Drunken Pen Writing Podcast

If you want to learn how to properly pace your stories, there are probably better ways to do that. But they probably won't be nearly as entertaining.  Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwriting And like us on Facebook @drunkenpenwriting

We open up things by briefly discussing how our writing and reading goals are starting this new year. After that, oh, we get into it! We have a long conversation on an article written about Stephen King recently. In the article, Stephen King has been exposed as being fatphobic and possibly having negative views of women.  Also, make sure to stick around after the outro for a brief bit of absolute...

We start things off with a conversation about languages. After that, we go over the books we've read this past year and what we plan on reading in 2022. Then we talk about our writing goals for the upcoming year, and boy are they lofty!  There's also a discussion about the future of DPW, this podcast, and the possibility of starting new podcasts.  Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting.com Fo...

We discuss the final stories in The Elephant Vanishes. One of which turns out to be the weirdest story of them all!  Be sure to listen to the end to get our final rating of The Elephant Vanishes, as well as a quick breakdown of the stories we liked the most.

We talk about 50 of the best books that are under 200 pages. We get a bit ridiculous in this one but we do our best to keep things moving.  You can check out the list at https://lithub.com/50-great-classic-novels-under-200-pages/ Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting.com You can follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwriting And like us on Facebook @drunkenpenwriting

We break down three more weird Murakami stories. In this one, we meet a young man who works for a bizarre letter reading company, a guy who has unnerving encounters with the "TV People" who nobody else seems to notice, and a guy who reminisces about all the Chinese people he's ever met in his life.

We open things with a chat about freelance writing jobs. After that, we get into the gritty details of indie publishing, traditional publishing, working with small publishers, and what it all means for us writers.  Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting.com Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwriting And like us on Facebook @drunkenpenwriting

In the stories we cover today, we meet a hopelessly romantic little green monster who falls in love with a dangerous woman. After that, we're dropped into the world of a young man who refuses to grow up while his younger sister plans to get married and live a mature life.

We start today's episode off with a discussion about the use of adverbs in your writing. Specifically, whether you should follow the old adage of cutting them out of your work or if it's not actually that bad to use them. After that, we have a long conversation about purple prose.  For those who don't know, purple prose is essentially overwriting to the point that it harms the story you're telling...

This week we cover three more wild stories from Haruki Murakami's short story collection, The Elephant Vanishes. We meet a man who has a very odd diary, a miserable wife who shops for lederhosen, and a mysterious rich guy who has a passion for burning down random barns. 

We cover a lot of topics in this one. We start off by discussing Professor Tolkien's view on escapism and what we think about people who use entertainment as a means to escape their lives for a bit. That transforms into a quick conversation about media personalities who purposely say and do outlandish things to garner attention.  When we finally get to the topic at hand, we have a wonderful discus...

In today's episode, we discuss three more stories from Haruki Murakami's short story collection, The Elephant Vanishes. In this one, we cover themes of obsession, living a mundane, unfulfilling existence, and weird creeps!

We had wayyyy too much fun recording this episode. We start things off with a quick conversation about the appropriate size for cupcakes. After that, we get into the heart of things and break down 50 of the best fantasy characters from books, movies, and TV shows. Spoiler alert, there are a lot, and we mean A LOT, of characters left off of the list we found. But we still think there were some soli...

We're back with a new season of A Murakami Minute! This go around we're reading and discussing Haruki Murakami's short story collection, The Elephant Vanishes. In today's episode, we talk about the first two stories in the collection, The Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday's Women, and The Second Bakery Attack. We discuss how the first story is a part of Murakami's most famous novel, The Wind-Up Bird Chroni...

Caleb opens things off with his one-second Fellowship of the Ring review and an update on how his novel is coming along. After that, we get into a discussion about the importance of character motivation in storytelling. We talk about how important character motivations, character goals, and overcoming obstacles are to telling a good story. There are some examples of well-known characters and their...

We start things off by discussing some of the recent backlash (and praise) we got for our Blood Meridian Book of the Month episode. After that, we get into the topic at hand, which is something we love talking about. For a long time, we have traveled similar roads on our individual reading journeys. But recently we have finally split. Caleb has gone down a hard fantasy road, and Spencer has decide...

WARNING: This episode deals with discussions of violence and sexual assault. It's been some time since we last did a Book of the Month episode. So for the month of October, we felt it would be fitting to cover the ultra-violent novel, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. We do our best to give our honest opinion of this highly regarded piece of literature. Though, we might be a bit too honest! We di...

Caleb kicks things off by reading a poem suggested by a listener of the show. After that, we cover a list of awesome (and one that's not so awesome!) books that are perfect for people who enjoyed the new Netflix show Squid Game. Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting.com Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwriting And like us on Facebook @drunkenpenwriting

We start things off with some brief Lord of the Rings talk. Then we get into the thick of it with a list of awesome Celtic mythological creatures put together by our friends over at The Irish Road Trip . There are 31 creatures in total and some are really messed up! Check out all the Halloween submissions going on at www.drunkenpenwriting.com for some good reads. You can also follow us on Twitter...

We're talking about monsters! More specifically, what makes a good monster, what our favorite monsters are, and what is truly scary about fictional monsters.  Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting.com Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwriting And like us on Facebook @drunkenpenwriting

Caleb starts the podcast off with some good news! Then everything goes terribly downhill from there. We were supposed to cover the ten scariest short horror stories, but Caleb seems to have forgotten how to read and botches the entire thing. Not all is lost though. There are plenty of laughs and near rage quits throughout the show. Plus, a critical breakdown of the article we read. Check out our w...

In this episode, we take a look back at our humble beginnings and reminisce about the simpler times when we first started writing. We discuss how far we've come, the things we've learned, and some of our future plans. We also talk about the good ol' days of Drunken Pen Writing and the DPW Podcast: how we started, the troubles we've had, and how much we've improved upon things. Check out our fictio...

We're talking about themes! That's right, we're taking a deep dive and discussing how to write themes for your story. We go over ways to come up with themes, the most common themes used, and the types of themes that show up in our work. Speaking of our work, you can check out our stories at www.drunkenpenwriting.com You can also follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwriting...

We start things off by talking about Stephen King's newest horror story. Then Caleb decides for some reason to give us his best Paul Bearer impression. After all that nonsense, we get into a list of some of the best horror manga out there. You can check out the list with accompanying artwork at https://www.rightstufanime.com/post/top-10-horror-manga You can also check out our fiction at www.drunke...

We start the episode off by talking money! More specifically, what greedy things we would do if we suddenly acquired one billion dollars. After that, we talk about the top horror books you should read. We cover a few lists and give some of our recommendations.  Check out our fiction at www.drunkenpenwriting.com Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwriting And like us on Fa...