How I Broke Into Writing with Taffy Brodesser-Akner (GQ, NY Times) - 025

Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a writer who has contributed
compelling non-fiction features to major publications such as the
New York Times Magazine, GQ, Cosmopolitan, Los Angeles Times,
SElf, and so many more. Taffy is also the author of the
forthcoming Random House novel, Schrödinger's Marriage. Taffy has
been a finalist for multiple awards, including the James Beard
Award and the Mirror Award, and has won awards from the New York
Press Club, the Los Angeles Press Club, Society of Feature
Journalists. She also teaches a phenomenal writing class, but the
class we discuss in this interview unfortunately sold out before
we launched. Subscribe to "How I Broke Into" on iTunes,
Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, I Heart Radio, or Google, or
listen to the entire podcast here:


Notes from the show:


John Cheever's short stories


Inspired by writer Lauren Slater.


"It’s also telling that I’m not a trained journalist.  I
have a degree in screenwriting from NYU. The highest priority
when I’m writing is on storytelling, not voice, but
storytelling.  That’s my business.  Voice comes easily
to me because it’s easy for me to write how I sound.  And
structure is the thing that I think about the most.  ‘What
is the beginning, middle, and end of this?’ "


Loved the soap opera Santa Barbara, and got a job at a Soap
Opera publication


Worked at Mediabistro in Los Angeles


PTSD from giving birth


"Moving Swift-ly on? Giggling Tom Hiddleston is spotted bidding
farewell to a mystery brunette during evening stroll back in
London" - Daily Mail


"Chasing the New American Dream"


"My Color Story"


"Obsessive-compulsive disorder nearly ruined her life" by
Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff


"Who Controls Childbirth?" - Self Magazine


"We Have Found the Cure! (Sort Of)" - Outside Magazine


Water's Edge (The story of Bill May, the greatest male
synchronized swimmer who ever lived, and his improbable quest for
Olympic Gold) - ESPN Magazine


The Art of War by Steven Pressfield


Interviewing celebrities is never not weird.


Classes at: taffyakner.com/classes (but August 2017 class is
sold out)