Write-minded Podcast

Grant and Brooke explore the many ways in which writers might cross borders—geographically, creatively, in their life experiences. Guest Mitali Perkins speaks to the experience of crossing borders in life and in fiction, and has inspiring words for listeners about following their inner compass when it comes to writing. This episode touches upon how we use our life experience in our writing, the value of being authentic to yourself and your readers, and reading as another vehicle for crossing borders.

Write-Minded is the product of two writing communities coming together to support a podcast for writers about writing—and Deborah Siegel, one of She Writes’ founders, speaks to the power of community and why writers don’t let writers write alone. This episode, the final one in the NaNoWriMo line-up, celebrates community, and Grant, Brooke, and Deborah talk about why writing is better, more productive, and more rewarding when it’s not a solitary pursuit.

In this episode, Brooke and Grant honor NaNoWriMo rebels as they botch the NaNo acronym and explore with their guest, Cami Ostman, some of the many ways writers and writing communities come together to have fun and write in November. Brooke talks about being a NaNo Rebel herself as she pushes through her nonfiction book about women and writing, and Grant talks about the NaNo stance on rebels—which is that NaNo welcomes all of you with open arms. After all, it’s all about the writing!

The Muddy Middle is inevitable when you’re writing a book—that place all writers get to when the newness of their writing endeavor begins to wane, and the project isn’t feeling so exciting anymore. In this episode Grant commits to trying to make better use of the nooks and crannies of his life, writing even when he has just a ten-minute window, and Brooke confesses that one of her downfalls is needing the conditions to write to be just so. Guest Gennifer Albin, veteran NaNoWriMo writer, has super-helpful tips for getting through the Muddy Middle, and shares how she finds the time and how NaNoWriMo has been a productive and inspiring way to get her writing done.

We’re five days into NaNoWriMo, and today’s guests are two seasoned NaNoWriMo municipal liaisons who know a lot about the value of a writing community. Brooke and Grant share where they’re at with their writing goals—Brooke slow and steady and Grant sprinting out the gate to get ahead, a strategy he says he always uses since inevitable life issues are bound to throw him off his word count goals every November. This episode is chock-full of ideas for getting out there and finding community—which is the best way to ensure you get your writing done.

Today’s episode is for anyone who struggles to call her or himself a writer—whether it’s because you have such a strong professional identity that it’s hard to try on a secondary one, or maybe because you came to writing later in life, or, like Brooke shares is true for her, you might feel you need to qualify your experience somehow. Guest Jasmine Guillory shares her own struggles to claim the label—and gets us inspired for NaNoWriMo on the immediate horizon with encouraging words about her approach to preparation—and getting tons of words on the page.

Join Brooke and Grant in conversation with Susan Dennard, who believes that if we’re not at least looking for that which inspires us about our writing, we might want to make a better effort to find it, or change directions. In this episode Susan shares her evolution from pantser to planner, and how she goes about planning and prepping, especially now that she writes series. Join us for this helpful conversation that’s part of our month-long get-ready-for-NaNoWriMo series.

Do you feel stuck in your story? Not sure where to begin, or where to go from here? This episode has real solutions! Jessica Brody has taken a popular structure used for screenplay writing and adapted it for novelists—and in this episode she unpacks how that works, explaining beats and how writers can think about them and use them to crack their own stories. As they gear up for NaNoWriMo, Grant and Brooke consider the value of structure, and also reiterate that no matter your approach, NaNo can be a game-changer in your writing process.

In this episode, NaNoWriMo Founder and record-holder for the most NaNoWriMo’s ever completed, Chris Baty, joins Grant and Brooke to talk about NaNoWriMo’s origin story and how setting the bar really low is part of the point of doing NaNo in the first place. This inspiring episode will help listeners considering doing NaNoWriMo this year get over any anxieties they might be harboring. With less than a month to go, Write-Minded is getting in the mindset to get words on the page.

This episode kicks off a series dedicated to preparing for and getting through National Novel Writing Month in November. Guest Mary Robinette Kowal has embraced the structure and community of NaNoWriMo for all of her novels, and she shares with listeners about how she’s a “plantser,” and also some of her personal strategies around preparing to write a new novel. In this episode, Grant, Brooke, and Mary Robinette discuss the sub-genre of “alternate histories” and encourage listeners to gear up for NaNoWriMo by harnessing some of that “what-if” sensibility at the heart of alternate history storylines.

It took today’s guest, Emily X.R. Pan, ten years to finish her novel. In today’s high-pressure, fast-paced, ambition-oriented culture, you hear more about the people who write a book a year than you do about all the writers toiling away at their craft—and the perseverance, endurance, and diligence it takes to finish a book. In this episode Grant and Brooke talk about taking U-turns in your writing, reinvigorating projects that feel like they’re dying on the vine, and the many variations of creative process that exist.

All writers face that nagging, guilting critical voice telling us: you should be writing. This episode’s title comes from Mur Lafferty’s podcast: I Should Be Writing, and Mur talks with Grant and Brooke about some of the challenges she and her many guests face in their writing. Writers will always face time constraints and other obstacles to getting their writing done, so today’s episode, perhaps more than anything, provides comfort in knowing you’re not alone (with a bit of inspiration and few good tips thrown in for good measure!)

In this episode Brooke and Grant share the definition of cultural appropriation from Amandla Stenberg’s YouTube video, in which she says, “Cultural appropriation occurs when a style leads to racist generalizations or stereotypes where it originated, but is deemed as high fashion cool or funny when the privilege take it from themselves.”

Grant and Brooke discuss unconventional writing, and how and why it’s not particularly embraced by the traditional publishing industry. Their guest, Kwame Alexander, is best-known for his book The Crossover, which is a YA novel in verse that big publishers didn’t think would attract a wide readership. They were wrong. This episode is a celebration of following your heart and embracing the unconventional.

Brooke and Grant share how they wrangle with social media—and why it’s a friend and a foe. Their guest, Amy Ferris, shares how she’s grown her Facebook following to capacity, garnering hundreds of comments and shares with each post. Since social media is a cornerstone to an author’s platform, writers pretty much have to dive in. This episode will either inspire you to better harness its power or at least make you feel better if you’re as ambivalent about the whole thing as your Write-minded hosts are.