Words Are Hard Podcast

There are two things you need to know about this episode. One, that it’s completely, 100% off-topic, containing absolutely no writing advice whatsoever. Two, that it’s probably (okay, definitely) NSFW. Welcome to Words Are Hard: After Dark! In these special episodes, we’ll be taking a more relaxed approach than usual,… Continue reading

Love is in the air! Or, more accurately, we decided we’d better make at least a small concession to the fact that February is the month of Valentine’s Day. This episode, then, is all about writing romance. As we’re a podcast full of fantasy writers, we focus primarily on how… Continue reading

With the recent release of John Wick 2, we go back to the first film for an in-depth review and story chat. We cover plot, characterisation, symbolism and more in this discussion, proving that even action films – all too easily dismissed as being shallow – can have more depth… Continue reading

A new year is a great time for a new start, and fulfilling a few resolutions. If your plan in 2017 is to write a novel for the very first time, this is the episode for you! This one is particularly intended for anyone who wants to write, but has… Continue reading

What do you do to make your characters feel more real? How, as a writer, can you get into the head of a person who’s never existed anywhere but your head? What happens if the emotions your character needs to feel are a long way from what you as a… Continue reading

That title is self-explanatory, right? It’s time for another of our Q&A episodes, and this is the first we’ve managed to do with all four hosts! We also have, appropriately for the season, a festive theme, in which we find out that most of our hosts are… well, not very… Continue reading

It’s time to return to Anchorhead! In this episode, three of our hosts return to the Lovecraftian town of Anchorhead, to continue our investigations into this mysterious place, and the rather creepy house we now find ourselves in. It’s fair to say we’ve finally got the hang of navigating this… Continue reading

Somehow, November has come and gone, bringing with it this year’s NaNoWriMo. Two of our hosts were taking part and two weren’t, so in this episode we discuss what we’ve all been working on, both for NaNo and outside it. We chat about the plots and characters of our specific… Continue reading

Death is missing – presumed . . . er . . . gone. Which leads to the kind of chaos you always get when an important public service is withdrawn. Meanwhile, on a little farm far, far away, a tall dark stranger is turning out to be really good with… Continue reading

Continuing in the spirit of Halloween, today we delve into the Lovecraftian world of Anchorhead. Join us as we tackle this eerie text-based adventure game, discovering the secrets of a rain-soaked New England town as we break into buildings, get lost up dead-end streets, and find that there are apparently… Continue reading

Today, in the scary spirit of Halloween, we’ve got a special, bonus episode for you! We’re joined by Jalinar, from Chronicles of Tyria, to talk about one of his specialist subjects: bad fan-fiction (which, if you listened to the first episode of this season, you’ll know really is terrifying). We… Continue reading

In tonight’s episode, we return to the subject of inspiration, and where we find ideas for our fiction. Our focus this time is on music and visual art, with a little foray into anime (where else are you going to find naked wolf girls?). We talk about creating soundtracks for… Continue reading

And we’re back! After our summer break, it’s time for some re-introductions and a catch-up with everything we’ve been up to over the last couple of months. We chat about holidays, writing, books and a whole lot more. We also introduce a new segment, which we’ll be doing every few… Continue reading

In our final episode of Season 1, and following July’s Camp NaNoWriMo, we take a relaxed look at the ways writers can decompress after finishing a long project (or after an apocalypse – yes, we get distracted by talking about zombies). Sometimes, that’s as simple as playing a video game… Continue reading

In honour of July’s Camp NaNoWriMo, this episode is all about writing long projects. We cover the difficulties involved in working on a longer story, including everything from burn-out to forgetting your characters’ names, as well as the ways to combat these tricky parts. It’s important to remember, too, that… Continue reading

For our tenth episode, we dive into the subject of inspiration. This is a big topic, but we chat about some of the ways you can find ideas for your fiction when you’re feeling stuck, or just want to get a new story off the ground. Our personal examples include… Continue reading

What do you do when you want to write about a subject you don’t know anything about? In this episode, the whole crew is present to tackle this thorny issue. We cover the basics of research where technical and location knowledge are needed, but also the trickier subject of ‘writing… Continue reading

This episode, we come back to the Q&A format. There are questions, there are answers, and there are many, many tangents. Topics under discussion this week include juggling multiple writing projects, habits and rituals in our writing routines, the tools we use to write with, and genres we absolutely can’t… Continue reading

In the wake of the Orlando shootings at the Pulse nightclub on June 12th 2016, we’ve recorded a short special episode to offer our condolences to all those involved. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy, both the victims and their families and friends. We also know that… Continue reading

It’s review time! In this episode, we finally get the whole crew together, for an in-depth discussion of Mad Max: Fury Road. We talk about everything from characterisation, world-building and language use, to pacing, themes and the role of women in action movies. In case it isn’t obvious, this episode… Continue reading