How I Write
Before book sales and PR buzz, your favorite writers began with two things: the blank page and an idea. Each week on How I Write, we go behind-the-scenes with today’s top writers to uncover the meta-mechanics of writing and the lifestyle behind it. You’ll be the first to hear writers deconstruct their creative process: from banging their head on the keyboard to marking the last period of their final draft. Victory. Come discover how great writing is made. And who knows? Maybe you’ll be next. New episodes of the How I Write show go live every week on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.com/DavidPerellChannel.
Episodes
September 16, 2026 • 58 mins
Learn more about Alpha School at https://go.alpha.school/howiwrite
Francine Prose has written more than 30 books and taught at both Harvard and Bard College. If you ask her how to become a better writer, she'll tell you to start by reading like a writer. Look at words and sentences, characters and details. Study them, dissect them. Then find books that you love, ones that have stood the test of time, and ask yourself: Why has thi...
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September 9, 2026 • 75 mins
Learn more about Alpha School at https://go.alpha.school/howiwrite
Harlan Coben has written 38 books. If you want to write thrilling and suspenseful stories, he's the guy to learn from. His vibe is like a tough-love basketball coach who tells you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. And while it might feel a little challenging at times, I promise you'll leave this conversation motivated to write, to get back to worki...
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September 2, 2026 • 67 mins
Learn more about Alpha School at https://go.alpha.school/howiwrite
R. F. Kuang came on the show to talk about her love for language and what it means to live like a writer. She has written seven books, won the Nebula Award for Best Novel, and trained at some of the world's top universities: Cambridge, Oxford, and Yale.
What stands out is her ability to write in so many different voices: the economical, the poetic, the minimalist...
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August 26, 2026 • 57 mins
Learn more about Alpha School at https://go.alpha.school/howiwrite
Matt Haig sold more than 10 million copies of his book, The Midnight Library. I just checked on Amazon, and it has over 288,000 reviews. This book was a total hit, a smashing success.
I invited Matt on the show to ask him about his process: how he writes and how he tells great stories. Given his success, I also had to ask if it's acceptable to write for the mass ...
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August 19, 2026 • 64 mins
Learn more about Alpha School at https://go.alpha.school/howiwrite
Elif Shafak and Robert Macfarlane are two of the most dreamy and articulate writers I know.
Elif has written 21 books, 13 of which are novels, and she’s the president of the Royal Society of Literature.
Robert writes about the natural world, and he does so in such a poetic and enchanted way. His writing is infused with wonder.
I’ve had both of them...
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August 12, 2026 • 73 mins
Learn more about Alpha School at https://go.alpha.school/howiwrite
Andrew Sean Greer won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2018 novel "Less". I had to ask him what it's like to win a Pulitzer Prize. His story about that is my favorite part of the interview.
We also talked about his writing process: how he tells great stories, develops great characters, and writes good sentences. He shared his mantras, such as the idea that when you're ...
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August 5, 2026 • 74 mins
Learn more about Alpha School at https://go.alpha.school/howiwrite
Mark Forsyth has spent years studying how great writers piece words together. People like Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde, but also musicians like the Beatles and Taylor Swift. For him, it all comes down to figures of rhetoric: timeless tools you can use to make your writing more memorable and enjoyable.
I asked Mark to break them down for me one by one: What is the ...
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July 29, 2026 • 69 mins
Learn more about Alpha School at https://go.alpha.school/howiwrite
Jack Carr is a master at writing thrillers. He's a former Navy SEAL turned author who loves books and storytelling.
When he walked in, I told him, "I want you to teach me how you write so visually. You're so good at visually taking the minutiae of combat and violence, writing about weapons in a way that comes to life on the page. How do you actually do that?"
An...
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July 22, 2026 • 65 mins
Learn more about Alpha School at https://go.alpha.school/howiwrite
Scott Dikkers is the former editor-in-chief of The Onion, the site that brought news satire to the internet.
Before the episode, I went up to Scott and said, “I have one goal for this: I want to start writing funny. You know how to do it. Can you teach me everything you've learned?"
He’s been doing this for decades, so he was able to take me by the h...
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July 20, 2026 • 55 mins
Learn more about Alpha School at https://go.alpha.school/howiwrite
AI and creativity. I've asked dozens of writers for their take; some think it's a godsend, while others believe it's the literal scum of the earth.
Here are 12 of the best responses from literary award winners like Robert Macfarlane, builders like Sam Altman, and journalists like Ezra Klein. This is what people at the cutting edge are saying about how AI will imp...
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July 15, 2026 • 93 mins
Learn more about Alpha School at https://go.alpha.school/howiwrite
David Baldacci, one of the most prolific writers in the world, joins us on the show today. He has written 53 novels and seven children’s books, publishes two novels every year, and has sold more than 200 million copies worldwide.
How does he craft great stories, develop compelling characters, and build tension? How does he approach the business of publishi...
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July 8, 2026 • 85 mins
This episode is presented by Wispr Flow, a tool that turns voice notes into clear writing. I use it every day and recommend it to every writer I know. Try it for free at ref.wisprflow.ai/howiwrite
Learn more about Alpha School at go.alpha.school/howiwrite
David Shelley is on the show today and he’s the CEO of Hachette, one of the Big Five publishers. In this conversation, I focused on two things. First, how should writers na...
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July 1, 2026 • 80 mins
This episode is presented by Wispr Flow, a tool that turns voice notes into clear writing. I use it every day and recommend it to every writer I know. Try it for free at ref.wisprflow.ai/howiwrite
David Sedaris has long been one of the funniest writers in the game, and he’s got a method for how he does it. It starts with observation, always looking for what’s surprising, ridiculous, or a little bit strange about the w...
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June 24, 2026 • 60 mins
This episode is presented by Wispr Flow, a tool that turns voice notes into clear writing. I use it every day and recommend it to every writer I know. Try it for free at ref.wisprflow.ai/howiwrite
Andrew Stanton was the second animator at Pixar, and he has been working there for 30 years. If you want to know how Pixar runs, this is your guy. He has directed movies like Finding Nemo and WALL-E, and he's the director of Toy Story ...
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June 17, 2026 • 73 mins
This episode is presented by Wispr Flow, a tool that turns voice notes into clear writing. I use it every day and recommend it to every writer I know. Try it for free at ref.wisprflow.ai/howiwrite
Michael Pollan is one of my all-time favorite nonfiction writers. He has been writing about food, nature, and consciousness for decades. For him, the writing process begins with a question. He finds something he's interested in and emba...
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June 10, 2026 • 60 mins
This episode is presented by Wispr Flow, a tool that turns voice notes into clear writing. I use it every day and recommend it to every writer I know. Try it for free at ref.wisprflow.ai/howiwrite
Andrew Hunter Murray is a writer, a journalist, and a comedian. What stood out from this conversation is his love for literature, which shows up both in his three novels and in how he's studied people like Edith Wharton and Jane Austen.
...
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June 3, 2026 • 86 mins
Noah Hawley has written books, movies, and TV shows like Alien Earth and Fargo. He's been successful not just because he's a talented writer, but also because he's a consummate professional. He's fluent not just in the world of stories and characters, but he also knows how to work inside the industry and how to get things done.
If you want to make it as a writer, whether on the page or the big screen, this interview is a roadmap f...
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May 27, 2026 • 58 mins
Suleika Jaouad says: "If you want to write a good book, write what you don't want others to know about you. But if you want to write a great book, write what you don't want to know about yourself."
She's had a lifelong love for words, ever since she was a little kid. She began writing for public consumption in her twenties, after being diagnosed with serious cancer. From her hospital bed, she started writing for The New York Times...
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May 20, 2026 • 73 mins
Tom Segura, a comedian known for specials like "Completely Normal" and "Sledgehammer", is also the creator of the TV show "Bad Thoughts". He's appeared on "Conan" and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert". Today, he's here to teach us how to write comedy.
What makes Tom's humor so distinct is its observational and story-based nature. He can look at something you've seen a thousand times and point out a hilarious detail, making you ...
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May 13, 2026 • 57 mins
Maria Popova writes one of the internet's best personal blogs. Originally called "Brain Pickings", it is now known as "The Marginalian". She has published more than 6 million pages of writing there, and it has become such a treasure that the Library of Congress recognized its value and made it part of their permanent archive.
This conversation, however, explores much more. It delves into how to live and how to see, and how to turn...
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