Not Too Busy To Write

By Penny WincerSociety & Culture Education Arts Books Personal Journals How To

Not Too Busy To Write episodes

March 19, 2025 Grants for Writers with The Society of Authors
Want to know how to get funding to write?
Today I'm speaking to Robyn Law, head of Fundraising, Grants and Prizes at The Society of Authors, a UK trade union for writers, illustrators and literary translators. As well as looking at everything the SoA can do for all of us, we do a deep dive into how to apply for grants to help support you while you write, including my own experience as an SoA grant recipient.
This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag
Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE
To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play.
Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account.
Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account.
After your first purchase, your second title will be free!
Links
The Society of Authors - How to join
The Society of Authors - Grants
The Society of Authors - Advice and Resources
47 min
March 12, 2025 Aime McNee on why we need your art
Aime McNee is a writer and creativity coach and author of We Need Your Art - a look at the power and essential nature of creativity and how to kick start and maintain your own creative habits.
From perfectionism to permission and the difficulty in finishing work, Aime talks about some of the big challenges and joys we experience as artists, and why it's worth spending our precious time on the process of creating.
We Need Your Art is out 13th March
This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag
Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE
To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play.
Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account.
Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account.
After your first purchase, your second title will be free!
Links
We Need Your Art - Aime McNee
The Rules Upheld By No One - Aime McNee
Regrettably, I Am About To Cause Trouble - Amie McNee
Range - David Epstein
51 min
March 05, 2025 Alice Wilkinson on writing personal non-fiction
Alice Wilkinson is an award winning journalist and the author of How To Stay Sane in A House Share, her debut book about the joys and challenges of cohabiting. In this conversation we discuss some of the challenges of writing personal non-fiction, finding a gap in the current discourse and some of the differences she found in book writing and publishing, from her day to day life as a journalist and editor. We also talk a bit about her experience working with a book coach on the proposal - me!
How To Stay Sane in A House Share is out March 6th
This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag
Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE
To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play.
Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account.
Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account.
After your first purchase, your second title will be free!

Links
How to Stay Sane in a House Share by Alice Wilkinson

1 hr
February 26, 2025 Grace Timothy on writing and ADHD
Grace Timothy is a journalist and author of Is It My ADHD? On the podcast today Grace talks about getting a late diagnosis of ADHD and how wading through the misinformation online drove her to write a book in order to understand her own brain better.
Is It My ADHD? is out 27th February
This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag
Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE
To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play.
Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account.
Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account.
After your first purchase, your second title will be free!
You can purchase Is It My ADHD? on xigxag here

Links
Is It My ADHD? by Grace Timothy
Lost in Motherhood by Grace Timothy
Earthed by Rebecca Schiller
57 min
February 19, 2025 Tessa Hadley on the pleasures of fiction
Tessa Hadley is an award winning author of eight novels, many short story collections and one of my personal favourite writers. In this conversation Tessa talks with me about the pleasures and irresponsibility of the short story, her first novella The Party, writing as a performance and the benefits of publishing for the first time in mid life.
This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag
Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE
To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play.
Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account.
Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account.
After your first purchase, your second title will be free!
You can purchase The Party on xigxag here.
Links
The Party - Tessa Hadley
Free Love - Tessa Hadley
Bad Dreams - Tessa Hadley
The Best Intentions - Ingmar Bergman
Going Home - Tom Lamont
Long Island - Colm Toibin
Parades End - Ford Maddox Ford
Writing Literary Fiction with Tessa Hadley - Curtis Brown Creative
Not Too Busy To Write on Substack
54 min
February 12, 2025 Daisy Buchanan on reading yourself happy
Daisy Buchanan is a bestselling author, journalist and broadcaster. Today we're talking about her latest book Read Yourself Happy and the unique power of books to make us feel better, as well as how reading makes us better writers.
Read Yourself Happy is out now
This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag
Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE
To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play.
Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account.
Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account.
After your first purchase, your second title will be free!
You can purchase Read Yourself Happy on xigxag here

Links
You're Booked with Daisy Buchanan
Creative Confidence Clinic with Daisy Buchanan
Brigit Jones Diary - Helen Fielding
Exit Interview - Kristi Coulter
Can You Ever Forgive Her? - Anthony Trollope
So Thrilled For You - Holly Bourne
Mad Woman - Bryony Gordon
This Is Not A Pity Memoir - Abi Morgan
The Come Up - Jonathan Abrams
The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets - Eva Rice
Happy All The Time - Laurie Colwin
Middlemarch - George Elliot
Alison - Lizzy Stewart
A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai
Don't Look At Me Like That - Diana Athill
Rachel's Holiday - Marian Keyes
I Capture the Castle - Dodi Smith
Probably Nothing - Lauren Bravo
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit - Judith Kerr
Cazelet Chronicles - Elizabeth Jane Howard
Into the Woods - John Yorke
1 hr 2 min
January 29, 2025 What's to come in series 10
A little taster of what's to come in series 10 featuring Tessa Hadley, Daisy Buchanan and Grace Timothy.
The new series begins 5th February
You can subscribe to Not Too Busy To Write on Substack
pennywincer.substack.com
pennywincerwrites.com
Penny on Instagram @pennywincer
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3 min
December 18, 2024 Women's Prize Discoveries 2025 with Dreda Say Michell, Chloe Timms and Emma Van Straaten
Join me for a special episode digging deep into the Women's Prize Discoveries 2025, a prize and program for unpublished women fiction writers in the UK and Ireland, with two of this years judges Dreda Say Mitchell, an award winning and bestselling crime and mystery author and Chloe Timms, journalist, author and podcast host. We are joined by the winner of the inaugural Discoveries Prize 2021, Emma van Straaten, whose debut novel This Immaculate Body will be published in February. This episode is packed full of advice and will get you itching to pull out your Work in Progress and enter the prize.
Links
Women's Prize Discoveries 2025
Girl, Missing - Dreda Say Mitchell
The Seawomen - Chloe Timms
This Immaculate Body - Emma van Straaten
Dreda Say Mitchell - dredamitchell.com
Chloe Timms - chloetimms.co.uk
Confessions of A Debut Novelist with Chloe Timms
Emma van Straaten on Instagram @evswrites
Book Proposal Group Program - pennywincerwrites.com/bookproposalgroup
Not Too Busy To Write on Substack
53 min
September 25, 2024 S9 Ep5. Lucy Gough - from interior stylist to author
Lucy Gough has come to writing via her career as a stylist and art director. From working in house at magazines, to freelance art direction with John Lewis and Marks and Spencer, Lucy took a leap of faith in lockdown, when all her work disappeared, and wrote a course on Interiors Styling. That creative risk changed everything fo her. In this episode we talk about what the journey looked like and the practical and creative challenges of writing an illustrated book.
Links
The Home Style Handbook - Lucy Gough
Lucy Gough's Online Interior Styling Courses - course.lucygoughstylist.com
Lucy Gough on Instagram @style_by_lucy
Home Matters - Penny Wincer
Penny's Book Proposal Group Program - pennywincerwrites.com
Not Too Busy To Write on Substack - pennywincer.substack.com
46 min
September 18, 2024 S9 Ep4. Alice Vincent on finding home in the garden
Alice Vincent is a writer and broadcaster, and the author of Rootbound: Rewilding a life and Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival, both of which were longlisted for the Wainwright Prize. In this conversation we talk about how books begin and evolve for Alice, how she structures her time between columns, book writing and her newsletter and finding home in a balcony garden.
Links
Why Women Grow - Alice Vincent
Rootbound - Alice Vincent
Hark - Alice Vincent (pre-order)
Savour Newsletter - savour.substack.com
Home Matters - Penny Wincer
Not Too Busy To Write on Substack - pennywincer.substack.com
The next Book Proposal Group Program begins Oct 1st. You can book your place at pennywincerwrites.com
You can find all the books from Series 9 of Not To Busy To Write at Bookshop.org
49 min

About Not Too Busy To Write

From the publisher's feed

Penny Wincer is not too busy to write. Except of course, sometimes she is too busy to write as much as she would like. Join Penny as she has conversations with other writers about writing, publishing and creativity whilst juggling all the demands on them such as motherhood, caring and other paid work.