Drunken Pen Writing Podcast

In this episode, we discuss the great books, or rather, the books that are considered to be the greatest ever written. We deliberate on some of them and their place on the list, as well as what books we think are important and should be there. Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting.com Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwriting And like us on Facebook @drunkenpenwri...

Today we are discussing the short story "Good Old Neon" by David Foster Wallace. We take a deep dive into imposter syndrome, what it means to truly be a fraud, and the importance we put on how others view us.  We also correlate the story with the current state of social media and the constant need people have to be seen and heard, often through the sacrifice of their authentic selves. Finally, Cal...

We open things up by discussing the importance of subtext in your writing. After that, we talk about the benefits of reading, how the habit can make you a more virtuous person, and why reading is so important for kids. Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting.com Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwriting And like us on Facebook @drunkenpenwriting

Today's episode discusses two more stories in Oblivion: Stories by David Foster Wallace. First, we read and discuss his deeply disturbing flash fiction story, Incarnation of Burned Children. This one comes with a trigger warning as the imagery and subject matter are incredibly traumatic.  The second story, Another Pioneer, offers a meditation on storytelling, knowledge, self-consciousness, societa...

We open things up with a clip of Alan Moore telling the three things that drive him to writer. After that, we have a discussion about the importance of being honest with yourself and your work.  Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting.com

We're back with more Oblivion: Stories by David Foster Wallace. In today's episode, we discuss his short story "The Soul is Not a Smithy" and go in-depth with his narration style, storytelling elements, and the deeper meaning of this unique story. 

We decided to have an upbeat episode and discuss DEATH! More specifically, we talk about how to kill off characters in your work and why some ways are worse than others. We end the episode by discussing the importance of finding your purpose in life and why we don't think everyone has a purpose. Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting.com Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @dru...

What's the point? That's the question we ask ourselves a lot as we discuss Mr. Squishy, the first story in David Foster Wallace's short story collection, Oblivion: Stories.  We talk about corporate America, focus groups, analytics, information overload, and how all of it seems so pointless through the lens of David Foster Wallace. This isn't our favorite story in this collection, but it certainly...

We kick things off by answering a few questions from some of our listeners. After that, we talk about reboots and our opinions on reimagining established works. We also discuss the use of public domain works and if it's ethical to make money from other people's creations.  Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting.com Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwriting And like...

We're back with another Inebriated Reading Challenge. This time around we're discussing Oblivion: Stories by David Foster Wallace. In this introductory episode, we briefly discuss David Foster Wallace and what we hope to get out of his collection of short stories. From what it looks like, we're in for a real wild ride!  

Caleb talks about writing his first-ever sex scene! After that, we discuss writing styles, processes, and why all writers should do their own thing instead of following advice from things such as creative writing classes.  Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting.com

We discuss imposter syndrome and the importance of being kind to yourself. Adding unneeded pressure to yourself will only hinder your writing output. We also talk about some unexpected obstacles of writing a novel. Check out our work @drunkenpenwriting.com Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwriting And like us on Facebook @drunkenpenwriting

There's a lot to unpack in this episode. We start the cold open off by discussing some... incest in popular fiction. Yeah. Then we follow that up with a conversation about The Stranger by Albert Camus. Once we get to the topic of the day, we go over the important questions you must ask yourself as a writer. This leads us into a more personal discussion about things like depression and the importan...

We start the episode off with a quick character study. Then we talk about Stephen King and his totally terrifying horror story, The Jaunt.  After the cold open, we have a long conversation about the past. More specifically, some of the first books we've read, bought, and how we started our reading journeys. Then we discuss what we think the future of fiction will look like in the hands of Gen Z an...

We open the episode with some current reading and writing business, then we introduce our new music for the podcast! After that, we celebrate our 100th official episode by listening and commenting on a snippet of our very first episode.  We eventually get into the topic at hand, which is book length! How long should your book be and what are the parameters of book length in various genres? We disc...

Well, Caleb went and got himself sick. Lucky for you, you get to listen to him suffer throughout the whole episode!  We start things off by discussing The Batman and what we thought about the movie. After that, we talk about our writing (or lack thereof) and what we've been reading. This is a fairly short but entertaining episode.  Check out our Spring Submissions at www.drunkenpenwriting.com Foll...

Original story by Spencer Church about a man who lives through the apocalypse in a unique way.  Check out the story at Drunken Pen Writing

We start the episode off with a quick conversation about J.R.R. Tolkien's writing style. Eventually, we get onto the topic of how to write a modern story using, or not using, cell phones. It's a lot more interesting topic than we first realized.  Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting.com Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwriting And like us on Facebook @drunkenpen...

We start the episode by discussing the greatest opening paragraphs and lines in literature. After that, we get down to business and take a deep dive into the importance of emotions in your writing. We break down how we go about eliciting emotions in the reader, ways to go about doing so without being boring or over the top, and the art of nuance in your writing.  Check out our work at www.drunkenp...

We start things off with an extra-long cold open where we discuss what books we're reading and how our writing is going. After that, we cover a great article on how to write good reviews and break down the things you need to know to become a good reviewer.  Check out the article at Lithub . You can also read our reviews over at www.drunkenpenwriting.com Make sure to follow us on Twitter @drunkpenw...

For February's Book of the Month, we've chosen to read "Devil in a Blue Dress" by Walter Mosley. We highly recommend you start reading the Easy Rawlins series right away! You won't regret it. 

Caleb reads Brian Abbey's hilarious story, My First Kiss of Shame . An American moves to Romania and attends a party. Things are going alright until the guest of honor shows up. To the American's surprise, that guest turns out to be Lucifer! Even more surprising, or horrifying depending on how you look at it, all the other partygoers begin lining up to take turns kissing Lucifer's anus. And pretty...

This episode is PACKED with great topics! We start things off with a quick bit about the intro of Walter Mosley's The Devil in the Blue Dress. Then we discuss Lord of the Rings and its literary merit.  Once we get to the main topic, we go over the top ten greatest American authors of the 20th century. We cover an interesting list we found online and tweak it to our liking. We end things by discuss...

We start things off with an interesting conversation about Microsoft Word's new "woke" editing feature. After that, we chat it up with some dialogue talk. Finally, we get to the real topic of the day and devote a good portion of the episode to discussing how to reclaim your creative life.  Many of us struggle with creating (in our case, writing) because life seems to always beat us down. It's hard...

We discuss some tips on how to read better and Caleb yells at Spencer for hating poetry.