Daniel Sweren-Becker on Playing Games with Readers
In Conversation with Lindsay Hunter on I'm a Writer But
Welcome to I’m a Writer But, where writers discuss their work, their lives, their other work, the stuff that takes up any free time they have, all the stuff they’re not able to get to, and the ways in which any of us get anything done. Plus: book recommendations, bad jokes, okay jokes, despair, joy, and anything else going on that week. Hosted by Lindsay Hunter.
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Today, Daniel Sweren-Becker discusses his new novel, Kill Show, as well as using the oral history format, finding the right balance of red herrings to tantalize but not torture the reader, true crime, the way truth can be shaped and manipulated, white man’s fragility, and more!
From the episode:
Daniel Sweren-Becker: I had so much fun writing this book, because I knew I was in a game with the reader. [I was] dispensing information at the exact amount that I wanted to, to lead them down a pathway that was either useful or would be a red herring. I was smiling to myself typing a sentence in the early chapters that I knew would indicate one thing, and of course it’s going to indicate the other. We are unraveling a mystery, and I was so tickled personally getting to dole that information out as I saw fit.
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Daniel Sweren-Becker is an author, a television writer, and a playwright living in Los Angeles. He graduated from Wesleyan University and received an MFA from New York University. His play Stress Positions premiered in New York City at the SoHo Playhouse, and he is the author of the novels The Ones and The Equals. His new novel is KILL SHOW.
