This week on the show we talk writing retreats. Jody comes to us on location with two friends she met a year ago at the Squaw Valley Writer's Workshop. The three of them decided to put together a DIY retreat, a two-week writing stint working on a screen

We talk creative productivity, writing faster, being prolific, and why that might not be the best approach for every writer. Shouldyouwritereallyreallyfast?? Or. Should. You. Just. Go. Sloooooooow? Listen up to the show and find out. Full show notes a

This week on the show, we're talking science fiction, geek culture, world-building, genre-blending, the lack of girls in Lord of the Rings, and lots of other cool stuff. Our expert and guest on today's show: David Barr Kirtley, science fiction writer and

Weeeee're baaaaaaaack... Actually...we never really went away. We just got crazy busy, all three of us, with end-of-semester duties and grading and that kind of thing. 'Tis the life of the prof. Our unplanned hiatus inspired us to talk about how writ

This week, the show isn't by us, it's by Nitro Jenny Jo, Hydrogen Z, and Little Deuce Lawley. Because we're talking all about Pen Names on the show this week. We got a cool email from David Cross (but not that David Cross), and it asked if he should use

I'm always jealous of creative types that get to have cool tools: painters with their big canvases, brushes, and smudges of color all over them; photographers with cameras and lenses and lights; dancers and their special shoes and those sweatshirt legging

On the show, we talk about how writing short short stories and flash fiction is really hard, what kinds of things are almost impossible to do in short pieces, some nifty ways readers are more engaged in flash fiction and how writers can use that engagemen

Author Bonnie J. Rough called in with a question that many writers (including us) struggle with: how do you make sure you keep the tension rising in the right way over the course of a book or long narrative? We were more than happy to tackle the topic, a

On this episode of Fiction School, we talk with one such interesting stylist and writer, Deanna Raybourn, whose books dabble in three genres. She writes, as she calls her work, "stylish historical fiction with a twist," using elements of mystery and roma

Schoolers, our guest today is Laurie R. King, bestselling author of twenty-two novels and other works. She writes a Sherlock Holmes series, so we asked her about making a famous character your own, sustaining a novel series, outlining versus pantsing , an