First Person Present

Banana pudding guilt, a stalker, and a trip back to Michigan that refused to cooperate. In this episode, Josh and Dasha wade into the murky gap between a research trip and a writing residency—and why confusing the two might be the cruelest thing you can do to yourself. Then, the triumphant return of Reddit dot com, where writers explain “why they stop writing (only the truth).”Call in with questionsVisit our site for full show notesLinks:The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria RilkeRilke’s complete quote: “Verses are experiences”Nick Drake by Richard Morton JackCosmic Music: The Life, Art, and Trancendence of Alice Coltrane by Andy BetaLorrie Moore’s short story, “How to Become a Writer”“The Goldfinch won a Pulitzer and it sucks,” Reddit thread by /u/edward_radicalThe Dunning-Kruger effectTheme music: “1982” by See Jazz

Recorded live on the busiest day of AWP 26 in Baltimore, Josh and Dasha drag a microphone onto the conference floor—ambient noise, raised voices, a missing scarf, and all—for the first of two episodes from the convention. In between the chaos, a conversation about what AWP actually feels like from the inside: the surprising generosity of writers in person versus online, the live blog Josh has been writing from the hotel room between days on the floor, and the way even a conference vlog can become an exercise in the real problems of life writing. Then the main event: a conversation with short story writer and educator Pamela Gullard, whose collection Lake Crescent and Other Spirits just landed her a finalist spot in the Foreword Reviews short fiction contest. Call in with questionsVisit our site for full show notesLinks:Pam Gullard’s Lake Crescent and Other SpiritsBarrett Warner’s Galileo PressBrad Listi’s otherppl and DeepDiveEdgar Allen Poe’s “exhalation of the spirit”Theme music: “1982” by See Jazz

Crowded trains, rolled manuscripts, and ten stolen minutes with a sleeping baby—Part 2 of First Person Present’s special Night Moves episode opens with an honest look at what a writing practice actually looks like when life refuses to cooperate. Dasha reports from the trenches of a major draft milestone, describing the particular satisfaction of physically wrestling with a printed manuscript on a standing-room-only subway car, and what it means when your writing window closes the moment you zip your bag. Josh reflects on the difference between long designated chunks and the daily incremental habit he's trying to reclaim. Together they push back on the romance of the four-hour writing session and the Paris Review mythology of artists with endless leisure—and make the case that accumulation, not marathon output, is what actually finishes books.Then, a caller question about the hardest thing writers face when working close to home: writing about real people. Josh and Dasha dig into the Art Monster controversy, Knausgaard's My Struggle and the uncle who sued, the way people find themselves in fiction that was never about them, and why the person you least expect is almost always the one who ends up upset. They argue for removing every barrier when the work is being made (you can always not publish) while being clear-eyed that fallout is probably coming, and that the antidote to it is complication over thesis, nuance over score-settling. Also: Walter the dog has been depicted beautifully throughout, and he doesn't know how good he has it.Call in with questionsVisit our site for full show notesLinks:Who Is the Bad Art Friend? - New York TimesKnausgaard’s Ruthless Freedom - Public BooksA take on Czesław Miłosz’s family quote by Julian Barnes - New StatesmanThe Paris Review Interviews ArchiveSincerity, Irony, Autofiction - by Christian LorentzenTheme music: “1982” by See Jazz

Can subtlety be taught, or is it something a writer either has or doesn't? In this late-night edition of First Person Present, Josh and Dasha crack open a bottle of wine, announce a shift to biweekly episodes ahead of AWP, and wrestle with the question every writer dreads—what if the kind of writing you most admire isn't the kind you're built to produce? Dasha reveals her revision roadmap and an ambitious one-month timeline that Josh calls unreasonable. They revisit the old advice about protecting your writing time and find, now with a baby and a dog-cat war in the background, that it holds up more than ever—even if it means living with a dirty house. Then a Reddit question about Kazuo Ishiguro sends them into a real disagreement about subtlety, voice, and whether revising toward grace just produces murkiness. Joan Didion makes her official podcast debut, a mysterious book arrives in the mail the day after being wished for, and the wine does its job.Call in with questionsVisit our site for full show notesLinks: Levin’s Mowing SceneKirkus on Never Let Me Go — "With perfect pacing and infinite subtlety" Never Let Me Go at 20Joan Didion, "Why I Write"Notes to John by Joan Didion Theme music: "1982" by See Jazz

Full show notes on our website.A snowstorm, a little free library discovery, and the eternal question of creative fidelity collide as Josh and Dasha experiment with something new: live Reddit questions about the craft.But first, Dasha reports a development that would make Hemingway wince—she's started a short story while supposedly committed to a decade-long novel project. Is this creative adultery, or has she finally made peace with visiting what she delicately calls "the prostitute of the short story"? The conversation turns to inspiration versus observation, and why stumbling onto a beatnik anthology by Ed Sanders on the way to the train might be exactly the kind of randomness every writer needs.Then, attempting to channel authors they've never read (and occasionally misgendering 😬), they tackle questions about writing fight scenes and generating ideas. The secret to a good fight scene? Constant reversals—borrowed wisdom from too many hours of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As for where ideas come from, forget the "what if" premise generator; try living presently with your notes app open.Apologies in advance to Lee Child, Riley Sager, and anyone else caught in the crossfire of their confident ignorance.Call in with questionsWatch on YouTubeLinks:Tales of Beatnik Glory by Ed SandersThe Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway"The Battler" / "Fifty Grand" by Ernest Hemingway (Men Without Women)"A Sound of Thunder" by Ray BradburyBuffy the Vampire Slayer Fight CompilationTheme music: "1982" by See Jazz

Call in with your questionFor inquiries: https://www.heweshouse.com/The holidays are over, obligations are piling up, and the buffet of overthinking is open for business. In this episode, Josh and Dasha dive into the peculiar vertigo of early-year overstimulation—that state where thoughts loop like a broken record and writing about yourself only amplifies the chaos. Is this mania? Is this just being human? (Our one listener with a psychiatry degree better let us know.)Jenny Offill's "Depression-era writer" approach to salvaging old work sparks a conversation about the folders we keep (whether you call it "failures" or "the well") and why nothing you write ever truly goes to waste. Sometimes the bucket comes up with exactly what you need.Then, a caller frozen between memoir, autofiction, and essay collection gets unstuck. Genre, it turns out, is largely a marketing decision masquerading as an artistic one. The real question isn't what to call your book—it's whether labeling it is preventing you from finishing it. We explore the freedom of thinking "fiction" even when writing from life, the John D'Agata school of bending truth for emotional resonance, and the James Frey rehabilitation tour (now featuring AI-generated content, apparently).Links:Jenny Offill, WeatherNicholson Baker, VoxJohn D'Agata’s "What Happens There" and his subsequent interview“A Million Little Lies” at The Smoking GunJames Frey and AITheme music: "1982" by See Jazz

Paper versus pixels, telekinesis versus typing, and an unexpectedly heated polemic against Charles Dickens that absolutely nobody asked for. In this episode of First Person Present, Josh and Dasha explore the tactile, vulnerable act of writing by hand in an increasingly digital age, and why the process of typing up handwritten drafts might be more valuable than you think.Fresh off their first Hewes House community write-together session, they dive into the reading life: Tove Ditlevsen's incisive characterization, the mortifying experience of returning books to bookstores, and why one of them thinks Charles Dickens "just sucks" (spoiler: it's Josh, and he's ready for your angry voice memos). Dasha champions the radical act of marking up your books, while Josh makes a case for SparkNotes as a legitimate literary alternative to Great Expectations.Then it's back to Reddit, where the questions get existential: How do you deal with the pain of transcribing handwritten drafts when telekinesis remains frustratingly unavailable? And what do you do when your suspense novel has so many interconnected plot points it requires an actual equation to explain? The answers involve Lauren Groff's ceremonial burning habits, the vulnerability of exposed handwriting in cafes, and a plea to just let things happen in the present tense already.Plus: handbag subreddits, tree murder via excessive printing, and the atmospheric difference between writing on paper versus hiding behind password-protected documents.Links:Dasha’s new Substack columnThe Case for Paper: Handwriting vs TypingIf Your Novel’s Plot Is a Math Problem, Maybe It’s Time to SimplifyThe Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove DitlevsenFlesh by David SzalayPk: A Report on the Power of Psychokinesis, Mental Energy That Moves Matter by Michael H. BrownPeter Warren on IMDbr/writing subredditTheme music: "1982" by See Jazz

Dry January, the Year of the Red Horse, and the unexpected productivity of writing longhand in busy airports open Season 2 of First Person Present. When routine becomes stale and your home office starts feeling like a creative prison, what happens if you embrace the "scrappy performative energy" of public writing, even if it makes you feel exposed? (Exhibitionism, anybody?)Josh and Dasha introduce their new format with listener voicemails, starting with Brian B.'s guilty confession about generating a thousand words in an airport versus struggling in his quiet home office. The conversation explores the tension between beloved routines and the creative stagnation they can cause, from writing in bars (not this month) to the strategic use of location changes as a tool for breaking through writer's block.Then, diving into the science of habit formation and BJ Fogg's concept of habit anchoring, we examine why switching up small elements of your writing process (time of day, lighting, music, handwriting versus typing) can reveal something essential about the machine you're building. Plus: failed vampire novels, romance novels that turn into grief novels, and why Brad Listi's decade-long novel-in-progress should give us all hope.LinksThe Vampire Novel I’ll Never Write (And Why That's Okay)Habit Chaining for Writers: How to Build a Sustainable Writing Practice Without Forcing ItBeach Read by Emily HenryOtherppl PodcastBe Brief and Tell Them Everything by Brad ListiBJ Fogg's Tiny HabitsAtomic Habits by James ClearToo Much Birthday - The Cut (not New York Magazine lol)Theme music: "1982" by See Jazz

When brilliant ideas feel perfect in your head but turn "stale and ugly" on the page, is the problem your execution—or your expectations? Josh and Dasha tackle a writer's confession about motivation, world events, and the seductive comfort of ideation over actual writing. The conversation spirals into Ira Glass's famous gap between taste and execution, the dangerous pleasure of keeping ideas pristine in your mind, and why furniture acquisition has become an unexpected recurring theme on the podcast.Then, addressing another Reddit user’s litany of writing struggles—from romance without relationship experience to repetitive battle scenes—the hosts explore how fight choreography reveals character, why description works in layers like painting, and what Lord of the Rings' Battle of Helm's Deep can teach us about sustaining tension across long action sequences. Plus: the Gmail-to-self era of note-taking, WikiHow illustrations, and why you shouldn't trust the magic of unwritten ideas.LinksWhen Loving an Idea Keeps Your from Writing ItWhy Action Scenes Get Boring (and What They’re Really About)Ira Glass on The GapThe Battle of Helms DeepTheme music: "1982" by See Jazz

Episode DescriptionBrain fog, baby preparation, and the brutal honesty of Reddit comments converge in a conversation about what happens when life's major changes collide with a writing practice you've maintained for years. Can discipline and self-compassion coexist? And when does productive routine become unsustainable perfectionism?Josh and Dasha wrestle with the culture of self-permission in 2025—the tendency to tell struggling writers that it's okay to step away, rest, take a break. But what happens when you've spent your entire adult life showing up to the page, and suddenly someone tells you that your baby and pregnant partner should matter more than your novel? The tension between Eastern European work ethic and modern self-care wisdom reveals something deeper about habit, choice elimination, and the unglamorous middle sections of long projects.Then, tackling questions about the dreaded query letter process and academic writing obligations that cannibalize creative work, we explore how distilling your entire novel into four sentences can actually teach you something essential about your story. Plus: why some writers need to keep their day jobs far away from their creative practice, and the controversial strategy of writing first thing in the morning while giving students "the dregs."LinksThe Driver's Seat by Muriel SparkFresh, Green Life by Sebastian CastilloChelsea Hodson’s Morning Writing ClubBeyond How to Write a Query: Unlock Your Story’s EssenceIs a Creative Writing Degree Worth It?/r/writing subredditTheme music: "1982" by See Jazz

Facebook Marketplace truck negotiations and café tethering lead to a deeper conversation about the habits we practice—both the ones that serve our writing and the ones that sabotage it. When life gets scattered, so does the writing schedule, but the real revelation comes from recognizing how skillfully we can master avoidance behaviors without even noticing.From Annie Dillard's wisdom about how we spend our days to the harsh realities of penny-a-word fiction markets, Josh and Dasha tackle the uncomfortable truth about making money as a writer in 2025. The publishing landscape has shifted dramatically since the pulp fiction era, leaving even successful authors scraping by while the literary world runs on "goodwill and farts."Then, addressing questions about payment rates that haven't changed since the 1940s and the overwhelming possibilities of fiction writing, we explore when to research versus when to just write "it was raining" and move on. Sometimes the biggest obstacle to finishing isn't perfectionism—it's getting lost in preparation instead of prose.Links:​Annie Dillard - "The Writing Life"​Big Fiction by Dan Sinykin​April Davila's newsletter​Why Your Writing Coach Won't Promise You a Six Figure Book Deal​Why Writers Excel at Avoiding WritingTheme music: “1982” by See Jazz

Episode DescriptionWhat do psychedelic concert visuals, furniture shopping, and Raymond Carver's comma obsession have in common? They're all ways writers process the concept of spectacle—and avoid talking about revision while actually talking about revision the entire time.From King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard's mass hypnosis event to the masculine ambition of doorstop novels, Josh and Dasha explore what makes art spectacular and whether quiet, dialogue-driven stories can compete with literary behemoths like Moby Dick. Along the way, furniture becomes a metaphor for creative decision-making, and the eternal struggle between gut instinct and endless tinkering reveals itself in both interior design and sentence-level revision.Then, addressing a vulnerable question from Table Grapes about writing difficult autobiographical material for YA audiences, we navigate the delicate balance between graphic honesty and age-appropriate storytelling, plus practical strategies for creating emotional distance from traumatic personal material—including the therapeutic power of puppy videos.Links:How Book Revision Is Like Buying New FurnitureKing Gizzard and the Lizard WizardForest Hills Stadium, QueensMoby Dick by Herman MelvilleMiddlemarch by George EliotAnna Karenina by Leo TolstoyEdith WhartonRaymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”When Your Characters Break Free: Character Defamiliarization Techniques for Writing Trauma Fiction Safely/r/writingToo Cute on Animal PlanetPuppy videos for recoveryTheme music: “1982” by See Jazz

Seven drafts. Four years. One novel that refuses to surrender. In the inaugural episode of First Person Present, we step into the vulnerable territory where craft meets psychology, exploring why revision feels like such an emotional battlefield, and how our relationship with our own work can become our greatest obstacle.Through candid conversation about their current projects, Hewes House writing coaches Josh and Dasha examine the delicate balance between expansion and contraction in the writing process, the myth of "show, don't tell," and what happens when perfectionism becomes paralysis. We tackle questions from the writing community about writer's block, creative obsession, and the courage required to truly re-envision your work.Links:The Sixth Sense's Narrative TheoryHemingway's Iceberg TheoryCold Eyes for RevisionPeter Ho Davies - "The Art of Revision" (Graywolf Press)Helen Zell Writers' Program (University of Michigan)r/writing subredditTheme music: “1982” by See Jazz