With the Writing Battle Wonder competition rapidly approaching, what better way to prepare than to get a peak behind the curtain with one of the competition's professional judges? Long time friend of the pod, Trey Dowell, returns to field dozen...

Right back at it!There ain't no rest for the wicked, as they say. The Heart battle may still be raging, but the peer-judged Winter Flash Fiction Writing Battle is already underway. Justin and Jon are joined by friends of the pod MM and C...

Justin and Jon are trying a new competition! We were invited by Australia's Amanda and Ed to take part in their Not Quite Write Prize! As luck would have it, a former winner of the competition had previously reached out expressing interest in j...

Trey has moved on to the world of professional judging, so we're bringing Charlie out of the bull pen to join us as we reveal and react to our prompts for the first ever Writing Battle Heart Competition! Listen along for a little strategy and a...

Former Writer's Playground winner Ryan Fleming joins WiP for the fourth time, and tonight we're discussing the 10th challenge with is officially underway!We start the conversation by diving into some data Ryan has collected from past wi...

Friends of the pod--Maggie and Charlie--rejoin Justin and Jon for a live outline. This is a good one, folks. Great way to end 2024!We start from scratch: a giant spreadsheet of prompts and a random number generator. About an hour and a ...

Good friend of the pod, Trey Dowell, drops by to discuss his recent Writing Battle win and transition to professional judge.Topics include:-Behind-the-scenes hilarity of how Trey found out he won-Trey realizes a theme co...

Justin and Jon reunite for the first time in a few months, and do a little catching up. The episode begins with some exciting news about our new Patreon community and collaboration with Not Quite Write, a writing podcast from Australia....

After a few months away, why not just casually drop our longest episode ever with our highest profile guest just before midnight on a random Thursday?Shelby likely doesn't need any introduction from us. Her debut novel, Remarkably Brigh...

Jon and Justin speak with THE original recipient of the Writing Battle Debrief Panda--and author of Butcher the Doll--Charlie Rogers.Topics include:-marathon-writing sessions-how to plan for efficient drafting-using writing comp...

It's our favorite Writing Battle Tradition!2 time champion, Maggie Schreier, and reigning co-MVW, Trey Dowell, join Justin & Jon to talk this season's Writing Battle.This episode was recorded live on the night it all started, with e...

Justin and Jon welcome one new and one familiar guest to the program. What do they each have in common? They've both won Writer's Playground in the past! Holly Grover Brandon placed first overall in the most recent, eighth, Writer's Playground ...

"I didn't want to just stay in one lane. I had lots of lanes that I loved."To say Rachael wears a lot of hats is a massive understatement. She's written (and illustrated!) her own children's book, a series of writers' prompts books, a comed...

It's Writing Battle season! We've got the spring micro competition on deck--2 days to write 500 words!Justin and Jon are joined again by two friends of the pod: two-time winner Maggie Schreier and 2023 MVW Trey Dowell!We had so much fun...

We give our reactions, impressions, thoughts, and opinions as we noodle with the 5 possible characters, 5 potential settings, and 1 mandatory object prompted in Writer's Playground's eighth playground challenge.We are joined by a friend...

Maggie has dozens of publishing credits to her name, is a Push Cart Nominee,  has won Writer's Workout Writer's Games (twice), the YeahWrite Super Challenge, TL;DR's Wordherd, Iron Faerie Publishing's Betwixt Contest, and Writing Battle (t...

Justin and Jon give their initial reactions for this season's Writing Battle genres and live-react to their own draws.Just under 40 minutes into the episode, Friend-of-the-Pod Trey Dowell stops by to give his thoughts and joins in on the fu...

Justin and Jon continue their long-running series exploring how to write specific elements of a story. Today, they discuss the element they both ranked as the most important: characters. In this 2+ hour episode, Justin and Jon consulted the Wri...

It's been a minute, but Justin and Jon are back and ready to talk about writing.Because we've been gone for a while, we decided to pack quite a bit into this episode--resulting in our longest ever: over 2 hours!Below are time-st...

Justin and Jon are battling again! This episode was recorded live as they discovered their genres and prompts. (The character and word prompts they are sticking with are not shared, of course.)

Justin and Jon are thrilled to welcome Trey Dowell to Writing in Progress on the heels of teaching at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Trey’s list of accomplishments are extremely impressive:-Traditionally published novel ...

In the midst of (writers) battling, Justin and Jon press pause to discuss the competition. This episode includes:7:30 - End of school year check-ins16:30 - Looking back at Writer's Playground31:30 - Initial impressions of this s...

Justin and Jon are taking on a new contest: Writer's Playground, and who better to learn from than a previous winner? Ryan Fleming joins the pod to discuss his writing journey and experience winning Writer's Playground with his Poe-esque story ...

Justin and Jon discuss writing voice. What is it? How do you craft it? Is it something inherent or different for each individual story? Listen along and join our debate!Time stamps:0:00 - Wrapping up Writing Battle4:23 - Voice I...

Justin and Jon give some shout-outs to stories they loved in the debrief forums of Writing Battle.Connect with us! (Join the WIPper Snappers!)Email: WritingInProgressPod@gmail.comInstagram: @WritingInProgressPodTwitter: @Writing...