Master Writer Teaches Storytelling — Mitch Albom

You can’t walk through an airport without seeing a Mitch Albom book on one of the shelves. He’s most famous for writing Tuesdays with Morrie, which may very well be the best-selling memoir of all time. He’s now written 14 books, which combined have sold more than 40 million copies.
In 45 years of hitting the keyboard, this is the deepest conversation he’s ever had about the craft of writing. I asked him to approach this like a college writing seminar. Give me the rigor. Give me the examples, baby. Show me how you go about your craft.
And that’s what he did. He taught me the ins-and-outs of character building, writing novels, and our conversation started with how to tell great stories.

00:00:36 Serve the story, always
00:05:56 Slow parts fast, fast parts slow
00:07:48 Choose a theme, then tell a story
00:14:56 Write simply, not flowery
00:22:34 How Mitch deals with deadlines
00:30:24 Telling a story like no one else
00:42:40 Writing for yourself vs the reader
00:47:58 Find the theme people can relate to
01:04:30 Start with the rhythm
01:09:23 Writing with humility
01:22:23 Stories about love (after the flame is lit)
01:32:55 Loss of life vs loss of love

Hey! I’m David Perell and I’m a writer, teacher, and podcaster. I believe writing online is one of the biggest opportunities in the world today. For the first time in human history, everybody can freely share their ideas with a global audience. I seek to help as many people publish their writing online as possible.

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