Tiffin Inn Writing Workshop (with Imposter Syndrome & Unlimited Refills)

In the last episode of the season before a long hiatus, Tim and Art discuss Tim's first 10,000 words of Draft 2, which Art has read and provided comments on. The conversation works through a range of author choices that Tim is still considering, specifically how the book is organized, the pros and cons of writing it in sequence, even down to the intentionality of the offbeat names Tim has chosen f...

Tim reveals how some of his bad writing habits have started to creep back into his process...and what he's doing to conquer them. Check us out on Linktree to connect with us or with friends of the show: https://linktr.ee/tiffininnwritingworkshop   As always, feel free to email us at  TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com . 

Tim discusses his experience at Theater Camp for Writers as well as a stint in a secluded home of a friend where he could live out his fantasy of being a professional writer for a week. Art explores strategies for expanding character in rewrites, especially in how supplying specific detail from real people in your life can trigger prompting questions that can help turn chracter sketches into fully...

Friend of the show Cat Hammons returns to share wisdom about the narrative hook of your work, comparing novels and screeplays in the audience's level of patience. Faster is better in screenplays, Cat asserts, laying out a compelling argument with examples from Christopher Nolan's script for "Oppenheimer." Check us out on Linktree to connect with us or with friends of the show: https://linktr.ee/ti...

Tim and Art work through how to find your endings, discussing some helpful tips to prevent writing past your best ending, how to spot the best entry point into the story to maximize your payoff for the reader, and how novel endings differ in scope from short story endings. Check us out on Linktree to connect with us or with friends of the show: https://linktr.ee/tiffininnwritingworkshop   As alway...

Art walks through a process to Organize your existing work, Cull drafts or versions that are cluttering your workspace, and Submit stories for publication. He calls it "Spring Cleaning" and swears it helps make the publishing side of being a writer easier and more productive. Check us out on Linktree to connect with us or with friends of the show:  https://linktr.ee/tiffininnwritingworkshop   As a...

Tim and Art wrestle with the concept of finding your writing "voice," which is different from your "style." Tim asserts that voice is more subconscious expression and that style is your conscious or intentional effort. Art remains mystified how elusive voice has been for him at times, and how obvious it is when a story misses the mark. Check us out on Linktree to connect with us or with friends of...

Art recaps his recent experience with the micro fiction workshop, then explores how the process of providing feedback to other writers can be applied to our own work. Check us out on Linktree to connect with us or with friends of the show:  https://linktr.ee/tiffininnwritingworkshop   As always, feel free to email us at  TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com . 

Tim and Art reveal the benefits of participating in the SmokeLong Quarterly March Micro Madness workshop, specifically in how it has impacted the style and quality of their feedback. Then Art poses three questions to consider when giving feedback to ensure the feedback is useful both for the receiver and the giver. Finally, the guys discuss three "dualities" that work well together for ready-made...

Art explores a recent epiphany and how it can apply to your work in narrative distance at the sentence level. Check us out on Linktree to connect with us or with friends of the show: https://linktr.ee/tiffininnwritingworkshop   As always, feel free to email us at  TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com . 

Tim and Art welcome acclaimed writer and editor  Eric Scot Tryon to the corner booth to talk about his writing process, his new novel I'm The Undertow (available now for pre-order), and a peek behind the curtain of his literary journal Flash Frog . Eric Scot Tryon's short fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Mid-American Review, Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, Florida Review, Glimmer Tr...

Art describes his participation in a month-long writing workshop and reads his first attempt at microfiction into the record, which serves as a great example of how early drafts often lack necessary conflict.  Check us out on Linktree to connect with us or with friends of the show: https://linktr.ee/tiffininnwritingworkshop   As always, feel free to email us at  TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com...

Tim and Art discuss the concept of "bravery" in how challenging it can be to be vulnerable and emotionally honest in our fiction. Then Tim and Art explore how to use AI as your own personal assistant to accelerate early stage perogress on longer works of fiction (like a novel outline or movie treatment) while ensuring a "low ick" level of ethical limits on what you allow it to do. We also referenc...

Art celebrates Tim's personal challenge that helped Art break out of his creative rut and love the process of writing once again. To contact the show, email us at  TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com . 

Tim and Art welcome acclaimed writer and editor Aaron Burch to the corner booth to talk about his process and his newly released novel Tacoma . Aaron Burch is the author of the essay collection, A Kind of In-Between ; the novel, Year of the Buffalo ; the memoir/literary analysis Stephen King's The Body ; and the short story collection, Backswing . He edited the craft anthology How to Write a Novel...

Tim tries to answer the question from the end of last episode: "What about the work that you are doing makes you feel like it matters so much that you want to finish it?" To contact the show, email us at TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com . 

Art comes clean about his current aversion to writing fiction, where he is struggling to find the relevance of fiction amidst the chaos of modern life. Tim asserts a much more optimistic perspective and tries to convince Art to explore his own personal history as way to reignite his love of writing, whether creative nonfiction or fiction. Enjoy the unfiltererd angst of the creative process! To con...

Art explores how mining your own personal history can help create characters who feel real by sharing an embarassing similarity between his life and  The Great Gatsby . To contact the show, email us at  TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com . 

Tim and Art welcome "friend of the show" Emily Rinkema to the corner booth! Emily shares that she is now an Assistant Editor at FlashFrog . The gang discusses how to write into a narrative with dialogue and spends a good deal of time exploring the pros and cons of the components of "Point of View" - person, tense, and mood - in practical terms so they can apply it to their own fiction. The followi...

Art describes what "Draft Zero" is in his novel writing process and outlines a four-step process for drafting the novel in 2026. To contact the show, email us at  TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com . 

Tim reveals how he is prepping for his 2nd draft of his novel while Art explores how his process differs from Tim's, especially in what constitutes a "first draft." Join this spirited discussion already in progress to compare the ah-ha! moments to your process. To contact us, e-mail  TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com . 

Art describes three different stages of story development and explains how and why he and Tim provide different types of feedback depending on the stage the story is in. "Feedback on a work in progress can nurture a story or kill it, so we try to give feedback that helps enhance its strengths rather than showcase its flaws." To contact the show, email us at TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com . 

Tim and Art welcome into the corner booth Heather Colley, author of the debut novel The Gilded Butterfly Effect . Heather Colley's short fiction has won awards including the Oxford Review of Books short fiction prize, the Hopwood Award, the BNU-Oxford short fiction prize (runner-up), and the Desperate Literature Prize shortlist. Heather is a PhD student in English Literature at Oxford University....

Art explores how to get closer to feeling unstoppable. By uncovering why you want to do the work, you can fuel the creative mind to pursue your goals. Join Art as he reveals his own inner cycle of learning, forgetting, and reediscovering the simplicity of his writing fuel. To contact the show, email us at TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com . 

A new chapter of the show is upon us! Tim and Art welcome each other back to the corner booth with the classic "What I Did Last Summer" style recaps. Art does a deeper dive on writing professionally for others, specifically what worked and what didn't in his game writing gig.   Tim recounts his process improvements arising from his job change and his renewed focus on managing time more effectively...