Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Writing Back 2: Getting Over Our Essay Anxiety
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Writing Back 2: Getting Over Our Essay Anxiety
16 May 2025
Episode 5.16 – Writing Back 2: Getting Over Our Essay Anxiety
It’s time for the end of our carpe diem journey, and we celebrate with a congratulatory essay! Hey, why so glum?
We look at what has caused all this anxiety over the ostracized essay, rant against how traditional schooling has abused it, and offer some introductory ideas on how the best essays are essential to the literary tradition. And we all get to write one now, too!
Key Terms:
Steve’s Poetic Response to Marvell: “To His Bold Master”: https://waywordsstudio.com/verse/to-his-bold-master/
Longform Essay YouTubers Recommended:
Traditional Essays Recommended:
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/andrew-marvell-coy-mistress/
CHAPTERS
00:00 Irony So Common It’s Cringe
05:59 Opening Theme
06:31 Why Write Back?
10:58 But Why Oh Why an Essay? The Conduit of Fear
23:33 Writing for Uncertainty
27:23 But What Do I Write About?
31:47 Yeah, But Who Is Reading This Thing?
35:19 Outro and Credits
===
Transcript: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/transcript-5-16-writing-back-w-getting-over-our-essay-anxiety
Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag: https://forms.gle/MmhqcGgeLcjCaVK97
What are your thoughts on our discussion? Email me: [email protected]
===
Literary Nomads is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.
Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram: @WaywordsStudio
Facebook: Waywords.Studio
YouTube: Waywords Studio
LinkedIn: Waywords-Studio
CREDITS:
Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)
Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski
USING THIS WORK:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.
MLA CITATION:
Chisnell, Steve. “Writing Back 2: Getting Over Our Essay Anxiety,’” Waywords Studio, 16 May 2025, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/andrew-marvell-coy-mistress/.
View all episodes
By Steve Chisnell16 May 2025
Episode 5.16 – Writing Back 2: Getting Over Our Essay Anxiety
It’s time for the end of our carpe diem journey, and we celebrate with a congratulatory essay! Hey, why so glum?
We look at what has caused all this anxiety over the ostracized essay, rant against how traditional schooling has abused it, and offer some introductory ideas on how the best essays are essential to the literary tradition. And we all get to write one now, too!
Key Terms:
Steve’s Poetic Response to Marvell: “To His Bold Master”: https://waywordsstudio.com/verse/to-his-bold-master/
Longform Essay YouTubers Recommended:
Traditional Essays Recommended:
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/andrew-marvell-coy-mistress/
CHAPTERS
00:00 Irony So Common It’s Cringe
05:59 Opening Theme
06:31 Why Write Back?
10:58 But Why Oh Why an Essay? The Conduit of Fear
23:33 Writing for Uncertainty
27:23 But What Do I Write About?
31:47 Yeah, But Who Is Reading This Thing?
35:19 Outro and Credits
===
Transcript: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/transcript-5-16-writing-back-w-getting-over-our-essay-anxiety
Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag: https://forms.gle/MmhqcGgeLcjCaVK97
What are your thoughts on our discussion? Email me: [email protected]
===
Literary Nomads is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.
Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram: @WaywordsStudio
Facebook: Waywords.Studio
YouTube: Waywords Studio
LinkedIn: Waywords-Studio
CREDITS:
Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)
Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski
USING THIS WORK:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.
MLA CITATION:
Chisnell, Steve. “Writing Back 2: Getting Over Our Essay Anxiety,’” Waywords Studio, 16 May 2025, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/andrew-marvell-coy-mistress/.