20.32: Revision and Character Consciousness Téa Obreht

Writing Excuses

Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

Fiction, Business, Careers

4.7 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Téa Obreht is a short story writer and novelist. Her debut novel, The Tiger’s Wife, won the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction, and was a 2011 National Book Award finalist and an international bestseller.

In our conversation, we focused on revision and character consciousness. Téa talked to us about the difficulty of the idea-generation stage of writing, how to cultivate layered characters, and how she writes event-first. You can learn more about Téa Obreht here.

Thing of the Week from Téa: Deadwood (TV Show)

Homework from Téa: Write an opening paragraph (roughly 3-6 lines). It could be something new, or an opener that you had already written. The paragraph should introduce some key pieces of information to your readers. Consider the information that's contained in your paragraph and then rewrite the whole thing two more times, ultimately conveying the same information, but in three different ways. How you do this is completely up to you! Maybe it’s in a different voice, maybe it’s from a different perspective, maybe it uses only dialogue. At the end of the exercise, consider the priorities of each different mode, and how each changed the way you gave information to your readers.

P.S. Our 2025 writing retreat (on a cruise! In Mexico!) is over 50% sold out! Learn more and sign up here.

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Téa Obreht. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	My name is Amanda. I work with women who are trying to quit smoking, and I have some tips for you in case you're pregnant or thinking about having a baby.
0:07.8	First thing is, keep trying to quit, or better yet, don't start smoking. It can cause premature birth, which can then increase the risk of your baby having developmental delays, problems with eyesight, breathing, and more. So don't give up.
0:21.6	There are people like me who are here to support you,
0:24.6	because I know what can happen if you don't quit.
0:28.6	Your baby could be born two months early and weigh only three pounds.
0:32.6	She could be in the NICU for almost a month.
0:35.6	Put in an incubator and fed to a feeding tube that goes through her nose down into her little stomach.
0:42.7	I know that because I smoked while I was pregnant.
0:46.5	And that's what happened to my little baby.
0:48.8	I quit. You can too.
0:51.4	Quit your way. Call 1-877 you can now or visit
0:55.5	TobaccoFreeFlorida.com.
0:57.6	Developed by CDC.
0:59.3	This episode of writing excuses has been brought to you by our listeners,
1:03.3	patrons, and friends.
1:04.8	If you would like to learn how to support this podcast,
1:07.5	visit www.
1:09.0	www.com.com
1:11.0	slash writing excuses.
1:14.5	Season 20, episode 32.
1:19.2	This is writing excuses.
1:21.8	Revision and character consciousness with Teia Abrecht.
	...

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