“What are some of your favorite writing podcasts? Would you ever start a writing podcast?” — K.S.
Ohh, two great questions!
I’ve been listening to writing podcasts for a long time, now. Fifteen years, maybe longer? Some of my favorites are long gone, but others have risen to fill in those gaps.
For what it’s worth, I don’t listen to writing podcasts all the time, but when I do, it’s usually bingeing. I mostly listen to them during road walks or trail hikes, on long drives, or while I’m gardening or cleaning.
It might be surprising to hear this, but when I’m deep in writing projects, I tend to not listen to writing podcasts. I find them distracting! However, when I’ve finished a draft or launched a book or completed a class and need a reset, that’s when they come in very handy.
As for writing podcasts, here are my tried and true faves:
- The Chicago Writers Podcast
- The Creative Penn Podcast
- Grammar Girl
- Helping Writers Become Authors
- I Should Be Writing
- Write Now with Sarah Werner
- Writing Excuses
I do in fact already have a writing podcast, Beneath the Rain Shadow, which I co-host with PNW horror author Clay Vermulm. It’s fairly new, but we are basically writing (in real time) a collection of Pacific Northwest horror stories in a kind of prompt-driven exchange; our episodes are when we talk about writing these stories and give each other critiques.
As for launching my own writing podcast, I’m not sure I have it in me to do the kind of work it takes to make a good one, and I’m not sure I could add anything valuable to the general discussion already out there.
Edited to add: Also, while I’ve shared with you my long list of fave podcasts, I haven’t shared with you my even longer list of writing podcast DUDS. Let the buyer beware on this front!
I always ask around for recommendations, upload and listen. The last six or so that came my way were really the BLIND leading the BLIND. There is a particular (sorry to say, but…) male privilege and false sense of authority in some of these podcasts that makes me want to gag. The most recent talked specifically about writers as if only the serious ones were dudes, and then went on to talk about revision as if it was proofreading. Nope nope nope.
I suppose I could offer my voice and vision as a counterpoint but that’s just not where my energy wants to go right now. So save yourselves… if you hear questionable advice on a podcast, drop it. These fake experts do not need the traffic; or, as I like to say, Please don’t feed the animals.
That said, I do have a project on the back burner—a unique collection of personal essays on the writing life—which might lend itself to a future podcast, so I never say never.