All Episodes
The 7am Novelist — 252 episodes
Peter Ho Davies: Writing About Loved Ones
Kelly J. Ford: Finding Your Genre & Not Giving Up
Patricia Park & Desmond Hall: Investing in Your Writing Career
Annie Hartnett & Tessa Fontaine On Accountability
AE Osworth: Revisiting Joy Writing
Crystal King: Tackling the Speculative (& the ornery issue of technology too)
Rosie Sulton & Barbara Best: Peer Coaching for Writers
Elizabeth Searle: Reverse Engineering for the Script Curious
Charlene Wang: Curing a Passive Protagonist
Sheri Joseph: The Life-Artifice Spectrum for Revision
Peter Orner: Saying Something Slowly
Kristin Vukovic & Jo Piazza: The Complexities of Place
Roundtable: Can Climate Fiction Move the Needle?
Alumni Testimonials from the In-Person GrubStreet Novel Incubator Program
Josh Barkan: Writing a Memoir Before You Know Its Ending
Milo Todd: Writing Challenging Fiction in a Flattening Culture
Jessica Francis Kane: Leaning into Your Obsessions (& Your Obstacles Too)
Emily Ross: The Chicken or the Egg of Character and Plotting
Roundtable: The Knotty Question of Voice
Some Words from the Late Charles Coe
Jessica Kent: A Great Literary Citizen on Finding Community
Janet Rich Edwards: The Language of Gender and Class
Nicole Graev Lipson: Dealing with Her Literary Forebears
Roundtable: World Building for Other Worlds
Lisa Borders: Voice, Likability, and the Onerous Unreliable Narrator
Whitney Scharer & Sonya Larson on TBR: There's a New Writing Conference in Town!
Lauren Aliza Green: When Rewriting Beats Revision
Roundtable: World Building for Historical Fiction
Josh Cook of Porter Square Books: Keeping the Odometer Going
Jyoti Chand: A Graphic Novelist Bounces Between Mediums (and she’s got quite a social media following too)
Zee Carlstrom: The Business of Brainstorming
Roundtable: Inviting the Reader Into Your Story
Beth Castrodale: 'Without Empathy, Horror Fails'
Libby Buck: 'Joining Together in Awe' Or: How Art History Can Help Your Novel
Matt Trinetti: Co-Founder of the London Writers Salon
Roundtable: Reverse Outline? What Is It and Why Do It?
Karen Dukess: The Importance of Writing Groups, Retreats, and the Advice: "Just Keep Going"
Nova Ren Suma: Breaking Expectations to Recover Her Writing Dreams
Stephanie Elizondo Griest: An Art Monk Finds Her People
Roundtable: Going Beyond the Usual Character Development
Alison Langley: History Repeats Itself
Christine Pride: An Editor's First Solo Effort as a Writer Tests Her Chops
What Writing Together Has Given Our 7am Crew
Milo Todd and Julie Carrick Dalton on Asparagus (and Making Room for Writers Unlike Yourself)
Randy Susan Meyers and Jennifer S. Brown on Truth in Fiction
Josh Barkan on Writing the Political
Christine Murphy & Hilary Lahan on Writing Friendships
Grace Talusan & Calvin Hennick on Making a Morning Writing Partnership
Celeste Ng and Whitney Scharer on Getting Messy and Pursuing Joy
Lori Ostlund & Anne Raeff on Compassion
Embracing Delusions: Theresa Okokon on Sharing Her Story and Helping Others Do the Same
Use Your Words: A Virtual Workshop & A Vital Call to Action
Listener Roundup: Writing Through Fear, Making it Up, & Letting the Work Lead the Way
R.O. Kwon on Writing What Scares You
Jamie Quatro on Experimenting with Form
Ann Hood on Introducing a Late Point of View (& her famous +/- writing advice)
Crystal King on Writing about Problematic People (& Places Too)
Pagan Kennedy on Writing Nonfiction During Years of Disruption
Listeners' Roundup 5: Cultural Context, Secondary Characters, & When to Break (or Make) Rules
Femi Kayode on the Rules of Engagement When Writing a Sequel
Hesse Phillips on Challenges in Writing Queer History
Mark Cecil on Letting Your Secondary Characters Speak
Shi Naseer on Managing Multiple Timelines & Writing for a Western Audience
Thérèse Soukar Chehade on Truth in Historical Fiction
Listener Roundup 4: Handling Your Mental Health, Research, Time, & the Omniscient POV
Jessica Anthony on Time as an Organizing Principle (Especially in a Short Novel)
Joseph Moldover on the Mental Health Challenges of Writing and Publication
BONUS! Alison Langley Has Some Questions for Us: On Specificity, Summary, and Surviving Your Readers' Assumptions
Shalene Gupta on Conducting Deeply Personal Interviews
Henriette Lazaridis on Tackling the Omniscient Point of View
Jennine Capo Crucet on Voice That Originates in a Sense of Place
Listener Roundup: Dialect & Rhythm, the "Too Quiet" Writer, Captain Happen, and How to Write With Empathy
Colwill Brown on the Art of the Sentence (& Training Your Ear to Hear it)
Bryan VanDyke on Coping Mechanisms for the “Too Quiet” Writer (hint: Try an Unreliable Narrator)
Tessa Fontaine on Working with a Shy, Resistant Protagonist
Annie Weatherwax on Writing with Dyslexia & the Art of Seeing
Sarah Tomlinson on Writing Red Herrings in a Character-Driven Novel
Listener Roundup 2: Writer Humility, Accepting When It’s No Good, and Always Learning
Steve Almond on Avoiding Writer's Block by Chasing the Inner Life
Laura van den Berg on Straddling Genres and Multiple Novels-in-Progress
Kate Woodworth on Dealing with an Island's Worth of Points of View
Marjan Kamali on Handling the Passage of Time
Maurice Carlos Ruffin on Writing Politically Charged Topics
BONUS! Jean Duffy, Bev Boisseau Stohl, & Laura Beretsky on Making a Writing Group Work
Patricia Park on Navigating Taste (Food, Books, and Otherwise)
Kasey LeBlanc on Pacing Dual Narratives
Emma Copley Eisenberg on the Higher Truths of Dialogue
Listener Roundup: Narrative Distance, Borrowing from Archetypes, & Dealing with Crisis
Maria Hummel on Rewriting Existing Stories and Models
Desmond Hall on Managing Dramatic Irony While Writing Multiple Points of View
Dawn Tripp on Voice, Emotion, and Interiority
Adam White on Inserting Your DNA into Your Book's Point of View
Sara Shukla on Using Humor as a Survival Mechanism When Launching a Book During a Time of Loss
BONUS: Anjali Mitter Duva and Henriette Lazaridis on Changing the Publishing Industry with Galiot Press
SNEAK PEEK! Samantha Harvey on Rediscovering Your Structure and Point of View (even after several drafts)
Bonus! Christine Byl: Listening, Patience, and the Necessity of Doing the Time
Finding Joy in the Writing Process with Suzanne Berne, Shalene Gupta, and Christine Murphy
Submitting Short Work & Understanding Subtext with Mark Cecil, Erica Ferencik, and Whitney Scharer
Writing From Real Life with Anjali Mitter Duva, Alex Ferraro, and Ethan Gilsdorf
Bonus! Mary Carroll Moore: Jumping Genres, Where to Begin, and Separating Your Character From Yourself
Structuring Multiple POVS & Timelines (or maybe not?) with Mark Cecil and Jane Roper
Writing a Series and What "Close" Really Means for POV with Hank Phillippi Ryan and Allison Amend
Defining and Accessing Interiority with Dawn Tripp and Christopher Boucher
Revision: Breaking Down Your Book to Build it Back Up with Hesse Phillips and Sara Johnson Allen
Climaxes and Endings with Colwill Brown and Crystal King
Bonus! Process Over Product with Writer Cathy Elcik
The Time it Takes & What is Done? with Kasey LeBlanc, Shalene Gupta, and Sara Shukla.
Cutting and Querying Advice with Nancy Crochiere, Henriette Lazaridis, and Ethan Gilsdorf
Finding a Writing Community and Different Motivation Types with Jessica Bird and Henriette Lazaridis
When to Break Up with Your Book with Emily Ross and Virginia Pye
Jealousy and Exhaustion with Marjan Kamali, Liesl Swogger, and Alex Ferraro
Bonus! Michael Giddings: What to Do When Your Fictional World Gets Too Big for You
How to Find Writing Space with Sara Johnson Allen, Cara Wood, and Joanna Rakoff
Trusting Yourself and Your Writing with Hesse Phillips and Ron MacLean
Is the Agent Wrong or Do You Need a Style Check? Or Both? with Jessica Bird, Kathleen Flynn, and Andrea Meyer
The Great Research Rabbit Hole with Lauren Aguirre and Anjali Mitter Duva
How The Novel Complicates Character Development with Christine Murphy, Emily Ross, and Joanna Rakoff
Bonus! Aube Rey Lescure: The Existential Crisis of Launching Your Debut Novel
Starting Your Second Book with Christine Murphy, Kasey LeBlanc, and Aaron Hamburger
Dealing with Uncertainty with Timothy Deer and Hesse Phillips
Writer Boredom & the Dread of Finishing with Sara Shukla and Nancy Crochiere
Submission Anxiety & Character Development with Liesl Swogger and Kathleen Flynn
Bonus! Spitballing with Michael Lowenthal
Bonus Episode: Yael Goldstein-Love on The Possibilities
Alex Marzano-Lesnevich on the essay “Futurity”
Carter Sickles on The Prettiest Star
Caroline Leavitt on Days of Wonder
David Heska Wanbli Weiden on Winter Counts
Shilpi Suneja on House of Caravans
Isa Arsén on Shoot the Moon
Virginia Pye on The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann
Charlotte Rixon on The One That Got Away
Angel Di Zhang on The Light of Eternal Spring
Rachel Kadish on The Weight of Ink
Paul Rudnick on Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style
Julie Gerstenblatt on Daughters of Nantucket
Sara Johnson Allen on Down Here We Come Up
Alyssa Songsiridej on Little Rabbit
Elizabeth L. Silver on The Majority
Nancy Crochiere on Graceland
Hank Phillippi Ryan on The House Guest
Jessica Keener on Night Swim
Neema Avashia on Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place
Suzanne Berne on The Blue Window
Alta Ifland on Speaking to No. 4
Kelly J. Ford on The Hunt
Allegra Goodman on Sam
EB Moore on Loose in the Bright Fantastic
Kirthana Ramisetti on Advika and the Hollywood Wives
Maya Shanbhag Lang on What We Carry
Alix Ohlin on Dual Citizens
Rachel Barenbaum on Atomic Anna
Meg Waite Clayton on The Postmistress of Paris
Joanna Rakoff on My Salinger Year
Aaron Hamburger on Hotel Cuba
Idra Novey on Take What You Need
Wanda Morris on Anywhere You Run
Daphne Kalotay discusses "Relativity" in her collection The Archivists
BA Shapiro on Metropolis
Frances de Pontes Peebles on The Air You Breathe
Henriette Lazaridis on Terra Nova
Amina Gautier on "Lost and Found" from her collection The Loss of All Things
Julie Carrick Dalton on The Last Beekeeper
Jasmin Hakes on Hula
VV Ganeshananthan on Brotherless Night
Juliette Fay on The Half of It
Nathaniel Ian Miller on The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven
Jane Roper on The Society of Shame
Marisa Crane on I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself
Vanessa Hua on Forbidden City
Elizabeth Graver on Kantika
Day 31: The Shadowscape: How Darkness Plays with Light in Fiction & in Life with Lara Wilson
Day 30: The Authors Journeys of E.B. Moore & Donna Gordon: It’s Never Too Late
Day 29: Building Tension & Dread in Thrillers with Erica Ferencik
Day 28: Research How-Tos with Lara Prescott & Crystal King
Day 27: Aspects of Autofiction with Shuchi Saraswat & Stacy Mattingly
Day 26: Crafting a Scene with Patricia Park
Day 25: Writing in (and about) Gardens with Margo Rabb
Day 24: Building Believable Antagonists with Randy Susan Meyers
Day 23: What Playwriting Can Do for Your Prose with Sari Boren
Day 22: Authors Journey: The Great Uncertainty with Dawn Tripp & Jane Roper
Day 21: Shalene Gupta & E.B. Bartels on How to Conduct Interviews & Blend Personal Stories with your Research
Day 20: Authors Journey: All You Have to Do Is Not Give Up with David Abrams & Ilan Mochari
Day 19: Finding Balance (& Writer Moxie) w Jenna Blum
Day 18: Developing a Socio-Cultural Context with Dariel Suarez
Day 17: Reality & Invention in Fiction & Nonfiction with Alysia Abbott & Lise Haines
Day 16: Authors Journey: Getting to Yes with Rita Woods & Nancy Crochiere
Day 15: Horror Film Techniques That Make Us Better Writers with Devi Snively
Day 14: Solving Literary Problems with Non-Literary Forms with Henriette Lazaridis
Day 13: Escaping the Muddle in the Middle with Hank Phillippi Ryan
Day 12: Getting & Giving Feedback with Daphne Kalotay and Margot Livesey
Day 11: Joy First Drafting with AE Osworth
Day 10: Overcoming 'Not Writing' with Stephanie Gayle
Day 9: Getting Your Reader to Root for Your Protagonist with Katherine Sherbrooke
Day 8: Author's Journey: From Writer to Publisher with Anjali Mitter Duva
Day 7: Creating Characters Based on Real People with Hesse Phillips and Chris Boucher
Day 6: Emily Ross & Desmond Hall—Navigating YA and Adult
Day 5: Visual Graphing with Julie Carrick Dalton
Day 4: Layers of Interiority with Rebecca Makkai
Day 3: Retelling Tales with Nina MacLaughlin
Day 2: Allison Amend & Shilpi Suneja—From India to the Galapagos: Representing Place
Day 1: Authors Journey with Rosie Sultan & Jessica Keener: Self-Worth, Fear, and Discovery
Day 50: How do you know it's done? with Kasey LeBlanc
Day 49: Finding Your Why with Meta Wagner
Day 48: Keeping the Faith with Alex Ferraro & Liesl Swogger
Day 47: Handling Feedback with Bob Fernandes & Marc Foster
Day 46: The Ending with Christine Murphy
Day 45: The Denouement with Rebecca Rolland & Rishi Reddi
Day 44: Rate of Revelation with Jim Shepard
Day 43: Dark Night, Crisis, & Climax with Julie Carrick Dalton & Tara Lynn Masih
Day 42: More Tension Tricks with Erica Ferencik & Desmond Hall
Day 41: The Clock with Sabina Murray & Steve Yarbrough
Day 40: How to hold up the Middle with Annie Hartnett & Sara Shukla
Day 39: Character & Story Arcs with Patricia Park & Jennifer De Leon
Day 38: The Dramatic Question
Day 37: Challenging Traditional Structures with Christopher Boucher & Ethan Gilsdorf
Day 36: Escalations & the Signature with Nicole Vecchiotti
Day 35: Dialogue with Pamela Loring & Michele Ierardi Ferrari
Day 34: Time & Pacing with Sharissa Jones and Stacy Mattingly
Day 33: Details with Lara Wilson & Dan Fogarty
Day 32: Consequence with Sandra Scolfield
Day 31: Turning Points & Most Important Moments with Henriette Lazaridis
Day 30: Intention, Conflict, & Negotiation with Crystal King
Day 29: Scene vs Summary with Susan Bernhard & Rosie Sultan
Day 28: Mystery & Clarity with Emily Ross and Jessica Bird
Day 27: Setting with Hesse Phillips & Louise Berliner
Day 26: Talking Tension with Katrin Schumann
Day 25: Character & Event with Katherine Sherbrooke & Lise Haines
Day 24: The Point of Attack with Ron MacLean
Day 23: The Inciting Incident with Devi Snively
Day 22: Unstable Ground with Steven Lee Beeber
Day 21: Voice with Rachel Barenbaum & EB Bartels
Day 20: The Author, Narrator, Character Merge with Shuchi Saraswat
Day 19: Multiple POVs with EB Moore & Mark Guerin
Day 18: Unusual POVs with David Abrams & Allison Amend
Day 17: Omniscience with Weike Wang & Julia Rold
Day 16: 3rd Person Limited with Whitney Scharer & Linda Schlossberg
Day 15: First Person Pros & Cons with Maya Shanbhag Lang & Lauren Acampora
Day 14: Stakes with Hank Phillippi Ryan & Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Day 13: Secondary Characters with Nancy Crochiere
Day 12: Backstory with Aube Rey Lescure & Shilpi Suneja
Day 11: Courtney Maum & Margot Livesey Talk Attitude
Day 10: Misbeliefs & What Your Characters Need to Learn
Day 9: What's a Narrator Good For? with Steve Almond & Kate Racculia
Day 8: Character Desire with Ilan Mochari & Marjan Kamali
Day 7: Obstacles (Better Done than Perfect) with Dariel Suarez
Day 6: Tricks for Staying in Your Chair
Day 5: Burrowing with Grace Talusan & Jessica Keener
Day 4: In-Between Pantsing & Plotting with Jane Roper
Day 3: Plotting with Virginia Pye and Anjali Mitter Duva
Day 2: Process (by the Seat of Your Pants)
Day 1: Goal Setting with Kelly Ford