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The Failing Writers Podcast — Arts
The Failing Writers Podcast

Becoming a better writer, writing a novel, being a successful author – whatever your writing goal is, we’re here for you! Join two struggling writers learning everything there is to know about writing. They talk to best-selling authors, screenwriters and poets – people who actually know what they’re talking about. The award-winning Failing Writers Podcast is the best writing podcast around. Why? It’s funny, informative and could help you get over writer’s block, finish that novel, get a literary agent and achieve your writing goals. (Oh, and they do silly little songs too)

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Copyright: © The Failing Writers

Latest Episodes:

S4 Ep3: The Full Brontë Mar 04, 2024

Show notes

Join Tom & Jon on another rambly exploration.
This time we're off back to the 1840s to take a good, hard look at the Brontë sisters. Who were Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë? What were they like? How is it possible that three sisters all wrote so brilliantly? Why are they still so revered by readers across the world? and what was the deal with Branwell?
Pack a rain coat, a poetry book and a flask of tea and come with us o'er the moors, as we chat to experts: biographer - Lucasta Miller, English Lit Professor - Gregory Dart, and the lovely folk at the Brontë Museum in Haworth, to learn more about these fascinating and extraordinary writers.
Lucasta's Website:
https://www.lucastamiller.com/theauthor
Buy The Brontë Myth:
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/355538/the-bronte-myth-by-lucasta-miller/9780099287148
Visit The Brontë Parsonage Museum:
https://www.bronte.org.uk
And thank you to Professor Gregory Dart - a total legend.
See him give Philomena Cunk a run for her money here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beP0rZIITmI

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S4 Ep2: Jessica Bull - Miss Austen Investigates Feb 26, 2024

Show notes

As an aspiring young writer it's easy to be put off by even the most well intentioned constructive criticism...what's not so easy is to revisit that critique many years later and be inspired to write a novel that has publishers literally fighting each other for the chance to print it.
Join us for a fascinating interview as Jessica Bull, author of the much anticipated "Miss Austen Investigates" describes the downs and very significant ups of her writing journey.

Buy Miss Austen Investigates here:
https://shor.by/MissAusten
Jessica’s soash:
Twitter: @NovelistJessica (https://twitter.com/NovelistJessica)
Instagram: @jessicabullnovelist (https://www.instagram.com/jessicabullnovelist/)

author pic by Cassie Baruc

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S4 Ep1: Danny Wallace Feb 19, 2024

Show notes

Aaaaaand we're back!
The Failing Writers return for what some are calling the fourth season of this spectacular podcast. We look forward to a whole new smorgasbord of writing tips, challenges, goals and cock-ups plus a raft of interviews with some of the biggest names in the writing world. Starting with a real corker courtesy of writer, presenter and thoroughly lovely fella Danny Wallace.
So hold tight and keep your legs and elbows tucked in at all times... it's gonna be a hell of a ride!
Danny stuff:
https://dannywallace.com
Preorder Danny's new book here:
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/393456/somebody-told-me-by-wallace-danny/9781529931181
Phil Oddy's Echoes:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Echoes-Entanglement-Book-Phil-Oddy/dp/B0CSRZVPQZ
Danny's photo: www.selashiloniphoto.com

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S3 Ep27: Have Yourself a Scary Little Christmas (pt2) Jan 01, 2024

Show notes

Happy New Year Folks! We continue our seasonal ghost stories with a handful of listener-written tales. So gather around the hearth with us again as we bring you a selection of eerie yarns, to make your timbers shiver.
Massive thanks to our fantastic contributors:
AB Finlayson: https://abfinlayson.com Threads: a.b.finlayson
Craig Margolis: X: @damnblankpage
Steve Salisbury: X: @SalisburyWriter Threads: salisbury.writer
Christian Fieldhouse
Steven Stilbech: X: @stilbech
Simon Curtis: X: @simonmcurtis
Geoffrey G. N. Harrison: https://www.deaf-duck.uk Threads: gharrisonauthor
(In this weeks episode, we also completely forgot to mention that Simon Curtis sent us a brilliant M.R. James Christmas picture quiz! Check the blog to see how many M.R. James stories you can recognise from his natty little sketch!)
A history of ventriloquist dummies coming to life:
It appears Gerald Kersh was one of the first to publish such a story in 1939 called “The Extraordinarily Horrible Dummy," this was adapted by screenwriter John Baines for the Dead of Night movie.
Dead of Night Movie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_of_Night
Magic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_(1978_film)
Goosebumps
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goosebumps_(film)

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S3 Ep26: Have Yourself a Scary Little Christmas (pt1) Dec 25, 2023

Show notes

Please accept this as a most cordial invitation to accompany Jon, Tom and as yet unnamed guests for an evening of traditional ghost story telling. We have chosen the most atmospheric venue we could acquire at short notice and now request your company, to consummate this joyously Victorian Christmas night of heebiejeebies. Please bring only yourself. We shall provide the spirits.
Talking Scared:
https://talkingscaredpod.com/about/
Michelle Paver:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/talking-scared/id1530064310?i=1000638347893
The King:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/talking-scared/id1530064310?i=1000623833730
Dark Matter:
https://michellepaver.com/dark-matter/
‘Cherry Ripe’ Painting
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/cherry-ripe-detail-john-everett-millais.html

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S3 Ep25: Alec Worley: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Horror & Comics. Dec 11, 2023

Show notes

Alec Worley is an award-lacking (his own words!) author from South London. He writes comics, fiction and audio drama about swords, fangs and lasers. He’s best known for his work on 2000 AD (home of Judge Dredd), Star Wars, and for legendary horror director John Carpenter.
He's one of those really annoyingly talented people, with an eye for story and an ear for dialogue.
You know the ones.
He's also a dead nice bloke.
You can read his newsletter, ‘Agent of Weird: Exploring the Write Fantastic’ (alecworley.substack.com)
Or find out more on his website alecworley.com

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/AlecWorley
Dredge Runners audio drama:
https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/178999229X?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=library_overflow

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S3 Ep24: Word Games: The League of the Lexicon Nov 27, 2023

Show notes

Out of the blue, someone sent us a game. A game all about words and etymology and language - the very stuff we LOVE. So, we decided that we'd get together and play the game to see if it's any good, and have a chat with the bloke who created it. That game is The League of the Lexicon. That bloke is Joshua Blackburn and this is the podcast where all of the above takes place.
To try your hand at a few questions and maybe even win a copy of the game - click here!
Here's where you can find out more about the game, and maybe even order one.

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S3 Ep23: The Runners Up Nov 13, 2023

Show notes

We couldn't let the amazing stories that made it to the final short-list go un-read and un-heard... so here they are. Plus there's a nice little chat with the overall winner of our £500 prize, Manu St Thomas. Enjoy!!
Still not had your fix?
Geddaload o' these beauties....
"God of Ramen" (shortlisted for a Flash Fiction Magazine competition in 2022) - https://flashfictionmagazine.com/blog/2022/11/10/god-of-ramen/
"I Have an Invisible Cat" (nr. 7, winner of the Globe Soup July 2022 micro-fiction challenge) - https://www.globesoup.net/cats
"The Man Who Married the Sea" (nr. 10, winner of the Globe Soup May 2022 micro-fiction challenge) - https://www.globesoup.net/blue
"Dinner" - https://101words.org/dinner/

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S3 Ep22: Nanowrimo Special: How NOT to write a novel with Howard Mittelmark Nov 06, 2023

Show notes

NaNoWrimOhNo!
It's that time of year again when words-per-day becomes the currency. So we thought we'd bring you even more words... Words of novel-writing wisdom! No, no... not from us... obviously. From novelist and longtime book editor Howard Mittelmark. Co-writer of How NOT to Write A Novel. A fantastic book full of the pitfalls most writers fall into when they're setting off along the long and arduous road to Novelton, Nebraska.
So join us for some entertaining and enlightening chitchat, and learn things about yourself you've long suspected, but have been deliberately ignoring for years.
We can't guarantee any of this will help with your word count, but we all need to take breaks, right?
How Not To Write A Novel:
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/56677/how-not-to-write-a-novel-by-sandra-newman-howard-mittelmark/9780141038544
Howard's novel - 'Written Out':
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Written-Out-Howard-Mittelmark/dp/157962572X
Hire Howard...
https://howardmittelmark.com/editorial/
National Novel Writing Month:
https://nanowrimo.org

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S3 Ep21: Writing Ghost Stories: with Stephen Volk & Ciaran O'Keeffe Oct 30, 2023

Show notes

With the help of two expert spookologists: Stephen Volk - horror writer & mastermind behind the BBCs infamous 'GHOSTWATCH', and Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe - famed ghostbuster & parapsychologist, we're attempting to figure out what gives us the heebie jeebies, so that we can all go away and write the world's GREATEST EVER GHOST STORY.
That invitation extends to you too, listeners! We want your submissions for our Traditional Ghost Story Christmas Special later in the year.
So get writing - and hopefully we can all sit down round the fire and share a little anthology of all our spooky stories in December.
Here's the link to buy Stephen's brilliant new ghost story book:
http://tartaruspress.com/volk-the-good-unknown.html
Coffinmaker's Blues, Stephen's excellent book of horror essays:
https://www.pspublishing.co.uk/coffinmakers-blues-ebook-by-stephen-volk-5605-p.asp
and Stephen's website:
https://www.stephenvolk.net/the-good-unknown.html
Also, Afterlife: Lost Loved Ones is out on audiobook (Bafflegab) on Halloween!
Don’t forget you can also follow what Ciaran's up to on Twitter / X
https://twitter.com/ciaranokeeffe?lang=en
and don't miss him on Danny Robbins new TV series Uncanny:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001rckl/uncanny-series-1-1-case-1-miss-howard

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