Writing Podcasts: I tries them

So in the past two months I went through the backlog of Storywonk Daily episodes (podcast about writing) and listened to almost every one. Needless to say I was in the market for a new writing podcast, especially since I'm doing stuff around my mother's house and there's no way to get through putting four coats of paint over deep blue walls without music or podling.

I've discovered I prefer podcasts to music because with music my mind can wander and think Thinks, and frankly there's no topic I want to think Thinks about right now. Except for writing, hence the writing poddles.

(If I were really good at meditating I'd practice being bored but that's like... graduate level mindfulness.)

I've listened to the backlog of: The First Million Words. It's relatively new--two unpublished SFF writers, interviewing published SFF writers to learn about craft. The idea behind the title is that your first million words are practice (these days attributed to Stephen King, but has been attributed to every author and their cat.)

They do one month (about 4 episodes) with one author, on different subjects. I enjoy the interviews themselves, but mostly I like the hosts. It's like Bob and Doug Mackenzie with a writing podcast. If you want to sample it, try their interview with Rachel Aaron who shares how she increased her word count from 2000/day to 8000-10 000. If only to hear her schtick, cause it's not a gimmick.

Right now I'm going through Writing Excuses, which is from 3 published authors and a comics artist. Their tag line is: "Fifteen minutes long. Cause you're in a hurry and we're not that smart." They're fun and entertaining to listen to, have lots of smart things to say, and have good interviews.

I prefer interviews that are on a given subject matter, as theirs' are. Otherwise every writer interview on the planet starts off with How They Got Started and How They Got Published. The former has to be truly different to be interesting, unless you're already a fan; and the latter just makes me sad and jealous (especially when so many are "It was my first book and I sent it in and it got published. I know you all, like, hate me now!"

If you want to sample Writing Excuses, you could start with "The Hollywood Formula." The formula is very short, and presented by Lou Anders (an award winning SFF editor) who applies the formula to Casablanca and The Dark Knight to interesting effect.

I've sampled a couple other writing podcasts--I'll report back when I've listened more.