In this episode, Dave and Simon talk about taking care of yourself as an author. How can you look after your mental and physical wellbeing.

We also announce that we’ve decided to take a break until later this year from the podcast. As Simon doesn’t have a lot of time to write at the moment, it makes sense to wait until we have more to talk about. Don’t worry, we’ll be back once Simon has time for writing again.

In this week’s episode, Dave and Simon talk about characters. Why do some characters stick out and others just blend into the background? What separates a cardboard character from someone who seems real? Find out our thoughts in the podcast.

In this week’s episode, we discuss how the language we speak and write in may influence the way we tell stories. We also talk about how centuries of culture may put boundaries on our writing.

This week, we also said goodbye to Ed as a co-host. Ed needs to prioritise his family, so is stepping down as a regular co-host, but will hopefully be back as a guest in the future.

In this episode, Dave and Simon talk about the power of twists. Reader expectations are tricky. Go too far and you leave readers unsatisfied, if you don’t go far enough the same thing happens. Find out our thoughts on the podcast.

In this episode, Dave and Simon talk about using a real world influence in your books and stories. How do avoid getting sued, or avoid insulting someone. Find out our thoughts in the podcast.

This week, Ed, Dave, and Simon initially start talking about “Regular Life vs Working Life”, but quickly go off on a tangent and talk about how to improve in the quickest way.

All of us suffer from friends and family that love us too much. So much so that they won’t criticise us for risk of offending us. We talk about ways to get honest feedback to allow us to improve our writing more quickly. Because who wants to spend the next ten years improving only slightly?

Check out the podcast for more.

In this episode, Ed and Simon are joined by special guest, Kevin Tumlinson! Kevin is the author of the “Dan Kotler”, “Citadel Trilogy”, “Sawyer Jackson”, and “Think Tank” series, along with being the Director of Marketing at Draft2Digital. Phew. If you want to know how to create time to write ask a busy person. Kevin had a lot of incredibly useful tips for anyone out there struggling to write. Check out the podcast for them!

In this episode of the podcast, Dave and Simon talk about force multipliers. A force multiplier is a military term, referring to an something(s) that increase your effectiveness by a factor. In other words, something that turns you into the equivalent of two, three, or more other people. We discuss the factors writers can learn or adopt in order to massively increase their own effectiveness. Check out the podcast for our thoughts.

In this episode, Dave and Simon talk about the difference style can make to a story. There are many aspects of style, including the author’s style and the elements that go into a story. Check out the podcast to find out our thoughts.

In this episode of the Nitty Gritty Writing Podcast, Ed and Simon discuss what makes an engaging story. Stories are evolving quickly in the modern age. With far more competition, there’s evolutionary pressure on stories to become better than the others around them. Which adds pressure to us as story-tellers. How can we create a story that stands above the pack? Check out the podcast to find out our thoughts.