Carter Wilson's Making It Up
Making It Up is an unscripted conversation series about the messy reality of being a writer.
Each episode is a deep, unplanned conversation with writers at every stage of the journey. New York Times bestselling authors. Award winners. Debut novelists just getting started. No prepared questions. No talking points. Just two people following the conversation wherever it leads.
We talk about where stories really come from. Childhood influences. Fear. Luck. Loss. Discipline. Doubt. The highs, the lows, and the long stretches in between that rarely get talked about.
At the end of every episode, we put the philosophy into practice. We choose a random sentence from a random book and use it to create an impromptu short story. No prep. No outline. Just making something out of nothing.
Because that is the job.
And that is the point.
Visit Carter at www.carterwilson.com.
Carter Wilson's Making It Up
Making It Up with Barbara Nickless, author of The Drowning Game
Barbara Nickless is the #1 Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Sydney Parnell crime novels. The series has been optioned for television and has won two Colorado Book Awards and twice won the Daphne du Maurier Award of Excellence. Her standalone spy thriller was released in January 2025. Barbara’s essays and short stories have appeared in Writer’s Digest, Penguin Random House, and other markets. She also teaches creative writing to veterans at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.
Among other things, Barbara and Carter discuss navigating PR as an author, Barbara’s research in Singapore for her espionage thriller, and transitioning from writing series to standalones. At the end of their conversation, they make up a mysterious story using a line from Cara Black’s Murder at la Villette.