The Failing Writers Podcast

OK, first things first, before you read any more of this, go to  https://www.literatureandlatte.com  and get yaself 20% off Scrivener right now with the code: FAILING Done that? Brilliant. First step towards becoming a proper writer - DONE. Perfect. Now... it’s time to settle the score, turn the tables, slip the shoe onto the other foot. Tom sets up a chat with Samia Rida, who’s taking h...

Hello Children, welcome to another lovely wuvvly episode of The Failing Writers Podcast in association with Scrivener, a podcast for people who love to write and want to move ever closer to the elusive realm of success. In this episode we’re looking at writing done especially for you.  Yes you, my Kiddiewinklepops. All the younger humans upon this little space rock we call Earth. Why? Be...

Poetry, as Percy Bysshe Shelley once said, lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar . And so, off we go, to try and defamiliarise the things which stare us in the face every blummin’ day. Relationships. Words. Coffee. Social Media. Prejudice. Siblings. Aging. Home. Industrial Estates. Nature. Sex. Love. Yep. We’re off to a poetr...

Right. This week you're in for a treat. Cos, this week on the Failing Writers Podcast in association with Scrivener.... we've got a fantastic guest.... Pardon? Scrivener? You know! The brilliant writing app? Yeah. What's that? you've been thinking about buying a copy for a while? Well... you're in luck! Just use our code "FAILING" and you can get 20% off right now! just go to https://www.literatur...

Welcome back to the Failing Writers Podcast - Sponsored by the brilliant and indispensable writing software: Scrivener. Get 20% off Scrivener right now, by using the code FAILING at https://www.literatureandlatte.com/ OK. Now, People…  buckle up. You’re about to enter the Murverse. Cos our guest this week is the lovely Mur Lafferty. A scifi / fantasy writer and podcaster whose refreshing...

First of all, thank you SCRIVENER for sponsoring Season 5! You can try Scrivener free for 30 days. And if you love it, (which you will) you can use the code FAILING and get 20% off, you lucky, lucky duckies. https://www.literatureandlatte.com/ OK... This week, be prepared to have your beautiful, unsullied little brain absolutely stuffed to the brim with a gigantic, Haribo party-bag of sugary treat...

We nattered and we caterwauled 'bout lyrics, punk and bands, and we shed a little light upon how melody can expand, and we talked of books and words and how they sometimes change a man, and by the end, our mate Paul Armfield had another couple o' fans. Lyrics. Are they different to poems? Are they an art form all of their very own? Is it best to write lyrics and then fit the music around them? How...

Hello. Come here. A little closer. Closer. Don’t be afraid. There. That’s it. I’m going to tell you a story. A story about an author called C.J. Tudor. Who many years ago, waaay way back in season 1, episode 13, joined the Failing Writers Podcast for a harmless little natter. Back when they were just podcasting children, playing down in the basement of obscurity. Meanwhile, however, C.J. was on th...

Aaaaaaand we're back. Bet you missed us. Ah come on. Just a little bit? Oh. Well we're here now, so let's make the best of it. Now... let's look at the menu. What's for starters? A delicious breakfast at Bettys Tea Rooms - a proper Yorkshire institution. Then... the very antithesis of failing... Jennie Godfrey and her bestselling debut book: A List Of Suspicious Things, All rounded off with a smor...

Hello Worldwrights, The Failing Writers are now on a little sabbatical, plotting, (or possibly pantsing) the next season of the podcast and maybe... maybe... even writing some stuff? I'd like to think so anyway. In absentia, they've decided to bring you all 6 episodes of Anything 4 U, which some of you may remember being occasionally mentioned on the podcast. Yes... it's the lost classic.... The c...

Hello Worldwrights, The Failing Writers are now on a little sabbatical, plotting, (or possibly pantsing) the next season of the podcast and maybe... maybe... even writing some stuff? I'd like to think so anyway. In absentia, they've decided to bring you all 6 episodes of Anything 4 U, which some of you may remember being occasionally mentioned on the podcast. Yes... it's the lost classic.... The c...

Hello Worldwrights, The Failing Writers are now on a little sabbatical, plotting, (or possibly pantsing) the next season of the podcast and maybe... maybe... even writing some stuff? I'd like to think so anyway. In absentia, they've decided to bring you all 6 episodes of Anything 4 U, which some of you may remember being occasionally mentioned on the podcast. Yes... it's the lost classic.... The c...

Hello Worldwrights, The Failing Writers are now on a little sabbatical, plotting, (or possibly pantsing) the next season of the podcast and maybe... maybe... even writing some stuff? I'd like to think so anyway. In absentia, they've decided to bring you all 6 episodes of Anything 4 U, which some of you may remember being occasionally mentioned on the podcast. Yes... it's the lost classic.... The c...

Hello Worldwrights, The Failing Writers are now on a little sabbatical, plotting, (or possibly pantsing) the next season of the podcast and maybe... maybe... even writing some stuff? I'd like to think so anyway. In absentia, they've decided to bring you all 6 episodes of Anything 4 U, which some of you may remember being occasionally mentioned on the podcast. Yes... it's the lost classic.... The c...

Hello Worldwrights, The Failing Writers are now on a little sabbatical, plotting, (or possibly pantsing) the next season of the podcast and maybe... maybe... even writing some stuff? I'd like to think so anyway. In absentia, they've decided to bring you all 6 episodes of Anything 4 U, which some of you may remember being occasionally mentioned on the podcast. Yes... it's the lost classic.... The c...

Hello and happy new year, you lovely lot. Please allow us a moment of self indulgence now, as all three of us bring you a bonus episode looking back on where we were 4 years ago, when we first began this lovely little writing / podcasting project. Because for some inexplicable reason, we've decided to take our first ever episode and provide a kind of 'director's commentary' over it. There will be...

This week we have a look at the rest of our festive flash fiction competition shortlist. Warning:  They’re upsettingly good. Any one of them, frankly, could have won. Which must rankle somewhat. Thankfully though, this is the moment they can shine. Here were the winners (Announced last week): Katie Holloway: https://loseyourselfbooks.wordpress.com/ James Montgomory https://www.jamesmontg...

Winners winners, turkey dinners! Thanks to the absolute legends at SCRIVENER - https://www.literatureandlatte.com/ You can get 20% off a copy by using the code 'failing' until the end of 2024. ORRRR maybe... just maybe... you've already won a copy, and you don’t know it? Well there's only one way to find out isn't there? by listening to this episode.... So come on in and let's find out who's won t...

Don't forget you can still get 20% off SCRIVENER using the code 'failing' until the new year - so do that first before you get side-tracked with all the less-important Christmas stuff. OK. Done that? Great. Now listen to this lovely episode featuring the wonderful Amy Daughters talking about how hand written letters can help bring people together. https://www.amydaughters.com/books Next, find out...

Time to finish our letter to Bridget Phillipson, and once again thank the incredible teachers we spoke to, and the pupils for their fabulous creative writing. And hey, thank yourself too! Whether you like it or not, you're now part of our powerful army of activists, who are going to help bring about a U-turn in reading and writing! Let's start today - let's put away the smartphones - let's read mo...

"Thank goodness for the Failing Writers." A phrase you've no doubt overheard people say quite a lot over the years. At bus stops. Maybe in libraries? At the off licence? No? Not even the off license? Oh. Anyway - not to worry - this week you're ALMOST CERTAIN to hear it, as Jon and Tom slip their pants on over their tights and become SAVIOURS OF THE SUBJECT OF ENGLISH IN SCHOOLS. Yes, we're making...

If Tom & Jon wrote poems ‘spose it will be assumed They won’t be as good as Henry’s Normal service will be resumed. In this episode, we meet up with Henry Normal: poet, writer of famous sit-coms, TV producer and poetry festival founder, and have a blummin’ lovely natter. (After we did that - we watched him perform all his lovely poems, so effortlessly. So fluidly. So naturally. And thus, inspi...

Sorry? Did you just say you'd love to enter an almost free* festive flash fiction competition to win £500? I thought you did! Well as coincidence would have it, that is exactly what we've got going on in this very episode. So step this way, my cheeky little word-purveyor, and cast your well oiled ears at our glorious 350 word Flash Fiction Competition. That's it.... yep... cast them freely.... mmm...

What is ergodic literature? Well, it's when a story becomes more than just something you read, and you become part of it. But pretend you haven't read that, so that you can find out from listening to this wonderful episode. In which, we have a chat with "S" co-author Doug Dorst and You Say Which Way author Deb Potter, in our quest to get to the bottom of what ergodic fiction is and why it's so blu...

Should you treat yourself to a writing retreat? If you did it twice would you be re-treating yourself to a writing retreat? If you tweeted about treating yourself to a writers retreat would you be tweeting your re-treat of retreating to a retreat? And if you then re-tweeted your... OK, I'll stop. Tom & Jon not only answer the first of these pressing questions, but as they disappear into the wi...