Pod Insights TED Radio Hour New year, new habits: How to start writing with author Kelly Corrigan About this episode Writing can help you process thoughts, preserve memories, chronicle the stories of you and your loved ones. But that's only if you can get past the blank page. In this bonus episode, best-selling memoirist Kelly Corrigan offers advice for putting pen to paper. Corrigan has written four New York Times-bestselling books about her life and family in the last decade, including Tell Me More and The Middle Place. She was featured in the episode, "A guide to being brave in relationships https://www.npr.org/2024/11/01/1210938556/being-brave-in-relationships."
To get access to more bonus episodes like this one, sign up for TED Radio Hour+. When you do, all your episodes also become sponsor-free. That's because you are directly supporting our work at NPR. Learn more at plus.npr.org/ted http://plus.npr.org/ted
See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Manoush Zomorodi? This episode's sponsor is HubSpot, which offers the following message: What if instead of updating your CRM, your CRM updated you? HubSpot's self-updating CRM keeps your customer context current so you can win more deals. Learn more at hubspot.com. Hey, it's Manoush. I am here with one more bonus episode to give all of our listeners a look into what we make for TED Radio Hour Plus. So Plus supports all the work we do. And as a supporter, you get access to ad-free episodes as well as extra interviews with TED speakers and practical advice from experts. You can go to plus.npr.org to find out more.
0:44 Manoush Zomorodi? OK, so here's what we got for you.
0:48 Manoush Zomorodi? It is that time of year, maybe, when we feel a little wistful about what was and what's even to come. And maybe you have thought about getting some of those thoughts down on paper, even writing a memoir, maybe for yourself or even to share with the world. So writer Kelly Corrigan was recently on our episode about how to be brave in relationships. But I also wanted to ask her about how she approaches her craft. Because Kelly became a bestselling author by writing about the mundane and ordinary aspects of her family's life and her own life, but capturing those moments
1:31 Manoush Zomorodi? in an extraordinary way. I want to read you a brief passage from her latest book, which is called Tell Me More. It's about spending time with her dad during the last few days of his life.
1:47 Manoush Zomorodi? "After we got him to bed that night, my mom explained that he came downstairs once a day to sit by his new gas fireplace that turned on with a remote control. She also said his pain was extraordinary. Cancer that had been many years before in his bladder had bloomed in his right shoulder blade and rooted in several spots along his spine. Still, for the four or five hours a day when he was awake, my mom said he was himself, which is to say, positive." During that first week, when he wasn't in his spot by the fire, my mom, my brothers and I cycled in and out of his bedroom, pulling up a chair if he was awake, turning off his light if he had fallen asleep. There was so little to be done, so little that could be done.
2:32 Manoush Zomorodi? We watched whatever was on ESPN, even bowling, and talked about Duke basketball, Notre Dame lacrosse, and whether LeBron could hold off the Warriors. I felt lucky that my work and my children were back in California, too far to pull me from him. Edward, that's her husband, kept saying, "Stay, we're fine." So I did. For 14 days, I cleaned his reading glasses and showed him pictures on my phone, stretching them so he could see the detail hidden in the pixels, which often led us into the catalog of spectacular people he had known, the all-time greats, as he dubbed them. Listening to him gush about Jock Janky and Noodles Knulker,
3:15 Manoush Zomorodi? it occurred to me that if this newest cancer was going to kill him, he had made good on life's most exquisite promise: he loved and was loved in equal measure.
3:29 Manoush Zomorodi? Isn't that so beautiful? So how does Kelly do it? I wanted to understand her approach. When we come back, our chat about writing, her dad, her wildly successful memoir, The Middle Place, and her best advice on how to get started.
3:52 Manoush Zomorodi? Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This message comes from Whole Foods Market, host Thanksgiving with industry-leading quality standards from Whole Foods Market. There are no antibiotics in their meat department ever, so carve up turkey and spiral-cut ham with peace of mind. Shop organic sides like stuffing mix and cranberry sauce from 365 Brand. And all their delectable pies are made with no high-fructose corn syrup. Gourmet Thanksgiving flavors with the quality you want only at Whole Foods Market.
4:27 Speaker 01 This message comes from ProLon. Want to look and feel your best this fall? ProLon's five-day fasting-mimicking diet is a clinically-developed nutrition program with the goal of promoting fat loss while protecting lean body mass. Developed at US S C's Longevity Institute, it aims to assist the body in entering a fasting-like state that helps reset metabolism, target visceral fat, and support healthy metabolic markers. Get 15% off plus a bonus gift when you subscribe at prolonlife.com/NPR.
4:56 Speaker 02 This message comes from TED Talks Daily, the podcast that brings you a new idea every day. Learn what's transforming humanity. From balancing AI in your critical thinking to surpassing discoveries about the adolescent brain. Find TED Talks Daily wherever you listen.
5:14 Manoush Zomorodi? I think a lot of people, you know, we live in an age where we really think about chronicling and documenting our lives. What are your suggestions to anyone who's thinking,
5:24 Manoush Zomorodi? I want to start doing this, either for myself or maybe for a wider audience?
5:29 Speaker 03 I think it's a daily habit. I think there's a lot of value in reading while you're writing. I think it's helpful to have a little writing group or like an accountability partner. I also think it's, it's interesting and bonding. So you get a lot of value out of it in and of itself. And then also it can help move you along in the writing process. I think having a fantasy about who you would give this book to, or these pages to, or this document to, can be very motivating. Like for me, that's what got me to sit down every day was I'm going to write the story of what it is for me to be George Corrigan's daughter, and I'm going to hand it to him. I'm going to give it to him. And I did. And
6:12 Speaker 03 he put it in his bathrobe pocket. So I was like waiting for him at the kitchen table one morning. And I was like, here. And I had tears in my eyes. Like, Lovey, what is it? I'm like, you'll see. And he went upstairs and he came downstairs like four hours later and he just put like his fist to his heart and was like, mm, Lovey. And I was like, I'm done. That's all I needed. I mean, the outcome of that book is so crazy that it had this fantastic commercial life and we passed Obama on the bestseller list. And my husband made this classic joke of like, do you think Michelle just rolled over to Barack with the New York Times bestseller list in her hand and said, who the hell is Kelly Corrigan?
6:59 Speaker 03 Which was like the perfect visualization.
7:03 Speaker 03 So that it had a life for people is kind of amazing. I mean, my mom, when she read it, said, well, Kelly, it's very good. There are no grammatical errors and there's no spelling errors. But who's going to want to read about us? Like, we're not rich, we're not poor, we're not dumb, we're not stupid. Like, it just... And I said, I don't know. I really don't know. Like, that's not actually our problem. That's the publisher's problem. But I hear what you're saying. Like, I do think it's unlikely that people are going to want to read about us. On the nonfiction bestseller list, it's a lot of men, and it's a lot of men's stories. Like, it's, at the time, it was Barack Obama and Tony Dungy, who was an NFL coach, and like Lee Iacocca.
7:46 Speaker 03 So there are all these business, sports, musicians, actors, writing their memoirs. And then-
7:57 Manoush Zomorodi? Conquering heroes.
7:58 Speaker 03 Yeah, conquering heroes. And then there was like my dad, basically. And I would say, week after week, I would say to my dad, how crazy is this? Like, you're on the bestseller list. You. This is what people want, is just a story about an ordinary guy who was especially good at loving people. That's so great. That's such a great fact about the world, that people are interested in that story. Because there's typically like one slot on the nonfiction side for somebody like me. Like, Eat, Pray, Love held the slot for a long time. Before me was Glass Castle. But those are typically like horror stories, in a way.
8:37 Manoush Zomorodi? Yeah, shocking.
8:38 Speaker 03 Yeah.
8:38 Manoush Zomorodi? Uh huh.
8:39 Speaker 03 Abuse and rape and abject poverty. And this was like such a happy story. It was a love story, basically. And it worked, and people wanted it. I just think that's so great. Maybe that's why I'm an optimist, you know?
8:55 Manoush Zomorodi? Well, for sure. One of the things, though, that I think is so attractive about your writing is that you're very, very detail-oriented. And so the mundane, you just feel like you're standing next to you, eavesdropping. Like, you note how strong the drinks are, or what color the pile of laundry was that was annoying the crap out of you. And did you keep journals?
9:20 Speaker 03 I did.
9:20 Manoush Zomorodi? Like, how do you-
9:21 Speaker 03 I did, I do, yeah.
9:23 Manoush Zomorodi? Every day?
9:24 Speaker 03 No, but more than once a week. And for so long now, Manoush, like 7th grade. So I mean, I have like, I have crates. And also, I was a letter writer. So I used to write these long, detailed letters home from Camp Tacua. I used to go to this YMCA camp on the Chesapeake Bay for a month every August. And I would send home like 14-page letters about the bug juice and the Sioux Ute dance and the tetherball match. And so I think that for a long time, I was in the habit of chronicling and categorizing what was happening. And, you know, it's funny, I have done a little teaching over the years.
10:08 Speaker 03 And I always say to people, it's the detail that makes it come alive. So don't say like, I had a drink. Say, I had a soda. And don't say, I had a soda. Say, I had a Fanta. And don't say, I had a Fanta. Say, I had a grape Fanta. And don't say, I had a grape Fanta. Say, I had a grape Fanta and the condensation was making my whole hand wet. Like, all of a sudden, you went from like, having a drink to being somewhere, to being this one place in space and time with this one set of objects around you. And that's just totally different experience for a reader.
10:46 Speaker 03 And I feel like that in person, like, I feel like that's the difference between a good conversation and a great conversation and a good question and a great question.
10:55 Manoush Zomorodi? Do you think you have to be a writer? You sound like you've always been compelled. I struggle with this. Like, I don't think, like, it hurts me to sit down and write. And I think there are other people who are like, they just like, their body just like moves them to the desk and they pick up the pen and like, there's a force within them that takes their ideas and puts them on the page.
11:18 Speaker 03 That is not me. That is not me.
11:20 Manoush Zomorodi? Oh, good, okay.
11:22 Speaker 03 I mean, I'm compelled to communicate. I'm compelled to make sense. I'm compelled to compare notes.
11:31 Speaker 03 But it doesn't have to be in writing. And in fact, in all the ways that I work in the world to do those three things, writing is the least satisfying for me because it's solitary and I'm not a solitary gal.
11:47 Speaker 03 So, and sometimes I feel like the reason why the writing right now in the wake of my mom dying is more enjoyable for me is because grief is isolating. And so I might as well just be in it and try to make sense of it. And, you know, like I cry a lot when I'm writing. And that's probably a good thing. I mean, it probably helps move things along inside me.
12:31 Manoush Zomorodi? That was bestselling memoirist Kelly Corrigan. Her latest book is called Tell Me More. Again, if you'd like to get access to all of our bonus episodes and ad-free listening and support public radio, please consider signing up for TED Radio Hour Plus. You can find out more at plus.npr.org. If you are already a Plus supporter, thank you so much. And please tell a friend or give a gift subscription. We're always asking for more, aren't we? Sorry about that. Make sure you listen through December and January as we bring you more on how to start your new year off right.
13:22 Speaker 02 Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors.
Previous What one founder's past says about AI's future Next Searching for paradise Page updated November 5, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
