Pōhutu a new series of collaborative installation and time-based artworks by Bianca Hyslop, Rowan Pierce and Tūī Matira Ranapiri Ransfield. https://toiponeke.nz/events/2021temauriopohutu Glass Vaults is on Bandcamp and you can listen and buy their music here: https://glassvaults.bandcamp.com/ Richard also makes work as Richard Dada which is also on Bandcamp: https://dadada.bandcamp.com/ Richard mentions David Byrne talking about how architecture helped music evolve. Here is a TED talk David Byrne gave about this topic: https://www.ted.com/talks/david_byrne_how_architecture_helped_music_evolve/transcript Toward the end we talk about the Glass Vaults' song 'Sojourn'. You can watch the video Richard talks about here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4f95qIzBvE You can see Glass Vaults performing live on RNZ here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptTEY248pE0 

Ep 98: Elements 12 - Place. Richard Larsen talks to Pip Adam about the first Glass Vaults' album 'Glass'

 Formula 1: Drive to Survive is a Netflix Original series which you can read about here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_1:_Drive_to_Survive Doug's film You Could Have Seen The Mona Lisa is showing at the 2021 Doc Edge Festival 4-11 June https://festival.docedge.nz/film/you-could-have-seen-the-mona-lisa/ Doug's podcast which he makes with Steve Skeet and Darren Waugh is Ludicrously Specific https://www.stitcher.com/show/ludicrously-specific Doug's feature is Jake and you can read about it and find out how to see it here: http://www.jakethemovie.com/ Doug is on Twitter https://twitter.com/dillamonster 

Ep 97: Elements 11 - Plot. Doug Dillaman talks to Pip Adam about Formula 1: Drive To Survive S3E9

 Laura chose two of her poems to talk about, you can read them here: ACTIVITIES by Laura Vincent, The Friday Poem in The Spinoff https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/12-07-2019/the-friday-poem-activities-by-laura-vincent/ Anecdotal happiness by Laura Vincent, The Friday Poem in The Spinoff https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/10-01-2020/the-friday-poem-anecdotal-happiness-by-laura-vincent/ Some of the things we talk about are: We talk about the work of Billy Wilder in particular his film Ace in the Hole: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043338/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_33 Laura blogs at Hungry and Frozen https://hungryandfrozen.com/ where you can also find Laura's Patreon. Other good places to find Laura are on here Twitter account https://twitter.com/HungryandFrozen, Intragram https://www.instagram.com/hungryandfrozen/ and TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@hungryandfrozen 

Ep 96: Elements 10 - Plot. Laura Vincent talks to Pip Adam about her poems 'ACTIVITIES' and 'Anecdotal happiness'

 To raise awareness, and hopefully some money, for the Wellington Rape Crisis Annual Appeal we live-streamed this episode of Better off Read on Sunday 2 May at 8.00 pm. I talked with M. Darusha Wehm about their work with a special focus on narrative and plot. I'm particularly excited to talk to Darusha about their new work The Qubit Zirconium a riotous science fantasy novel from the smash hit game, KeyForge. We don't talk directly about sexual violence in this live-stream, but I do talk at the start of the episode, in a general way, about the work Wellington Rape Crisis does. You can watch the livestream on PIp's YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yazbjVRKrqE&t=215s You can donate to Wellington Rape Crisis at https://wellingtonrapecrisis.org.nz/donate-now/ 

Ep 95: Elements 9 - Plot M. Darusha Wehm talks to Pip Adam (Special Live-streamed Episode for Wellington Rape Crisis Annual Appeal Week)

In the second episode in the Plot season of Elements, I talk to Dan Kois about plot and narrative and what it is to write it.  Some of the things we talk about are: You can read about Dan's novel Vintage Contemporaries here https://www.dankois.com/vintage-contemporaries We talk about Laurie Colwin's book Happy all the Time https://www.lauriecolwin.com/books Jenny Offill's Department of Speculation https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/14/dept-speculation-review-jenny-offill 

Ep 94: Elements 8 - Plot. Dan Kois talks to Pip Adam about a sound mixing board.

In the first episode in the Plot season of Elements, I talk to Ingrid Horrocks about plot and narrative and what it is to write it.  Some of the things we talk about are: Ingrid's new book is Where We Swim published by VUP https://vup.victoria.ac.nz/where-we-swim/ Ingrid wrote a great piece for The SpinOff about reading during a pandemic and you can read that here https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/28-03-2021/the-climate-crisis-is-seeping-into-books-and-making-them-really-really-weird/ You can read an excerpt from Where We Swim here https://www.newsroom.co.nz/readingroom/on-the-amazon Toward the end of the conversation we talk about a paper Ingrid and Dr Laura Jean McKay are teaching at Massey called 'Eco-fictions and Non-Fictions'. You can read about that course here: https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/learning/programme-course/course.cfm?course_code=139309 

Ep 93: Elements 7 - Plot. Ingrid Horrocks talks to Pip Adam about water and her work Where We Swim.

In the sixth episode in the Place season of Elements, I talk to Ann Shelton about place and what it is to write it.  Some of the things we talk about are: You can see and read about Ann’s work at her website https://annshelton.com/ Including ‘The Witch’ https://annshelton.com/works/a-lovers-herbal A Lovers’ Herbal can be viewed on the Denny Dimin Gallery website here  —  https://dennydimingallery.com/news/virtual_exhibition/ann-shelton-2/ One important thing to note, because of the nature of Ann’s work is that the plants discussed in these texts, and their uses, can be dangerous, even lethal. These texts are presented here as background research for a body of artworks and should not be interpreted as medical advice. Do not mess with these plants. Toward the end of the podcast we talk about New York being in lockdown for a year, we just want to acknowledge that New York was in varying degrees of lockdown over this time.   Exercise: Ann talks about starting with a plant and composing around it. I wonder if this could be an interesting way to start a piece of writing. You could find out about the uses of a plant you see every day. Or you could start with a physical condition and find a plant associated with this. Then free write. Thank you Copyright Licensing New Zealand for funding the Elements series.

Ep 92: Elements 6 – Place. Ann Shelton talks to Pip Adam about her work The Witch, Pennyroyal (Mentha sp.), 2020

A podcast about reading and writing. Pip Adam speaks with writers about a book as a starting point to discussions about the craft of writing and the act of reading and how these two feed each other.

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Better off Read

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