Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is currently in its fourth year. We are a weekly podcast for writers craving a unique blend of inspiration and real talk about the ups and downs of the writing life. Hosted by Brooke Warner of She Writes and Grant Faulkner of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), each theme-focused episode of Write-minded features an interview with a writer, author, or publishing industry professional.

Pep Talk alert! Whether you’re writing a ton or writing a-none, this week’s episode is geared toward writers who are feeling the strain of the Muddy Middle. Grant and Brooke talk about strategies for staying on track and offer up encouragement for ways to keep with it—including how to break the wall. The Esther Perel podcast episode that Brooke mentions, “Breaking News Is Breaking Us,” can be found here.

Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Grant Faulkner and Brooke Warner are writer-authors and heads of writing communities, but most relevant to this week’s show, they’re the cohosts of Write–minded, and they’re both in the Muddy Middle of NaNoWriMo this week.

Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is currently in its fourth year. We are a weekly podcast for writers craving a unique blend of inspiration and real talk about the ups and downs of the writing life. Hosted by Brooke Warner of She Writes and Grant Faulkner of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), each theme-focused episode of Write-minded features an interview with a writer, author, or publishing industry professional.

This week Brooke shares an interview she recorded with Allison Gilbert about her new book, Listen World!, a biography of the most famous woman writer you’ve never heard of. If you’re any writer, but particularly a woman writer, knowing about Elsie Robinson (1883-1956) will bring you needed inspiration during this NaNoWriMo season. She models how to believe in yourself, how to face rejection and keep going, and how perseverance is the most necessary skillset when it comes to getting our work out into the world. You’ll marvel at what she was able to do—way pre-Internet.

For reference, find Allison’s CNN article about the reparative efforts underway to retag history so that gender is included/searchable here.

Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Allison Gilbert is a writer and champion of women’s untold stories. Her newest book is Listen, World!: How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became America’s Most-Read Woman, coauthored with Julia Scheers. Allison writes regularly for the New York Times and other publications. In addition to coauthoring Listen, World!, she’s the co-editor of Covering Catastrophe and the author of Always Too Soon, Parentless Parents, and Passed and Present. Her work has been honored by the Associated Press, Society of Professional Journalists, National Association of Black Journalists, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and others. Allison lives in New York.

Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is currently in its fourth year. We are a weekly podcast for writers craving a unique blend of inspiration and real talk about the ups and downs of the writing life. Hosted by Brooke Warner of She Writes and Grant Faulkner of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), each theme-focused episode of Write-minded features an interview with a writer, author, or publishing industry professional.

Happy Halloween Week and Happy Start of NaNoWriMo. This week’s episode is a twofer because we’re bringing you a little dose of horror through our exploration of gothic stories with this week’s guest Isabel Cañas, who also happens to be a ten-year veteran of NaNoWriMo. Watch magic happen as Write-minded intertwines these two cultural events—one spooky-scary and the other downright inspiring. We’re kicking you off with some great advice and a big high-five—and if you’re still on the fence about whether you’re doing NaNoWriMo, get off and join the November writing craze. 

Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Isabel Cañas is a Mexican-American speculative fiction writer and the author of two novels, The Hacienda and Vampires of El Norte, which just came out. After having lived in Mexico, Scotland, Egypt, Turkey, and New York City, among other places, she has settled in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and writes fiction inspired by her research and her heritage.

Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is currently in its fourth year. We are a weekly podcast for writers craving a unique blend of inspiration and real talk about the ups and downs of the writing life. Hosted by Brooke Warner of She Writes and Grant Faulkner of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), each theme-focused episode of Write-minded features an interview with a writer, author, or publishing industry professional.

With her new memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, guest Maggie Smith provides an example of how to break conventional form to gorgeous results. This interview covers narration, structure, and Maggie’s process of constructing this memoir, as well as how her background as a poet informed her approach to the writing. Join us for a wide-ranging conversation mostly about narration, but we also touch upon writing about others and Maggie confesses she’s surprised by the gigantic success of this book. You’ll want to tune in to hear why.

Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Maggie Smith is the award-winning author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Good Bones, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, Lamp of the Body, and the national bestsellers Goldenrod and Keep Moving. A 2011 recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Smith has also received several Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, two Academy of American Poets Prizes, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has been widely published, appearing in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Nation, The Best American Poetry, and more. Follow her on social media @MaggieSmithPoet.

Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is currently in its fourth year. We are a weekly podcast for writers craving a unique blend of inspiration and real talk about the ups and downs of the writing life. Hosted by Brooke Warner of She Writes and Grant Faulkner of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), each theme-focused episode of Write-minded features an interview with a writer, author, or publishing industry professional.

Whether you already love fanfiction or don’t really get it, you’ll want to tune into this episode for the sheer appreciation of its presence in the literary world. More than 100 million people worldwide are reading or writing fanfiction. We know that fanfiction writers have been wild over the years for Star Wars and Harry Potter and Twilight, but now fanfiction is increasingly likely to be a source of content for movies and TV shows—and community and friends!

Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Rainbow Rowell writes all kinds of stuff. Sometimes she writes about adults (ATTACHMENTS, LANDLINE). Sometimes she writes about teenagers (ELEANOR & PARK, FANGIRL). Sometimes she writes about lovesick vampires and guys with dragon wings (THE SIMON SNOW TRILOGY). Recently, she’s been writing short stories. Her first collection, SCATTERED SHOWERS, is out now. She also writes the monthly SHE-HULK comic for Marvel.

Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is currently in its fourth year. We are a weekly podcast for writers craving a unique blend of inspiration and real talk about the ups and downs of the writing life. Hosted by Brooke Warner of She Writes and Grant Faulkner of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), each theme-focused episode of Write-minded features an interview with a writer, author, or publishing industry professional.

 This week’s co-authoring duo, Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché, take us inside their relationship and share authentically and honestly about some of the considerations unique to writing your book with someone else. With tools available to authors that allow writing together over distance and time zones, many writers are keen to coauthor and explore new terrains with a creative collaborator. This week offers insight and permission, and a few tips from lessons learned on the journey.

Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Helen Macdonaldis the author of the bestselling H Is for Hawk and Vesper Flights along with Shaler’s Fish, a history of falconry, and two other books of poetry. They’ve written and presented award-winning TV documentaries for PBS and the BBC. Prophet is their first novel. Sin Blaché has been writing horror and sci-fi stories all their life. Born in California, they live in the Northwest of Ireland, and Prophet is their first novel.

Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is currently in its fourth year. We are a weekly podcast for writers craving a unique blend of inspiration and real talk about the ups and downs of the writing life. Hosted by Brooke Warner of She Writes and Grant Faulkner of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), each theme-focused episode of Write-minded features an interview with a writer, author, or publishing industry professional.

One month out from National Novel Writing Month, this episode hopes to inspire listeners around the truism that the very best way to write a novel is simply to try it. NaNoWriMo encourages that effort, outcome irrelevant. Take heed from guest Kayvion Lewis who suggests in this episode to write the thing that sets your heart on fire. Also, as promised in today’s Book Trend, we encourage you to check out Dave Chesson’s video (via YouTube) on Amazon’s recent category changes: “INSANE Amazon Category Change.”

Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Kayvion Lewis is a young adult author of all things escapist and high-octane. She just published the very thrilling and high-octane novel, Thieves Gambit. She’s a former youth services librarian, and she’s been working with young readers and kidlit since she was sixteen. When she’s not writing, she’s breaking out of escape rooms, jumping out of airplanes, and occasionally running away to mountain retreats to study kung fu. Though she’s originally from Louisiana, and often visits her family in The Bahamas, these days you can find her in New York—at least until she takes off on her next adventure.

Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is currently in its fourth year. We are a weekly podcast for writers craving a unique blend of inspiration and real talk about the ups and downs of the writing life. Hosted by Brooke Warner of She Writes and Grant Faulkner of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), each theme-focused episode of Write-minded features an interview with a writer, author, or publishing industry professional.

This week’s episode considers the intersection between dreaming and writing and how to harness not dreaming per se, but the midnight mind. The midnight mind speaks to a kind of liminal state where we can be more open, more creative, less blocked—and Tzivia Gover’s interview and new book are encouraging to writers and authors around writing for writing’s sake, and not only for publication and outcome. There’s much to unpack this week as we settle into the joy of writing, accessing more subconscious creative states, and thinking about how our dreams are sources of creativity for us whether we remember them or not.

Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Tzivia Gover is the author of several books including The Mindful Way to a Good Night’s Sleep and Joy in Every Moment. She is the education director of the Institute for Dream Studies, and the founder of Dreaming on the Page classes and workshops. She teaches programs internationally, domestically and online about dreams, mindfulness, and writing. Tzivia is a Certified Dreamwork Professional, a Certified Proprioceptive Writing instructor, and she has an MFA from Columbia University in creative nonfiction. She writes and dreams in western Massachusetts.

Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is currently in its fourth year. We are a weekly podcast for writers craving a unique blend of inspiration and real talk about the ups and downs of the writing life. Hosted by Brooke Warner of She Writes and Grant Faulkner of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), each theme-focused episode of Write-minded features an interview with a writer, author, or publishing industry professional.

This week’s episode is an exploration of form, and why some stories are better contained in short story form rather than a novel. Guest Ghassan Zeineddine shares the evolution of his short story collection, Dearborn, as well as some of his process, including research and spending serious time with subjects who sometimes play roles in stories years down the road. Dearborn is part-celebration, part-astute observation of the Arab-American community in Dearborn, Michigan. This episode also contains a bit of history about how Dearborn became the US city with the highest concentration of Arabs and Arab Americans, and also lends insights into process, craft, and why the short story form is sometimes just right.

Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Ghassan Zeineddine was born in Washington, DC, and raised in the Middle East. He is an assistant professor of creative writing at Oberlin College, and he just published a collection of short stories, Dearborn, and he’s co-editor of the creative nonfiction anthology Hadha Baladuna: Arab American Narratives of Boundary and Belonging. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Ohio.

Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is currently in its fourth year. We are a weekly podcast for writers craving a unique blend of inspiration and real talk about the ups and downs of the writing life. Hosted by Brooke Warner of She Writes and Grant Faulkner of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), each theme-focused episode of Write-minded features an interview with a writer, author, or publishing industry professional.

This week, Write-minded explores point of view, especially those stories told with less conventional points of view. Uncommon points of view stick with you—and Brooke and Grant cover books they love that have ghost points of view, dog points of view, and the kind of point of view where the reader is part of the story. This week’s guest Jimin Han walks us through some of her narration choices for her new novel, The Apology, and shares insights into her writing process, her characters, her inspirations, and so much more.

Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Jimin Han was born in Seoul, South Korea, and grew up in Providence, Rhode Island; Dayton, Ohio; and Jamestown, New York. Her work has been supported by the New York State Council on the Arts. She is also the author of A Small Revolution and has written for American Public Media’s Weekend America, Poets & Writers, and Catapult, among other media outlets. Han teaches at the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College and at Pace University, as well as at community writing centers.