Become a Writer Today

My guest this week is retired clinical psychologist Pam Munter.

Pam's written four books and had more than 150 personal essays published over the years. Her latest book is Fading Fame: Women of a Certain Age in Hollywood, a collection of ten short stories and two plays about the troubled lives of strong and talented women who survived #MeToo. Pam also writes a lot of non-fiction and memoirs.

In our interview, she talks about her approach to writing short stories, plays, and personal essays and talks about her life as a stage performer and a clinical psychologist.

Pam also has a fascinating insight into the creative process, which is worth listening to in the middle of the interview. 

If you feel that writing is a bit of a lonely profession, this is a conversation you want to hear.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How to balance writing with a professional career
• Dealing with feedback 
• Outlining stories in advance vs free writing
• Should writers attach value to their work?
• How long Pam spends writing each day
• Tips on getting published in journals

Resources:

• Pam Munter
• Fading Fame: Women of a Certain Age in Hollywood
• As Alone as I Want to Be
• When Teens Were Keen: Freddie Stewart and The Teen Agers of Monogram
• Almost Famous
• The Art of the Personal Essay
• The Best American Essays of the Century
• Duotrope

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

In this episode, I catch up with Brian Finney to understand how he transitioned from writing non-fiction to writing fiction and how he manages his day.

Many writers work on the side while working a demanding day job. Brian has gone the other way. He’s now a professor emeritus at California State University, which means he doesn’t lecture at the university, so he has time to write his psychological thrillers during the week.

I was interested in how somebody would approach having a massive chunk of free time to write. I dug into Brian’s writing process to figure out how much time he spends writing and how he gets himself into a state of flow.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Brian's writing process
• Current events and conspiracy theories that drive Brian's stories
• Writing tools
• Reactions from Brian's former students
• How Brian promotes his books
• Advice on finding time to write
• Techniques and strategies for getting into the flow

Resources:

• Brian Finney Website
• Money Matters
• Dangerous Conjectures

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

Many writers like to work within one genre or niche. They write thriller books or police procedurals, or mystery books. 

Other writers find working within one genre or niche confining, and they like to try different types of writing to see where it takes them. 

In this episode, I recently had the chance to catch up with Jenn Ashton, and she’s done just that. She’s published poetry, children’s books, journalism, historical research, technical manuals, and she’s also an accomplished visual artist. 

I had many questions for Jenn about her creative ventures and whether other projects like painting can improve your writing.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Balancing different creative outlets
• Getting into a creative flow
• Sharing stories with a beta group before publishing
• Giving helpful feedback to a friend
• How to earn a living while following your creative dream
• The benefit of entering writing competitions
• Advice for writers looking to get published

Resources:

• People Like Frank
• NaNoWriMo
• Submittable 
• Jennifer Ashton 
• Jennifer Ashton Art

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

This week, I got to catch up with somebody I've wanted to talk to for a long time.

David Farland is the author of over 50 books, including The Runelords series. He's worked with top fantasy and science fiction authors like Brandon Sanderson and Stephenie Meyer, and he's also written Million Dollar Outlines.

In this interview, we talk about Robert Heinlein's Rules for Writers. Several years ago, I came across these rules after being frustrated writing and rewriting the same short stories repeatedly. 

We chat about hybrid publishing, self-publishing, and traditional publishing and how to decide which approach is right for your book. I also got David's take on marketing and how a back catalog can help you earn a good living as an author.

David also explains the importance of having an e-mail list and how it can help you earn a healthy living from writing.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How David's writing process has changed over the years
• Advice for new writers
• What makes a story compelling
• Common mistakes authors make
• Choosing a genre to write in 
• What makes authors stand out
• How to market your books

Resources:

• Apex Writers
• Writers of the Future
• My Story Doctor

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

In this episode, I chat with therapist Charley Wininger.

He's the author of the new book, Listening to Ecstasy: The Transformative Power of MDMA. Writing about the therapeutic benefits of psychedelic substances is pretty controversial, depending on where you live in the world. 

It's a topic that I'd like to write about, but I'm not quite there yet, so I was fascinated to hear from an author who's not afraid to write about something controversial.

Charley started writing in his mid-60s. He's now 72, and it took him seven years to write the book. If you ever feel like you've missed your chance to write a book, take heart from his experiences. 

I ask Charley about the correlation between psychedelics, meditation and flow state, and the creative process. He also describes his writing process and how he got around some issues like writer's block.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How Charley wrote his memoir
•  Why the book took 6 years to write
• Advice given to Charley about writing
• The comparison between meditation and psychedelics
• Charley's memories of Andy Kaufman
• Reactions to the book
• Strategies for selling the book 

Resources:

• Charley Winiger
• Charley on Instagram
• Charley on YouTube
• Listening to Ecstasy: The Transformative Power of MDMA - Charley Winiger
• Waking Up - Sam Harris

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

Meredith Heller is the author of Write a Poem, Save Your Life: A Guide for Teens, Teachers, and Writers of All Ages. It's an instructional book for anybody who wants to write or teach writing poetry. If you want to learn more about writing poetry, it's a title I recommend. 

In this episode, Meredith told me how she combines her career as a working poet with that of a massage therapist and teacher.

Meredith explains how having a job can inform your craft and can give you source material for your art. 

She is also a prolific journaler and had over 80 different journals that she used for material.

In this episode, we discuss.

• How Meredith combined her poetry with the work of her students in the book
• Meredith's techniques for getting her students to write about difficult topics
• The process for writing poetry
• Is poetry making a comeback?
• The key to writing while having a career

Resources.

• Write a Poem, Save Your Life: A Guide for Teens, Teachers, and Writers of All Ages 
• Meredith Heller

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

Colin Dayan is the Robert Penn Warren Professor in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University.

She’s written extensively about Haiti and Guantanamo Bay and has written not one but two memoirs. 

Colin chatted to me about her memoirs and how, if you spend a lot of time engaged in one type of writing to pay the bills as Colin did with academic writing and research, you should still go ahead and try on a completely different form of writing. 

After all, who knows where you’ll end up in 10 or 15 years, and by exploring different genres and formats, you could build a writing career that lasts a lifetime. 

I asked Colin about her research process, and we dig into how she approaches researching memoir versus writing something for an academic and formal audience.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Choosing topics for a book
• How to approach writing a personal essay
• The reaction of those featured in Colin's books
• Colin's tips for writing a memoir
• Picking a theme to structure your memoir around

Resources:

• Colin Dayan
• Marion Roach Smith episode

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

Terry McDougall is an executive and career coach and the author of the new book, Winning the Game of Work.

In this episode of the podcast, I spoke to Terry about her fascinating idea of seeing work as a type of game. She considers her book as part of her calling card, and she had some fantastic insights into how the book is potentially helping her find more clients for her coaching practice.

If you have an interesting work story and you want to go out on your own as a consultant or coach, then writing a non-fiction book is a way to help you grow your business or your practice.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How to treat work as a game
• Strategies to help you succeed at work
• Books that laid the foundation for Terry's writing
• How long it took to write the book
• What Terry would do differently
• Terry's writing process on an average day

Resources:

• What Color is Your Parachute - Richard N. Bolles
• Winning the Game of Work - Terry McDougall
• Marketing Mambo Podcast
• Terry B. McDougall Website

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

Recently I caught up with podcaster, blogger, and author Amy Isaman.

Amy taught creative writing for years until she finally answered her calling and wrote her first book in her 40's.  

She's written both mystery books and historical fiction, and she believes that writers should try writing in different genres. After all, readers don't confine themselves to one genre.

She puts a case forward for writers to flex their creative muscles and pick a genre they've not written in before, whether that's a thriller, mysteries, or science fiction.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Turning your first book into a series
• Outlining your writing in advance 
• Amy explains her editing process
• Using beta readers
• Starting a blog

Resources: 

• Amy Isaman
• Amy Isaman at Amazon
• Amy Isaman on Instagram
• Sara Oliver Design

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

My guest in this episode is Roger Reuff.  He developed the concept of the story having a soul. He wrote a book about it and has a course of the same name at soulofyourstory.com. 

Roger is multi-talented and has written several books and screenplays, one of which made into onto big screen, The Big Kahuna starring Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito.

Roger starts our interview with an overview of who he is and how he came up with his idea for finding the soul of a story.

In this episode we discuss: 

• What writers should ask themself before they start on a book
• Roger's three main approaches to writing
• How Roger formats his writing
• How he developed the concept of the Soul of your Story

Resources:

• Soul of Your Story
• Soul of Your Story Webinar

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!