Justin and Jon are back and we're interviewing a new guest!

Ben Daggers is an accomplished magician / escape room designer. He's even appeared on the hit show "Penn and Teller: Fool Us!". Having lived in several different countries throughout his life, he is fluent in five languages. We discussed how these unique fields of expertise influence him as a writer.

We also talk about his humorous pieces that have a little less cultural depth, like his infamous Writing Battle piece, "Possibly, Fossibly".

Although it was entertaining to talk about Ben's more light-hearted pieces, we also learned a great deal from him as an accomplished and more serious writer, as he's been an NYC Midnight finalist in six different competitions, and has been published five times in just the last few weeks!

This week's episode sponsor is Annie, and she's choosing to share her spotlight with fellow Battle Raven, Victor Cabinta. She's specifically promoting his self-published book, Superstring. A link to see more (and purchase) the book is here.

Finally, we need to plug our Patreon. We'd be so honored to have you as a member of our community. You can join here. Remember the tiers/perks are as follows:

Good Samaritan ($1 USD/month)

-Access to posts/surveys/updates on the Patreon Website

-1 entry into giveaways

-Good Karma for supporting small-time podcasters

WiPpersnapper ($5 USD/month)

-Access to bonus audio episodes, exclusive to the Patreon. (Currently 4 available). We aim to record about one 20 minute bonus episode per month.

-5 entries into giveaways

-Name shouted out at the end of all public episodes (if you'd like!)

Episode Sponsor ($20 USD/month)

-Whatever topic/service that is desired will be discussed and promoted at the start of an upcoming episode. (Books, Websites, Contests, Services, Social Media, Publications, Websites, etc.)

-Appropriate links and descriptions will be included in episode descriptions and social media posts.

-20 entries into giveaways.

Justin & Jon are back! And even better... on summer vacation! Our goal is to bring you a new episode once a week over break, & we're starting off strong. We've done episodes about generating stories: live outlines, various competitions, even "how-to" episodes for elements of a story... but we haven't talked much about what comes after you've finished. In a recent survey on our Patreon, our WiPpersnappers indicated that their most wanted episode was one detailing the details of submitting stories to presses. Ask & ye shall receive.

We teachers assigned each other homework: submit 5 stories for publication this week. As is representative of our current status as functioning human beings: Jon completed 11 submissions and Justin managed 3.

Some of this episode might seem rudimentary to many of the oft-published veterans in our audience, but to anyone still a novice in that area, this may prove to be one of our most valuable episodes! Important links are below, so read on... but first, our sponsor!

We are grateful to Tadpole Press for sponsoring this week's episode of Writing in Progress. They specifically wanted to share with our audience that submissions are open for their 100 word writing contest, ending November 30th. Entries must be 100 words or less (including title!), can be previously published, you're allowed multiple entries (but must pay the $15 fee each time), first prize wins $1,000 USD, open to all writers. You can submit (and find further guidelines) here!

Important links mentioned:

The submission grinder can be found here. <- Pretty old school, but searchable and thorough

Chill Subs searchable database can be found here. <-This one requires you create a profile. Although Justin discovered this function live during the episode, he has since made a profile and it is now his favorite submission resource.

If you'd rather just browse a ranked list from Chill Subs, you can find their Fish List here. <-Not searchable, but a very useful list that doesn't require a profile to access.

Finally, we need to plug our Patreon, we'd be so honored to have you as a member of our community. You can join here. Remember the tiers/perks are as follows:

Good Samaritan ($1 USD/month)

-Access to posts/surveys/updates on the Patreon Website

-1 entry into giveaways

-Good Karma for supporting small-time podcasters

WiPpersnapper ($5 USD/month)

-Access to bonus audio episodes, exclusive to the Patreon. (Currently 4 available). We aim to record about one 20 minute bonus episode per month.

-5 entries into giveaways

-Name shouted out at the end of all public episodes (if you'd like!)

Episode Sponsor ($20 USD/month)

-Whatever topic/service that is desired will be discussed and promoted at the start of an upcoming episode. (Books, Websites, Contests, Services, Social Media, Publications, Websites, etc.)

-Appropriate links and descriptions will be included in episode descriptions and social media posts.

-20 entries into giveaways.

We released a bonus episode, exclusive to the patreon, just last week on May 15th. On it, we gave away 3 books to members of our communities. The one caveat: they had to choose a book written or contributed to by a guest of our pod. So far, MM Schreier's "Bruised, Resilient" and Trey Dowell's "The Protectors" have been claimed!

Better late than never, right?

A combination of some tricky editing and the craziest time of year put me about two weeks behind in getting this episode out.

But we still made it happen before the Spring Battle started... if only just. ;)

We hope to resume a more normal recording schedule again soon. Justin and Jon have about a month left of classes, and Justin's coaching responsibilities will lessen around that time as well.

Big thank you, once again, to our episode sponsor Ryan Fleming. You can find him on Instagram at ryan.david.fleming. If you have access to the Writing Battle Heart competition debrief, check out his story that made it all the way to the Elite Eight: The Cut of a Bowstring.

And if you'd like to join our Patreon community, we'll drop a quick link right here.

Reminder: We're doing a giveaway this month, so now is a great time to join! We'll be giving away a guests' book of their choice to the lucky winners. Yes, that's plural. Since I took a little longer posting this episode, let's double the prizes for this giveaway. We'll pick two WiPpersnappers to take home a new book. :)

With the Writing Battle Wonder competition rapidly approaching, what better way to prepare than to get a peak behind the curtain with one of the competition's professional judges? Long time friend of the pod, Trey Dowell, returns to field dozens of questions about his experience judging hundreds of stories during the Writing Battle Heart competition. We asked a lot of questions provided from the community--I know I learned a lot!

Big thank you, once again, to our episode sponsor Ryan Fleming. You can find him on Instagram at ryan.david.fleming. If you have access to the Writing Battle Heart competition debrief, check out his story that made it all the way to the Elite Eight: The Cut of a Bowstring.

And if you'd like to join our Patreon community, we'll drop a quick link right here.

Reminder: We're doing a giveaway this month, so now is a great time to join! We'll be giving away a guests' book of their choice to the lucky winners. Yes, that's plural. Since I took a little longer posting this episode, let's double the prizes for this giveaway. We'll pick two WiPpersnappers to take home a new book. :)

Right back at it!

There ain't no rest for the wicked, as they say. The Heart battle may still be raging, but the peer-judged Winter Flash Fiction Writing Battle is already underway. Justin and Jon are joined by friends of the pod MM and Charlie to give reactions to the new set of genres, and reveal (what we can) as we roll through our character and object cards. As expected, many buttons were pressed.

Quick note to any judges of Heart or Not Quite Write who may be listening (namely Trey and Amanda) maybe snooze this episode until your judging responsibilities are over, as we do discuss our submissions to those competitions in some detail. (Or, at the very least, have the fast forward button at the ready)

I was able to follow up with episode sponsor Ryan Fleming, and he did intend to stay on as a sponsor once again. We are so grateful for Ryan's support. If you're able, please give him a follow at ryan.david.fleming on instagram. You'll be glad you connected with him!

And if you'd like to join our Patreon community, we'll drop a quick link right here.

Justin and Jon are trying a new competition! We were invited by Australia's Amanda and Ed to take part in their Not Quite Write Prize! As luck would have it, a former winner of the competition had previously reached out expressing interest in joining the pod as a guest. So we're excited to welcome Autumn Bettinger to Writing in Progress!

Our Interview with Autumn begins at 23:22
We reveal and discuss the prompts for NQW at 1:15:25

*Episode Sponsor!*
This episode's sponsor is Camsyn Clair, who's been a valued supporter of WiP for quite some time. If you're participating in the Not Quite Write Prize (which if you're listening to this episode, it's very likely you are) you've probably seen their artwork, as Camsyn is the 2025 Not Quite Write Artist in Residence!
You can find them on bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/beingcam.bsky.social / @beingcam.bsky.social
We also want to mention that their art was recently published on the cover of the January issue of Small Wonders magazine, and you can find that artwork pinned to their bluesky profile, linked above.
They occasionally have availability for limited illustration commissions between other projects--if people like their art style, feel free to reach out with inquiries!
[email protected]

Join our community
The link to our Patreon is here! We'd love for you to join us as either a Good Samaritan ($1 per month) WiPpersnapper ($5 a month) or Episode Sponser ($20 for the month)

Trey has moved on to the world of professional judging, so we're bringing Charlie out of the bull pen to join us as we reveal and react to our prompts for the first ever Writing Battle Heart Competition! Listen along for a little strategy and advice... and a lot of laughs and fun conversation.

*Episode Sponsor*
This episode is brought to you thanks to episode sponsor Ryan Fleming. You can follow Ryan on instagram at Ryan.david.fleming. The message Ryan selflessly wanted us to promote?
"Don’t stop working on your writing craft :)"
So, know Ryan is cheering you on, and can't wait to see what you write next.
Thank you again for supporting the podcast, Ryan!

If you'd like to become a member of our Patreon community, you can join via this link.

Former Writer's Playground winner Ryan Fleming joins WiP for the fourth time, and tonight we're discussing the 10th challenge with is officially underway!

We start the conversation by diving into some data Ryan has collected from past winning stories, then we live-react to this round of prompts! We close things out by tipping our hand ever-so-slight in how we're planning to move forward.

We hope you join us, whether it's this comp or the next!

Writer's Playground Website

Our Patreon

Friends of the pod--Maggie and Charlie--rejoin Justin and Jon for a live outline. This is a good one, folks. Great way to end 2024!

We start from scratch: a giant spreadsheet of prompts and a random number generator. About an hour and a half later, we'd outlined a very interesting story! We hope you enjoy the journey with us, and maybe learn a few things about how experts like Maggie and Charlie approach idea generation and story development.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/WritinginProgressPodcast

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: writinginprogresspod

Good friend of the pod, Trey Dowell, drops by to discuss his recent Writing Battle win and transition to professional judge.

Topics include:

-Behind-the-scenes hilarity of how Trey found out he won

-Trey realizes a theme common in many of his recent/best stories

-A super-secret insider tip (/maybe bug?) Justin discovered during submission this round.

-Trey gives insight into his transition to professional judge and what he'll be looking for when judging the upcoming Heart competition in Writing Battle!

*Also* Jon and I have set a date for the Not Quite Write Prize entry drawing! We will randomly choosing our winners on the evening of Wednesday December 18th. You must have joined one of our paid subscriptions before that time if you'd like to be entered.

Good Samaritans receive one entry. WiPpersnappers receive five. Episode Sponsors receive twenty. The drawing pool is currently at 30 entries for two tickets. Each member can only win one ticket, so your odds are still very good!

The winners will be announced during this month's bonus episode on the Patreon. **Note: Bonus episodes will usually only be available to WiPpersnappers and Episode Sponsors, but we're going to make the first episode (and drawing results) available to Good Samaritans as well.

The link to join our Patreon is here.