Words to Write by
Goodbye, Artist’s Way. Hello, Actual Craft
Sandra Scofield’s The Scene Book Introduction(and good riddance Julia Cameron) We’re saying goodbye to The Artist’s Way — and honestly, good riddance. We’re recapping our favorite quotes, the insights...
Week 12: We Finished the Book!
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s WayWeek 12: Recovering a Sense of Faith We finally finished The Artist’s Way—Julia Cameron’s self-help bible for unlocking your creative potential. Spoiler: our potential remains...
Week 11: Flailing at the Finish Line
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s WayWeek 9: Recovering a Sense of Autonomy If you listen to this podcast, you probably dream of becoming a successful writer. But what happens when...
Week 10: The Habits that Block Us
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s WayWeek 10: Recovering a Sense of Self Protection Week 10 of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way finally tackles the elephant in every writer’s room: creative...
Week 9: Fear is the Block
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s WayWeek 9: Recovering a Sense of Compassion What causes writer’s block? According to Julia Cameron, it’s not laziness—it’s fear. This week’s chapter of The Artist’s...
Week 8: When Art Hurts
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s WayWeek 8: Recovering a Sense of Strength Making art can hurt — even when you’re fully bought into The Artist’s Way. This week Cameron tackles...
Week 7: Perfectionism: An Expensive Illusion
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s WayWeek 7: Recovering a Sense of Connection A funny thing happened while we were reading the latest chapter of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. She...
Week 6: The Pampering Paradox
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s WayWeek Six: Recovering a Sense of Abundance The starving artist isn’t a cliché for nothing — we’ve long assumed that art requires sacrifice, usually financial....
Week 5: The Virtue Trap
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s WayWeek Five: Recovering A Sense of Possibility What gives? We hate this book but love talking about it. Week 5 of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s...
Week 4: The Morning Pages Report
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s WayWeek Four: Recovering A Sense of Integrity Do Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages work? Specifically, do they work for us? We begin this podcast by discussing...
Week 3: The Pushback
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s WayWeek Three: Recovering a Sense of Power Should you use anger to fuel your writing? Do you experience shame while creating art? Have you been...
Week 2: External Blockers (and Internal Doubts)
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s WayWeek Two: Recovering a Sense of Identity We’re on Week 2 of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, shifting from internal creative obstacles to external ones—namely...
Week 1: Recovering a Sense of Safety
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s WayWeek One: Recovering a Sense of Safety What if the real barrier to making art isn’t talent or time, but whether you feel safe enough...
The Morning Pages Experiment
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s WayThe Basic Tools Three pages. Every morning. No exceptions. No mercy. We’re going to unblock our inner artist using Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. For...
Starting the Artist’s Way (Send Help)
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s WaySpiritual Electricity:The Basic Principles Over the past few months, we’ve taken a deep dive into AI writing tools. Now we’re coming up for air and...
Robot Reporters Need Not Apply: A Journalist’s Stand
Authors & AI SeriesRobot Reporters Need Not Apply:A Journalist’s Stand We’ve been looking at how AI chatbots have been upending fiction writing, but how about in news media? Today...
Teaching Kids to Write in the Age of ChatGPT
Authors & AI SeriesTeaching Kids to Write in the Age of ChatGPT What if chatbots result in the next generation never learning to write? It’s a doomsday scenario that...
AI and Your Manuscript: Editor Kristen Tate’s Honest Take
In our quest to cover the mind-blowing benefits AND the nightmare scenarios that AI chatbots are unleashing on the writing world, we called in friend-of-the-podcast and editor Kristen Tate...
What’s Really Happening When AI Writes? An Interview with Bill Moore
We've been putting AI chatbots through creative writing challenges, but what are these systems actually doing when they write? In this episode, we bring in AI expert Bill Moore. Bill...
Not Your Usual Words to Write By: The AI Podcasting Challenge
Is nothing sacred? After exploring how AI might steal our writing jobs, we're now testing whether these digital usurpers can replicate our podcasting chemistry too. Google's NotebookLM claims to...
AI & Authorship: Where’s the Line?
We've explored AI as brainstorming allies, critique partners, and research assistants. Now we're tackling the most contentious question: should writers use AI in the actual writing process? Not the...
Beyond the Book: AI Solutions for Author Marketing
Can AI truly enhance your creativity without taking over? Our previous episodes left us wondering, but in this episode of “Words to Write by,” we interview educator Kate Scott...
Harnessing AI Without Losing Your Voice: A Talk with Kate Scott
Can AI truly enhance your creativity without taking over? Our previous episodes left us wondering, but in this episode of “Words to Write by,” we interview educator Kate Scott...
Brave New Feedback: When your Critique Partner is a Chatbot
Submitting work to your first workshop or critique group is nerve-wracking – these aren’t your supportive friends or family, but strangers with opinions. Yet honest feedback is the lifeblood...
Brainstorming with Bots: The Ethics of AI-Assisted Creativity
Can writers harness AI ethically without surrendering the soul of their craft? In our provocative new mini-series, we’re not just theorizing about AI’s role in creative writing—we’re putting it...
The Writer’s Last Journey: Heroes, AI, and the Future of Writing
In this episode, we’re finally putting the Hero’s Journey to rest and bidding farewell to Christopher Vogler’s “The Writer’s Journey.” And by “putting to rest,” we mean cramming the...
Getting to the Climax: The Anatomy of Romance Novels with Lia Riley
An Interview with Lia Riley Check it Out: The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey insists all stories follow the Hero’s Journey template—but does this actually...
End of the Road: The Last Two Stages of the Hero’s Journey
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s JourneyStage Eleven: The Resurrection&Stage Twelve: Return with the Elixir Check it Out: The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Just when you thought you had the Hero’s...
Writing the Return Home: More Than Just a Victory Lap
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s JourneyStage 9: RewardStage 10: The Road Home Check it Out: The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Subscribe to our Newsletter Remember family road trips? When you’re...
Empowering the Powerless: Tim Waggoner’s Tips for Keeping Horror Heroes Active
Empowering the Powerless:Tim Waggoner’s Tips for Keeping Horror Heroes Active Check it Out: The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Horror stories and the hero’s journey – a match made in...
Lost in the Ordeal: Navigating the Hero’s Darkest Hour
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s JourneyStage Eight: The Ordeal Check it Out: The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Think you know where your hero’s journey is headed? Think again. We’re diving...
The Road to Armageddon: A Workshop with Summer H. Hanford
The Road to ArmageddonAn Interview with Summer H. Hanford Check it Out: The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Subscribe to our Newsletter How do you craft a journey worthy of...
Get Thee Characters to the Cave!
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s JourneyStage Six: Approach to the Innermost Cave Check it Out: The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Subscribe to our Newsletter Remember how we’ve occasionally side-eyed Christopher...
Fixing the Saggy Middle: A Workshop with Kristen Tate
An Interview with Kristen Tate Check it Out: The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Subscribe to our Newsletter Looking for help with your novel’s middle section? While countless craft books...
Tests, Allies, and Enemies, Oh My!
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s JourneyStage Six: Tests, Allies, and Enemies Subscribe to our Newsletter What really happens between “accepting the call” and facing the big bad? Christopher Vogler’s The...
Crossing the Threshold
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s JourneyStage Four: Meeting with the Mentor&Stage Five: Crossing the Threshold Subscribe to our Newsletter So much has happened you haven’t even made it to the...
Writing Your College Application Essay
In today's episode we take a break from discussing and analyzing creative fiction to examining possibly one of the most important, and certainly most stressful, nonfiction projects in a...
Answering the Call to Adventure
How do you shift your book’s hero from their nice, cozy ordinary world into the adventure? According to Christopher Vogler’s, The Writer’s Journey, you have them answer the call....
Workshop: Plotting a Murder with Colette Clark
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Subscribe to our Newsletter Does the mystery genre follow the Hero’s Journey? According to historical mystery writer Colette Clark....
You are Now Leaving the Ordinary World
If you have read even just the first part of a blog post on the Hero’s Journey, you know the hero starts off in the Ordinary World before embarking...
Boy Bands & Archetypes
In our regular podcast, we’ve successfully made it through all of Vogler’s archetypes (from his book, The Writer’s Journey). Armed with this knowledge we decided to see if we...
The Role of the Trickster and Other Archetypes
Are we done with archetypes now? Almost! There are just three more archetype chapters in Christopher Vogler’s book, The Writer’s Journey, and we have issues with two of them. The...
Workshop with Madix: Writing and Revising LitRPG
What if writing the first draft was the easy part? Every week on serial writing websites like Royal Road, hundreds of authors will upload 5, 10, 20,000, or more words...
Female Shapeshifters and Other Questionable Archetypes
Everyone who’s read a blog post on the Hero’s Journey can spot the Hero and Mentor archetypes, but what about a Threshold Guardian, or Herald, or elusive Shapeshifter? Are...
Workshop with Elana Gomel: What to do if your Hero is a Girl?
In response to Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousands Faces, aka The Hero's Journey, folklorists and academics (many of them female) countered some of the major steps and archetypes...
The Mentor Behind Every Great Hero
The Mentor -- arguably the second most identified archetype from The Hero's Journey (after the eponymous hero). In his book, The Writer's Journey, Christopher Vogler has a lot to...
Workshop: Renee Creates a Monster-Hero
Last episode we explored the concept of the hero archetype as presented in Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey. But analysis is one thing; we wanted to see if we...
What Makes a Hero
Whether every protagonist is a Hero is open to debate (and debate it we do in this episode) but on it we can agree that the vast majority of...
Workshop: Mapping Kim’s Novel to the Hero’s Journey
Writing Workshop with Kim & ReneeThe Writer’s Journey Subscribe to our Newsletter The Hero’s Journey Study Guide The Writing Workshop Exercise Map your Novel according to Vogler’s The Hero...
Mapping the Hero’s Journey
We’ve officially started our new book, Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey. And boy is there a lot in the first two chapters! First (or first after Kim’s rant) is an...
The Writer’s Journey. Let’s Do This.
We’re on the last chapter of Judith Barrington’s book, Writing the Memoir, “Practical Advice on Critique Groups,” plus the dos and don’ts of giving and getting feedback. It’s practical...
Remembering the Day When…
Your memoir is about you (obviously) but it’s not just about you. In this episode we cover Judith Barrington’s chapter on how (and why) to bring events from the...
Workshop: Naming Names in your Memoir
Writing Workshop with Kim & ReneeWriting th Memoir Subscribe to our Newsletter The Writing Workshop Exercise Map your Novel according to Vogler’s The Hero Journey. For this week’s workshop...
Let’s Not Get Sued (for Writing a Memoir)
Judith Barrington’s Writing the MemoirChapter 8, 9, & Appendix Subscribe to our Newsletter Writing (and publishing) a memoir can be nerve wracking. What if the people you’re writing about...
The Secret to Getting Your Short Stories Publish
Our Interview with Erik Harper Klass In this stand alone episode, we talk with Erik Klass, the entrepreneurial editor behind the submission service Submitit about what literary journals are...
Workshop: Analyzing How Time Works in Memoir
Writing Workshop with Kim & ReneefromWriting the Memoir Subscribe to our Newsletter The Writing Workshop Exercise Find two or three short memoirs (short-story length as opposed to book length)...
Time Travel in Memoir
Memoirs are rarely straight chronological narratives, what with the musing we talked about last episode, and they almost always jump forwards and backwards in time. We discuss Judith Barrington...
Musing: Memoir’s Secret Ingredient
We’ve gotten to the part of Judith Barrington’s Writing the Memoir where she covers the actual writing of in a memoir, the words on the page. In addition...
You CAN handle the truth (in your memoir)
Readers seek out memoirs because they want true stories. But the truth, according to Judith Barrington in her book Writing the Memoir, is more than using Google to fact...
Finding Your Memoir’s Form
Chronological, essays, skipping through time, interspersed non-fiction — there are so many forms that memoir can take. Judith Barrington covers several in her book, Writing the Memoir, and in...
Making Your Memoir Matter
Baring one's soul in a memoir is hard work. Convincing others to care is one thing, but to engage in your life story? That's a whole other beast. In...
Truth VS Narrative in Memoir
We’re starting a NEW BOOK - Judith Barrington’s Writing the Memoir. And what better place to start than by discussing what a memoir is, what memoir isn’t, and just...
Bye Bye Birdy
How do you tackle one of the most famous writing craft books, you take it “Bird by Bird.” That’s what we’ve done with Anne Lamott’s book over the past...
Why Do You Write?
Well, why do you? The answer for most authors is to get published. But is that the only reason, or even the best reason? As we near the...
What To Do When You Have Writer’s Block
Anne Lamott (in her Bird by Bird book) says the dreaded writer’s block isn’t about being blocked, it’s about being empty. In today’s podcast we discuss Lamott’s approach to...
Writing Groups: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Behind most successful authors there is a writing group (at least according to their novel's acknowledgment section). But how does one find a writing group, and how do you...
Writing Advice from the 90s
Some advice is timeless, some is not. In this episode, we evaluate writing techniques from Anne Lamott's book Bird by Bird and see if they still have value...
Shut (those voices in your head) Up & Write
Sometimes just showing up isn’t enough. You’ve set time aside for writing and instead of your story unfurling on the page (or screen) other things come out. In this...
Beyond Butt In Chair
We’re onto the second section in Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird — The Writing Frame Of Mind — and it’s getting a bit nebulous folks. In “Looking Around,” Lamont...
What to do when your Novel is a Beautiful Mess
Even published authors have problems getting the magical stories in their heads into finished manuscript. But Anne Lamott’s account of how, over the course of three years, she completely...
Getting Your Novel Right — Scene Setting and Reworking
We’re covering two different topics from Ann Lamott’s book Bird by Bird. First off is scene setting, both its importance for your characters and how to get all the...
Character Driven Plot, plus Dialogue!
We’ve gotten to some hearty chapters in Ann Lamott’s book Bird by Bird. First up is plot, which “grows out of characters.” We discuss what this means and if...
Tilling Your Characters’ Emotional Acres
So you’ve committed to Anne Lamott’s daily writing practice (as discussed in our previous podcast), good for you. Now let’s find out how to turn those embarrassing word scribbles...
Shitty First Drafts and Beyond!
How does one write an entire novel? It’s a bit like the advice for eating an elephant, one bite at a time. In this episode we cover Anne Lamott’s...
And now for something completely different … Bird by Bird
It’s time for a new season and it’s time for a new book! We’re starting Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. This is the writing process book that everyone has...
ChatGPT, Write me my Novel
Think ChatGPT can finish your creative writing exercises? Let’s find out! In this episode we’re testing the cutting-edge artificial intelligence on some old school writing prompts. We dug out...
Bend It Like Bickham (the scene, that is)
We’re on our penultimate episode for our reading of Jack Bickham’s Scene & Structure. So, what does the bullet point Meister have to squeeze into an end of a...
Dramatic Principals & Devices FTW
Every composition teacher will draw out a rising action graph on the board (yes, we’re old school). But how do you translate that diagram into the sentences and...
Common Scene Errors
Today we tackle Jack Bickham’s Common Scene Errors, and boy, are there a lot of them, 14 to be precise. According to Scene and Sequel, these simple problems will...
Dispatches from a DIY Writing Retreat
What writer hasn’t dreamed of leaving behind the stress and obligations of their day-to-day lives for a quiet, secluded space where they can just write? This past October, we...
The One Where We Go on a Writing Retreat
In this episode, Kim interviews award winning science fiction author, Charlie Jane Anders about her recently published craft book, Never Say You Can’t Survive! After the interview, we take...
Getting Wild with Scene and Sequels
After 70 pages of Jack Bickham’s Scene and Structure we feel we’ve got a pretty good handle on how to break our stories down into action-packed, disaster-ending scenes and...
Speeding Up and Slowing Down your Novel
Chapter 8 – Scene & Structure Subscribe to our Newsletter How do you take a ponderous story into a page turner? How do you take a Michael Bay paced...
Sequels: the Glue that Holds Scenes Together
When you’re bored with action-packed scenes and want to dive deep into the mind of your protagonist, maybe you should try a Sequel. In today’s episode, we explore Bickham’s...
Tactical Disasters, Meaningful Change, and More Scene Rules. Oh, My!
After last episode’s deep dive into scene structure, we thought we’d ask a few published novelists and professional editors if they use scene goals in their writing/editing. Then, for...
Making a Scene
If stories are made up of scenes, what are scenes made up of? According to Jack Bickham in his book, Scene & Structure, scenes start with a character’s stated goal...
The Cart Goes After the Horse – Getting Cause and Effect Right in your Story
This episode is all about cause and effect, what it is, why it is critical in fiction despite being largely absent in real life, and how it works line...
Starting Your Book Off Right
In this podcast we give our first impressions of our new book, Jack Bickham's Scene and Structure, and, being the enthusiast students that we are, we begin by identifying his...
Auf Wiedersehen, Bradbury, and on to Scene & Structure
In this episode we bid a fond farewell to Bradbury with one last conversation about his book, Zen in the Art of Writing. We discuss what’s in the book,...
Work! Relax! Don’t Think! No problem
In this episode we dive into the final chapter of Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing, titled: Zen in the Art of Writing. So what is Zen,...
So You Want to be a Screenwriter
In todays episode, Bradbury tells us how loathing Ireland pushed him to becoming a playwright/screenwriter, why these absurdest plays are no good, and the secret to successfully turning his...
Five People a Writer Needs in their Career
No one succeeds all by themselves, and that includes Ray Bradbury. In his book Zen in the Art of Writing, he credits several individual who were critical to his...
Writing Marathons and Playing with Memories
According to Bradbury’s retelling, it took him nine days, a library typewriter, and a pocketful of dimes to crank out his first version of Fahrenheit 451. Is such a...
How to Feed and Care for your Muse
Oh Muse, well-spring of creativity, why are you so unreliable? How can we entice you? In this episode, we discuss what the muse is and get some advice on...
Writing with Gusto
Ray Bradbury shares his secrets for how he wrote so many unforgettable short stories in the first two chapters of his craft book, Zen in the Art of Writing.
Goodbye Gardner, Hello Bradbury
Thinking of reading The Art of Fiction, "Young Writer?" Listen to this podcast first. Despite dying in a motorcycle crash in 1982, John Gardner achieved immortality (at least in...
Come for the Plot. Stay for the Stripper
Wow! We've gotten to the final chapter of John Gardner's book, The Art of Fiction and it's all about plotting your short story, or novella, or novel (there are,...
Techniques
Gardner promises to show us the proper way for the young writer to achieve artistic mastery. Doesn’t that sound marvelous? We take him to task on his analysis and...
Common Errors
Enough with the theoretical, in this episode we get some practical advice out of Gardner's book, The Art of Fiction. Specifically, he tells us what we're doing wrong. We...
Metafiction, Deconstruction, and Jazzing Around
After last episode’s mother of all chapters, we get a reprieve – a much shorter and lighthearted chapter devoted to those weird genres of metafiction, deconstruction, and jazzing...
Interest and Truth
Moving along to Chapter 3 in The Art of Fiction. We go to war over the various dichotomies that (what Gardner claims) make good fiction, his weird beef against...
Basic Skills, Genre, and Fiction as Dream
Onto Chapter 2 of John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction. We begin with Gardner’s opinions about grammar, and our opinions about those opinions. Then we move on to his...
Aesthetic Law and Artistic Mastery
We’re starting our first book – John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction. Let’s find out why writing instructors and bloggers keep recommending it to aspiring writers. We’ll try...
What’s on our bookcase?
Welcome to Words to Write by – a podcast where we discuss, chapter by chapter, those wonderful writing craft books purchased with the best of intentions but now gathering...
What We're Reading
Zen and the Art of Writing
Bradbury…(yes, that Bradbury!) wrote a writing craft book. Together, we’ll test his promise to “release the creative genius within you.” Join us as we pick apart the process (and–dare we say– hubris) of this lovable sci-fi author as he tells us what to do, but not always how to do it. Stay tuned!
Bird by Bird
We know you own it. But have you read it? Like really, really read it? It’s time to crack that spine and delve into the depths of your perfectionism, mental hang ups, and neuroses and get that butt in the chair. At least, a writer can dream, can’t she?
The Writer's Journey
Does a plot formula a good novel make? Let’s find out! You know it by many names: The Hero’s Journey; The Monomyth theory; Jungian Archetypes, etc. But Vogler deliver on his promise? By the end of this book, will you, too, be able to write a plot and craft well rounded characters everyone will love? Only one way to find out (sans reading). Good thing you have us. Right, Dear Listener?
Authors & AI
Oh Snap, we’re tackling the beast that is AI HEAD ON! No covering your eyes! No head in the sand! We’re going to look this beast in the eye and tell it who’s boss. . .unless we’re not the boss. Wait? Whose in charge here?
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Goodbye, Artist’s Way. Hello, Actual Craft