Episode 23: Literary Field Trips
Take a ride with the WITTScasters as they discuss literary field trips: the book-centric places they’ve been, the places they want to go, and why we visit literary sites at all. Plus, a discussion of...
View ArticleEpisode 24: Scene vs. Summary
Aaaaaaand scene… or is it summary? The WITTScasters discuss fiction’s two combatting modes of telling stories: scene and summary. Then things get weird, as discussion branches out to include horizontal...
View ArticleEpisode 25: Podcasting
Jon still doesn’t really know what a podcast is, yet the boys somehow made it to episode 25. Listen as they reflect on the last six months, discuss literary magazine covers, and debate the existential...
View ArticleEpisode 26: The Workshop
The author is now silenced. Join the WITTScasters for a discussion of fiction writing workshops: how they work, what the rules are, what not to do, and how to get the most out of them. Once they’e all...
View ArticleEpisode 27: Poetry
This week, the WITTScasters trade in their boxy station wagon of fiction for the sexy, reckless sports car of poetry. The boys wade into some general poetry questions — given their quick nature and our...
View ArticleEpisode 28: Time
In Einstein’s famous equation, E=MC^2, time is a variable inversely proportional to distance, thus ensuring the speed of light remains a const– Oh, wait. This is a fiction writing podcast, which means...
View ArticleEpisode 29: Obsession
We’re obsessed! In Episode 29, the WITTScasters discuss obsessions in writing: different levels of obsessions, their own particular obsessions, and whether it’s wonderful or horrible to see your own...
View ArticleEpisode 30: Place
Where are you going, where have you been? This week, the WITTScasters talk about place in fiction: what makes a place pop on the page, the merits of real, imaginary, and generic settings, and the...
View ArticleEpisode 31: Wild Card 3
What is the plural of “apparatus?” What does the world have against Jonathan Franzen? Why, oh why, would someone think it’s a good idea to remake RoboCop? The WITTScasters tackle these and other heady...
View ArticleEpisode 32: Research
This week, Ben, Brian, and Jon dust off the old card catalog to talk about the role of research in writing fiction. Where do you go to find the details that make writing crackle with life? Does good...
View ArticleEpisode 33: What Is Art?
The boys discuss the nature of art, and they don’t hold back: fiction, poetry, photography, cave painting, film, basketball, sonatas, flambés, and advertisements… it’s all in here. And there’s no...
View ArticleEpisode 34: The MacGuffin
The WITTScasters kick this episode off with the MacGuffin–what is it and how does it work?–which leads them into chatter about wandering books, backstory, aesthetes vs. humanists, novels vs. stories,...
View ArticleEpisode 35: Entropy
This episode kicks off with a discussion of the scientific laws of the universe–no big deal–including a proposal to defund the third law of thermodynamics and shut down physics. (FYI, the idea of...
View ArticleEpisode 36: Writers and the People Who Love Them
It’s not easy to find a lover who understands how important your writing time is, or a friend who appreciates the triumph of a few hours of good revision. The guys discuss the value of surrounding...
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Episode 37: WITTScast West — Boulder, CO
Look at this! The boys enjoyed some Upslope Craft Lager while recording in one place for the first time in WITTScast history. Here they are in Brian’s basement, where the boys share their thoughts on...
View ArticleEpisode 38: NaNoWriMo
November means three things: Thanksgiving, mustaches, and National Novel Writing Month, the last of which the WITTScasters discuss in this episode (including the plot of Ben’s NaNoWriMo novel from his...
View ArticleEpisode 39: Life Experience
The guys all enjoyed Joseph Scapellato’s “Drunk in Texas, Two New Friends Talked Horses,” the discussion of which leads them to wonder whether people should write about their life experience, and...
View ArticleEpisode 40: Hunger, Artists
We may have crossed the episode 40 threshold, but there will be no dad jeans here. The boys delve into the world of earth science, psychoanalyze Ben and his female characters, and give a report on...
View ArticleEpisode 41: Truth in Non-fiction
You don’t get an airport named after you for making friends. That and other life lessons await in episode 41, where the boys discuss the ways non-fiction reading fits into a fiction writer’s regimen....
View ArticleEpisode 42: New Year’s Resolutions
The boys ring in 2014 with their New Year’s resolutions, in a conversation spanning several topics they know nothing about: writing a novel in a week, writing on amphetamines, artists’ colonies, NEA...
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