Writing in Progress

Jon and Justin speak with THE original recipient of the Writing Battle Debrief Panda--and author of Butcher the Doll--Charlie Rogers.
Topics include:
-marathon-writing sessions
-how to plan for efficient drafting
-using writing competitions to grow larger works
-screenwriting advice
-the importance of giving back to others in the writing community

You can find the link to Charlie's Website here. (You can purchase Butcher the Doll from this site.)

It's our favorite Writing Battle Tradition!
2 time champion, Maggie Schreier, and reigning co-MVW, Trey Dowell, join Justin & Jon to talk this season's Writing Battle.
This episode was recorded live on the night it all started, with each author's genuine reaction to the genres and prompts they received. (Nothing identifiable was shared, of course!)
If you feel like you need *more* Writing Battle in your life between these nano-duels, you've come to the right place!

Justin and Jon welcome one new and one familiar guest to the program. What do they each have in common? They've both won Writer's Playground in the past! Holly Grover Brandon placed first overall in the most recent, eighth, Writer's Playground Challenge. Ryan Fleming was the overall champion back in the fourth Writer's Playground Challenge.

We couldn't ask for better guests to discuss the potential prompt combinations for the ninth Writer's Playground Challenge, which is officially underway!

The episode begins with an update from Justin and Jon, as is customary. If you'd like to skip directly to the interview, it begins at the 24:00 mark.

"I didn't want to just stay in one lane. I had lots of lanes that I loved."
To say Rachael wears a lot of hats is a massive understatement. She's written (and illustrated!) her own children's book, a series of writers' prompts books, a comedic short story collection, an urban romance novella, and--most recently--a sci-fi western thriller, "Race to Novus". Oh, she also started her own small press, "Page Turn Press", which has recently released its first multi-author anthology, which Rachael edited, "Spread: Tales of Deadly Flora".

This interview was a ton of fun and we learned a lot from Rachael in our short talk. The interview begins 19:10 into the episode.

Show notes:
The link to Rachael's website is here.
The link to "The Four Types of Writers" Youtube video is here.
A link to Page Turn Press' website is here.

Errors:
-In the intro, Justin miss-spoke and mistakenly said Rachael uses her full name for her books for adults and her pseudonym R.A. Clarke for her books written for children. It is actually the opposite. It's Rachael Clarke for her children's books and R.A. Clarke for her adult work.

-At one point in the interview, Justin asks Rachael about her press and calls it "Page Turner Press", which is a different press entirely with several negative reviews. Rachael's press is called "Page Turn Press"

It's Writing Battle season! We've got the spring micro competition on deck--2 days to write 500 words!
Justin and Jon are joined again by two friends of the pod: two-time winner Maggie Schreier and 2023 MVW Trey Dowell!
We had so much fun analyzing the genres and revealing (what we could) about our prompts together.
We hope you have half as much fun as we did, listening along. :)

We give our reactions, impressions, thoughts, and opinions as we noodle with the 5 possible characters, 5 potential settings, and 1 mandatory object prompted in Writer's Playground's eighth playground challenge.

We are joined by a friend of the pod, Ryan Fleming, who happens to be a former winner of the contest. 

His interview begins around the 22 minute mark, and the prompt discussion takes off about half an hour into the episode.

Thanks for listening and please feel encouraged to reach out and connect with us!

Email: [email protected]  <- best
Instagram: @Writinginprogresspod <- still good
Facebook: Writing in Progress <- slightly less good
Twitter: @WritingInPod <-Elon has blacklisted us for some reason
Youtube: WritingInProgressPodcast <- Don't use this much
Tik Tok: Writing_in_progress_pod <- alas, I think we're too old for this ____

Maggie has dozens of publishing credits to her name, is a Push Cart Nominee,  has won Writer's Workout Writer's Games (twice), the YeahWrite Super Challenge, TL;DR's Wordherd, Iron Faerie Publishing's Betwixt Contest, and Writing Battle (twice!). She's also placed top 10 in both Writer's Playground and NYC Midnight.

She also happens to be one of the most encouraging human beings in the whole prompted-writing-competition community!

She joins us today to talk about her writing and promote her new short story collection... and oh by the way... she hasn't revealed the title of said collection... UNTIL NOW! 

Listen to our interview to hear the announcement.

We start introducing Maggie around the 8 minute mark, and the interview begins at about 15 minutes. She chatted with us for nearly an hour and a half!

Topics include: 
-writing competitions--world building on a tight word count
-self publishing, and the work that goes along with it
-imposter syndrome
-new years resolutions / goal setting
-compiling a collection
-how to approach prompts so that your story will stand out
-discovering your passion for writing later in life
-balancing a busy writing schedule
-how being a "yes" person and a voracious reader has led to her vast (and sometimes obscure) knowledge-base
-reworking/selling a piece after competition

If you'd like to learn more about Maggie, please visit her website, here: https://mmschreier.com/

If you'd like to connect with the podcast, we're currently checking email ([email protected]) and instagram (WritingInProgressPod) the most frequently.

Justin and Jon give their initial reactions for this season's Writing Battle genres and live-react to their own draws.
Just under 40 minutes into the episode, Friend-of-the-Pod Trey Dowell stops by to give his thoughts and joins in on the fun.
Jon pushes his luck... can he defy the odds again??
Listen to find out! :)

Justin and Jon continue their long-running series exploring how to write specific elements of a story. Today, they discuss the element they both ranked as the most important: characters. In this 2+ hour episode, Justin and Jon consulted the Writing Battle forums to ask for advice on how to capture the magic of an engaging character.

It's been a minute, but Justin and Jon are back and ready to talk about writing.

Because we've been gone for a while, we decided to pack quite a bit into this episode--resulting in our longest ever: over 2 hours!

Below are time-stamps, in case you're here from Writing Battle and would like to skip through Justin & Jon rambling about their personal lives.

0:00 - Intro
2:32 - Jon's check-in and humorous Christmas card
9:12 - Justin's check-in
35:15 - Writing Battle Short Story 2023 talk.
1:00:45 - Justin & Jon interview each other
1:55:15 - Wipper Snapper community shout-out
2:00:15 - Wrapping things up