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Meg Waite Clayton

Author of the international bestsellers The Postmistress of Paris, The Last Train to London, and 6 other novels

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March 21, 2009 By Meg Waite Clayton

My Two Minutes on Radio: Writing for Sound

There’s nothing like reading on radio to make you focus on how your writing sounds. I spent some time at the KQED studios Tuesday afternoon, recording an essay for the San Francisco Bay Area NPR affiliate’s “Perspectives” series, and two minutes yesterday morning listening to “Morning Edition” to hear the result. It’s funny, the things that look good in print but work less well in sound. We changed a reference to Retin-A in the piece, for example, to Botox, because Howard, a very nice guy in a Grandpa sweatshirt who was recording me, pointed out that although Retin-A might be as clear on the page as it is on your face, it sounds like something that out to be eaten from a fancy plate in a French restaurant, with wine to enhance. That got me thinking about how much of the writing we consume comes at us from some direction other than the written page. But radio is the most sound-centric, because you get no visual whatsoever to go with the writing. No shape of the letters. No contrast of print against page. Just whatever it is you are saying, exactly the way you are saying it. It was a reminder to me to read my work aloud when I’m polishing it, because the result is always better prose, even when it’s meant only to be seen on the page.
The essay, “You’ve Come a Long Way, Barbie,” can be heard on KQED again tomorrow morning at 8:37. Or you can hear it online at KQED Perspectives. – Meg

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Meg Waite Clayton


Meg Waite Clayton is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of eight novels, including the Good Morning America Buzz pick and New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice THE POSTMISTRESS OF PARIS, the National Jewish Book Award finalist THE LAST TRAIN TO LONDON, the Langum-Prize honored THE RACE FOR PARIS, and THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS, one of Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time. Her novels have been published in 23 languages. She has also written more than 100 pieces for major newspapers, magazines, and public radio, mentors in the OpEd Project, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the California bar. megwaiteclayton.com

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