The Best 5 Writing Podcasts (out of 1,000s)

One obvious way to find good writing podcasts is to go to the major magazines and papers. They all have writing and reading related podcasts.

But I want to hear from people like me, novelists in the trenches of a first or second book, writers suffering through querying, plotting, character development, point-of-view decisions. Authors working to publicize their indie books or books out from smaller book publishers. I want to know how they're doing it, how they keep on doing it, and what new ideas are out there for me.

I love to listen to podcasts at the end of my work day, or after dinner and after whatever nightime writing I can manage. So I made a list of some down-to-earth writing podcasts to share with you (and to remember for myself):

Writing Excuses
This roundtable between writers gives me the feeling of hanging out with a fiction writing group. Funny, insightful, sometimes silly or snarky, I don't so much learn here as gain a sense of camaraderie and community.

Story Grid
Definitely for tips & tricks. As a pantser who winds up with nearly an entire novel written by the seat of my pants, who then desperately tries to develop an overview of the story arcs and pacing, I found the Story Grid spreadsheet intriguing. Shawn Coyne and Tim Grahl are good presenters with useful ideas.

Self-Publishing Podcast
I'm not an Indie author, but I always find the Indie-publishing network has great ideas, especially for marketing a book that's out. Specially interesting is the podcast on using Amazon ads. Mainly, these guys are funny.

The Creative Penn
Mystery writer Joanna Penn has the widest range of writing and publishing topics, is often funny and engaging in bringing you writerly info, and has some great guests. She also podcasts every week. I'm addicted to this one, if only to feel the collegial sense of writers struggling together in this crazy endeavor to write and get our words out there.

How Do You Write
Rachel Herron hosts novelists talking about how they do what they do. I can't seem to get enough of hearing authors talk about their process, how their latest books were conceived and arrived in publication. Good guests.







  



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