Writerly Podcasts

A while back, I wrote a series of posts* about "Writing Excuses," a podcast by a group of authors that focuses on writing advice and advice for the business of writing. There are other writing podcasts out there, though, and I've been doing a little looking into them. To start my search for an excellent writing podcast (I'd love to find one, if you have a suggestion, let me know), I listened to the New Yorker's "Fiction Podcast" and a podcast put out by Grammar Girl. Here are my reviews.

Fiction Podcast

PROS: This is a quality podcast, and you can tell. Each month, an author is invited to pick a piece of short fiction published by the New Yorker (from any date) to read in the podcast and discuss/analyze it with New Yorker fiction editor Deborah Treisman. I listened to a few of these podcasts; the discussion was always informed, on both sides, and the stories were read in full, which is fun for a person who generally prefers fiction to nonfiction.

Listening to this podcast has the potential to expand your reading horizons. So what if you normally wouldn't listen to a particular author or genre? You get to sample it now. If you don't like it, no harm done.

There are ads, but they are kept to a minimum.

CONS: These podcasts are long. Like, over an hour. That means that, if you aren't careful, you may find yourself zoning out. This kept happening to me during one particular podcast about a story that both Treisman and the author admitted were boring. They actually tried to analyze the boringness at some point, if I recall correctly. The length, the subject matter, and the understated way of reading aloud that seems to be in vogue these days all made it hard for me to pay attention to.

This way of reading aloud could be considered a con, too, if you dislike it enough. Some people love it, though, so it's undecided.

It only comes out once a month, so once you're caught up, it's not like you can continue binging. There are about a hundred back episodes, though, so don't let this deter you too much.

The other con, for me, is that this podcast is meant for readers, not writers. They do not analyze how the writer wrote the story, but the ideas, the symbolism, a bit about the author on a personal level, that sort of thing. I didn't come away with many writing tips.

... beyond this one: Every major character you write is going to be part of yourself, one evolution of you. Face that fact and harness it.

Grammar Girl

PROS: This podcast appears about once per week, so more often than the New Yorker's. It is also shorter (varying lengths, but none I saw were longer than 20 minutes), meaning you can sneak it into your schedule much easier.

The other pro I found was that these episodes are simple and easy to understand. Listeners receive a variety of interesting tips on grammar, pronunciation, punctuation, and even how to write different things (I listened to one that talked about writing a letter of recommendation).

CONS: I'm going to admit that I am not a fan of this podcast -- for me. I had to search through episodes to find something new. That simple advice I talked about is either stuff I already know or else things I can look up -- through Grammar Girl, usually -- and figure out in less than a minute. The host, Mignon Fogarty (the Grammar Girl), explains these simple things and repeats herself about them far beyond what is necessary for comprehension.

The ads in this one go in the cons list because it feels like they are long, and there are three per episode, one to start, one in the middle, and one at the end. Sometimes, they are for the same product.

Another grievance I have comes from an episode I listened to about writing in the third person: They talked about the different types of third person without giving tips or decent examples about how to write in each. Not so useful.

The last one is that different segments of each episode are written by different people, but the same person, Fogarty, reads it all, giving attribution at the end. This makes it confusing, because I assume it is her talking up until the end, when you find out it was actually some professor of something at a university. I'm sitting there, being all impressed by her experience as a professor, then find out she's been reading someone else's words. They should put the attribution at the beginning.

The writing takeaway I got: "Huh. I haven't read any Kurt Vonnegut, now that you mention him. I should get on that."

On to finding better writerly podcasts! So far the New Yorker podcast is in the lead.

*This link goes to the first in the series. Here are links to the others:
Writing Excuses: Course Complete
Writing Excuses notes, Season 1
Writing Excuses notes, Season 2
Writing Excuses notes, Season 3
Writing Excuses notes, Season 4
Writing Excuses notes, Season 5
Writing Excuses notes, Season 6
Writing Excuses notes, Season 7
Writing Excuses notes, Season 8