On Writing (And Fanfiction)

Follow On Writing (And Fanfiction)
Share on
Copy link to clipboard

Join Zoey and Jake as they embark on a quest to impart their writerly wisdom on the fanfiction writers of the world.

Zoey and Jake


    • Nov 14, 2021 LATEST EPISODE
    • infrequent NEW EPISODES
    • 52m AVG DURATION
    • 13 EPISODES


    Search for episodes from On Writing (And Fanfiction) with a specific topic:

    Latest episodes from On Writing (And Fanfiction)

    Episode 13: I'll Format Your Face

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2021 50:19


    We say the F word a lot in this episode. Formatting, not fuck.

    Episode 12: It's Not the Length That Matters

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 8, 2021 46:35


    Back by unpopular demand, it's the On Writing (and Fanfiction) Podcast! In this episode, Zoey and Jake talk word counts, page counts, reading and writing preferences with regards to shortform and longform (fan)fiction, and the pros and cons of a posting schedule. Plus, Jake has finally scuttled forth from his fish tank and gotten a proper microphone. We're officially in the Good Audio Arc of the podcast. Got a question for us? Contact us at OWFFpod@gmail.com! Follow us on Instagram @owff_podcast! Zoey's guest spot: Stranger Than Fanfiction Episode 28: What Happened Before ft. Zoey (HereBeHobbits) Music Credit: RetroFuture Clean by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4277-retrofuture-clean License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    Episode 11: Here at the End of All Fics

    Play Episode Listen Later May 20, 2021 60:09


    On this episode, Zoey and Jake follow up their discussion from last episode on how to begin a story with how to end one! They discuss good foreshadowing, why predictability isn't necessarily a bad thing, how hard it really is to handle twist endings effectively, whether or not to resolve all your story's threads by the end, and what kinds of endings will leave your reader wishing a plague on your house. !! SPOILERS FOR THE MANDALORIAN SEASON 2 FINALE FROM 55:13–57:39 !! Got a question for us? Contact us at OWFFpod@gmail.com! Follow us on Instagram @owff_podcast and show some love to our Creative Director Ciara for all the hard work she does in running the show over there. Music Credit: RetroFuture Clean by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4277-retrofuture-clean License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    Episode 10: So, You Wanna Write a Fanfiction

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2021 69:19


    I'm gonna run out of ways to start these eventually. But that's not today so welcome! On this episode of the OWFFPOD, Zoey and Jake talk about one of the hardest parts of a story to write—the beginning. We ask where inspiration comes from, we talk about what makes a beginning good and bad, about picking the right tense for your story, and we cap it all off with a discussion on titling your story! Did we only realize that our podcast has a parenthetical title after the discussion on how we don't really like them that all that much? Don't be preposterous. Got a question for us? Contact us at OWFFpod@gmail.com! Follow us on Instagram @owff_podcast and show some love to our Creative Director Ciara for all the hard work she does in running the show over there. Works and authors referenced in this episode: Seven Blades in Black by Sam Sykes (http://www.samsykes.com/) The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger by Stephen King (https://stephenking.com/) Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (https://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1982/marquez/biographical/) “Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/09/25/bullet-in-the-brain) The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell (http://www.bernardcornwell.net/) The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson (https://www.emilyrcwilson.com/the-odyssey) For it is a Pleasure and a Surprise to Breathe by Gary Barwin (https://garybarwin.com/) The Perilous Trade: Book Publishing in Canada from 1946-2006 by Roy MacSkimming (http://www.roymacskimming.com/) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (http://fallsapart.com/) Music Credit: RetroFuture Clean by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4277-retrofuture-clean License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    Episode 9: Compost Your Darlings (featuring Giddy)

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2021 65:29


    The prodigal podcast returns! The prodcast? P(r)od(igal)cast? WHATEVER WE'RE BACK While we were gone, we scoured the Umbral Plains for one who possessed the ancestral knowledge of writing such that we might cast aside the veil concealing the eldritch authorial truth. Meaning we found some sucker more qualified than us to be on the podcast. Which brings us to this episode's special guest, Zoey's longtime friend and editor, Giddy! Giddy has an MFA in Creative Writing Fiction, and is a practiced pedagogue in the field, meaning we finally have someone to validate our shitty opinions and lend our inane ramblings a semblance of credence. Most radical, my esteemed listener. Follow Giddy over on IG: @thegiddyowl Got a question for us? Contact us at OWFFpod@gmail.com! Follow us on Instagram @owff_podcast and show some love to our Creative Director Ciara for all the hard work she does in running the show over there. Music Credit: RetroFuture Clean by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4277-retrofuture-clean License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    Episode 8: There Is a General Reader, and Here She Is (Starring Catherine!)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 19, 2021 56:28


    Our first guest appearance! We're in the big leagues now, fellas. On this episode, we welcome Zoey's good friend and fellow fanfiction aficionado Catherine, who's here to round out our writerly expertise with an incredibly important point of view—the reader's! Welcome Catherine with us as we talk about what keeps us reading a story, what stops us from finishing it, what "comment culture" is like for the reader, and a whole bunch of other zany bullshit because we burn through the topics we wrote down for the episode outline in twenty minutes. WE ARE THE TURBOCAST. Got a question for us? Contact us at OWFFpod@gmail.com! Follow us on Instagram @owff_podcast and show some love to our Creative Director Ciara for all the hard work she does in running the show over there. Music Credit: RetroFuture Clean by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4277-retrofuture-clean License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    Episode 7: ConCrit is a Lie

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 2, 2021 43:44


    It's a new year, and with it, a new episode of the On Writing (And Fanfiction) Podcast! 2021 is already looking up because there's nothing it can do short of radioactive gibbons with machine guns to be worse than [REDACTED], so let's kick things off with some stimulating discussion, eh? This episode is all about comments—how important they are to leave on works you enjoy, and how damaging they can really be. Comments are little extra steps you as a reader can take that go a long way towards encouraging a writer and inspiring them to keep being creative, but that power can be corrupted. Tune in to hear our discussion on the place constructive criticism has in fandom, and heed our sage wisdom and insightful answers to this complex issue (we don't have any). Got a question for us? Contact us at OWFFpod@gmail.com! Follow us on Instagram @owff_podcast and show some love to our Creative Director Ciara for all the hard work she does in running the show over there. Music Credit: RetroFuture Clean by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4277-retrofuture-clean License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    Episode 6: Excuse Me That's my Emotional Support Characterization

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 13, 2020 54:41


    Characterization! Research! Media Analysis! All the things you should do—and a whole lot you shouldn't—on Episode 6 of the On Writing (And Fanfiction) Podcast. This episode is all about characterization and all the ingredients you need to spice yours up so that your writing and characters are as authentic as they can be. Characterization is a rich gumbo, and this is a Michelin Star-winning podcast. Click here for Cherie Dimaline's website. Click here for Don Lee (the Korean-American author Zoey couldn't remember the name of when we were recording)'s website. Click here to check out Writing With Color! Got a question for us? Contact us at OWFFpod@gmail.com! Follow us on Instagram @owff_podcast, managed by our wonderful Creative Director and friend, Ciara! Music Credit: RetroFuture Clean by Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4277-retrofuture-clean License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ If you enjoyed what you heard today, feel free to drop us a like, a subscription, a review, etc. on your listening platform of choice!

    Episode 5: WTF is a WIP?

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 22, 2020 42:22


    Episode 5 of the Tangentcast is live, and with it, our proper foray into fandom half of this podcast! Kept you waiting, huh? Join us as we cover some basic definitions of a few common fandom terms, talk about the Work-in-Progress and the difficulties of sticking with them, and ponder the frightening and repulsive frailty of our own mortality. Got a question for us? Contact us at OWFFpod@gmail.com! Follow us on Instagram @owff_podcast, managed by our wonderful Creative Director and friend, Ciara! Music Credit: RetroFuture Clean by Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4277-retrofuture-clean License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ If you enjoyed what you heard today, feel free to drop us a like, a subscription, a review, etc. on your listening platform of choice!

    Episode 4: What's a Metaphor?

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 10, 2020 56:40


    Zoey's laptop is back from the hospital, and with it, a new episode! Thanks for waitin', folks. This week, Jake is giddy with nerd excitement as we talk about the wizardly wordsmithery of poetry, and how it can be a great tool for the emergent writer to really get a hold of figurative language. Stick around at the end for a reading of Peter Redgrove's Who's Your Daddy?, and feel free to read along with us as we dissect poems with literally no cohesion at all! Got a question for us? Contact us at OWFFpod@gmail.com! Follow us on Instagram @owff_podcast! There, you'll find both Zoey and Jake's reading lists, containing the poems we talk about on today's episode. All the poems we talk about can be found at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/. Music Credit: RetroFuture Clean by Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4277-retrofuture-clean License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ If you enjoyed what you heard today, feel free to drop us a like, a subscription, a review, etc. on your listening platform of choice!

    Episode 3: It's Also the Big Things

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 5, 2020 44:11


    The Ramblecast, coming to listenholes near you (yes, you). On this episode, Zoey and Jake cover the upper half of Zoey's Hierarchy of Writerly Needs; cohesive story structure, the infamous show-don't-tell, and the incorporation of overarching themes in your writing. Got a question for us? Contact us at OWFFpod@gmail.com! Follow us on Instagram @owff_podcast! As mentioned by Jake, SuperEyepatchWolf's video essay on Cowboy Bebop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvXw_5jlW3Y&ab_channel=SuperEyepatchWolf Music Credit: RetroFuture Clean by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4277-retrofuture-clean License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ If you enjoyed what you heard today, feel free to drop us a like, a subscription, a review, etc. on your listening platform of choice!

    Episode 2: It's the Little Things

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 19, 2020 44:57


    On this episode of the dweebcast, Zoey and Jake extoll the virtues of spelling, punctuation, dialogue formatting and editing, and talk about the ways in which going against the grammatical grain can improve your writing. They also open the episode with Jake being wrong, something which will surely not become a pattern. Got a question for us? Contact us at OWFFpod@gmail.com! Follow us on Instagram @owff_podcast! Music Credit: RetroFuture Clean by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4277-retrofuture-clean License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    Episode 1: Introductions & Dubious Qualifications

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 3, 2020 48:46


    In On Writing and Fanfiction's inaugural episode, Zoey and Jake begin with the important questions: why is writing fanfiction important? What are some things a writer should avoid doing in their work? What qualifications do we have to even be talking about this with any degree of authority in the first place? Has Stephen King written fanfiction before? Follow us on instagram @owff_podcast and contact us at OWFFpod@gmail.com! Music Credit: RetroFuture Clean by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4277-retrofuture-clean License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    Claim On Writing (And Fanfiction)

    In order to claim this podcast we'll send an email to with a verification link. Simply click the link and you will be able to edit tags, request a refresh, and other features to take control of your podcast page!

    Claim Cancel