Grant's life as a writer: short stories, memoir plans, film scripts, the drudgery of editing and submitting.
Where it comes up 12
Within this theme 97
Concepts 14
- Big Questions in Fiction
Logan's diagnosis of contemporary fiction: writers with comfortable Western lives lack the hard experiences (wars, whaling ships) that drove the classics, so big questions of life, death…
- Light Touch
The subtle Japanese style Grant now values most: imagery used sparingly and purposefully, faint colours that still paint a picture, meaning 'lurking beneath the sentences'.
- Magic Realism
Grant tolerates a little but thinks unlimited magic is cheating, because once anything is possible any contrivance can resolve the plot. It is his main objection to Murakami.
- Trope-Driven Writing
Logan's critique of young writers who learned storytelling from video games and anime more than literature, then assemble books from trope checklists and even market them that way. The…
- The Intrusive Author
Writers whose presence you can't escape, like Martin Amis 'ringing a bell, kicking over the furniture', tapping your shoulder to ask whether you saw what they did.
- Fusion
Tamir's idea, taken from music remixes, of combining things that 'should not go together' to make something fresh, like an Israeli band playing 1960s-70s Middle Eastern-style music with a…
- Short Form to Bring Readers Back
Tamir and Logan argue publishers keep releasing huge novels that few people can finish. They should offer more novellas, short stories and collections to win back lapsed readers, the way…
- Kitchen Table Novels
Murakami's first two novellas, written by hand for two hours a night at his kitchen table after closing his bar. Tamir's proof that you can make the time.
- Human-made writing as luxury
Tamir's prediction that AI-generated text will be like fast fashion, making handmade human writing a rare luxury, like a tailored suit.
- Chekhov's Gun
Mentioned by Grant on how writers must be gentle and coaxing with readers, setting up what will pay off.
- Hard-boiled structure
Murakami's practice, explained in the archival clip, of borrowing the structure of hard-boiled mysteries, science fiction and love stories without writing in those genres, drawn to the…
- Literary vs Genre Fiction
Grant: only the author's technique divides literature from genre. 1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 are science fiction but shelved as literature, and most literary novels are really…
- One-Book Writer
Grant's view that a novelist is usually known for one best book and the rest disappoint audiences, whereas painters can reinvent themselves through new styles.
- Plot vs Character
Grant rejects the literary snob's dismissal of plot: the great books have both, and long novels need a plot to carry the reader to the end.
Books 16
- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Grant loves the opening (which grew from a short story) but quit caring once the narrator sits in a well and astral-projects, which he calls cheating.
- Think and Grow Rich
Tamir notes that this popular business book has a chapter on dreaming in which Hill describes dreams and imagined meetings with mentors such as Thomas Edison and a U.S. president, and…
- Pinball, 1973
Murakami's second kitchen-table novella; Tamir misremembers the year in the title as 1984 or 1983.
- Hear the Wind Sing
Murakami's first novella, one of his 'kitchen table' novels written by hand at night after running his bar. Grant liked it and could see a young writer still finding his way.
- The Three-Body Problem
Liu Cixin's sci-fi trilogy (Remembrance of Earth's Past), which Tamir strongly recommends in print or audiobook. He brings it up for its idea of dreams as the most severe form of torture…
- The Ghostly Blue Stallion of Dorchester Cabin
Tyler's unpublished short story about a blue roan stallion that appeared on his fenced Alberta property and vanished; he wrote it in one three-hour sitting and says everything in it is…
- The Grief Trip
Mia's memoir in progress about losing her mother and her psychedelic journey with that loss; the centrepiece of her work, unveiling her methodology. She is seeking an agent and hopes for a…
- Galápagos
Vonnegut novel Tamir brought to the recording as one of his favorites. He offers it as an example of Vonnegut's flawed, hubristic characters, the kind of imperfection that makes people…
- Going to Canada
The first story in Grant's collection, about returning from Budapest to Canada, family trauma, and an old friend who finds the narrator's blunt observations off-putting. Tamir reads it as…
- Life of Pi
Booker-winning novel; Grant saw the film and dislikes how it becomes ridiculous towards the end, though he cites Martel's idea of coaxing readers along.
- The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut novel Tamir brought to the recording alongside Galápagos, both among his favorites. It illustrates characters so flawed they seem almost alien.
- The Alchemist
Mia calls it a complete, timeless work of art in defending fiction against nonfiction; also a parallel to her own search for a publisher. Tamir uses Coelho to recommend reading little-known…
- The Alexandria Quartet
Four novels (Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea); Grant's example of a work so inspired it intimidates him as a writer.
- The Friend from Budapest
Grant's short story collection, which Tamir read as a Patreon member. Grant printed 100 copies and sends one to anyone who joins his Patreon. Its introduction describes his enthusiasm…
- Moby-Dick
Mentioned as a novel built on Melville's real experience aboard a whaling ship.
- U.S.A. Trilogy
A huge three-novel series Grant calls beautiful, fantastic and creative.
People 18
- Tamir Barzilai
Host of the Nectar of Time podcast; in this second official episode he shares his own path back into fiction via a pandemic book club and Haruki Murakami.
- Grant Shipway
Canadian writer, lifelong student of literature and host of the YouTube channel Grant Loves Books, which offers in-depth analyses of great 19th- and 20th-century novels. At 26 he left…
- Haruki Murakami
Japanese novelist and one of Tamir's favourite authors, who brought him back to fiction. Grant thinks he is wildly overrated, 'the Stephen King of Japanese literature', and dislikes his…
- Tyler Dorchester
Tamir's barber of seven years and close friend; a deep reader of fiction, a published comic artist and a writer of unpublished short stories, raised on a farm in rural Alberta. Tamir calls…
- Logan Macnair
Criminology professor at Douglas College and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver who researches radicalization, terrorism, extremism and extremist media strategy; author of the novel Troll…
- Kurt Vonnegut
American novelist and one of Grant's favourite authors; Grant saw him speak in Toronto in the 1990s. Cited for saying reading was his version of meditation, and (by Tamir) for his talk on…
- Ernest Hemingway
Author of The Sun Also Rises, whose slow fishing interlude Grant came to love only years later.
- Martin Amis
British novelist (London Fields, Dead Babies) whose loud, stylized 1980s prose Grant loved in his twenties and now can't stand.
- J. R. R. Tolkien
Logan points out that The Lord of the Rings draws on Tolkien's love of language, mythology and his Catholic faith, but also heavily on his time in the trenches of World War I.
- Kingsley Amis
Martin Amis's father, also a successful novelist, who said reading his son was like having him in the room ringing a bell and kicking over the furniture.
- Liu Cixin
Chinese sci-fi author of The Three-Body Problem trilogy, who blessed the fan-written fourth book The Redemption of Time.
- Herman Melville
Logan notes he actually worked on a whaling ship before writing Moby-Dick, an example of lived experience informing great fiction.
- Lawrence Durrell
British author of The Alexandria Quartet, a work Grant finds so inspired he doubts he could ever write anything like it.
- Yann Martel
Montreal-raised author of Life of Pi; Grant recounts his interview about carrying readers further step by step into the fantastic.
- Anton Chekhov
Russian writer behind the principle of Chekhov's gun, which Grant says everyone makes a big deal of.
- John Dos Passos
American author of the U.S.A. Trilogy, which Grant calls huge, beautiful and creative.
- Mieko Kawakami
Japanese novelist who conducted a long conversation with Murakami and pressed him on his female characters; Salih recalls Murakami's relaxed, aloof reaction ('Oh, I never thought about…
- Paulo Coelho
Author of The Alchemist; Mia admires his persistence through rejection, believing in the book so much it wasn't an ego trip but a message.
Quotes 10
At the end of the day it's kind of like a paint by numbers. You're creating this picture, but it doesn't really have your signature on it.
Kingsley Amis said: I can't read his books, because it feels like he's in the room ringing a bell, kicking over the furniture.
That's what I value most highly these days: this very subtle style of writing where the colors are very faint. They still paint a picture; they're not these bright, loud, fluorescent colors.
Every once in a while you're going to want to read that handmade, human-made stuff, and that's going to be a delicacy for the mind.
Once you open up these possibilities, then anything's possible, and any kind of silly contrivance to help you figure out your ending is possible. I think that's cheating.
A diary is feelings, a journal is thoughts.
There's no dragon, man. I'm not afraid. I'm afraid of nuclear war, I'm afraid of international terrorism. The environment scares the hell out of me. Dragons do nothing.
If you really have a concrete idea for a novel, write it. Don't talk about it, don't dwell on it, just write it, every day. If it's a thousand words a day, do that.
When I write, it's like an exorcism. I'm trying to remove something from my body.
You're not going to win the marathon, but you can finish the marathon, and that's good enough. That's better than most people.
Insights 11
- The best authors are invisible
Great prose doesn't tap your shoulder to show off; with a light touch, meaning lurks beneath the sentences rather than on the page.
- AI makes human writing a luxury
As AI floods the world with text, human-made writing becomes like a tailored suit in an age of fast fashion: rarer, pricier, and a delicacy.
- Authors hide their lives in fiction
Writers say little in interviews but leave their histories in their books: Murakami's cats and Tengo's father likely trace back to his own father.
- Real fears make real drama
Drama needs stakes the reader actually fears, such as nuclear war, trafficking or environmental collapse; dragons produce no tension. Science fiction should scare you with a plausible…
- A book for people who stopped reading
Troll was written with two-to-three-page chapters that mimic a feed, so that people who think they've lost their attention span can ease back into reading. Friends who 'don't read anymore'…
- Comfort narrows what writers can say
Without hard experiences like war or whaling, comfortable modern writers fall back on writing about themselves as young city dwellers. The work loses touch with the big questions of life…
- Creating is joy; the rest drains it
For Grant the joy is in writing; editing, formatting and submitting tap out the initial fire, so the temptation is always to start something new.
- It's never too late to start writing
Murakami didn't begin until 30; you often don't know what to write until later in life, and some would argue 30 is even early.
- Technique divides literature from genre
1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 are science fiction shelved as literature only because of their authors' skill; most literary novels are really romances.
- The best self-help reads like literature
Tyler notices that Tamir describes his formative self-help books by how beautifully they were written, not by what they taught. The poetic, metaphysical non-fiction is what sticks and…
- Unlimited magic is cheating
Once a story allows anything to happen, any contrivance can rescue the ending, and dramatic tension disappears.
Practices 10
- Make the time, even late at night
Like Murakami writing two hours a night at the kitchen table after work, carve out time despite money, circumstances and space.
- Murakami's daily routine
Murakami wakes around 4 a.m., writes for several hours, then runs; the rest of the day is unscheduled, and he goes to bed by 8 or 9 p.m.
- Read a lot, write a lot, find your signature
Logan's main advice to young writers: read far more than you do now, especially literature rather than only games and anime, and write a lot. There are only so many stories, so don't chase…
- Finish the first draft ruthlessly
Be ruthless with yourself and allow no excuses to give up until the first draft is done. You won't win the marathon, but you can finish it.
- Write a thousand words a day
If you have a concrete idea for a novel, write every day. A thousand words is manageable; the first days are rusty, but after a week or ten days it grows to 1,500 and you'll reach the end.
- Write immediately after a strange experience
Tyler wrote his ghost-horse story for three hours straight after losing the tracks, and barely changed it.
- Aim a short story in one direction
Workshop advice Grant accepted: in a short story every passage must move forward in one direction; cut what doesn't.
- Copy fiction's lessons into a journal
Tyler's habit, which also gives him a way to answer the question of what fiction has taught him.
- Don't force the writing
Jot down thoughts whenever they pop up and wait for the real urge or idea rather than forcing a novel; trust the process.
- Let a draft rest a month
After writing something, leave it for a month before editing so you see it with fresh eyes.
Stories 14
- From Lisbon to Budapest at 26
At 26 Grant left Canada and travelled by car and train from Lisbon, which he expected to be his home, all the way to Budapest, where he stayed. He returned at 42 and plans two…
- Murakami wrote at the kitchen table
Tamir recounts that Murakami, at 30, ran a bar and after getting home late at night would sit at his kitchen table for two hours writing by hand, producing Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball…
- Petrol's origin in Logan's own fear
Peter Riley's starting point, the terror of an ordinary nine-to-five life and the sense of being destined for more, came from Logan at 19. He now calls that view naive, though it felt very…
- Kingsley Amis couldn't read his son
Kingsley Amis refused to read Martin Amis's books. Many said he was jealous of his son's sales, but Kingsley said reading Martin felt like having him in the room ringing a bell and kicking…
- A hundred copies of his collection
Grant planned his story collection as a paid Patreon reward but printed 100 copies, far too many, so he mails one to anyone who joins his Patreon.
- Murakami shrugs at Kawakami's questions
In a long conversation, Mieko Kawakami asked Murakami pointed questions about his female characters. Salih recalls his breezy reply ('Oh, I never thought about this... I just write it…
- Murakami's epiphany at the ballpark
Tamir retells how Murakami, who ran a jazz bar with his wife, had a flash of inspiration at 30 while watching his favorite (and long-losing) baseball team, which went on to win the league…
- Rejected agent pitch for psychedelic memoir
Many literary agents resist a book about psychedelics. Mia tells every agent she will never stop, so it's up to them whether to represent her, echoing Paulo Coelho's persistence.
- Tamir's story read by Samantha
Samantha read a story Tamir wrote and says it left her deeply confused and comfortable at once. It wasn't unsettling but gave her the feeling that there is more than what she knows herself…
- Too honest in creative writing class
In university workshops where everyone must start with what they liked, Grant has clashed with teachers and students by calling work weak, cliché-ridden, 'awful' or 'immature', words…
- Writing the stallion story in one sitting
Tyler walked straight from the forest where he lost the horse's trail back to the cabin and wrote for three hours, something he had never done before. He barely revised it, and everything…
- Yann Martel on carrying the reader
Grant recalls Yann Martel explaining that in Life of Pi he wanted to coax readers along: are you willing to come this far? Good, now how about further?
- Film scripts in a Word document
Grant's film scripts were his most purely imaginative work. He entered them in a screenwriting competition, accepted all the feedback when they didn't win, and they now sit in a Word…
- The drama teacher lifted from life
A minor character in Troll, Peter's drama teacher, is a one-to-one copy of Logan's own drama teacher, Wesley, whose style Logan lifted wholesale. Logan gives him a shout-out on air.
Films, music and art 3
- The Lord of the Rings
Source of Gollum, the figure Ian used to personify his grasping, needy shadow.
- Murakami early-1990s interview
Rare early-90s interview clip played in the cold open, in which Murakami explains he borrows hard-boiled, sci-fi and love-story structures without writing those genres, and calls himself a…
- Vonnegut's lecture on the shape of stories
A talk Tamir recalls in which Vonnegut explains that stories get interesting by putting the protagonist through obstacles.
Organizations and movements 1
- TV Tropes
Website (tvtropes.org) that catalogues the tropes of nearly every popular book, show and game. Logan has lost afternoons on it, but warns it leads young writers to build and even market…