The Failing Writers Podcast

Oct 06 2024 58
The Failing Writers Podcast artwork

Join three success-starved wordwranglers as they stumble towards their shared ambition: to become proper writers!

Learning from guests like bestselling authors and BAFTA-winning writers. Setting themselves writing tasks and trying to improve their craft. Discussing how to get past all the things that stop us writing. And hopefully taking you on a journey with them to become successful writers!

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S4 Ep18: What do we think of writing retreats?

Oct 06 2024 56 mins  
Should you treat yourself to a writing retreat?If you did it twice would you be re-treating yourself to a writing retreat?If you tweeted about treating yourself to a writers retreat would you be tweeting your re-treat of retreating to a retreat?And if you then re-tweeted your...OK, I'll stop.Tom & Jon not only answer the first of these pressing questions, but as they disappear

S4 Ep17: A Shortcut To Querying Success

Sep 21 2024 62 mins  
Are you querying? or nearly querying? Maybe you’re fearing querying? Or merely getting weary and a bit teary querying? Well let’s hear from three writers who’ve been down in those querying trenches for a while now.Find out how they're approaching it, what agents' responses have been like and how they’re holding up under pressure.Because when it comes to finding an agen

S4 Ep16: Let's put off procrastinating, with Oliver Burkeman

Sep 08 2024 46 mins  
... What? Did 2 weeks just fly by since the last episode? No flippin' way.Time, I think, we had a chat about time. The fact that there's never enough of it. Especially for writing.Why is that?Well Oliver Burkeman might just have some answers.Prepare to face the subject of time and limitation face-on.Get ready to completely re-think how we view those precious hours, minutes and seco

S4 Ep15: How do you know if your writing is good enough?

Aug 25 2024 44 mins  
Well, that’s the summer hiatus done with - and we're back with an episode which asks the question, "how do you know if your writing is good enough?"In an attempt to answer that question, we’re going to be looking at a couple of Tom’s flash fiction stories and asking if, why, and how, one of them is slightly less rubbish than the other. Both stories were entered into the same

S4 Ep14: How to become a full-time author... maybe

Jul 07 2024 52 mins  
Do you have what it takes to quit your day job and follow your dreams to become a full time author?Well, there's only one way to find out...and that's to listen to our interview with J C Duncan!Hear how he bravely decided to give himself a year to become a professional writer and, even bravelier, decided to tell everyone about it!Plus home made knives, Vikings and our usual top qua

S4 Ep 13: Tune that name! All about pseudonyms

Jun 23 2024 56 mins  
A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet...but would he have written that line if he wasn't called Shakespeare?This week Jon, Tom and Dave (or possibly Rod, Jane and Freddy) look into pseudonyms, nom-de-plumes, pen names...and basically just being someone else for a bit.Does your name affect your chances of success? Does it even have an impact on how you write?Join us to

S4 Ep 12: Mike Gayle

Jun 09 2024 70 mins  
A change is in the air here at Failing HQ. A scent on the wind, a signal that the new dawn will herald the arrival of long overdue success.This week, not only do Tom and Jon have a lovely chat with acclaimed author and current Richard and Judy Book Club pick Mike Gayle...but Jon also discusses his submissions to some actual writing competitions. AND Tom talks a bit more about the b

S4 Ep11: Samuel Burr & The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers

Jun 02 2024 51 mins  
If we were really clever, we'd have written the show notes for this week's episode in the form of a cryptic crossword clue in honour of our guest, Samuel Burr.We spoke to him about his debut novel "The Fellowship of Puzzle Makers", his frankly unbelievable journey to getting published and even had a chat about all things cryptic.But, unfortunately, we're not really clever...so we d

S4 Ep10: Does Age Matter? with Aline Dufflocq & Babette Hughes

May 26 2024 71 mins  
The average age of our guests this week is 64. Nothing too amazing about that you might say… until you find out the first of our two guests is in her mid-twenties! This week we ask, “Is there a best age to write?”Plus we enjoy a WIP from Geoffrey G N Harrison. And here’s a load of links…Check out Aline’s YouTube here!Here's Aline's ToktokHere's Babette's new book and he

S4 Ep9: Darren Walsh - He Knows His Punions

May 12 2024 57 mins  
Would you like a pun? Well, that's handy because this week we've been punning for gold and ended up with a bucket load.Director, writer and stand up comedian Darren Walsh chats to us about his career, the art of a good pun and whether AI will ever be funnier than him.Plus Jon comes up with what is almost certainly not an entirely new form of joke!Find out more about Darren here...h