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. 

Justin and Jon reunite for the first time in a few months, and do a little catching up. The episode begins with some exciting news about our new Patreon community and collaboration with Not Quite Write, a writing podcast from Australia.

Link to the Patreon (ie. how you enter the giveaway)

Link to Jon's published essay, "Grandma Ward"

Link to Justin's published story and interview in MockingOwl Roost

Link to Justin's new web page (still a bit of a work in progress)

After a few months away, why not just casually drop our longest episode ever with our highest profile guest just before midnight on a random Thursday?

Shelby likely doesn't need any introduction from us. Her debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures (Yes, the octopus book that everyone you know who's read it seems to love) has sold over 2 million copies, has been on the New York Times Best Seller list multiple times, was a "Reads with Jenna" pick on the Today Show, and was awarded the 2023 McLaughlin-Esstman-Stearns First Novel Prize by the Writer's Center.

Shelby was so kind to join us for a *long* and *late* evening back in August. She answered every question with care, great insight, vulnerability, and humility. This was such a great experience for us and we can't wait to share her insight with you, our listeners. We talked a lot about RBC, both the backstory and questions about the piece itself. We talk about Shelby's process, and how her writing-life has changed since the book found so much success. We also asked several questions submitted by members of the Writing Battle forum, and it was great to hear her answers!

*Note from Justin: "Why the delay?"

The main reason... life has been busy. I took a lot of care with this audio file, and to be fully transparent it required a little more work than our typical interview. So the editing process took several hours, and I frankly haven't had several hours to sit in my basement and work uninterrupted until my life finally settled down just a bit in November. I apologize to those who have been waiting on it patiently!