Paul Carlucci, author of 'The Voyageur' - Acclaimed author discusses moving from short stories to novels, by inspired by fact, and learning grammar
Writer's Routine
Dan Simpson
4.9 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 18 April 2024
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Paul Carlucci has published 3 short story collections and works as a copywriter, making other peoples work read better. He's just released one of the most hotly anticipated debuts of the year, it's called 'The Voyageur'.
It tells the story of Alex, a motherless stockboy in 19th century Montreal, who is taken in by Serge, a drunken fur trader. After heading out on an expedition into the wilderness which goes awry, Alex must fend for himself at the mercy of stranger men, and a seemingly brilliant saviour in Dr Beaumount.
We talk about the novel being inspired by real life, and how he blended fact with fiction. Also, you can hear about the switch from short stories to long form, and what he's learned from a day-job in copywriting.
We chat through learning grammar and how that affects creative storytelling, and how much he worries about the formalities of writing when getting down prose. You can hear about his particular blend of plotting and pantsing, and why this project would be lost without his current publisher.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Well, hello, thank you for being there. Welcome along to a brand new episode of writer's routine, where we're chatting to Paul Carlucci. His new novel is hotly tipped as one of the biggest debuts of the year. It's called The Voyager. |
| 0:23.8 | We talk about his day job as a copywriter and how learning the rules of writing for that affected his work on a novel. |
| 0:31.8 | Also how he took a true story and made it his own. And what moving from short stories to long-form fiction has meant |
| 0:39.6 | for him? |
| 0:40.2 | Now I'm working on novels. |
| 0:42.5 | I like the larger canvas, the opportunity to have several arcs, and certainly one complete |
| 0:50.3 | arc. |
| 0:50.7 | My short stories were often parts of an arc of a character arc and leaving the rest |
| 0:55.8 | implied. Now I'm seeing stories in a more complete way. I'm enjoying, I'm not in a rush to finish |
| 1:03.9 | something anymore. I think the way it was as a short story writer, and I'm enjoying spending a long |
| 1:08.8 | time, several months to a year or more, I guess, with my projects |
| 1:13.4 | and learning a lot more about the characters. |
| 1:17.0 | There is more with Paul Carlucci in this week's writers' routine. |
| 1:26.9 | Yes, welcome along to the show. My name is Dan Simpson and this is writer's routine. The podcast where we take a look through an author's working day, we see how they get stuff done. We try to borrow, pilfer, perhaps be inspired by other tips, how the most successful do it, people who have got their books out, |
| 1:46.0 | and we see what we can translate, what we can move to our own work. |
| 1:49.9 | Now, if you are enjoying the show, 310 odd episodes without looking of advice of some of the best authors around, |
| 2:00.1 | one of the best ways that you can help us out |
| 2:02.2 | that you can help me keep doing this is just by subscribing, |
| 2:05.3 | by following us wherever you get your shows from. |
| 2:07.8 | Maybe you've taken a gamble, |
| 2:09.2 | maybe you've just found this, |
| 2:11.1 | someone has recommended it in a writer's retreat, whatever it is. |
... |
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