Not enough time to read about craft? You can listen about craft!

A few of our members are avid podcast listeners and have a number of writing podcasts they listen to. Others of us are interested to find great listening material that will help us grow as writers. So we’ve compiled a list of great ones.

Let us know your favorites in the comments!

 

KidLit Specific:

Literaticast: Agent Jennifer Laughran is a great interviewer with fascinating guests, including children’s book authors, agents, and editors, who talk about both writing and the writing business. As a bonus, she and her guest share their latest obsessions at the end of each episode.

All the Wonders: Hosted by Matthew Winner, who interviews children’s authors and illustrators every week. The Books Between podcast from the same team focuses on middle grade books, with the goal of connecting books to readers.

Scholastic Reads: Editor Suzanne McCabe interviews children’s book authors and sometimes holds read-alouds.

The Yarn: Librarian Travis Yonker and teacher Colby Sharp ask children’s book authors for a peek inside their creative process.

 

General Writing:

PubCrawl: Author S. Jae-Jones and agent Kelly Van Sant of the Pub(lishing) Crawl blog share their thoughts on both the craft of writing and the path to publication. Their discussions are consistently informative.

88 Cups of Tea: Yin Chang interviews all types of creative professionals who give practical advice and offer inspiration to writers.

The Porchlight Storytelling Series: San Francisco’s longest-running storytelling series, hosted by co-founders Beth Lisick and Arline Klatte. Each week they invite six people from different backgrounds to tell ten-minute true stories without using notes or memorization.

Print Run: Created and hosted by former editor, current agents Laura Zats and Erik Hane. Its aim is simple: to have the conversations surrounding the book and writing industries that too often are glossed over by conventional wisdom, institutional optimism, and false seriousness.

Helping Writers Become Authors: K.M. Weiland, novelist and author of Outlining Your Novel, offers a new writing tip each week. With more than 400 episodes in the archive, you’re sure to find one on a topic of interest to you.

Writing Excuses: Writers Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells, and Mary Robinette Kowal host a short (15 minute) discussion of a different craft topic each week. Season 10 (2015) is particularly binge-worthy.

Story Grid: Editor Shawn Coyne and aspiring fiction writer Tim Grahl cover a variety of topics–from writing a scene that works to the hero’s journey. If you like Shawn Coyne’s craft book, The Story Grid, you’ll find his advice in this podcast very instructive.

Mom Writes: Listen in as Author Accelerator book coach, Jennie Nash, guides two writer-moms working on their first books. This new podcast also features interviews with mom (and dad) writers. (See our interview with host and writer Abby Mathews here.)

 

From the Archives:

Narrative Breakdown: Editor Cheryl Klein and screenwriter James Monohan recorded their last episode in 2016, but you can still listen to all 66 archived episodes focused on strategies for great storytelling.

The Writing Show: Author Paula Berinstein recorded this podcast from 2005-2012. Check out the archived slush pile workshops, in which she offered critiques of listeners’ first two pages.

 

How To Listen

A number of our members recommend Pocket Cast as a podcast reader. It is super simple to use, and one member mentioned that she’s never yet searched for a podcast in the app and not found it.

Do you have a favorite writing podcast? Let us know in the comments!

Did you try out one of our recommendations? Let us know what you thought!