Writing Tips – Page 2 – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 274: Ruby McConnell on Stalling Out and Finding Hope Through Writing

Ruby McConnell (@RubyGoneWild) is the author of Ground Truth: A Geological Survey of a Life and A Woman’s Guide to the Wild, and she returns to the podcast (on short notice!) to talk about being in between projects, finding hope through writing, and being frustrated despite having an objectively productive year.

As you know, you can keep the conversation going on Twitter @BrendanOMeara or @CNFPod. Let me know what you dug about this episode, or other ones.

And if you’re feeling especially froggy, you can support the show by heading over to patreon.com/cnfpod and see what tier appeals to you. Transcripts, questions, coaching, and the knowledge that your dollars get fed right back into the community. I was able to pay the essay and poem writers because of the Patreon community. That’s cool, right?

Newsletters sub is below. You’re gonna want to sign up for that and subvert the algorithm. I’ve got some cool stuff planned that will be like the CNFin’ Happy Hour, but somehow better, and it all stems from the newsletter. Once a month. No spam. Can’t beat it!

Episode 268: Overcoming Bad Viewing Hygiene with The Ringer’s Alison Herman

Sponsors: West Virginia Wesleyan College’s MFA in Creative Writing and HippoCamp 2021.

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By Brendan O’Meara

Alison Herman (@aherman2006) is a staff writer for The Ringer, who writes about all kinds of TV and movies and the like.

What prompted this conversation was her piece about David Gelb, the filmmaker behind Jiro Dreams of Sushi and Chef’s Table.

In this episode we talk about:

Episode 266: The Expansive Nothing You Have to Fill with Kristen Radtke

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By Brendan O’Meara

Kristen Radtke is the author of Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness. Let me tell you, CNFers, this book spoke to me like few others do. Such is the life as a lonely podcaster.

Episode 263: Michelle Weber and Catherine Cusick Break Out the Pipe Wrench

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By Brendan O’Meara

Michelle Weber and Catherine Cusick are the editor-in-chief and publisher of Pipe Wrench Magazine, a new venture that aims to fix what’s broken in journalism and publishing.

This is a fun conversation about the founding of the magazine and Michelle and Catherine are doing to help change the culture. You can find Issue 1 here, and they just went live with Issue 2 this week.

The pair overlapped at Longreads and parlayed much of that experience into Pipe Wrench, so we talk about that, among other things.

At one point Cartherine brings up this notion of “ramen startups,” and she’s referring to a blog post from Paul Graham. This means keeping things lean and nimble and not overextending and growing too fast.

Great talk!

OK, so keep the conversation alive @CNFPod and consider becoming a CNFin’ member at Patreon. There’s where you get exclusive access to the audio magazine, get asked to ask questions of guests, transcripts, coaching, and more. For just $2 a month, you get access to a killer audio product, and we’re going live with Issue 2 in mere days! Patreon.com/cnfpod

Episode 262: Passion + Desperation = Bob Welch

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By Brendan O’Meara

“I. Will. Write. This. Book. There’s no turning back,” says Bob Welch, @bob_welch23 on Twitter.

Bob is the author of several books, most recently is Saving My Enemy, a story of an American and a German WWII vet who forged a friendship late in life that led them down the path to forgiveness. Great book.

Bob was a long-time columnist at The Register-Guard in Eugene and has written books like The Wizard of Foz: Dick Fosbury’s One-Man High-Jump Revolution and Resolve.

We had a great conversation about “hiking your own hike” and how the famous writer Jon Krakauer actually stole Bob’s girlfriend back in high school in Corvallis, Oregon.

Great talk and good, good fun.

Keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod and consider becoming a member at the Patreon page. It’s how you get access to the audio magazine, as well as transcripts and coaching. You dollars go directly into (50% goes to Patreon and Uncle Sam) the making of the podcast and paying writers. If you freelance, you get the titanic tax burden that’s on the freelancer. Oh, you got a $1,000 check! That’s nice! $500 of that needs to be skimmed off and goes to taxes, sooooo….

Anyway!

Enjoy this conversation and let me know what you think. HMU!

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Episode 261: Wudan Yan and Jenni Gritters Talk All Things Coaching, Freelancing, and Mindset Monsters

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By Brendan O’Meara

Wudan Yan and Jenni Gritters are back!

They host The Writers’ Co-op Podcast, and it is back for Season 3, a season in which they focus on coaching.

Lots of good stuff here including:

Why Jenni “left” journalism
Building confidence
Business plans
Mindset monsters
And freelancer archetypes

Follow Wudan and Jenni on Twitter, as well as @CNFPod, and learn more about them, their work, and their services at their websites.

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Episode 259: Lilly Dancyger on Building Community and Finding Her Father in ‘Negative Space’

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By Brendan O’Meara

Lilly Dancyger (@lillydancyger) is here to talk about her new book Negative Space. She also edited the collection Burn It Down: Women Writing About Anger.

Negative Space is a detective story as Lilly seeks out her father’s past. He passed away when she was a very young girl. He was a brilliant artists, but tortured by addiction.

Episode 258: The Saturation of Not Doing It with Brian Broome

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By Brendan O’Meara

Every now and again you read a book that blows your brains out. Brian Broome‘s (@bbromb) Punch Me Up to the Gods is one of those books.

It deals with identity, Black masculinity, shame, family, oppression, racism, and community. What a book, man, what a book.

We also dig into Brian’s writing process and how he goes about the work.

“I’m the queen of the run-on sentence,” he says.

And the grind of it all.

“I’m the queen of quitting,” he says.

Consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/cnfpod for transcripts and for exclusive access to the audio magazine. Your dollars go into making the production possible and put money in the pockets of writers. Patrons also get a chance to submit questions that I ask of guests and coaching.

Sponsorship for this episode is brought to you by West Virginia Wesleyan College’s MFA in Creative Writing.

Promotional partner is HippoCamp 2021! Go register!

Episode 248: Humble and Important Gifts with Bronwen Dickey

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By Brendan O’Meara

“My mind is a very bad neighborhood and I should not go there alone,” says Bronwen Dickey in her fourth trip to the podcast

She was here for Ep. 21, 45, 137 and now 248.

It’s always a good time when I get to catch up with her.

Episode 246: Jenni Gritters on the Freelance Life, Not Waiting for Perfect, and Sh*t Sandwiches

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By Brendan O’Meara

Jenni Gritters is here.

She’s a freelancer and she is not a struggling freelancer in the ways that many of us identify as a struggling freelancer, which is to say: we po’.

Jenni, @jenni_gritters, along with her co-pilot on The Writers’ Co-op Podcast Wudan Yan, are thriving. Through strategy and rigor, Jenni is a six-figure earner, this during the pandemic, this when many writers are struggling to make a go of it.

She turned her skill into money, which allows her to double down on her skill and do more projects that are more personal-driven.

I like to think of some content/branded writing gigs like when Jake Gyllenhaall does a blockbuster movie so that he can then do the art-house stuff he probably wants to do. Book your Marvel movie, then go write your memoir. Haha.

Brendan’s Monthly Newsletter: First of the month! No spam! Can’t beat it!

Brendan’s Monthly Newsletter: First of the month! No spam! Can’t beat it!

Brendan’s Monthly Newsletter: First of the month! No spam! Can’t beat it!