London Writers' Salon

Description:

Neuroscientist and bestselling author David Eagleman on the brain science behind creativity, what actually causes writer's block, and how pre-commitment strategies like the Ulysses contract can help writers finish what they start.

 

You'll learn:

Creativity is not a rare gift but a default brain function — all brains constantly absorb the world and remix it, making it hard to memorize anything without altering it.

Every seemingly original idea has a traceable lineage, as shown by biographers who traced Samuel Taylor Coleridge's most famous lines back to books on his own shelves.

The brain runs three core creative algorithms — bending, breaking, and blending — and writers can apply these deliberately when they feel stuck on a project.

Writer's block often stems from unmet basic needs, social fear of judgment, or scattered attention rather than a lack of creative capacity.

Eagleman challenges the popular myth that great ideas arrive during walks or showers, arguing that his best thinking happens while sitting and actively working on a problem.

The Ulysses contract — binding your future self through social pressure, financial stakes, or firm deadlines — is one of the most effective tools for finishing creative projects.

Eagleman has published roughly a million words, all of them written at IHOP, and works on multiple books simultaneously using what he calls the "Lazy Susan method."

Seeking novelty and working in the zone between frustrating and achievable keeps the brain flexible, which is why switching genres matters more than repeating what already works.

Fiction is likely to survive AI better than nonfiction because AI-generated writing tends toward detectable, averaged-out blandness that lacks human texture.

Reading Carl Sagan's Cosmos at age 13 set Eagleman on his path as a science communicator, and he writes for his younger self as his target audience to avoid jargon.

 

Resources & Links:

📄 Interview Transcript

David’s Website

Inner Cosmos

The Creative Brain

Cosmos by Carl Sagan

The Runaway Species

Ulysses contract

Sum

David’s Substack

About David Eagleman:

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist at Stanford University and an internationally bestselling author. He is co-founder of two venture-backed companies, Neosensory and BrainCheck, and he also directs the Center for Science and Law, a national non-profit institute. He is best known for his work on sensory substitution, time perception, brain plasticity, synesthesia, and neurolaw. His books include Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, The Runaway Species, and Livewired. He is the writer and presenter of the Emmy-nominated PBS series The Brain with David Eagleman and hosts the podcast Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.
For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.
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Acclaimed short fiction writers Sarah Hall, Jonathan Escoffery, and Niamh Mulvey on building immersive worlds in compressed spaces, grounding stories in real human stakes, and writing openings and endings that transform both character and reader.

 

Timestamps:

(00:01:06) Sarah Hall, from Episode 161

(00:14:43) Jonathan Escoffery, from Episode 56

(00:26:40) Niamh Mulvey, previously unreleased conversation

 

You'll learn:

Sarah Hall's "keyhole" approach to short stories — and how the unseen world beyond the scene gives a story its depth.

Why trusting your preoccupations beats forcing a theme, and how over-awareness of your own subject can kill the fiction.

A technique for thickening a thin first draft: telescope into your character's childhood, then out to their future.

Why Jonathan Escoffery believes stories without real-world stakes will lose to equally crafted stories that engage with the world, every time.

How Escoffery pairs imagination with lived emotional experience to make unfamiliar settings resonate — and why personal growth feeds artistic growth.

What choosing a linked story collection over a novel taught Escoffery about pacing, pause, and propulsive energy.

Why Niamh Mulvey thinks showing off your best writing in an opening is a mistake — and what to do instead (start specific, name a character, put two people in relation).

A prompt for finding your story's urgency: ask "why this moment?" and aim for the energy of really good gossip.

How character desire shapes place and plot at the same time, so setting becomes what your character wants rather than backdrop.

Mulvey's "third element" — a character, object, or event seeded early that can emerge later to unlock your ending.

Resources & Links:

Join our LWS community!

Sarah's full episode and notes

Jonathan's full episode and notes

If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery

Hearts and Bones: Love Songs for Late Youth by Niamh Mulvey

The Amendments by Niamh Mulvey

Sombrero Fallout by Richard Brautigan

About Sarah Hall:

Sarah Hall is one of the UK's most talented authors. Twice nominated for the Man Booker Prize, the first and only writer to win the BBC National Short Story Award twice, she has written ten highly acclaimed novels and short story collections.

About Jonathan Escoffery:

Jonathan Escoffery is the author of the linked story collection If I Survive You, a New York Times and Booklist Editor's Choice, an IndieNext Pick, and a National Bestseller. His stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Oprah Daily, Electric Literature, Zyzzyva, AGNI, Pleiades, American Short Fiction, Prairie Schooner, Passages North, and elsewhere.

About Niamh Mulvey:

Niamh Mulvey is from Kilkenny, Ireland. Her short fiction has been published in The Stinging Fly, Banshee and Southword and was shortlisted for the Seán O'Faoláin Prize for Short Fiction 2020. Her short story collection Hearts and Bones: Love Songs for Late Youth was published by Picador. The Amendments is her first novel.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.
For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.
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FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON
Twitter: twitter.com/​​WritersSalon
Instagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalon
Facebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalon
If you’re enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!

Memoirist and filmmaker Curtis Chin on pitching for national press, booking venues through cold emails, and making a high-volume book events strategy financially sustainable.   
You’ll learn:
Why Curtis booked readings before his memoir released to drive pre-orders, and what that early push unlocked. 
How he found venues by researching programs and series online, then sending cold outreach without overcomplicating it. 
A practical way to define your “audience” so your outreach targets the right communities and institutions. 
How to write a venue email that creates urgency (a “hook” and a reason to say yes now), without sounding gimmicky. 
A press pitching approach that starts local, builds credibility, and then moves toward national outlets. 
What his spreadsheets are (and aren’t) for, and a lightweight way to track outreach and payments without building a complicated system. 
How he initially used a publisher budget, then supplemented it with community funding when the budget wasn’t enough. 
Why momentum compounds (your growing “resume” of events and media makes the next invitations easier), and how to lean into that effect. 
How he structures his day to keep writing, business logistics, and book marketing moving at the same time. 
How getting paid for talks changed the economics of touring, and why nonfiction subject expertise can create more paid speaking opportunities. 
 
Resources & Links:
📑 Interview Transcript
Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant by Curtis Chin
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
Curtis’ NYT article
Curtis’ Website

About Curtis Chin:
Curtis Chin is the author of the award-winning memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant. A co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Curtis Chin served as the non-profit’s first Executive Director. He went on to write comedy for network and cable television before transitioning to social justice documentaries. Chin has screened his films at over 600 venues in twenty countries. He has written for CNN, Bon Appétit, The Detroit Free Press and The Emancipator. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Chin has received awards from ABC/Disney Television, New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and more. His essay in Bon Appétit was selected for Best Food Writing in America 2023 and his short doc, Dear Corky premiered on American Masters. He is currently working on a new docuseries on the history of Chinese restaurants in America. 

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.
For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.
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FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON
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Instagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalon
Facebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalon
If you’re enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!

Writer and director Morgan Cooper on turning a self-funded Bel-Air short into a series, building creative audacity before opportunity arrives, and staying resourceful across drafts, collaboration, and a children’s picture book.
You'll learn:
Why “imperfect action” can be a practical antidote to creative paralysis, especially early in your craft.
How he found a compelling dramatic lens by stripping away sitcom expectations and focusing on character archetypes and real-world stakes.
What it can look like to invest commercial income back into self-initiated work to build a body of proof.
Why “waiting for permission” often hides fear, and how starting anyway can change what’s possible.
Why the “angle” of your idea matters, and how recalibrating it can be the difference between a draft that stalls and a draft that lands.
How identifying the “big question” of a story can give your scenes direction and your revisions momentum.
Simple ways to keep the creative channel open using a notes app, project scrap bins, and a journaling method that functions like index cards.
How collaboration becomes part of the craft when you treat writing as iterative perspective-building, not a solitary performance.
What writing a picture book can teach about economy, structure, and building an arc inside tight page limits.
How designing a kid-led mission around resourcefulness can create momentum and emotional payoff in short form.

Resources & Links:
📄Interview Transcript
Cooper’s original Bel-Air concept trailer
Bel-Air on Peacock
The College Dropout - Kanye West
Kind of Blue - Miles Davis
I Can Make A Movie! 
Geneva Bowers - Illustrator and Artist
Hair love - Matthew A. Cherry
Film London
Mediatrust.org - Mentoring Opportunities
Dancing Ledge Productions - Mentoring Opportunities

About Morgan Cooper:
Morgan Stevenson Cooper is a Los Angeles-based writer and director and the creative force behind Bel-Air, the dramatic reimagining of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that grew out of his self-released short film in March 2019. After the film drew widespread attention, Will Smith and Westbrook Studios came on board as collaborators, and the series premiered in February 2022, with Cooper serving as creator, director, co-writer, and executive producer. He is a two-time Tribeca X winner for U Shoot Videos? and Pay Day, and is developing BLKCOFFEE as writer, director, and executive producer.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.
For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.
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FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON
Twitter: twitter.com/​​WritersSalon
Instagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalon
Facebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalon
If you’re enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!

Essayist and fiction writer Erica Stern on writing hybrid nonfiction, weaving memoir with research and a ghost-story thread, and finding a publishing home for genre-defying work.   

You'll learn:
What “hybrid nonfiction” can look like when memoir, research, and a fictional thread are all working toward one emotional truth.
Ways to make a genre-bending draft feel cohesive, even when it’s built from multiple modes and timelines.
How reverse outlining can help you figure out what each section is really doing, and tighten the book’s throughline in revision.
Why “moving the pieces around” for a long time can be part of the process when the structure has to be discovered, not imposed.
A mindset shift for writers making unconventional work: follow what the project needs first, before you worry about outcome or category.
How to treat “weirdness” as an asset (not a liability) when the form is doing meaning, not just style.
Practical publishing encouragement for genre-defying books: small presses can be a strong fit, and there’s a growing audience for hybrid forms.
What it can look like to publish without chasing “bestseller” logic, and instead focus on reaching the right readers with the best version of the book.
Why writing “for the market” isn’t the only path to publication—and how commitment to the story can be what ultimately helps it find a home. 
 
Resources & Links:
📑Interview Transcript
Frontier: A Memoir and A Ghost Story by Erica Stern
LWS Substack
Bitter Water Opera by Nicolette Polek

About Erica Stern:
Erica Stern is an essayist and fiction writer whose debut memoir, Frontier, was published by Barrelhouse Books in 2025. Her work has appeared in the Mississippi Review, The Iowa Review, and Denver Quarterly, and she has been a finalist for the Noemi Press Book Awards and the Mississippi Review Prize. She has received fellowships and residencies from the Vermont Studio Center, Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and holds a BA in English from Yale University and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is from New Orleans and lives with her family in Evanston, Illinois.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.
For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.
*
FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON
Twitter: twitter.com/​​WritersSalon
Instagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalon
Facebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalon
If you’re enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!