Episodes

  • Tackling Historical Nonfiction (with Robert Fieseler)

    Tackling Historical Nonfiction (with Robert Fieseler)
    Jun 17 2025
    When you tackle historical nonfiction, you're offering doing more than simply putting to paper the events of the past. In author and journalist Robert Fieseler's experience, it meant hunting down sealed documents from a state that never wanted this history exposed, and it meant uncovering hundreds of names redacted from records and conducting countless hours of interviews—all before the actual writing takes place. In this episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," editor Michael Woodson sits down with Robert to discuss his new book American Scare: Florida's Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives (on sale today), his process as a writer, how and if he employs fiction craft in his writing, and more. Buy the book here: Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/14625/9780593183953 Amazon: https://amzn.to/4e83Wt9
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • Writing Fiction Based On Your Life (with Jessica Berg)

    Writing Fiction Based On Your Life (with Jessica Berg)
    May 20 2025
    How do you write what you know? By writing fiction based on your life. This doesn't mean writing memoir or simply changing the names of the people in your life: It could be a passing comment you hear at the bus stop, or someone's missing shoe you notice in the street, or it could even just be a feeling from a time in your life..the list goes on and on! In this episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," editor Michael Woodson sits down with author and literary agent Jessica Berg about how to write fiction based on your life, how you can find inspiration everywhere, how to mine your life for story ideas in real time, and more.
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    34 mins
  • BONUS EPISODE: Writer's Digest is Going to England!

    BONUS EPISODE: Writer's Digest is Going to England!
    May 7 2025
    Writer's Digest is heading to England! From September 12-20, you can join managing editor Moriah Richard and literary agent Amy Collins in London and Bath for the writing retreat of a lifetime! Listen here as they are in conversation with editor-in-chief Amy Jones about what to expect on the retreat, what they're most looking forward to, and more!
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    29 mins
  • How to Be a More Media-Savvy Author (with Paula Rizzo)

    How to Be a More Media-Savvy Author (with Paula Rizzo)
    Apr 15 2025
    The first job of a writer is to actually write their book. The next is to promote it. But getting in front of a camera or microphone and talking to a live audience isn't as easy at it may sound, and authors who are used to having thousands of words in a book to lean on may need to come up with just a few minutes of sound bites to help them get their point across. In this episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," content editor Michael Woodson chats with media coach and author Paula Rizzo about why it's important for writers to learn to be media-savvy, the different kinds of media that can help them promote their work, and how to have every possible answer ready in their back pocket.
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    39 mins
  • Writing Whatever You Want (with author Hilary Leichter)

    Writing Whatever You Want (with author Hilary Leichter)
    Mar 18 2025
    In publishing, we spend a lot of time talking about genre, and a lot of authors know exactly what genre they're interested in writing in. But what about writers who have story ideas that don't easily fit into any one genre category? Should they shift the story to better fit a marketing mold, or should they just keep writing and faith that their unique story will find the right home? In this episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," content editor Michael Woodson chats with author Hilary Leichter, author of Temporary and Terrace Story, about ignoring craft rules, not thinking about your readers, and when to ask yourself what you're afraid of.
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    38 mins
  • Getting Started In Screenwriting

    Getting Started In Screenwriting
    Feb 18 2025
    Screenwriting is a completely different animal than novel writing—there are different rules, there are different ways to get feedback, there are different expectations...but understanding screenwriting can help you navigate your own stories whether or not you're interested in filmmaking. In the first episode of season four of the "Writer's Digest Presents" podcast, content editor Michael Woodson sits down with Script magazine's editor-in-chief Sadie Dean to help writers get started in screenwriting. Check out these screenwriting resources from Sadie: Script Magazine: https://scriptmag.com/ Script University: https://writersdigestuniversity.mykajabi.com/store SimplyScripts: https://www.simplyscripts.com/ Script Reader Pro: https://www.scriptreaderpro.com/ The Internet Movie Script Database: https://www.imdb.com/
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    40 mins
  • How to Fictionalize Personal History: A Chat With Sharon Short

    How to Fictionalize Personal History: A Chat With Sharon Short
    Dec 17 2024
    Sometimes, our own personal family history where elements of it make for the perfect story—but what do you do if the history itself works best in a totally different era, or a dog makes more sense to be a cat, or winter works better than summer when it really happens? This is where personal history and historical fiction collide. In the final episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," editor-in-chief Amy Jones and content editor Michael Woodson chat with author Sharon Short about her new novel, Trouble Island, how she fictionalizes real events, her love of weather in fiction, and more.
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    35 mins
  • How Fight Scenes Can Reveal Character—and More!

    How Fight Scenes Can Reveal Character—and More!
    Nov 19 2024
    Fight scenes in fiction aren't just physical—they can be psychological, emotional, and often setting our characters up for any kind of fight helps us understand them better. Why they walk the way they do, what guards they have up, their weaknesses, their strengths. In this episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," trained fighter and author Carla Hoch shares all of her knowledge about writing fight scenes, why writing fight scenes is a good writing skill to have, and more.
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    1 hr and 2 mins