For the next seven weeks, we will bring you a story written and read by Writing Class Radio co-host, Andrea Askowitz, with commentary by her editor, co-host, Allison Langer. Andrea took a weekly essay challenge, which was in…
Welcome to Season 6. For the next eight weeks, we will bring you a story a week written and read by co-host, Andrea Askowitz, with commentary by her editor, co-host, Allison Langer. This week, Andrea tells us why she took a …
This is our 50th episode and our last episode of Season 5. Today we’re talking about omitting needless words because who has time for excessive blah, blah, blah. You will hear a great example of a story that got chopped in h…
Writing about hard topics like money is awkward. No one wants to admit that they have money. And no one wants to admit that they don’t have money. Money is one of those topics that embarrasses people or divides people. This …
Today on our show we’re talking about compassion, families, and the legacy they leave. We’re also talking about how to write about those people in our lives who have fucked us up. And who hasn’t been fucked up by a parent? H…
In this episode, we examine the popular writing tenet, show DON’T tell. We believe just showing is not only impossible, but detrimental to your story. Telling gives insight into what the narrator is thinking and feeling. To …
Today on our show, we're talking about objects. Things like a pen, trash cans, reading glasses, and a scale. We can build stories around these things because these objects affect our lives. They can stand in for an emotion. …
Today we are talking about identity; how sometimes what we show on the outside is not what we feel on the inside. As a storyteller, you have to know who you are. Or try to figure out who you are through the writing.
Three …
The way a story is told out loud adds another layer to a story.
On this episode, we’re talking about how our physical voices can carry a story with inflection, pace, volume, tone, and pitch. Voice can even make us love a s…
Writing is a gift of yourself. It should give the reader or listener a glimpse inside. It should be something true and new and vulnerable. In a story, we reveal ourselves through voice. What we mean by voice in a story is th…
On this episode, we’re talking about secret pleasures, with a twist. We’re bringing you the winner of our writing contest. We gave the prompt: Secret Pleasure and we got some good ones. Our winner, Erika Flynn from New York …
We’re in season 5! We decided, after 40 episodes, to follow a schedule. So please look out for us on the first Wednesday of every month.
On this episode, we’re talking about moments. Going to a moment is a storytelling tec…
On this episode, we’re talking about creating a likable narrator. The narrator is the I in the story. It’s YOU. We see this a lot with beginner writers and we probably did this too, and that is tell a story about a time we w…
On today’s episode we’re talking about getting out of our own way when writing a story. The writing process starts with getting the truth on paper. We write about situations or problems we’re dealing with or have dealt with,…
On today’s episode we’re talking about mimicking the masters the way you’d imagine a painting class in Paris that goes to the Louvre to practice painting like Leonardo de Vinci. We think it’s worth copying a method that work…
November is #NaNoWriMo (https://nanowrimo.org/), and we have executive director, Grant Faulkner (http://www.grantfaulkner.com/), on our show.
Today we’re talking about novels because we go both ways. And also because storyt…
On this episode of Writing Class Radio we ask for your support, because producing ain’t free. Please go to writingclassradio.com and hit the donate button.
This podcast is equal parts heart (the truth) and art (the craft).…
This episode of Writing Class Radio is dedicated to everyone who’s dealing with some kind of natural disaster. For us in Florida, the last two weeks have been all consuming and also terrifying. Our hearts go out to those who…
In this episode, we go off the rails...a little. We invited our class into Allison’s living room where in addition to writing advice, we gave life advice. Allison believes that the better we know ourselves, the better our wr…
In this episode, you will meet the winner of Writing Class Radio’s spring writing contest. The prompt: Write about something you don’t understand. Andrea suggests that great writing starts with a question. Writing is about f…
In this episode, Allison and Andrea are talking about endings. How to end an essay when often the issues we write about are ongoing. Should we know the ending when we begin? Does the end of the essay have to show a change in…
In this episode, Allison and Andrea are talking about worlds again because Andrea got so excited by Nilsa’s story in the episode Can You Hear Me if I Can't Hear You? where she brought us into the world of the hearing impaire…
The format for this episode is a little different. Today we’re bringing you a guest teacher, because we think it’s smart to get different perspectives. Joyce Maynard is one of Andrea’s favorite teachers in the world. Joyce h…
This episode is about connecting through writing. It’s also about the job of storytellers to bring us into their world. New student, Nilsa Rivera, tells a story about her fear of isolation, which stems from a very unique set…
