Words Are Hard Podcast

On this very special day of the year, we clearly had to bring you a very special episode. This week, Nienna and Jalinar have joined us for a series of reviews – but, of course, this being an After Dark episode, these aren’t just any reviews. Welcome to the extraordinary… Continue reading

Today we’re diving into a topic that many writers struggle with. You’ve spent weeks, months or even years laboring over your story, and you’re getting ready to release it into the world – but what do you call it? We’re tackling this particular subject from a slightly different angle to… Continue reading

This week, we’re continuing with the subject of characters who might not be immediately sympathetic to your reader. A few episodes ago, we talked about villains, and included some of our favourite examples. This time, we’re moving on to anti-heroes. Whilst anti-heroes and villains should evoke different reactions from your… Continue reading

It’s time for one of our nuts-and-bolts writing episodes! Nearly all fiction will contain dialogue in one form or another, so today Chase and Amy chat about their own approaches to writing it. We talk about topics like knowing the history of your character to make their speech feel more… Continue reading

As promised in a few previous episodes, today we’re reviewing The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson. Sanderson is an author we’ve talked about multiple times on the podcast, so it was great to be able to review one of his shorter works. We talk about all the basics of plot,… Continue reading

Quick warning: this is another of our fan-fic episodes and listener discretion is advised. Contents may be considered NSFW and at the very least will make you snort coffee out of your nose. Proceed with caution! Ah, the holidays. A time of good food, good company, and truly terrible fan-fiction.… Continue reading

What happens when you enjoy an author’s work, but disagree with their personal opinions? In this episode, we talk about whether it’s possible to read fiction without letting your knowledge of the author colour it – and whether you even want to. If an author is racist, for example, is… Continue reading

This week’s episode is all about a favourite subject of many writers: villains. In this discussion, we each pick a favourite villain from literature and talk about why we particularly like them. That might be because they’re irredeemably, unashamedly bad, or quite the opposite – they’re a villain, or antagonist,… Continue reading

Today’s episode is a continuation of a theme we started way back in episode 14 of season 2. In that instance, we discussed worldbuilding the religion for your story, and this time round we’re tackling the opposite side of the coin: science and technology. We cover topics including how quickly… Continue reading

Chase and Amy are back this week with a whole host of spooky recommendations, just in time for Halloween. We cover books, movies, TV and games, ranging right across the spectrum from mildly creepy to downright terrifying. There should be something for everyone here, just to time to get you… Continue reading

We’re back from our summer break, and we’re kicking off our third season with a return to our readings of terrible fan-fiction scrounged from the darkest corners of the internet. As you might already have noticed, this is one of our After Dark episodes, which means it’s not part of… Continue reading

It’s the second of our mini episodes to tide our listeners over through the summer (and yes, we’re titling these purely to torment Raven). As you may have guessed, we’re back in Anchorhead, where it really is a miracle we haven’t yet died a slow, painful death. But don’t worry… Continue reading

Our second season is now officially over, so we’d like to thank everyone who’s listened, commented, taken part in our contest and generally made running this show worthwhile! We’ll be back in September with a whole host of new episodes, but for now, we’ve got a couple of short, bonus… Continue reading

We’re back in Anchorhead this week, where things are once again suitably eerie, and where our strong, independent, Amazonian character continues her journey, all whilst carrying umpteen objects in her unfeasibly large hands. If none of that makes any sense, you clearly need to listen to the previous four episodes!… Continue reading

We’re back, and we’re talking about our current writing projects! With April’s Camp NaNoWriMo behind us (and another in progress already), we sat down to talk about what we wrote for Camp, and everything else we’re in the middle of working on. This is a behind-the-scenes look at what our… Continue reading

As long-time listeners of the show will know, all four of our hosts met through the Guild Wars 2 fan site, Chronicles of Tyria. As a result, we’ve all been writing serial fiction for at least a couple of years, and in this episode, Chase, Nienna and Amy talk about… Continue reading

We’re doubling up on Anchorhead episodes this month, as we get ever closer to uncovering the secrets of this strange town. What might our new husband and his family be hiding? What’s been happening in this town for century after century? Just how many objects will our unusually large hands… Continue reading

Fear not, listeners! We haven’t forgotten Anchorhead! We’re back there this week, continuing our adventures in this strange little Lovecraftian town. This episode is, of course, best enjoyed having listened to the first two parts of the series, which you can find here and here. Other than that, we suggest… Continue reading

In today’s episode, we dive into the subject of world-building. This is a vast topic, so we focus on just one aspect that’s particularly important in fantasy: creating and writing fictional religions. Our discussion falls into two main parts. In the first, we talk about the specifics of creating a… Continue reading

We’re back with another in our series of reviews/story chats, talking about the game Life is Strange. A story-based adventure game, Life is Strange gave us plenty to discuss, from its use of place and atmosphere, to the complications of creating consistent dialogue options when time travel is one of… Continue reading

There are two things you need to know about this episode. One, that it’s completely, 100% off-topic, containing absolutely no writing advice whatsoever. Two, that it’s probably (okay, definitely) NSFW. Welcome to Words Are Hard: After Dark! In these special episodes, we’ll be taking a more relaxed approach than usual,… Continue reading

Love is in the air! Or, more accurately, we decided we’d better make at least a small concession to the fact that February is the month of Valentine’s Day. This episode, then, is all about writing romance. As we’re a podcast full of fantasy writers, we focus primarily on how… Continue reading

With the recent release of John Wick 2, we go back to the first film for an in-depth review and story chat. We cover plot, characterisation, symbolism and more in this discussion, proving that even action films – all too easily dismissed as being shallow – can have more depth… Continue reading

A new year is a great time for a new start, and fulfilling a few resolutions. If your plan in 2017 is to write a novel for the very first time, this is the episode for you! This one is particularly intended for anyone who wants to write, but has… Continue reading

What do you do to make your characters feel more real? How, as a writer, can you get into the head of a person who’s never existed anywhere but your head? What happens if the emotions your character needs to feel are a long way from what you as a… Continue reading

That title is self-explanatory, right? It’s time for another of our Q&A episodes, and this is the first we’ve managed to do with all four hosts! We also have, appropriately for the season, a festive theme, in which we find out that most of our hosts are… well, not very… Continue reading

It’s time to return to Anchorhead! In this episode, three of our hosts return to the Lovecraftian town of Anchorhead, to continue our investigations into this mysterious place, and the rather creepy house we now find ourselves in. It’s fair to say we’ve finally got the hang of navigating this… Continue reading

Somehow, November has come and gone, bringing with it this year’s NaNoWriMo. Two of our hosts were taking part and two weren’t, so in this episode we discuss what we’ve all been working on, both for NaNo and outside it. We chat about the plots and characters of our specific… Continue reading

Death is missing – presumed . . . er . . . gone. Which leads to the kind of chaos you always get when an important public service is withdrawn. Meanwhile, on a little farm far, far away, a tall dark stranger is turning out to be really good with… Continue reading

Continuing in the spirit of Halloween, today we delve into the Lovecraftian world of Anchorhead. Join us as we tackle this eerie text-based adventure game, discovering the secrets of a rain-soaked New England town as we break into buildings, get lost up dead-end streets, and find that there are apparently… Continue reading

Today, in the scary spirit of Halloween, we’ve got a special, bonus episode for you! We’re joined by Jalinar, from Chronicles of Tyria, to talk about one of his specialist subjects: bad fan-fiction (which, if you listened to the first episode of this season, you’ll know really is terrifying). We… Continue reading

In tonight’s episode, we return to the subject of inspiration, and where we find ideas for our fiction. Our focus this time is on music and visual art, with a little foray into anime (where else are you going to find naked wolf girls?). We talk about creating soundtracks for… Continue reading

And we’re back! After our summer break, it’s time for some re-introductions and a catch-up with everything we’ve been up to over the last couple of months. We chat about holidays, writing, books and a whole lot more. We also introduce a new segment, which we’ll be doing every few… Continue reading

In our final episode of Season 1, and following July’s Camp NaNoWriMo, we take a relaxed look at the ways writers can decompress after finishing a long project (or after an apocalypse – yes, we get distracted by talking about zombies). Sometimes, that’s as simple as playing a video game… Continue reading

In honour of July’s Camp NaNoWriMo, this episode is all about writing long projects. We cover the difficulties involved in working on a longer story, including everything from burn-out to forgetting your characters’ names, as well as the ways to combat these tricky parts. It’s important to remember, too, that… Continue reading

For our tenth episode, we dive into the subject of inspiration. This is a big topic, but we chat about some of the ways you can find ideas for your fiction when you’re feeling stuck, or just want to get a new story off the ground. Our personal examples include… Continue reading

What do you do when you want to write about a subject you don’t know anything about? In this episode, the whole crew is present to tackle this thorny issue. We cover the basics of research where technical and location knowledge are needed, but also the trickier subject of ‘writing… Continue reading

This episode, we come back to the Q&A format. There are questions, there are answers, and there are many, many tangents. Topics under discussion this week include juggling multiple writing projects, habits and rituals in our writing routines, the tools we use to write with, and genres we absolutely can’t… Continue reading

In the wake of the Orlando shootings at the Pulse nightclub on June 12th 2016, we’ve recorded a short special episode to offer our condolences to all those involved. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy, both the victims and their families and friends. We also know that… Continue reading

It’s review time! In this episode, we finally get the whole crew together, for an in-depth discussion of Mad Max: Fury Road. We talk about everything from characterisation, world-building and language use, to pacing, themes and the role of women in action movies. In case it isn’t obvious, this episode… Continue reading

In tonight’s episode, Chase, Nienna and Amy talk about genre, with a special emphasis on stories that don’t fit neatly into a single category. As well as covering topics such as the purpose of genre (is it only for readers, or useful for writers, too?), we discuss our favourite cross-genre… Continue reading

AKA Questions and Answers, Part 1, in which we get distracted by talking about Captain Planet. In this episode, Chase, Raven and Amy break the usual podcast schedule for a more informal chat. We take the opportunity to ask one another questions about our writing processes, with topics ranging from… Continue reading

Every story needs a plot, so this week we talk about a few of the basic forms that can take. We start by covering the seven core conflicts a story can encompass (more details below), then discuss the essentials your plot needs to have. This could be as simple as… Continue reading