10 Podcasts for Writers Worth Listening To
I’m a big fan of podcasts, listening to them whenever I’m in my car, in the morning as I get dressed, and whenever I have time to kill and nothing to read. I especially like podcasts about writing, freelancing, and being creative, not just because they’re big interests of mine (as reflected in this site) but because it’s inspiring to hear other writers and freelancers offer their advice and detail some of the same struggles I’m going through as a writer.
It can be hard, though, to find good ones on writing. To help you out, here’s 10 podcasts about writing I think are pretty good. Where possible I’ve provided links for both your RSS reader and for iTunes; if you use a separate podcatcher, you might have to right-click on the “RSS” link to “Copy link location” and paste it into your podcatcher manually.
- I Should be Writing: Mur Lafferty is a self-described “would-be writer” who actually has quite a few credits to her name, now. ISBW covers the ins-and-outs of writing, from coming up with ideas to self-publishing to writing queries. (RSS | iTunes)
- Lifehack Live: Pardon me for plugging my own show, but I have lots of great writers on — as well as productivity experts, life coaches, and entrepreneurs, all of which have something to say to writers, I think. Lifehack Live is on hiatus at the moment, but there’s plenty of good stuff in the archives. (RSS | iTunes)
- Freelance Radio: FreelanceSwich’s podcast features John Brogher, Cyan Ta’eed (co-author of the awesome book How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer), Kristen Fischer, and Dickie Adams discussing the insand outs of freelancing, with a focus on practical business-related questions like “how do freelancers get insurance” and “how do you say ‘no’ to a client?” (RSS | iTunes)
- The Writing Show: Author Paula Berinstein tackles everything from where writers find inspiration to where writers can get published, with probing interviews of writers, publishers, editors, agents, and otehrs. There are several “threads”, including ongoing “reality show” series tracking beginning writers through the process of submitting and revising their work for publication, and more traditional “one-off” shows featuring guests talking about whatever topic they’re particularly knowledgable about. (RSS | iTunes)
- PerfCast: The official podcast of Performancing, covering all aspects of blogging including the business aspects, generating revenue, and promotion. Some of this might be off-topic for most writer’s blogs, but there’s a lot of good advice for turning your own writer’s blog into a blog powerhouse — and if your preferred form of writing happens to be blogging, this is required listening. (RSS)
- Litopia: Litopia consists of two podcasts. The first, “Litopia Daily”, is a short daily round-up of news of interest to writers. The second, “Litopia After Dark”, is a longer weekly round-table dscussion of issues in the writing and publishing worlds. (RSS | iTunes)
- The Creative Writing Podcast: Tom Occhipinti offers tons of advice for fiction writers, from tips on characterization or setting to overviews of genres. (RSS | iTunes)
- Grammar Girl: Mignon Fogarty offers “quick and dirty tips for better writing” in this twice-weekly show on the ins and outs of English grammar. More fun than your Third Grade English teacher, by a long shot! (RSS)
- Writing Excuses: A recent discovery for me, this podcast features three writers (Brandon Sanderson , Howard Tayler, and Dan Wells) talkinga bout various writing challenges, either amongst themselves or with guest interviewees. Short — because, they say, “you’re in a hurry and we’re not that smart”) — fun, and surprisingly helpful considering their self-professed lack of brain power… (RSS | iTunes)
- HotForWords: I debated whether or not to add this one — it’s video instead of audio, it’s risqué, and it’s quite simply weird. A young, attractive, and often sexily-clad woman with a rich accent discusses the origin of odd words and phrases in the English language. It would be deeply offensive (and maybe it still is) if it weren’t so fascinating! (RSS | iTunes)
Hopefully you’ll find at least one or two on the list that really get you going. Go ahead and load up your mp3 player and start listening! And let me know your favorite podcasts for writers in the comments.
Thanks for including me in your list. I know that my show about etymology is not what one would expect to find from a typical philologist, but that is my whole plan. I have a channel on YouTube as well, and my objective is to introduce people to etymology who may not normally take the time to read or listen to the subject.. and the result has been 115 million video views and a 1/4 million to 1/2 million video views a day.
The amount of emails I get daily thanking me for introducing them to a subject they now find fascinating makes it all worth it for me, and I appreciate that you were sufficiently leaning on one side of the fence enough to have included me in your list 🙂
Marina
Marina: Thanks for your comments. I agree, the content of the show is very interesting, and I’ve been a subscriber for months. But th show certainly isn’t for everyone — surely a lot of people are put off by the approach. In the end, I’m comfortable letting my readers decide for themselves.
Dustin,
Thanks so much for mentioning The Writing Show! I’m so glad you’re enjoying our shows.
You mentioned that it’s hard to find great writing podcasts. What would turn The Writing Show and the others out there from “pretty good” to “great”?
Best regards,
Paula B.
Paula: I wasn’t trying to use “pretty good” to indicate a level of quality between “ok” and “good”, just to say I endorse all these. Podcast listening is such a personal thing — what makes a podcast great for me might be a total turn-off for others. For example, you recently interviewed the president of Stephens Press — some writers might find all that stuff about printing costs and tax deductions to be a real drag, but that aspect of the business fascinates me. On the other hand, I tend to shy away from podcasts that deal with the “artist’s journey” and “writing as a spiritual quest”, even though they might be technically very well-done and, to another listener, highly entertaining and informative.
So, to answer a slightly different question than what you asked, what do I think makes a great podcast? First, authenticity. ALthough I occasionally get a little exasperated with her self-deprecating-ness, Mur Lafferty’s show is totally authentic — it’s her personality that shapes each episode, her strugglers that direct the content, and she’s not afraid (or maybe she is afraid but does it anyway) to let her goofy, geeky sensibility come through. The other aspect — and I think most of the shows on this list have this — is an encouraging positivity. Most writers, once they get serious, know the odds — that only one in tens of thousands gets a best-seller, that most of us are consigned to the mid-list somewhere (if we’re lucky) and possibly to total obscurity — but we persist. Podcasts that are honest about the odds but offer productive advice and real-world experiences that writers can actually learn from are important.
Other than that, as I said, it’s personal. You either like the podcaster’s personality and style, or you don’t. You either like their choice of topics, or you don’t. You either like the way they interview people, and who they choose to interview, or you don’t. I don’t think anyone on this list needs to change anything — except to mention The Writer’s Technology Companion every episode 🙂
Thanks for your detailed reply, Dustin. Very helpful!
I had to laugh at your explanation of “pretty good.” You’re not English, are you? (When my English husband uses “pretty good,” he means “freakin’ awesome!”) 🙂
It’s true that I try to present a wide range of topics, and I know that means not every show will grab every listener. I just feel it’s important to give listeners as much information as possible. They may not need it now, but they’ll know where to find it when they’re ready.
As far as being positive is concerned, I believe that writing is good for you whether or not you ever publish or get produced. The effort, the focus, the struggle, the learning–all these lead to personal growth. There is nothing like the feeling that comes from having successfully surmounted obstacles. And as you know, writing is fraught with those!
Paula: I’m not British, and I didn’t know that “pretty good” was so freakin’ good over there. Then again, I also didn’t understand, when I lived in London, why all my friends were laughing when I told them I had to go home and change my pants before going out, because my pants were dirty from work. (Anyone with experience in or of Britain will understand why that’s freakin’ HILARIOUS; the rest of you can stand, as I did, scratching your heads in wonderment.)
I agree that writing is a positive thing — and in my day-job as a university instructor, I put great emphasis on writing. (Why, just yesterday, I gave my annual “Spellcheck is not your friend” address in two of my classes.) And I’m sure that some people are better writers for seeing their work as a journey of spiritual development — it’s just not my thing.
Hiya Dustin-
Thanks so much for the link and all the kind words you said about my show. And thanks too for all the other links – I’ll definitely check those out and point my listeners that way.
Mur: Thank you — ISBW was the first writing podcast I started listening to when I first discovered podcasts, and it’s been an inspiration. I’ve learned about a lot of great authors from your interviews (like Christopher Moore, which was one of the best author interviews I’ve heard) and not a little about the writing biz. Like I said in the comments above, I’m starting to find it hard to take your less positive remarks about yourself and your work very seriously, because you’ve enjoyed so much success and are obviously good at what you do, but other than that, ISBW is the model I wish more podcasters would follow.
Hi Dustin,
Thank you for the great list of sites.
I was rather fascinated by your use of the words “risqué”, “weird” and “deeply offensive” with respect to HotForWords.
I consider my values and social behavior to be conservative, but would never use those words to describe Marina. The closest word I might think of is “titillating” (sorry for the non-intended pun), but even that word I would never use.
I have watched all of the 200+ videos that Marina has done and have followed her work since early last year. A description I would use for Marina, HotForWords is classy, witty and intelligently sexy. She has a natural easy going friendly engaging style and smile that radiates a wonderful glow and that’s what I see.
pedanticKarl: I don’t personally find “Hot for Words” offensive, or I wouldn’t subscribe to it and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it. But others might, and I want to at least recognize that, even if in the end it doesn’t change my recommendation. I want to make sure that people with more delicate sensibilities than you and I can consider themselves adequately informed before they click through to Marina’s website — which prominently features several pics of Marina in bathing suits and other scanty outfits. I aim to make this site amenable to writers of all sorts, including those whose personal politics I might not agree with — consider the writer of Christian educational materials or the minister looking for tools to help organize his or her sermons, for example. Do I really want to draw a line in the sand that says “nobody offended by semi-nude pictures of philologists allowed”? Is that a fight worth having on my writing blog? I’d rather save that kind of conflict for things that really matter, like Mac vs. PC 🙂
Hi Dustin, thank you kindly for your detailed explanation and I agree with you. So, what do you have against Linux? No three way fights? Just kidding. I love that YouTube video entitled “South Park Mac vs. PC vs. Linux”.
This is my first visit to your blog and I like it as well as the lifehack.org site. Kind Regards…
I’ve listened to several of the podcasts on the list and by far enjoy Writing Excuses the most. Different strokes for different folks, certainly, but 15 of the straight stuff without a lot of rambling or INFODUMP is great! 🙂 We’re writers, we’re communicators. Sometimes I do wish they were a bit longer only b/c I think they’re on such a roll or the topic is so interesting I want the infodump.
FYI: I write romance and these guys epic fantasy, horror (-ish?) and web comics. Broad writing techniques transcend genre. Do yourself a favor and listen to these guys!
Don’t forget Barbara DeMarco-Barrett’s Writers on Writing. Great interviews with writers and agents.
Wow, some excellent resources here. I was looking for some podcasts to download for a trip I’m going to be on in Europe for a month. These are wonderful. Thanks a lot.
Hahaha, I’m loving HotForWords. I’m also going to check out some of the other resources, but that one is unlike any I’ve encountered before (though now that I’ve seen it, I can’t imagine someone NOT having done it). She’s sexy AND smart. 🙂 I’ll stick to the etymology lessons, though.
There is another great Podcast that I think you overlooked. The Creative Penn.
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/podcasts/
Check it out, she’s one of my favorits to listen to along with ‘I Should Be Writing.’