Fred Waitzkin Shares his Creative Process — The Writing Coach 094

July 1, 2019

Welcome to The Writing Coach. On this podcast, I speak with the instructors, editors, coaches, and mentors who help writers and authors create their art, build their audience, and sell their work.

In episode #94 of The Writing Coach podcast, I speak with author Fred Waitzkin.

Fred was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1943. When he was a teenager he wavered between wanting to spend his life as a fisherman, Afro Cuban drummer, or novelist. He went to Kenyon College and did graduate study at New York University.

His work has appeared in Esquire, New York magazine, the New York Times Sunday Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, Outside, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, the Huffington Post, and the Daily Beast, among other publications. His memoir, Searching for Bobby Fischer, was made into a major motion picture released in 1993. His other books are Mortal Games, The Last Marlin, The Dream Merchant, and Deep Water Blues. Recently, he has completed an original screenplay, The Rave.

Waitzkin lives in Manhattan with his wife, Bonnie, and has two children, Josh and Katya, and two grandsons, Jack and Charlie. He spends as much time as possible on the bridge of his old boat, The Ebb Tide, trolling baits off distant islands with his family.

During our discussion, Fred describes:

Where he finds the ideas for his stories
How he views the unique relationship between fiction and non-fiction
What his daily writing process looks like
How having his memoir adapted into a hit Hollywood film impacted his life and his writing
His approach to mentoring writers
How a coaching experience led to a breakthrough in the writing of his latest book, Deep Water Blues
And much more!

Click below to listen now: