Writing in Progress

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!

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.