The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience

How #1 NY Times Bestselling Author Ruta Sepetys Writes: Part One - Redux

The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience

Show Notes

#1 New York Times bestselling author, Ruta Sepetys, spoke to me about what she learned in the music industry, the secrets to strong, vivid writing, and her non-fiction debut YOU: THE STORY: A Writer’s Guide to Craft Through Memory.

Ruta Sepetys is an award-winning and internationally acclaimed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction published in over sixty countries and forty languages. Her acclaimed “crossover” YA literature includes the Carnegie Medal-winning Salt to the Sea.

Her latest is the creative guide to writing, You: The Story: A Writer’s Guide to Craft Through Memory (available May 16, 2023), which “... provides aspiring writers with a roadmap to crafting compelling stories by encouraging them to look inward and excavate their own memories in order to discover authentic voices and compelling details.”

In a starred review Booklist said of the book, “Part writing guide, part memoir, Sepetys’ fresh, fun handbook is all inspiration.”

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In this file, Ruta Sepetys and I discussed:

What she learned about storytelling working in the music industry

Why she’s drawn to underrepresented stories and “history in hiding”

How to discover the Four Hs of the "excitement of life"

Her intensive research process for each book

Why writers need to examine their own lives for authenticity

And a lot more!

Show Notes:

⁠rutasepetys.com⁠

⁠You: The Story: A Writer's Guide to Craft Through Memory⁠ by Ruta Sepetys (Amazon)

⁠Ruta Sepetys Amazon Author Page⁠

⁠Ruta Sepetys on Facebook⁠

⁠Ruta Sepetys on Instagram⁠

⁠Ruta Sepetys on Twitter⁠

⁠Kelton Reid on Twitter

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