Podcasts about Write On

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen To Print This week we have a listener contribution from London based writer Samantha Shakes.  Samantha is a scriptwriter with an interest in social justice and the spiritual aspects of life. She became interested in storytelling through her work with London's so-called "difficult to reach" communities. Samantha has been published in medical journals and her scripts have appeared on stage and in podcasts.    Sam's piece is called “Seen To Unseen”. You can find out more about Sam Shakes via her Page Turner Awards page herehttps://pageturnerawards.com/users/sam-shakes  We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write On! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/ Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio.  This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen To Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England

“One of the things we talked a lot about in the room is that very rarely do people set about their day saying, ‘Okay, I'm going to go do some evil.' But for most people, we're all sort of the leads in our own stories and we're all crafting the narrative of who we want the world to see us as. And we do start to believe that. You tell yourself these stories about yourself that you want to be true and you move through the world and you make decisions based on that narrative. And I think that one of the things that as writers, we really try to do is get into the shoes and the heads of the characters that we're writing and really try to break down why they're doing what they're doing and make it feel as real and true as possible. The things that these characters believe – or convince themselves that they believe – have to feel really real and grounded to us,” says Katie Robbins, co-showrunner of Good American Family, on writing flawed characters who prefer to live in fantasy, not reality.  On today's episode of Write On, we speak to Katie Robbins and Sarah Sutherland, co-showrunners on the explosive limited series, Good American Family. The show tells the story of a midwestern couple who adopts what they believe is little girl with dwarfism. Soon they are in the midst of a battle fought in the tabloids, the courtroom and ultimately their marriage. The show is based on the real-life story of Natalia Grace that made many headlines. Robbins and Sutherland talk about the unusual yet brilliant structure of telling various episodes from different characters' points of view, and how the tone changed when they got to the episodes told from Natalia's perspective. They also talked about the messiness of writing a dysfunctional family while still keeping the story grounded.  “We all know family is this wonderful, beautiful thing, but it's so complex. And I think that it's really hard to talk about the complexities of family because we're afraid to undermine the sacredness of it. It's my view that if we are actually more open about what is hard about coexisting as a unit who loves each other, but also what's not perfect, it would make us all better. And I think that that's true both for family but also even for our enemies. We're not writing autobiographies, but I think that we take those very real emotional experiences that we all have and then put them into a story that is cinematic, that is more interesting than our lives, but that is deeply steeped in those real moments of heartache and joy and confusion,” says Sutherland.  To learn more, listen to the podcast but be aware there are SPOILERS ahead.   

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen To PrintOur writing tips this month are from poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan.  Ian is the regular presenter of BBC Radio's 'The Verb' and a regular guest on other radio and TV programmes.  He has a number of poetry collections to his name and his work has appeared in numerous anthologies and won several prizes. A proud Yorkshireman, Ian lives in Darfield, the village of his birth.   Ian was in conversation with Write On! editor Madeleine White. You can listen to The Verb on BBC Radio 4 here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tnsf And you can read some of Ian's work on his Poetry Society page here https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poets/ian-mcmillan/  We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write On! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/ Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio.  This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen To Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England.

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen To Print  Our latest interview episode features author and journalist John Marrs.  The author of both speculative fiction novelsand thrillers, John's books have topped bestseller charts and “The One” was adapted as a series on Netflix.  John wasin conversation with Write On! Editor Madeleine White. You can find out more about John and his books by visiting his website here https://www.johnmarrsauthor.com/And follow him on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/johnmarrs.author/ We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write on! or hear themon this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/ Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio.  This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen To Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen To Print This month's Write On! Audio And Friends episode features The Seren Poetry Podcast and an interview with poet and novelist Carolyn Jess Cooke from 2022.  You can find out more about Seren by visiting their website here https://www.serenbooks.com/And listen to more episodes of the Seren Poetry Podcast here https://pod.link/1642711694If you'd like to find out more about Carolyn Jess Cooke you can visit her website here https://carolynjesscooke.com/ We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write on! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/ Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio.  This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen To Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen To Print Our poem of the month for April is ‘The House With Two Candles' by Erin White and it is performed by Sally Walker Taylor.  This was originally broadcast on the podcast back in 2021.  You can read the poem as part of this Thoughtful Tuesdays piece from 2024https://pentoprint.org/thoughtful-tuesdays-overcoming-mental-health-exams/  We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write on! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/ Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio.  This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen To Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England

Send us a textIn this episode of the Alternative Stories podcast we're chatting with poet, novelist and audio drama writer Madeleine F White about the two books she is publishing in the first part of 2025; the poetry collection 'The Horse and The Girl' and the verse memoir 'Maiden Mother Crone'  We have a full length interview with Madeleine and excerpts from the collections read by Madeleine.  We also hear a clip from Madeleine's audio drama 'The Ark' based on her debut novel 'Mother of Floods' and an excerpt from an episode of the 'Write On! Audio' Podcast.  You can follow Madeleine f White on social media here https://bsky.app/profile/madeleinefwhite.bsky.socialhttps://x.com/madeleinefwhitehttps://www.instagram.com/madeleinefwhite/ The Horse and The Girl and Maiden Mother Crone are both published by Sea Crow Press.  You can find out more and order copies here https://www.seacrowpress.com/ Find out more about the  Write On! suite of publications which Madeleine edits hereWrite on! https://pentoprint.org/write-on-features/ Listen to the Write On! Audio Podcast from Pen to Print here https://open.spotify.com/show/4IG6ODY67eJjTXFmC5nFP5?si=3c9f3ebcfd9d4be3If you have enjoyed this podcast you can listen to more from our production company Alternative Stories including our new science fiction drama 'Burnout' here https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStoriesSupport the show

On today's episode of Write On, we chat with Kim Rosenstock, co-creator and co-showrunner for the new limited series, Dying For Sex, starring Michelle Williams, Jenny Slate and Sissy Spacek.  Based on a true story, Dying for Sex is about a woman diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer who abandons her husband of 15 years to begin a journey of sexual discovery. Rosenstock talks about her background as a playwright, nearly missing out on the opportunity to write for the hit show New Girl, and navigating the complicated tone of Dying For Sex that balances a woman having unconventional, often hilarious sexual escapades with facing her own mortality.  “We need humor the most as human beings, so don't be afraid of injecting humor and joy and levity into these sort of subject matters… If you have the impulse to make it funny or to make it feel joyful or hopeful, lean into that and don't be afraid of it. I also think that is what makes it feel real, actually. To me, that makes it feel more honest, not the other way around… I think what's exciting is that audiences are embracing these kinds of stories that can kind of go into darker and lighter places at the same time,” says Rosenstock about mixing joy and sadness in Dying For Sex.  To hear more, listen to the podcast. Please be advised the interview includes discussion of sexual abuse.  Dying for Sex is currently streaming on Hulu.   

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print. Our April Listener Contribution is from award winning American writer, Michael Fedor.  With 20 years of experience working in Washington DC and other US state capitals, Michael brings his experience working in government to his fast-paced and action-packed political thrillers.  Brimming with suspense and a hint of science fiction, his meticulously researched novels have been described as "terrifyingly plausible".  His debut novel, 'What it Takes to Kill A Bull Moose,'  is a 2024 International Firebird Award Winner. To find out more about Michael Fedor you can visit his website https://michaelfedorbooks.com/  We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write On! or hear them on this podcast, please get in touch. Submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/ Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England.  

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print. This month's Writing Tips are from Tom Chalmers; the founder and managing director of The Legend Times Group which incorporates Legend Press, a fiction publisher driven by the mission to give voice to untold stories and create new opportunities for writers and unforgettable journeys for readers. You can find out more about Tom's Legend Times group by visiting their website here https://www.legendtimesgroup.co.uk/  We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write On! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/ Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England.

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print  Our latest Write On! Audio and Friends podcast features Chris Penhall and her Books and Tunes show which can be heard on West Wilts Radio.   Novelist and broadcaster Chris Penhall is the author of several novels which are described as “uplifting stories in gorgeous places”.  She is also the author of a blog in which she interviews novelists and the organiser of events which promote writing and writers. Today we're sharing an episode of Chris's ‘Books And Tunes' show which includes an interview with Write On! Deputy Editor Claire Buss.   You can listen to more episodes alongside Chris's other podcast  ‘Talking To My Friends About Books' via the link below https://open.spotify.com/show/1Bbp1TELJQxWLjB4OX5v9u?si=900e7d7117984892andAnd you can find out more about Chris and her writing by visiting her website https://www.chrispenhall.co.uk/  We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write On! or hear themon this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/ Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print Our poem of the month for March is 'Wait' by Charlotte Zisimides and it is performed by our presenter Tiffany Clare with sound design by Chris Gregory.  'Wait'was originally broadcast on this podcast back in 2022.  You can read an interview with Charlotte Zisimides here https://pentoprint.org/write-on-interviews-writer-charlotte-zisimides/  We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write on! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/ Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print Our listener contribution this month is from writer and podcaster Anna Jinja Mather.  Adopted from Seoul South Korea and growing up in Iowa, Ann Jinja has always been interested in people and their stories.  With her own adoption story in mind, Anna's podcast 'The Anna Jinja Show' discusses the theme of adoption in all its forms.  Thank you to Anna Jinja for sharing this listener contribution.  You can find out more about Anna Jinja and listen to her podcast by visiting her website here https://www.annajinja.com/ And you can find out more about the Pen to Print Audio Play Competition and download an entry form here https://pentoprint.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Pen-to-Print-Audio-Play-Conpetition-2025.pdf  We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write on! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/ Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print. Our March writing tips come from novelist and journalist Laura Kay.  The author of four novels, Laura is based in east London and as well as writing fiction she has contributed journalism to The Guardian, Metro, The Stylist and many other publications. Laura's fourth novel "Making It" is out now!   You can find out more about Laura and order copies of her novels by visiting her website https://www.laurakayauthor.co.uk/And you can follow Laura on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/lauraekay/  At the start of this episode we shared information about the Pen to Print Audio Play Competition.  You can find out more and enter the competition here https://pentoprint.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Pen-to-Print-Audio-Play-Conpetition-2025.pdf And you can read an article about writing audio drama by Emily Inkpen who is one of the judges in the competition here https://pentoprint.org/write-on-features-converting-prose-to-script/ We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write On! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/ Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England 

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print Our poem of the month for February comes from the collection "The Horse And The Girl" by Write on! editor, published poet and novelist Madeleine White.   In this podcast you can hear Madeleine reading "The Girl On The Horse" from the collection. You can find out more about Madelene and her work by following her on social media Instagram https://www.instagram.com/madeleinefwhite/X  https://x.com/madeleinefwhite  Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/madeleinefwhite.bsky.socialWe're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write on! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/ Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print For our February “Write On! Audio and Friends” feature we are sharing an episode of The Rejected Writers' Club Podcast” . Anna Britton's Rejected Writers Club podcast offers a platform for authors to talk about rejection.   In this episode Write on editor Madeleine White and deputy editor Claire Buss talk to Anna about their own experiences of rejection and about their work for Write On! You can listen to other episodes of The Rejected Writers' Club Podcast and subscribe to hear future episodes as they are released by following the Spotify link below https://open.spotify.com/show/1ywPPUA1XfgAaBJZLAjxB8?si=e68fdb867bae4334We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write on! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/ Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England  

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print  Our February listener contribution is from Dr Afsana Elanko, an award-winning doctor, poet, writer and editor.  Afsana regularly writes for people from diverse backgrounds on topics that are educational, significant, sentimental and therapeutic in some way.  She has published work in books, newspapers, anthologies and magazines and her work has been displayed in national and international exhibitions.  As a teacher, Afsana has worked with many senior professionals and organisations and forged an international reputation.   You can find out more about Afsana and her work by reading a Write On! Showcase she edited in November 2023 herehttps://pentoprint.org/showcase-apparition-intruder-humanity-changing-seasons/   We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write On! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. You can submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/  Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England.

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print  Our February Writing Tips are from bestselling author and journalist Sheila O'Flanagan.  Born in Dublin, Sheila is the author of over 20 books starting with her 1997 debut novel “Dreaming of a Stranger.”  She won the Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year Award for her novel “ All for You,” published in 2011.   You can find out more about Sheila and her work by visiting her website at https://www.sheilaoflanagan.com/  We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write On! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/  Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print.  This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England.

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print  In this edition of the podcast we have an interview with poet Jenny Mitchell whose collection  “Map of a Plantation” was a winner of the Poetry Book Awards 2021 and named one of the top four poetry books of 2021 by Write Out Loud editor Greg Freeman.   The interviewer is Write On!'s Eithne Cullen, with Editor Madeleine White.  You can find out more about Jenny Mitchell by following her on X, formerly twitter here https://twitter.com/jennymitchellgo You can also find out more about Jenny's collection “Map Of A Plantation” and purchase a copy herehttps://indigodreamspublishing.com/jenny-mitchell   We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write on! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/  Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print.  This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England.

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print  Our first poem-of-the-month for 2025 comes from Alicia Hayden with her poem “And Tread Gently On This Earth.  The poem is read by Sally Walker-Taylor.  You can read an interview with Alicia Hayden here https://pentoprint.org/write-on-interviews-artist-alicia-hayden/   We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write on! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/  Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England 

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print.  Our Listener Contribution for January is from poet, novelist and presenter Mab Jones. Described by The Times as a 'unique talent,' Mab is the winner of many accolades for her writing, including a Royal Society of Literature 'Literature Matters' Award, a Creative Wales Award, the Neil Gaiman Word Factory Short Story Competition, the Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize, the Aurora Poetry Prize, the Wolverhampton Literature Festival Poetry Prize and more. She has written for the New York Times, and has presented three poetry programmes on BBC Radio 4. A previous co-ordinator of  International Dylan Thomas Day, she has also  run the social media for world famous writer Wilbur Smith and the Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation. Mab also offers mentoring, critique and feedback for writers, most notably through the Poetry Society.   Mab's latest book “Bog Witch” encompasses nature writing, life writing, poetry and magical memoir from a working-class woman's perspective whilst drawing from history, science, mythology and folklore. It is a lyrical, semi-mystical immersion into wild wetland areas.  You can find out more about Mab and her work by following the links below: Website https://mabjones.com/  Social Media https://www.facebook.com/mabjones/ https://twitter.com/mabjones https://www.instagram.com/mabjones/   We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write on! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/ Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print.  This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print. Happy New Year to all our listeners!   Our first podcast of 2025 features writing tips from literary agent Laetitia Rutherford.  With more than 15 years of experience as an agent Laetitia represents many writers in crime fiction as well as award-winning writers in literary fiction.  Her writers have gone on to write for television as well as being widely published in print. Thank you to Laetitia Rutherford for sharing these writing tips to kick off our 2025 podcasts.  Find out more about Laetitia and her work as a literary agent here https://www.watsonlittle.com/agent/laetitia-rutherford/  You can follow Laetitia on X, formerly twitter here https://x.com/laetitialit Laetitia is a supporter of the Tom Gass Spirit of Adventure Literary Prize, an annual writing prize dedicated to the memory of the late writer and traveller.  Find out more here https://www.tomgrassprize.com/   We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write On! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to:  https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/   Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print.   This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England.

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print   For our final podcast of 2024 and to celebrate the festive season we are teaming up with the Alternative Stories and Fake Realities Podcast to bring you a series of monologues inspired by midwinter.     In “Midwinter Monologues ” you can hear    “The Hidden People” by Bean Swayer performed by Sally Walker Taylor “To All A Good Life” by Lewie Watson performed by Lewie Watson “Winter Monologue” by Marie-Claire Wood performed by Marie-Claire Wood  “Home for the Holidays” by Jackie Jorgenson performed by Jackie Jorgenson “The Sunday Morning Club” by Sally Goble read by Tiffany Clare  “The Golden Ball” by Gessica Sakamoto Martini performed by Sally Walker-Taylor “Turkey Story” By Jude Whiley-Morton read by Jude Whiley-Morton “The Pond” by Carolyn Stockdale read by Tiffany Clare  “Solstice” by Daniel Draper read by Daniel Draper  “Monologue” By Ford Dagenham read by Chris Gregory  “Trouble and Strife” By Janet O'Donnell read by Janet O'Donnell “Unread Stories” By Maggie Sawkins read by Maggie Sawkins   We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write On! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to:  https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/   Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print.  This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print  In our December showcase we are bringing you the winner of the 2024 Pen to Print Audio Play Competition “The Earth Serenades” by Emma Griffiths.     In “The Earth Serenades” by Emma Griffiths you can hear  Tiffany Clare as Skim Emily Inkpen as Beta Sophie Macnair as Pree And Chris Gregory as Shakarn Other voices are played by Sophie Macnair and Emma Griffiths  The Earth Serenades was Directed by Chris Gregory and Emily Inkpen and recorded at Orpheus Studio in London The sound engineer was Richard Campbell Music, sound design and editing were by Chris Gregory  The script for the earth serenades is copyright Emma Griffiths and may not be used in whole or in part except with the permission of the author  If you would like to enter the 2025 Pen to Print Audio Play Competition you need to be an unpublished audio drama writer and resident in the United Kingdom.  The competition is open to entries until 5pm on Friday 21st March.   You can find out more and download entry terms and conditions via the link belowhttps://pentoprint.org/get-involved/competitions/  We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write on! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/  Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print.  This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England

On today's episode of the Write On podcast, we speak with RaMell Ross about his new film Nickel Boys about two young Black men who get sent to a reform school in 1960s Jim Crow South. The film is heartbreakingly beautiful and already getting plenty of Oscar buzz. In the interview, Ross admits he didn't know how to write a screenplay when he decided to adapt Colson Whitehead's book Nickel Boys, so he began the process by using written storyboards to visualize the scenes, which were later converted into a screenplay with the help of co-writer Joselyn Barnes.  We also discuss his decision to limit the violence depicted on screen. “It's a tough space because on one hand, you want people to understand the things that happened and their horror. But I feel as a culture, we've been overexposed to it and specifically overexposed as it relates to people of color because we don't have so many iterations of visuals of people of color. If that's most of it, then how does that work on the culture and psyche?” says Ross.  Ross also shares his take on writing a movie with historical elements. “I don't think that what we understand to be history is history. I think that it's a collection of familiar ways of analyzing or engaging with the past that fits comfortably in the socio-political language of reflection. I don't know what it's like to be a person in the past. And I know that a lot of the narratives that we have these days are guided by a person's either nefarious unconscious or they have another type of motivation behind them. And so I want people to think about the past as something that has the freedom of interpretation, that we would like to be given to all of the things that we've done in our lives. I just don't believe in historical reproduction,” he says.  Listen to the podcast to find out more about Ross's filmmaking process.   

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print  For our December Listener Contribution we're sharing our annual Christmas Poem read by members of the Write On! and Pen to Print teams.  This year, we have an adaptation of The Twelve Days of Christmas by Write On's Eithne Cullen. The voices you heard in The Twelve Days of Christmas were:  Lena Smith, Vrushali Khadilkar, Liliana Hristova, Mirabel Lavelle, Mohamed Rahman, Michelle Towton, Lisa Scully-O'Grady,  Madeleine White, Danny Baxter, Claire Buss, Palak Tewary, Tavinder Kaur-New, Afsana Elanko, Sebastien Elanko, Rachel Umoh, Mary Walsh, Ellie Blake, Julie Dexter, Amber Hall, Juneha Chowdhury, Chris Gregory, Lucy Kaufman, Irina Goncherenko, Farzana Iqbal and Eithne Cullen  Thank you to everyone who took part in the recording and especially to Palak Tewary for mixing the video from which this soundtrack came.   You can see the video version of the 12 Days of Christmas via our YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/@pentoprint  The words for this version of The 12 Days of Christmas were by Eithne Cullen  We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write on! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: ⁠https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/⁠   Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory. Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print.  This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print  Our writing tips this month are once again from Write On's Eithne Cullen and Mary Walsh.  For our recording, Eithne and Mary are in conversation at the London Library and they share thoughts about the history and purpose of the Library and the inspiration that writers can find there.  Find out more about Eithne Cullen by following her on X, formerly twitter here ⁠https://twitter.com/eithne_cullen⁠  And read Mary Walsh's Writer of the Month feature from Write On! Here  ⁠https://pentoprint.org/writer-of-the-month-mary-walsh/⁠  Find out more about The London Library here https://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/ We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write on! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: ⁠https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/⁠   Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory. The original location recording was made by Eithne Cullen.   Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England

Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio, the podcast for writers everywhere brought to you by Pen to Print In this episode our producer Chris Gregory interviews writer and academic Philippa Holloway about her new short story collection “Untethered” which is published by Parthian Books.  In this podcast you can hear excerpts from the following stories A Cloud of Starlings - read by Emily InkpenHandprints - read by Chris GregoryBeached - read by Emily InkpenSound design, editing, music and interviewing were by Chris Gregory You can follow Philippa Holloway on X, formerly twitter here https://x.com/thejackdawspen And on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/thejackdawspen/  Find out more about Parthian Books and purchase a copy of "Untethered" here https://www.parthianbooks.com/. Follow Parthian on X here https://x.com/ParthianBooks And on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/parthian_books/  Please follow Alternative Stories on social media herehttps://x.com/StoriesAlthttps://www.instagram.com/stories.alt/And to contact the podcast please drop us an email at office@alternativestories.comor visit our website here https://alternativestories.com/   We're always delighted to read your contributions so if you'd like to see your words in Write on! or hear them on this podcast please get in touch. Please submit to: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/submit-to-write-on/  Thank you for listening to Write On! Audio. This edition has been presented by Tiffany Clare and produced by Chris Gregory.  Write On! Audio is an Alternative Stories production for Pen to Print. This podcast is produced using public funding from Arts Council England

“About 12 years ago, I had my very first meeting to staff. It was a show being run by a playwright named Beau Willimon, and he'd done one season of a show that hadn't dropped yet, and they were going to do this crazy new model where the whole season was going to drop at once and they didn't know how it was going to go. And that was a show called House of Cards. And I was staffed for season two of that show before season one dropped. So, that was my entrance into television. It was my first meeting to staff on any show!” says Laura Eason, playwright and current showrunner for Starz's TV show Three Women.  In this episode of the Write On podcast, we chat with Laura Eason about her illustrious career as a playwright and how she made the intimidating transition to TV writing.  “I got a call a week before the [House of Cards] room started and I went to Barnes and Noble and bought the book How to Write the One Hour Drama. I'm not kidding. I was like, oh my God. And I called everyone I knew that had been in TV and said, ‘Tell me everything you can about being in a room and how it's supposed to go.' And then I was very lucky my first year in TV,” says Eason, who was nominated for an Emmy for House of Cards in 2017.  Eason also talks about her latest show Three Women, its unique structure, and also shares her advice for writing a TV pilot as the tides in Hollywood are changing.  “Well, we're coming into a different moment with this contraction that we're having in the [TV] industry. We had a very beautiful time where I think there was a lot of room for idiosyncrasy, and a lot of room for things to not quite check the list of everything a pilot should probably be, but because the voice was really unique or the world was interesting, those shows still got made. And I think we're in a moment now where all of the fundamentals need to be really, really strong. Like the engine of your pilot really needs to work. Someone needs to read that pilot and understand how you're going to be able to make 10 episodes or 20 or 50 episodes of that show, especially because there's less interest in limited series. So, making sure that you're paying as much attention to engine, to character, to your act structure, that the action is really moving and the acts the way it should as much as your voice, the unique things you bring, because of course that's the special sauce. But you really need to have both now, in a really strong way." To hear more, listen to the podcast.   

“We never wanted to make a show about dogs. We wanted to make a show about people. And then secondary to that, people who love dogs. We made sure we had some of Colin [the dog, in season two], like there's that lovely episode in seven where Gordon becomes a stage mum to a TV dog, which is so funny. But yeah, we just wanted it to be interesting,” says Harriet Dyer, co-creator and star of Colin From Accounts about the shift away from Colin the dog to focus more on the relationship between Ashley and Gordon, and develop the supporting characters. In this episode of the Write On podcast, we check in with the real-life Australian married couple Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer now that season two of Colin From Accounts is out on Paramount+. Brammall and Dyer talk about balancing the tone of the show that continues to have a few scatological elements and misbehaving body parts, but keeps the characters grounded as Gordon deals with a loss. “Episode five is a bit of a departure from the structure of the show and mixes the light and the dark with the comedy butting right up against the tragedy. We played a bit more with that as well. We did stuff that interested us and made us laugh,” says Dyer.  Brammall also shares his advice for taking control of your creative life. “I started writing plays with a friend of mine because you have no agency as an actor. You're waiting for the phone to ring. You're waiting for someone to give you work. You can't create your own work. And I'm like, well, f*ck this. I want to create work. But you definitely need a big old f*cking dose of luck on the way… And now more than ever, there are ways to make your own stuff and get it out there and produce it. But of course, the flip of that is that there is way more people doing that as well. How does one stand out? I don't know. All I would say is it's not going to happen if you don't start doing it!”  To find out more about Brammall and Dyer's writing process, listen to the podcast.  

“What I wanted to do with this movie was take this interesting relationship that I have been exploring over the course of my writing, over 20 years, and this dynamic, and set it against the backdrop of something so objectively worse than anything the characters are going through. I wanted to put this funny, fraught relationship that seems like the stakes are quite high – are these two people going to continue on together? Against the backdrop of stakes that are so much higher, we can put their relationship into perspective,” says Jesse Eisenberg, writer/director and star of the new buddy movie A Real Pain that takes place on a holocaust tour of Poland.   In this episode of the Write On podcast, Eisenberg talks about spending years trying to get this particular story just right, how it was personal to him, what it was like to shoot at a concentration camp and the great advice his producer Emma Stone gave him. He also shares his criteria for writing a road trip/buddy movie. “It has to have an original quality to justify it as a movie. I read so many scripts as an actor and I've written so many things, that [a script] has to have two things: it has to be specific enough to feel real and personal. There are just so many movies in this road trip/buddy movie genre, if it doesn't feel specific I think an audience can sniff it out immediately. The other thing is to make it feel new, to have a new reason to tell this story so it doesn't feel like something I've seen 10,000 other times,” says Eisenberg.     Listen to the podcast to learn more.   

“We wanted the whole series, but specifically the pilot episode, to lure you in with the kind of comfort and coziness of the 80s nostalgia and the trappings of John Hughes movies, and all of that, while also giving it the 80s heavy metal flavor, and then start to build paranoia and change the vibe a little bit throughout. But we always knew that the series was going to hinge on this scene with Judith [Jessica Treska] where you realize that the beautiful girl next door is actually so much trouble!” says Matthew Scott Kane, creator and showrunner of Peacock's Hysteria! Starring Julie Bowen, Anna Camp and Bruce Campbell.  The show explores the so-called Satanic Panic that actually happened in the 1980s at a fictionalized high school in the midwest. When a varsity football player disappears under mysterious circumstances, a struggling teen heavy metal band realize they can capitalize on the town's sudden interest in the occult by creating a fake Satanic cult – to their surprise, everyone is into it. Things quickly get out of control when the town takes the cult more seriously than the high school band members.  In this episode of the Write On podcast, Kane talks about delving into the generational fear of teenagers, balancing horror with humor, and writing characters who need “to be seen” by their peers. He also shares details about his journey to becoming a professional TV writer,  specifically the many benefits of being an assistant in Hollywood.  “The biggest gift of being an assistant – which is not an easy job, it's very difficult, it's very time consuming, you have to be available 24/ 7 and it takes a lot out of you – but the best possible thing that you can get, and not all showrunners will do this, is to make yourself available to watch every step of the creative process. Make sure you are in the room while they are breaking story. Make sure you are reading outlines that are coming in. Make sure you're in concept meetings, tone meetings, production meetings, all of these things that might feel like they don't have anything to do with writing, but they have everything to do with writing,” says Kane.  To hear more, listen to the podcast.   

That's the Ticket turns 200 episodes old! Hannah catches up with her first ever interviewee Yvonne from Write On for the Arts to celebrate. Hannah Mooney has your ticket to arts happenings in the Tron and beyond. Interviews with local creatives, what's on guides and even the odd performance live on air...

“I think what Tim [Burton] does is he's always trying to simplify. That's the essence of a classic filmmaker. People think he's wild and crazy and does all these things. His movies are brilliantly composed frames and he's always looking for simplicity. All of his big movies, they're really family dramas dressed up in whatever genre he's in. That's really what they are. And I think people think he's always strange and weird and likes dark thing, but no! It's a classic story with good drama. And then he brings his sensibility to it,” says about the biggest lesson Al Gough has learned working with director Tim Burton on both the TV show Wednesday and the new film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. In this episode, we speak with writing team Al Gough and Miles Millar about creating the hit Netflix show Wednesday, how they cultivated a relationship with director Tim Burton and how that led to the sequel to Beetlejuice after more than 15 sequel scripts have surfaced over the last 36 years. Gough and Miles talk about crafting a mother/daughter love story for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and delving into grief, something that all families face at some point or another. The writers also share their insight into adding new characters in the mix and creating the strange yet rewarding musical numbers for the movie that includes one totally bonkers song.  Miles Millar also shares this career advice about staying in your lane when it comes to genre: “If you write a spec or a script that sells, and it's a romantic comedy, then you should really stay in the romantic comedy world and arena for a while. We always jumped around which I think hurt us initially. We did an action movie, we did a comedy, we did this, we did that. We did a fantasy. So, pick a lane. I think successful writers usually pick a lane and get known to do one thing – which can be constricting and suffocating, but I think it's something that's important in terms of a career.” Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is out now in theaters.   

“I think that Sunny [the robot], as a character, is kind of emblematic of this conundrum we have with A.I. In one scene she is cute and warm and is serving Suzie's [Rashida Jones] emotional needs and is brimming with potential. And that's really enticing. And then in the next scene, she is diabolical, and is going to like, cut a bitch! That is A.I. There are so many great things it can do, and there's so many terrible scary things that it can do. At the end of the day, it's up to us as society to figure out how we're going to use it,” says Katie Robbins, showrunner and creator of the AppleTV+ show Sunny.   In this episode of the Final Draft's Write On Podcast, we talk with Katie Robbins about delving into artificial intelligence, Japanese culture and making a robot appealing (and frightening) to audiences in her show Sunny. Based on the book, The Dark Manual, by Irish writer Colin O'Sullivan, Robbins says she made changes to the story to allow for exploring isolation and the importance of female friendships.   “I was excited about the idea of giving [Suzie] a couple of female friends. So one is in the body of a robot and then the other is this aspiring mixologist who she meets in the pilot, Mixxy [Annie the Clumsy]… and telling the story of a friendship like love triangle. Mixxy is a little jealous of Sunny's relationship with Suzie and Sunny is really jealous of Mixxy's relationship with Suzie. The film The Favourite was a big influence for a lot of their relationship dynamics. And it was really fun exploring what that is if one of the friends is an A.I.” she says.   To hear more about the show Sunny that's currently streaming on AppleTV+, and hear Robbins's advice on writing TV pilots, listen to the podcast.

SEASON THREE FINALE OF IJUSTREADTHISBOOK—THE PODCAST, and *FOUR* months of ‘A Little Bit Extra' by Courtney Corlew @courtneycorlewauthor/@bookmarketingwithcourtney. courtneycorlewauthor.com I met Courtney at a book influencer meet up and was in awe of her confidence and determination. If you don't know, now you know! INDIANAPOLIS INDIE AUTHORS, RISE! INDIE AUTHORS OF THE WORLD, WRITE ON! SEASON 4 PREMIERE OF IJUSTREADTHISBOOK—THE PODCAST intoduces the Indy Writing Coven. Our matriarch, Kristen Bales, and MORE, Thursday September 26, 2024! subscribe to ijustreadthisbook—the podcast to stay up to date on future and bonus episodes:) 'Better Luck Next Time' https://books2read.com/u/3R59ox ‘Better Luck Next Time' hoodie https://www.bonfire.com/better-luck-next-time-2-1/ 'Coming Up Dana' https://books2read.com/u/318vwl BUY ME A COKE https://ko-fi.com/ijustreadthisbook ‘Introverted (but willing to discuss books)' T-Shirt https://www.bonfire.com/introverted-but-7/ instagram: ijustreadthisbook tiktok: ijustreadthisbook twitter: ijustreadthisb threads: ijustreadthisbook facebook: Taylor J. Bridgeforth - Author SIGN-UP FOR MY MONTHLY NEWSLETTER: https://beacons.ai/taylorjbridgeforth

Almost all the characters [in Fallout, the TV show] are brand new… We really took the world of Fallout that had been built up and iterated upon by other video game writers over the years and we wanted to do our own version of it rather than retell any version that someone else has already done. Our attitude was like, ‘Okay, let's say this is a new Fallout game. What would it be?' So, we took the world, the background, the themes of the games and the tone. It's a new story. New people,” says Graham Wagner, co-creator and showrunner of Fallout on Amazon Prime.   In this episode of the Final Draft's Write On Podcast, I talk with Graham Wagner about Fallout, a show based on the beloved videogame, that's earned 17 Emmy nominations including Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Wagner talks about taking the structure and tone from Sergio Leone's Western, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and focusing on three central figures: Lucy (Ella Purnell), The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) and Maximus (Aaron Moten), and intertwining their disparate storylines.   “We made an intentional collision of genres because Walton Goggins' character is very much of the wasteland of the Western genre, which is sort of apocalyptic in its own way, depending on your perspective. There isn't the infrastructure and people are trying to build civilization on the ashes of the civilization that has been eradicated before them. You know there's a lot of parallels there,” says Wagner.   To learn more about the show Fallout and hear Wagner's advice for writing TV pilots, listen to the podcast.

“We were all six or seven years old when [the first Karate Kid movie] came out. So all of us saw it in the theater and I think for all of us, it was probably the first time any of us had seen a movie where there was such an amazing twist that happened. The whole time, we're thinking that Daniel LaRusso's not learning [karate], that he's doing all these chores for this guy and then suddenly it's, ‘Wait! He's been learning karate the whole time!' So anyone who watched the movie was blown away by that moment, but when you're six or seven it's a formative memory. So it was a movie that was meaningful to all of us,” says Jon Hurwitz, showrunner and executive producer of the Netflix show Cobra Kai. In this episode, I speak to all three showrunners of Cobra Kai, Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald and Hayden Schlossberg about what the show means to them now that we're in the sixth and final season. We discuss why they thought it was imperative to tell the story from the character Johnny Lawrence's (William Zabka), point of view and they hint at the possibility of a new spinoff show – perhaps about a young Mr. Miyagi – coming soon. They also shared their advice for writing a spec script. “It's really tough to stand out. And that's what you have to figure out. In our early scripts, it was that first page – it was being R-rated and provocative and saying something that gets you noticed and stands out in the marketplace. Because if you're just writing a genre story, it's just like why?” says Josh Heald. To hear more about the sixth season of the show and their great advice for writing spec scripts, listen to the podcast.

“I came up doing improv where failure is the golden standard. And in improv, if you're not failing, you're doing something wrong. I feel really lucky that that was one of my bridges into entertainment and creativity, to have such a loving relationship with failure because, boy! As a writer, your days are filled with it and rejection and killing your darlings. I think comedy and improv have taught me how wonderful failure can be and how much we can get out of it for sure,” says Carrie Solomon, writer of the new Netflix romantic comedy, A Family Affair starring Nicole Kidman and Zac Ephron.  In this episode, Carrie talks about working as an assistant when she first came to Hollywood, calling it a job that can be, “Thankless at times, certainly, but really rewarding in the amount of information that you can absorb.”  She also talks about bringing her own life experience – like being an assistant – to her storytelling.  “Thematically, I think a lot of lot of the arcs in this movie are certainly my own. It's my own therapy coming to the screen, going to the page. I should probably send my therapist a Netflix., QR code to go check out the movie,” Carrie says.  Carrie also shares a lot of advice, including how to get your writing noticed. “For anyone who wants to make a splash or write something crazy or noticeable, write something that's crazy to you. Don't worry about what. If you yourself were entertained or wowed by an idea or you think, oh my god, that's absolutely like ass backwards crazy. Try it. I have a lot of friends that the minute they stop worrying about audiences or development execs or what people want to read, that's when they really found their voice and it clicked. I think being personal is one of the one of the quickest ways to find success.” To hear more about Carrie's writing journey, listen to the podcast.

In this episode, I talk with Dave Holstein, co-writer of the upcoming Disney/Pixar sequel Inside Out 2, which takes us back into the mind of a now teenage Riley as she navigates a whole new crop of personified emotions, including Envy, voiced by The Bear star Ayo Edebiri, and of course, Anxiety, voiced by Stranger Things' Maya Hawke. Dave describes what it's like working with a well-oiled storytelling powerhouse like Disney/Pixar, as well as co-writing with Inside Out franchise veteran Meg LeFauve to not only recapture some of the magic of the original film but to also create some of their own.  

“From Robert De Niro, I learned not to force anything. Not to force your idea of how something should be and then go from there. Not, ‘Oh, this should be funny,' or ‘Oh, I'm going make you cry.' That's the wrong thing. You just need to think about the thing the character is experiencing and don't push it – have it happen. And he was obsessive with me about not trying to make anything funny and he would say to me, ‘Tony, it's very funny. But I want you to see the funny happen naturally from the authenticity of it,'” says Tony Spiridakis on working on the screenplay for Ezra with Robert De Niro who stars in the film, along with Bobby Cannavale, William A. Fitzgerald, and Rose Byrne.   In this episode of the Write On podcast, Spiridakis talks about how Ezra was inspired by his own journey of raising a son with autism. The film shows the very human side of parenting from the point of view of a standup comedian who loves his son desperately but doesn't know how best to help him. Part road movie, part comedy, Ezra tackles both the perils and heart-felt comedy of the father and son bond. Spiridakis also talks about getting cast as an actor in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, then unceremoniously getting let go from the film. He shares how he turned his disappointments as an actor into a career as a playwright, screenwriter, and director. “Okay, so the acting didn't pan out as I had hoped it would, but I'm still a storyteller and I think that's the beautiful thing about whatever it is that we gravitate towards – one superpower or another,” says Tony. To find out more about writing the screenplay Ezra, listen to the podcast.

“Tennis is an amazing sport to think about a love triangle because it's so deeply charged erotically," says Justin Kuritzkes, screenwriter for the new film Challengers, starring Zendaya. "Tennis is a game that's so steeped in repression, but also in wild abandon. There's all these rigid rules and prescriptions of movement and boxes that the ball has to fall into. It's all so tightly organized and yet, once the ball is in play, physics takes over and it's wild chaos. You see these two people responding to each other in an almost instinctual and subconscious way. So, it felt like there was a lot of energy in tennis that was exciting to me cinematically.” In this episode of the Write On podcast, Justin talks about using tennis as a metaphor for relationships, the complicated choices his characters make, and the challenges going from playwright to screenwriter.    “It's really useful to have some knowledge of yourself as a dramatist or as a storyteller before you go into writing a screenplay because screenplays are so unforgiving. If you've already been working as a playwright or novelist, you've got an advantage there. The main thing I was focusing on writing Challengers was that I wanted to feel like I could see the movie on the page because it was a movie I really wanted to watch…You can't tell if something is good as you're writing it. You can't tell if something is going to be a safe bet for anybody to make. All you can tell is if the movie is alive to you. If that's true, there is a chance that the movie will be alive on the page for other people, to the point where they'll want to make it with you,” he says.  To hear more from Justin, listen to the podcast. 

In this episode, Teen Zone Berkeley Thompson talks Toni Morrison, Write On, and being a The New York Times author. Berkeley's Book Recommendations Chlorine by Jade Song

Could some of the decisions made by those making Sir Ridley Scott's 'Napoleon' (2023) be better understood by the generally disappointed Napoleonic community? Alex Stevenson is joined by James Topham, who knows a thing or two about screenwriting, to conclude their analysis of the film. Yes that's right, it's the Napoleon Movie Quarter-Hourly - taking the epic frustrations of the 2023 film 15 minutes at a time. 'Napoleon' screenwriter David Scarpa's Write On interview: https://open.spotify.com/episode/61AWkKbfIco9D4bcRYCIeu?si=fREIQvLPREKn2_LtlID-fw Joachim Phoenix's ReelBlend interview: https://open.spotify.com/episode/06YMu88cGK6eEfTqd24OYu?si=J5K4YbA2TXmiOAHPZ0x3hQ Music: Solo Cello Passion - Doug Maxwell, Media Right Productions

Brooke Warner joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about nontraditional publishing, the massive sea change we're seeing in memoir, how for authors visibility and marketing work is never done, protecting our memoir worlds, accountability groups, what all memoirs require, the genesis of She Writes Press, balancing her multiple roles, the project she is working on now and the many resources she offers memoirists.   Also in this episode: -when creativity merges with our working life -carving out time to write -Substack and content-creation   Books mentioned in this episode: Heavy by Kiese Laymon Bird by Bird by Anne Lamont The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith   Brooke Warner is publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress, president of Warner Coaching Inc., and author of Write On, Sisters!, Green-light Your Book, What's Your Book?, and three books on memoir. Brooke is a TEDx speaker and the former Executive Editor of Seal Press. She's the current Board Chair of the Bay Area Book Festival, and sits on the Board of the National Association of Memoir Writers. She writes a weekly Substack newsletter @brookewarner, and a regular column for Publishers Weekly.   Connect with Brooke: Website: www.brookewarner.com She Writes Press: www.shewritespress.com SparkPress: https://gosparkpress.com   Brooke's memoir courses: www.writeyourmemoirinsixmonths.com www.magicofmemoir.com   — Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

Eddie Murphy's new holiday comedy Candy Cane Lane pokes fun at the idea of being super competitive during the Christmas decorating season. Kelly Younger sat down with Final Draft's Write On podcast to talk about writing the spec script that became a reality in our latest episode. “My manager who I've had for years always sort of keeping track of my projects, and we put some under when he calls the three Ps: passion, propel, and paycheck. Write something that's a passion project, something that can propel your career and something that's just a paycheck!” says Younger about writing his passion project Candy Cane Lane on spec. “I feel extremely lucky to have been on set for every single day and night of the shoot and that is what the director, Reggie Hudland, wanted. We would talk through the scenes with each other we would talk it through with the actors in the moment I was able to pitch alternate lines,” Younger says of the process of filming the holiday movie. Click below to hear more in the full episode. Candy Cane Lane comes out on Amazon December 1. 

Final Draft's Write On podcast sits down with Showrunner Chris Black to talk about his new show, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. “For it to be successful as a TV series, it couldn't be a show about monsters. It had to be a show about people who happen to live in a world where monsters are real," Black says when describing what it was like to pitch the show to Apple TV. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters picks up the "monsterverse" story after the battle between Godzilla and the Titans and follows one family's journey to uncover secrets about their history linking them to Monarch.  Known for his work on Apple's mind-boggling workplace drama Severance, Black knows what it takes to make a successful TV series. Listen to our podcast to find out more on how to expand a universe, writing for monsters and creating new characters.   Monarch: Legacy of Monsters premieres on Apple TV+ on November 17.

“I'm not happy with a script unless I can look through it and find at least five or six pages where there's no dialogue – where the story tells itself through imagery,” says horror screenwriter Dennis Paoli. Feeling strongly that the screenwriter's job is to help the director see their vision for the scenes and characters, he says that instead of writing shot-by-shot, he writes, “Visual by visual. I try to give the important visuals that are inherent in that scene that help tell the story.” Famous for writing the cult-classic body-horror film Re-Animator from 1985, Paoli has a new film called Suitable Flesh starring Heather Graham and Barbara Crampton just in time for Halloween. In Final Draft's Write On podcast we talk about the importance of a screenwriter embracing visual storytelling on the page and discuss the challenges of reinterpreting H.P. Lovecraft's story The Thing on the Doorstep to create two bewitching female leads. Listen to the podcast to hear more about Paoli's long working partnership with the late Stuart Gordon (director of Re-Animator), making the “Miskatonic-verse” feel fresh and modern, and planting Easter eggs in the new movie.   

“The Fly was our biggest reference," first time feature writer/director Anna Zlokovic tells Final Draft's Write On podcast about her inspiration for her horror film Appendage. The spooky thriller is about a young fashion designer who sprouts a mysterious growth on her body that changes her life forever.   We sat down with the exciting newcomer -- who was recently listed on IndieWire's 28 Rising Female Filmmakers to Watch in 2023 -- to discuss her inspiration for the film. "That movie just has such an amazing blend of tone where it's tragic and sincere in its tragedy," she said. Listen to Final Draft's Write On podcast to hear more. Appendage premieres on Hulu October 2.

This week I want to share a super simple strategy for building more book recommendations into your classes in just two or three minute installments, book trailers. I first heard the idea of “Book Trailer Tuesdays” from Abby Gross, over at Write On with Miss G. I loved the idea right away, as a companion to First Chapter Friday or as its own unique program. But even if you're not doing Book Trailer Tuesdays, book trailers are an amazing thing to build into your class. Maybe you have a bookmarked list of trailers ready for those odd days when your lesson randomly ends five minutes earlier than you expect. Maybe you change up your book talk routine now and then and show a trailer for a book or two that you have featured in your library. Maybe you show a few trailers to help introduce a new genre, like novels-in-verse, or graphic novels.  Maybe after all this book trailer fun, you have students make book trailers of their own and start building a collection you can show to your students in future years! I hope you give book trailers a try this year!   Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!