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Hosted by Carter Wilson · 🇺🇸 US · EN-US · 249 episodes
Established thought leaders with verified media credentials.
Making It Up is an unscripted conversation series about the messy reality of being a writer. Each episode is a deep, unplanned conversation with writers at every stage of the journey. New York Times bestselling authors. Award winners. Debut novelists just getting started. No prepared questions. No talking points. Just two people following the conversation wherever it leads. We talk about where stories really come from. Childhood influences. Fear. Luck. Loss. Discipline. Doubt. The highs, the lows, and the long stretches in between that rarely get talked about. At the end of every episode, we put the philosophy into practice. We choose a random sentence from a random book and use it to create an impromptu short story. No prep. No outline. Just making something out of nothing. Because that is the job. And that is the point. Visit Carter at www.carterwilson.com.
Carter Wilson hosts Carter Wilson's Making It Up, a arts show with 249 episodes published.
"I wrote the story that I thought I would want to read... I tell people, this was like a love letter to those years that I got to spend in a completely different part of the world... I met so many fascinating people who
"I'm constantly thinking that I'm the total underdog here... I sent off like half a dozen applications, and three days after an agent told me I'd never be published, I had offers from two of the biggest agencies in Londo
"Everything that I do between directing, acting, producing, being an author… it's all storytelling. And that's the one piece of confidence that I've always had clarity on. I'm a storyteller." — Eriq La Salle Actor, direc
"Anyone who's ever taught writing has said it wasn't the young 'genius' in the room who ended up making it as a writer... It's about stamina. It's about becoming really good at learning—an autodidact who's like, 'I'm jus
"A lot of it is learning to trust your reader too. I feel like I'm tempted to do a lot of handholding when I write... and you have to go through with a red pen after and say, 'Okay, what is really not needed? What can th
"I don't like when violence is trivialized in any genre... someone's dead, like the little jokes or the puns or the whatever, it doesn't work for me... I can't buy into that atmosphere. There has to be… it's not even a r
"I remember rereading it and being like, 'This is what I have been looking for... through all of these jobs and career to careers, that thing that brings me happiness on a day-to-day level.' And also that macro level sat
"Since so many thrillers are based around some kind of crime—which is a break in our social order—it is the perfect vehicle to explore the human condition... Thrillers and crime fiction really allow for an under the micr
"Problem solving is done in the woods a lot of times for me... or doing dishes, you'll have an aha moment, right? It's the magic—you can't beat it into fruition... magically, it just shows itself. It's quite fun." — Katr
"Tenacity is essential. Bullheadedness is essential. You have to be really, really stubborn about it... You have to stick in there until your shot comes up. That's all it is." — Tracy Clark Tracy Clark is the author of t
“I learned a very important lesson from Janet Ivanovich. She said I want readers to forget they’re reading. I want them to be so lost in what they’re doing… they forget there’s a page. You want the writing to disappear…
"I loved it... Cosmo was a fabulous job in every sense of the word. It was like being on a television show everyday... but I could start to see, wow, this is all collapsing... I'd already written eight of my thrillers an
"I’ve really been able to lean into that Southern Gothic with a touch of horror... It’s that concept of… is it a ghost or is it the guy? There is always that element in my books. Is it real, is it not real, is it an unre
“Writing is so personal. And when you're writing a character, things come out that I know most writers, including myself, are unaware of when they're writing it... they're writing about things you're trying to work out.
“Almost anytime somebody gives you a generalization, there's about 17 other examples that break that rule. Some of the greatest books of all time break those rules.” — Dan Miller Daniel G. Miller is the USA Today bestsel
“I think that when you don't have an abundance of time, you cherish the time you have more. So that goes for my kids and for writing. I take it very seriously and I do cherish it. It doesn't feel like a job. It doesn't f
“I think people think that the first publishing contract is a windfall... But for most of us, it's the beginning of the story. All it is, is an open door to the writing life. And if you want to succeed... you're going to
“What I noticed was that I started writing stories and just doing things like, ‘oh, wait, when I write, I don't need other guys. And I don't need a sound man. And I don't need a stage. And I don't need gear.’ It was so n
“What I’ve always been really focused on is trying to figure out what is it in any book—and it's different in different genres—that makes you keep turning the page. That's always been my goal: to get people to keep turni
“The biggest thing you have to be able to do with someone is step back, leave your ego at the door and just really both have the same mindset of like, 'Hey, we're in business together... every decision we make has got to
Dr. Kate White
founder of the RV Queens Podcast and RV Queens Circles · Strong Machine Adventure Racing
1 appearance on this show
Ryan Steck
thriller author, creator of the real book spy · The Real Book Spy
1 appearance on this show
Wendy Walker
former VP of Marketing Asia at Salesforce
1 appearance on this show
Matthew Sullivan
author of Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore · River City Studios, Ltd.
1 appearance on this show
Tod Goldberg
bestselling author
1 appearance on this show
Courtney Psak
The Tutor
1 appearance on this show
Christina Baker Kline
1 appearance on this show
Anne Burt
Mayor · Woodbury
1 appearance on this show
Brad Parks
thriller author · HPE
1 appearance on this show
Chris Riley
Chief Information Security Officer · RyeField Solutions
1 appearance on this show
A.G. Riddle
international bestseller
1 appearance on this show
Hank Phillippi Ryan
Emmy Award–winning investigative journalist turned thriller novelist
1 appearance on this show
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Carter Wilson's Making It Up is hosted by Carter Wilson. The show is categorised under arts and has published 249 episodes.
Carter Wilson's Making It Up has published 249 episodes.
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