Brian Reed on how one novel inspired S-Town's style

Brian Reed refers to his hit podcast S-Town as a "non-fiction novel." It sounds like an oxymoron, but Reed explains his process as telling a real and reported story by using novelistic techniques. 

In an interview with Tom Power, Reed says that he approached the story of John B. McLemore — a man from S-Town (Woodstock, Ala.) who becomes the central figure of the podcast — this way because of all the literary tropes and metaphors his subject essentially handed him throughout their time together. But, in an unaired portion of Power's discussion with Reed, the host and producer revealed the actual novels that inspired Reed's writing and production process. 

Reed says McLemore gave him a primer of sorts for the town he lived in by giving him short stories by William Faulkner and Shirley Jackson. He adds, "He gave me those as kind of background reading, to understand his town and the area." 

Personally, Reed was also highly influenced by Edward P. Jones's 2003 novel, The Known World, about American slavery. "Jones would be talking about a character, whether it's a main character or an ancillary one, and in talking about what they're doing in the present, he'll put a couple of lines jumping forward in time," Reed explains. "Like he's saying something might happen to them in the future." 

After three years of reporting on this story, Reed realized he suddenly began using the same technique. 

"I accidentally gave myself the power of an omission narrator," Reed reveals. "So I went through the first 50 to 100 pages of The Known World and just underlined every time Jones did that and I kind of kept that in mind as I was writing, so there are points in S-Town where there are future tenses which is a weird thing to do in a reported radio story."

But, acknowledging that this was a rare case in which he can use such literary styles, Reed went ahead and crafted an entire story in this manner — all thanks to Jones.

— Melody Lau, q digital staff