Writing in Progress

It's Writing Battle season! We've got the spring micro competition on deck--2 days to write 500 words!
Justin and Jon are joined again by two friends of the pod: two-time winner Maggie Schreier and 2023 MVW Trey Dowell!
We had so much fun analyzing the genres and revealing (what we could) about our prompts together.
We hope you have half as much fun as we did, listening along. :)

We give our reactions, impressions, thoughts, and opinions as we noodle with the 5 possible characters, 5 potential settings, and 1 mandatory object prompted in Writer's Playground's eighth playground challenge.

We are joined by a friend of the pod, Ryan Fleming, who happens to be a former winner of the contest.

His interview begins around the 22 minute mark, and the prompt discussion takes off about half an hour into the episode.

Thanks for listening and please feel encouraged to reach out and connect with us!

Email: [email protected] <- best
Instagram: @Writinginprogresspod <- still good
Facebook: Writing in Progress <- slightly less good
Twitter: @WritingInPod <-Elon has blacklisted us for some reason
Youtube: WritingInProgressPodcast <- Don't use this much
Tik Tok: Writing_in_progress_pod <- alas, I think we're too old for this ____

Maggie has dozens of publishing credits to her name, is a Push Cart Nominee, has won Writer's Workout Writer's Games (twice), the YeahWrite Super Challenge, TL;DR's Wordherd, Iron Faerie Publishing's Betwixt Contest, and Writing Battle (twice!). She's also placed top 10 in both Writer's Playground and NYC Midnight.

She also happens to be one of the most encouraging human beings in the whole prompted-writing-competition community!

She joins us today to talk about her writing and promote her new short story collection... and oh by the way... she hasn't revealed the title of said collection... UNTIL NOW!

Listen to our interview to hear the announcement.

We start introducing Maggie around the 8 minute mark, and the interview begins at about 15 minutes. She chatted with us for nearly an hour and a half!

Topics include:
-writing competitions--world building on a tight word count
-self publishing, and the work that goes along with it
-imposter syndrome
-new years resolutions / goal setting
-compiling a collection
-how to approach prompts so that your story will stand out
-discovering your passion for writing later in life
-balancing a busy writing schedule
-how being a "yes" person and a voracious reader has led to her vast (and sometimes obscure) knowledge-base
-reworking/selling a piece after competition

If you'd like to learn more about Maggie, please visit her website, here: https://mmschreier.com/

If you'd like to connect with the podcast, we're currently checking email ([email protected]) and instagram (WritingInProgressPod) the most frequently.

Justin and Jon give their initial reactions for this season's Writing Battle genres and live-react to their own draws.
Just under 40 minutes into the episode, Friend-of-the-Pod Trey Dowell stops by to give his thoughts and joins in on the fun.
Jon pushes his luck... can he defy the odds again??
Listen to find out! :)

Justin and Jon continue their long-running series exploring how to write specific elements of a story. Today, they discuss the element they both ranked as the most important: characters. In this 2+ hour episode, Justin and Jon consulted the Writing Battle forums to ask for advice on how to capture the magic of an engaging character.

It's been a minute, but Justin and Jon are back and ready to talk about writing.

Because we've been gone for a while, we decided to pack quite a bit into this episode--resulting in our longest ever: over 2 hours!

Below are time-stamps, in case you're here from Writing Battle and would like to skip through Justin & Jon rambling about their personal lives.

0:00 - Intro
2:32 - Jon's check-in and humorous Christmas card
9:12 - Justin's check-in
35:15 - Writing Battle Short Story 2023 talk.
1:00:45 - Justin & Jon interview each other
1:55:15 - Wipper Snapper community shout-out
2:00:15 - Wrapping things up

Justin and Jon are battling again! This episode was recorded live as they discovered their genres and prompts. (The character and word prompts they are sticking with are not shared, of course.)

Justin and Jon are thrilled to welcome Trey Dowell to Writing in Progress on the heels of teaching at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Trey’s list of accomplishments are extremely impressive:

-Traditionally published novel (The Protectors) through Simon and Schuster (Stephen King’s publisher)

-Former NYC Midnight overall flash fiction winner. The very next NYCM competition, Trey finished second overall in short story. In total, Trey has made six NYCM finals, winning a cash prize in three.

-Derringer Award winner and four-time finalist. 

-Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Award finalist.

-Writing Battle runner-up for alternate history flash fiction

Subjects include Trey’s writing process, specifically how he approaches NYC Midnight. We compare NYCM and Writing Battle. Trey also gives us interesting insight into his experience being traditionally published through Simon and Schuster and important lessons he learned for his next attempt at writing a novel. We also briefly touch on writing conferences and how important they can be.

I think the biggest takeaways from this episode:

Luck is a big part of it. Celebrate the wins. Keep writing.

The interview with Trey begins at 16:00, after check-ins with Justin and Jon.

Here are the pod’s social handles:

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: WritingInProgressPod

Twitter: @WritingInPod (mind the filters!)

Facebook: Writing In Progress

TikTok: Writing_in_progress_pod

Youtube: WritingInProgressPodcast

In the midst of (writers) battling, Justin and Jon press pause to discuss the competition. This episode includes:

7:30 - End of school year check-ins
16:30 - Looking back at Writer's Playground
31:30 - Initial impressions of this season's Writing Battle
1:05:00 - Responding to some WIPper-snappers' questions and comments.

As always, we love to hear from YOU! You can reach out on our socials, listed below:

Gmail - [email protected]
Instagram - @WritingInProgressPod
Twitter - @WritingInPod (mind the filters!)
Facebook - Writing In Progress
Youtube - Writing In Progress Podcast
TikTok - Writing_in_progress_pod

Justin and Jon are taking on a new contest: Writer's Playground, and who better to learn from than a previous winner? Ryan Fleming joins the pod to discuss his writing journey and experience winning Writer's Playground with his Poe-esque story "The Tragedy of Montague Bellot"

In Writer's Playground, you are assigned an object, and must choose from five possible settings and five possible characters. We discuss all eleven (and several possible combinations) giving our initial impressions and reactions. We had a lot of fun!

2:00 - Check-ins with Justin & Jon
13:36 - Interview with Ryan begins
29:00 - Conversation shifts to this season's Writer's Playground prompts
1:02:45 - Closing remarks with Justin and Jon

You can find the results of the Anniversary Challenge of Writer's Playground (which includes a link to Ryan's winning story) here: https://www.writersplaygroundllc.com/anniversary-challenge

You can connect with Ryan on Instagram  @Ryan.David.Fleming

You can connect with Writing In Progress on the following platforms:
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @WritingInPorgressPod
Twitter: @WritingInPod (mind the filters... Elon doesn't like us)
Facebook: Writing In Progress
Tik Tok: @Writing_in_progress_pod
Youtube: WritingInProgressPodcast