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.
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Theme music: "1982" by See Jazz
Episode Description
Brain 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."
Links
Theme 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:
Theme music: “1982” by See Jazz
Episode Description
What 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.
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Theme 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:
Theme music: “1982” by See Jazz