Radio FreeWrite

We closed out the season by cooking with fire—talking about hearth gods, sacred flames, and how domestic spaces carry just as much mythic weight as battlefields and quests.  Our topic of discussion today is how to get back into writing, or any pursuit, after a long time of not doing it. Join us as we get back together to enjoy community and writing all over again. Also: which kitchen appliances have the most narrative potential (spoiler: it’s the waffle iron).

Then we shared first-draft stories for Vesta, Roman goddess of the hearth, full of warmth, devotion, and at least one total kitchen disaster.

...But honestly, we in the Cru have all had a lot going on in our personal lives. It's been a hectic summer.

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Episodes of Radio FreeWrite are protected by a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license. All Stories remain the property of their respective authors.

This week we explored failure in fiction—what makes a fiasco fun to read, how to balance comedy and tragedy, and why characters falling flat on their faces (figuratively or literally) makes for such good storytelling. Bonus points if it all goes wrong because of one small, terrible choice.

Then we read stories for Fiasco, and everything predictably fell apart—in the best way.

Amber of Tadpole Press writes with us today!

Amber is the founder and CEO of Tadpole Press. Enter Tadpole Press' 100-word story contest! It's an international writing contest celebrating community and creativity. These are things we love here at Radio Freewrite. 

Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening discussion, a story from the episode, and a writing prompt!

 
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Episodes of Radio FreeWrite are protected by a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license. All Stories remain the property of their respective authors.

We embraced our inner cranks this week, talking about how to write characters who are difficult, unlikeable, or just plain mean, without turning your readers off. Naturally, we also talked about Scrooge, subtext, and whether being a literary curmudgeon means you’re doing something right.

Around the 20:45 mark, we read stories for Curmudgeon, which featured sourpuss narrators, snide footnotes, and some impressively passive-aggressive worldbuilding.

Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening discussion, a story from the episode, and a writing prompt!

 
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We got deep into the weeds about setting this week: how to write physical spaces that feel lived-in, how objects reflect characters, and why “it smelled like cat pee” might be the most emotionally evocative line in your draft. Also: house gods, heirlooms, and what it means to belong somewhere.

Then we read stories for Lares et Penates, the Roman spirits of the home, which gave us cozy magic, hauntings, and one fantastically grim dinner party.

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PC picked a great prompt for this week's episode: a haunting, beautiful Mongolian song called "Altargana," specifically the version done by the group Khusugtun. Also, our beloved WebEater was out as host for this episode, so with Murph, PC, and Spud anarchy ruled! The song evoked emotions of sadness, yearning, and vibes of a secret, hidden message in our writers. Listen to the song, listen to our stories, and let yourself recline in dreams.

Link to the song:

Altargana - Khusugtun 

Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening discussion, a story from the episode, and a writing prompt!

 
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Here is the long-awaited conclusion to our series on the anatomy of a story. Be sure to listen to episodes 103 and 104 for writing and banter on the beginning and middle of stories respectively. In this one we tackle how to end stories, discussing how to tie together what was set up in the beginning, and expanded and deepened in the middle. Happy writing!

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Part two of our structure series (be sure to listen to episode 103 before firing up this puppy- remember, PC's story is tagged onto 103 as a coda)! This week we tackled middles: what they’re for, why they sag, and how to stop yours from turning into a slog. We swapped strategies for keeping the tension alive, including sandwich metaphors, surprise reversals, and one writer’s very firm stance on cheese.

Then we read stories for Subpoena, ranging from legal drama to bureaucratic horror to magical court summonses no one was ready for.

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The WHOLE CRU has assembled for this one; be sure to stay tuned for PC's coda at the end of the episode! We chat about the beginnings of stories: what they have to accomplish, the parts they often contain, and pitfalls to be avoided. Then, we share the beginnings of our stories. Tales begin around the 23:30 mark and include an undertaker pondering death; a girl who finds some coins; the opening to a murder-mystery romcom; a coin hunter on the shores of the Styx; siblings (one of whom is dead); and a grave robber.
From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable:  
Corpse coins. An old name for the pennies placed on the eyelids of dead persons to keep them closed. In the New England states a half-dollar was traditionally used for the same purpose. 

Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening discussion, a story from the episode, and a writing prompt!

 
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Episodes of Radio FreeWrite are protected by a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license. All Stories remain the property of their respective authors.

Are you an outliner or a wild freewriter with chaos in your veins? The Cru rehashes the age-old debate of plotting vs. pantsing: when to plan, when to surprise yourself, and how to keep from spiraling into a 30,000-word digression about the moon.

 Around the 15:30 mark we read stories for Neap Tides, a prompt that gave us oceanic drama, rising tension, and one very soggy metaphor.

Neap Tides. Those tides which attain the least rise and fall at or near the first and last quarters of the moon. The high water rises little more than half as high above the mean level as it does at SPRING TIDES, and the low water sinks about half as little below it. 

Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening discussion, a story from the episode, and a writing prompt!

 
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Episodes of Radio FreeWrite are protected by a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license. All Stories remain the property of their respective authors.

This week we got real nerdy about trade literature. How do systems like Save the Cat! flatten style and novelty? Can fiction escape corporate buzzwords? How does something like a sentence diagram become weirdly emotional? We also talked about how “Buggins’ turn” (the idea that everyone gets a go, deserved or not) shows up in workplace fiction—and life.

Around the 30 minute mark we read first-draft stories for Buggins’ Turn, which featured unlikely promotions, crumbling hierarchies, and some very unfortunate shifts in the break room.

Buggins' turn. The principle of awarding promo- tion by rotation rather than on individual merit. Buggins is a supposedly common surname, but there were only two in the 1980 London tele- phone directory. The name itself is familiar in another context from 'Grandma Buggins', a tiresome old lady played by Mabel Constan- duros in a radio series that ran from 1925 to the late 1940s.

Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening discussion, a story from the episode, and a writing prompt!

 
Be sure to follow us on Instagram (if that's your sort of thing). Please do send us an email with your story if you write along, which we hope you will do.

Episodes of Radio FreeWrite are protected by a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license. All Stories remain the property of their respective authors.