StoryADay presents: I, WRITER - A Writing Podcast about Building a Successful Writing Practice
Julie Duffy
Welcome to StoryADay Presents: I, WRITER – A Writing Podcast about building a fulfilling writing life.
Hosted by author and StoryADay founder Julie Duffy, this show helps writers of all kinds—novelists, short-story authors, poets, or anyone building a creative habit—turn writing into a sustainable, joyful practice.
Each episode blends practical writing tips with mindset reframes drawn from the I, WRITER Framework (Imagine, Write, Refine, Improve, Triumph, Engage, Repeat), to help you avoid overwhelm and make more progress, faster.
Whether you’re drafting your first novel, exploring short fiction, or fighting writer’s block, you’ll find strategies here to strengthen your writing routine, spark creativity, and keep going.
With insights from the popular StoryADay Challenge and years of guiding writers worldwide, Julie shows you how to create momentum, finish projects, and share your work with confidence.
Music credit: Alan McPike (http://standardstrax.com)
Hosted by author and StoryADay founder Julie Duffy, this show helps writers of all kinds—novelists, short-story authors, poets, or anyone building a creative habit—turn writing into a sustainable, joyful practice.
Each episode blends practical writing tips with mindset reframes drawn from the I, WRITER Framework (Imagine, Write, Refine, Improve, Triumph, Engage, Repeat), to help you avoid overwhelm and make more progress, faster.
Whether you’re drafting your first novel, exploring short fiction, or fighting writer’s block, you’ll find strategies here to strengthen your writing routine, spark creativity, and keep going.
With insights from the popular StoryADay Challenge and years of guiding writers worldwide, Julie shows you how to create momentum, finish projects, and share your work with confidence.
Music credit: Alan McPike (http://standardstrax.com)
Episodes
Mentioned books
Nov 12, 2018 • 18min
117 - Getting Unstuck During NaNoWriMo - Part 1
NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writers' Month, is well underway. By this point in week two your story might have become a little bit, well, stuck. In these next two episodes I share tips and advice from myself and others about how to get unstuck when you still have 30,000 words to write! Unsticking Yourself thread on Twitter: https://stada.me/unstuck Tony Conaway's article on public readings: https://stada.me/tonytalk Further reading: What To Do When You're Stuck In The Middle of Your Novel, (https://stada.me/wdstuck) from Writer's Digest, with advice from the excellent DIYMFA book by Gabriela Pereira James Scott Bell's book: Write Your Novel From The Middle
Oct 20, 2018 • 13min
116 - Critique Week Is Back! Oct 21-31
Join our critique 'week', Oct 21-31 (because wouldn't it be nice if every week had a couple of extra days to get stuff done?) and get access to the Revisions & Critique Mini Course as well as having me and 3 of your peers critique your work. Use the code: octearlybird before noon (EST) on Sunday, Oct 21 to save $20 https://stada.me/crit18
Oct 6, 2018 • 20min
115 - Slow Down
This month, as we transition from StoryADay September into the rest of our writing lives, I encourage you to slow down, turn left, and break things. LINKS SWAGr: https://stada.me/swagr Opening Lines Article: http://storyaday.org/opening-lines/
Sep 24, 2018 • 16min
114 - On Promiscuity
In which I talk about when (writerly) promiscuity is good, and announce the winners of the September giveaway of Windy Lynn Harris's book, "Writing & Selling Short Stories & Personal Essays". Bonus points if you can spot the sound of my kid's hamster trying to break out, in the background. #IThoughtHamstersWereSupposedToBeNocturnal
Sep 8, 2018 • 18min
113 - Should You Edit While You Write?
This could be a really short podcast (just me screaming "NO!"), but I decided to talk in a more constructive way about the reasons why I think it's important to write fast first drafts and save revisions for later. With thanks to my StoryADay Superstars group for raising this talking point as they go through StoryADay September.
Aug 11, 2018 • 16min
112 - Backstories & Integrity
Firstly I talk about some people who are making short and long fiction work for them: Mary Robinette Kowal, whose new novels The Calculating Stars grew out of a short story, The Lady Astronaut of Mars; and Diana Gabaldon, who writes short stories in her Outlander universe to keep her readers occupied while she's working on the longer novels. I also talk about slang: Writing prompt: http://storyaday.org/wow-invented-languages/ Escape Pod episode: Me, Meg & The Thing by Gian-Paul Bergeron - http://escapepod.org/2018/08/02/escape-pod-639-me-meg-and-the-thing/ Prompts for this month: http://stada.me/backstory PEP TALK The second part of this podcast is a pep talk about living up to your writing commitments in the face of life's urgent tasks and why it's so important ... and not just to you.
Jul 28, 2018 • 16min
111 - The Joy of Writing (Backstories)
Writing a longer work like a novel can get a bit overwhelming. Today I encourage you to use short stories to explore areas of your novel's world that you might not have dug deeply into. This can help unblock the writing process and get you back to a place where you're enjoying your writing. LINKS ==== Write on Wednesday prompts: https://stada.me/wow
Jul 14, 2018 • 16min
110 - Putting Systems in Place
This month I am still talking about writing for minor holidays and anniversaries. In this podcast I reveal the grand plan behind this: it's a system for focusing on particularly stories, regularly. I talk about the importance of systems (because apparently Ihave a problem with the word "routine") and I recommend you check out Tim Grahl's new book Running Down The Dream. If you want a super-bundle that includes not only Tim's book, but the new book by Stephen Pressfield too "The Artist's Journey" (swoon!), you can find that here. https://stada.me/grahl (not an affiliate link. I'm just a huge fan of both of these guys) The bundle contains all ebook formats plus audio book files. Quite the steal!
Jun 30, 2018 • 29min
109 - Writing For Minor Holidays
Minor holidays are a great opportunity for writers to show editors why they need to publish *this* story *now*. Forget about the over-subscribed holidays of Valentine's and Christmas. Instead, write about some oddball holidays. All StoryADay's prompts in June will be tailored to these odd little holidays and anniversaries. Listen to this episode to find out why you might want to write an Arbor Day or National Handwriting Day story. Plus some opportunities to give and invest in your writing. NOTES: Get Well Gabby Foundation is collecting NEW books to be distributed to children's oncology wards. Send them to PO Box 555, Ocean View, DE 19970 or contact your local hospital to see if they need donations.
Jun 16, 2018 • 19min
108 - June is for Revisions
This month at StoryADay we're all about revisions. This episode takes a look at how to revise your short stories without becoming overwhelmed, and invites you to think about submitting a story to StoryADay's showcase: Storyfest, coming up on June 23-24.
