Writing in Progress

Justin and Jon welcome one new and one familiar guest to the program. What do they each have in common? They've both won Writer's Playground in the past! Holly Grover Brandon placed first overall in the most recent, eighth, Writer's Playground Challenge. Ryan Fleming was the overall champion back in the fourth Writer's Playground Challenge. We couldn't ask for better guest...

"I didn't want to just stay in one lane. I had lots of lanes that I loved." To say Rachael wears a lot of hats is a massive understatement. She's written (and illustrated!) her own children's book, a series of writers' prompts books, a comedic short story collection, an urban romance novella, and--most recently--a sci-fi western thriller, "Race to Novus". Oh...

It's Writing Battle season! We've got the spring micro competition on deck--2 days to write 500 words! Justin and Jon are joined again by two friends of the pod: two-time winner Maggie Schreier and 2023 MVW Trey Dowell! We had so much fun analyzing the genres and revealing (what we could) about our prompts together. We hope you have half as much fun as we did, listening along. :)

We give our reactions, impressions, thoughts, and opinions as we noodle with the 5 possible characters, 5 potential settings, and 1 mandatory object prompted in Writer's Playground's eighth playground challenge. We are joined by a friend of the pod, Ryan Fleming, who happens to be a former winner of the contest.  His interview begins around the 22 minute mark, and the prompt discussion t...

Maggie has dozens of publishing credits to her name, is a Push Cart Nominee,  has won Writer's Workout Writer's Games (twice), the YeahWrite Super Challenge, TL;DR's Wordherd, Iron Faerie Publishing's Betwixt Contest, and Writing Battle (twice!). She's also placed top 10 in both Writer's Playground and NYC Midnight. She also happens to be one of the most encouraging h...

Justin and Jon give their initial reactions for this season's Writing Battle genres and live-react to their own draws. Just under 40 minutes into the episode, Friend-of-the-Pod Trey Dowell stops by to give his thoughts and joins in on the fun. Jon pushes his luck... can he defy the odds again?? Listen to find out! :)

Justin and Jon continue their long-running series exploring how to write specific elements of a story. Today, they discuss the element they both ranked as the most important: characters. In this 2+ hour episode, Justin and Jon consulted the Writing Battle forums to ask for advice on how to capture the magic of an engaging character.

It's been a minute, but Justin and Jon are back and ready to talk about writing. Because we've been gone for a while, we decided to pack quite a bit into this episode--resulting in our longest ever: over 2 hours! Below are time-stamps, in case you're here from Writing Battle and would like to skip through Justin & Jon rambling about their personal lives. 0:00 - Intro 2:32 - Jon&...

Justin and Jon are battling again! This episode was recorded live as they discovered their genres and prompts. (The character and word prompts they are sticking with are not shared, of course.)

Justin and Jon are thrilled to welcome Trey Dowell to Writing in Progress on the heels of teaching at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Trey’s list of accomplishments are extremely impressive: -Traditionally published novel (The Protectors) through Simon and Schuster (Stephen King’s publisher) -Former NYC Midnight overall flash fiction winner. The very next NYCM competition, Trey finished seco...

In the midst of (writers) battling, Justin and Jon press pause to discuss the competition. This episode includes: 7:30 - End of school year check-ins 16:30 - Looking back at Writer's Playground 31:30 - Initial impressions of this season's Writing Battle 1:05:00 - Responding to some WIPper-snappers' questions and comments. As always, we love to hear from YOU! You can reach out on our...

Justin and Jon are taking on a new contest: Writer's Playground, and who better to learn from than a previous winner? Ryan Fleming joins the pod to discuss his writing journey and experience winning Writer's Playground with his Poe-esque story "The Tragedy of Montague Bellot" In Writer's Playground, you are assigned an object, and must choose from five possible settings an...

Justin and Jon discuss writing voice. What is it? How do you craft it? Is it something inherent or different for each individual story? Listen along and join our debate! Time stamps: 0:00 - Wrapping up Writing Battle 4:23 - Voice Introduction 6:02 - Updates from us 22:25 - Voice discussion/debate 1:03:00 - Wipper Snapper spotlights Reach out! Email - WritingInProgressPod@gmail.com Instagram - @Wri...

Justin and Jon give some shout-outs to stories they loved in the debrief forums of Writing Battle. Connect with us! (Join the WIPper Snappers!) Email: WritingInProgressPod@gmail.com Instagram: @WritingInProgressPod Twitter: @WritingInPod Facebook: Writing In Progress Time Stamps: 0:00 - A new chapter for Writing In Progress 8:40 - Check-ins 19:50 - Reflecting on our personal Writing Battle experie...

This episode was recorded 1 month ago when Justin and Jon learned their prompts for the WritingBattle.com winter flash fiction contest! We are now able to post it, since peer judging has completed! Jon opted not to judge, so Justin was able to share all of his prompts on this episode. Justin was a judge, so Jon could only reveal his genre, to avoid a conflict of interest for Justin. *We did run in...

Justin and Jon update their progress so far in the new year, including a competition win and a huge pivot in publishing strategy. Our hosts then talk about their resolutions and goals for 2023.

First half of the episode: Our hosts give some updates on whats been happening since August.  Topics include: -Books they've suggested/read -Shows they watched (big Andor fans!) -Justin's competition results -Jon's querying journey -Friend of the podcast landed an agent! Second half of the episode: A few live-readings -First, Justin shares one of his first short stories, originally...

Justin and Jon reflect on their summers and get a little vulnerable about where they're at in their journeys to become authors. Afterward, the pair live outline a story from randomly generated prompts.

Justin and Jon share a conversation with Marla Taviano, centering around her most recent work, "unbelieve: poems on the journey to becoming a heretic" This is the longest podcast episode we've ever recorded, and the conversation went in a lot of different directions. (All of which we really enjoyed!)  Some of those topics include: -Being vulnerable in your writing -The importance (a...

Justin and Jon discuss how to write effective humor. What makes something funny? Jon, who has published humorous essays and signed with an agent for his collection "Carseat Conversations" gives tips for writing humor. Justin, who has written humorous short stories for competition, shares industry-professional judges' feedback. Both aspiring authors read work samples in this episode.

Justin and Jon undertake another prompted live outline. The prompts this time: Genre: Thriller Character: A pilot Action: Outrunning the Police Location: A hospital Object: A Pill

Justin and Jon continue with their "How to" series regarding elements of a story. Next up: Plot. Listen in to hear how these two aspiring authors approach, strategies, and perfect their plots.

Randy Spears, an author who has self published 17 books which have combined for nearly $20,000 in sales, joins us on this episode of Writing in Progress. Topics include: Marketing Strategies Self publishing vs Small Press The logistics of publishing to Amazon Designing Book Covers How important are revisions?

Justin and Jon plan a story live from some randomly drawn prompts: Genre: A mystery Subject: Idiot-proof Character: A mountain climber Location: A focus group Listen along as they brainstorm ideas and tie them together in creative ways.  We spent a lot of time talking about the hook, plot point, characters, and ending.  How do you make a satisfying twist, which is so important to the genre.  We ho...

After almost 11 months away, Justin and Jon return to Writing in Progress and give updates on what's been happening in their writing journey. A few of the topics discussed: -The long path to publishing -Dealing with rejection -Celebrating accomplishments -Pivoting from "The Plan" -Writing competitions -Recruiting Beta Readers -A fork in the road: submitting smaller pieces to publica...