The Failing Writers Podcast

Are you querying? or nearly querying? Maybe you’re fearing querying? Or merely getting weary and a bit teary querying? Well let’s hear from three writers who’ve been down in those querying trenches for a while now. Find out how they're approaching it, what agents' responses have been like and how they’re holding up under pressure. Because when it comes to finding an agent, it’s more often tha...

... What? Did 2 weeks just fly by since the last episode? No flippin' way. Time, I think, we had a chat about time. The fact that there's never enough of it. Especially for writing. Why is that? Well Oliver Burkeman might just have some answers. Prepare to face the subject of time and limitation face-on. Get ready to completely re-think how we view those precious hours, minutes and seconds. And as...

Well, that’s the summer hiatus done with - and we're back with an episode which asks the question, "how do you know if your writing is good enough?" In an attempt to answer that question, we’re going to be looking at a couple of Tom’s flash fiction stories and asking if, why, and how, one of them is slightly less rubbish than the other. Both stories were entered into the same competition, but only...

Do you have what it takes to quit your day job and follow your dreams to become a full time author? Well, there's only one way to find out...and that's to listen to our interview with J C Duncan! Hear how he bravely decided to give himself a year to become a professional writer and, even bravelier, decided to tell everyone about it! Plus home made knives, Vikings and our usual top quality chat! Fi...

A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet...but would he have written that line if he wasn't called Shakespeare? This week Jon, Tom and Dave (or possibly Rod, Jane and Freddy) look into pseudonyms, nom-de-plumes, pen names...and basically just being someone else for a bit. Does your name affect your chances of success? Does it even have an impact on how you write? Join us to find out as...

A change is in the air here at Failing HQ. A scent on the wind, a signal that the new dawn will herald the arrival of long overdue success. This week, not only do Tom and Jon have a lovely chat with acclaimed author and current Richard and Judy Book Club pick Mike Gayle...but Jon also discusses his submissions to some actual writing competitions. AND Tom talks a bit more about the book he's actual...

If we were really clever, we'd have written the show notes for this week's episode in the form of a cryptic crossword clue in honour of our guest, Samuel Burr. We spoke to him about his debut novel "The Fellowship of Puzzle Makers", his frankly unbelievable journey to getting published and even had a chat about all things cryptic. But, unfortunately, we're not really clever...so we didn't. Which m...

The average age of our guests this week is 64. Nothing too amazing about that you might say… until you find out the first of our two guests is in her mid-twenties! This week we ask, “Is there a best age to write?” Plus we enjoy a WIP from Geoffrey G N Harrison. And here’s a load of links… Check out Aline’s YouTube here! Here's Aline's Toktok Here's Babette's new book and her website: https://www.b...

Would you like a pun? Well, that's handy because this week we've been punning for gold and ended up with a bucket load. Director, writer and stand up comedian Darren Walsh chats to us about his career, the art of a good pun and whether AI will ever be funnier than him. Plus Jon comes up with what is almost certainly not an entirely new form of joke! Find out more about Darren here... https://darre...

Have you ever been to Scarfolk? It's a strange, yet hauntingly familiar place. Join us as we take a bus trip into the mind of the man who dreamt it all up, Richard Littler. Plus we take a look at another listener's bit o' writing they've kindly sent in to share with the class. This week we try and make Madelyn Postman cry... Find out more about Richard here... https://scarfolk.blogspot.com and her...

If comedy writing is your thing, we've got a real treat for you. This week we talk to the super talented and rather prolific Robert Popper. From how he broke into the industry via Steve Coogan and The Comic Strip to his smash hit sitcom Friday Night Dinner. We also chat about Robin Cooper, The Timewaster Letters, South Park, Look Around You, and plenty more besides. Robert’s Wikipedia Plus, in our...

The great Carl Reiner once said “Improvisation is just writing in front of an audience”.  So we figured if we could brush up on our improv skills it's bound to make us better writers... right? This week improv extraordinaire, and official Comedy Store Player, Ruth Bratt talks to us about her life, her craft and the eating habits of her cat... before putting us to the test with our own improvised p...

Unfortunately we're not able to include show notes this week, for legal reasons. Thanks for listening. www.floraopil.com Find out more about Flora here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Writing can be a solitary business. All those hours spent with nothing but a blank page and a bottomless coffee cup. On reflection we reckon it's probably good to interact with other human beings occasionally. It can stop you going full fruit-loops. (You know...dressing as your main character and wandering around the house talking to yourself.) It can help you find friendly Alpha / Beta readers. I...

Join Tom & Jon on another rambly exploration. This time we're off back to the 1840s to take a good, hard look at the Brontë sisters. Who were Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë? What were they like? How is it possible that three sisters all wrote so brilliantly? Why are they still so revered by readers across the world? and what was the deal with Branwell? Pack a rain coat, a poetry book and a f...

As an aspiring young writer it's easy to be put off by even the most well intentioned constructive criticism...what's not so easy is to revisit that critique many years later and be inspired to write a novel that has publishers literally fighting each other for the chance to print it. Join us for a fascinating interview as Jessica Bull, author of the much anticipated "Miss Austen Investigates" des...

Aaaaaand we're back! The Failing Writers return for what some are calling the fourth season of this spectacular podcast. We look forward to a whole new smorgasbord of writing tips, challenges, goals and cock-ups plus a raft of interviews with some of the biggest names in the writing world. Starting with a real corker courtesy of writer, presenter and thoroughly lovely fella Danny Wallace. So hold...

Happy New Year Folks!  We continue our seasonal ghost stories with a handful of listener-written tales. So gather around the hearth with us again as we bring you a selection of eerie yarns, to make your timbers shiver. Massive thanks to our fantastic contributors: AB Finlayson:  https://abfinlayson.com     Threads: a.b.finlayson  Craig Margolis:  X: @damnblankpage Steve Salisbury: X: @SalisburyWri...

Please accept this as a most cordial invitation to accompany Jon, Tom and as yet unnamed guests for an evening of traditional ghost story telling. We have chosen the most atmospheric venue we could acquire at short notice and now request your company, to consummate this joyously Victorian Christmas night of heebiejeebies. Please bring only yourself. We shall provide the spirits. Talking Scared: ht...

Alec Worley is an award-lacking (his own words!) author from South London. He writes comics, fiction and audio drama about swords, fangs and lasers. He’s best known for his work on 2000 AD (home of Judge Dredd), Star Wars, and for legendary horror director John Carpenter. He's one of those really annoyingly talented people, with an eye for story and an ear for dialogue. You know the ones. He's als...

Out of the blue, someone sent us a game. A game all about words and etymology and language - the very stuff we LOVE. So, we decided that we'd get together and play the game to see if it's any good, and have a chat with the bloke who created it. That game is The League of the Lexicon. That bloke is Joshua Blackburn and this is the podcast where all of the above takes place. To try your hand at a fe...

We couldn't let the amazing stories that made it to the final short-list go un-read and un-heard... so here they are. Plus there's a nice little chat with the overall winner of our £500 prize, Manu St Thomas. Enjoy!! Still not had your fix? Geddaload o' these beauties.... "God of Ramen" (shortlisted for a Flash Fiction Magazine competition in 2022) - https://flashfictionmagazine.com/blog/2022/11/1...

NaNoWrimOhNo!  It's that time of year again when words-per-day becomes the currency.  So we thought we'd bring you even more words... Words of novel-writing wisdom!  No, no... not from us... obviously.  From novelist and longtime book editor Howard Mittelmark.  Co-writer of How NOT to Write A Novel.  A fantastic book full of the pitfalls most writers fall into when they're setting off along the lo...

With the help of two expert spookologists: Stephen Volk - horror writer & mastermind behind the BBCs infamous 'GHOSTWATCH', and Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe - famed ghostbuster & parapsychologist, we're attempting to figure out what gives us the heebie jeebies, so that we can all go away and write the world's GREATEST EVER GHOST STORY. That invitation extends to you too, listeners!  We want your sub...

Well... there's a lot of talk about whether it's right or wrong to use AI to write your book for you. But that's not what this episode is about really.  I mean, we touch on that and discuss it. You can't just ignore the moral questions, can you? But we mostly have a natter with Andy Stanton. An author of some repute. He's written a new book, using ChatGPT, but perhaps not quite as you would imagin...