20 Great Podcasts For Writers
Podcasts for writers
Whether you’re looking for help and advice on fiction, non-fiction, self-publishing or finding an agent, or you just want to hear how writers manage their time and deal with writer’s block, we’ve got you covered with our list of 20 great podcast for writers.
You’ll also find a few links to resources that are a bit different to the usual podcast format but offer a wealth of interviews and archived material, such as The National Archive podcast, perfect for researching social and political history in the UK, and Oxford University’s podcast focusing on Black and British Asian writers.
This list isn’t ranked in any particular order. Different writers and different stages of your writing journey will require different information and inspiration, so dive in and enjoy exploring these amazing podcasts to find the right one for you right now.
Happy listening!
Write Now
Write Now with Sarah Werner is a podcast for writers of all ages and skill levels looking to find a healthy work, life, and writing balance, with a mission to help other creatives find confidence and success. Since launching in 2015, Write Now has racked up over one million downloads and more than 350 five-star reviews on Apple Podcasts.
Sarah’s aim is to be positive and encouraging, and episodes include topics like ‘How To Write When You Don’t Feel Like Writing’, ‘Living A Creative Life’, ‘Getting Into Flow’, and ‘When Your Writing Dreams Change’. Her honest advice and inspiration will bring you everything you need to take action and pursue your writing passion.
Querty
Qwerty is a podcast by, about and for writers who want to live the writing life. Host Marion Roach Smith is a memoir coach, memoir teacher, memoir editor and memoir writer who owns and runs ‘The Memoir Project’, a system that offers online classes, information and tools to meet all your memoir needs.
Her curriculum of courses range from book structure to the art of the personal essay, as well as writing opinion pieces, digital commentary and book-length memoir.
The Memoir Project also offers six professional editors, all of whom can help you develop your work and take it where you want it to go.
Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses is a fast-paced, educational podcast for writers, by writers. Their goal is to help their listeners become better at their craft. Created by Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler and Dan Wells in 2008, the podcast is now on Season 19 and has a team of permanent hosts. Episodes are around 15 minutes long, making them easy to squeeze into short pockets of time during your day.
Whether you write for fun or for profit, are new to the world of writing or an old hand, Writing Excuses offers something of value. All the episodes from November 2023 are focused on NaNoWriMo and are well worth checking out if you’re planning a novel or major writing project.
In Ten Years Time
In Ten Years Time: How to live a creative life is a podcast and a philosophy. The ‘Fairy Godmother of Creativity’ Tricia Duffy is here to support you to fulfil your creative potential with a balance that’s right for you.
There’s magic in the combination of long-term planning coupled with small daily steps. This podcast is designed to inspire you to live a truly creative life. Tricia challenges the assumptions we have about success and how we use our time, she offers a step-by-step guide to creating a ten-year plan and addresses all the issues facing us as writers such as imposter syndrome, creative blocks and much more.
Tricia has been on a journey to change her own creative life. She uses her own wisdom, the experience of others and thousands of hours of research, distilled into the podcast, free resources and a fortnightly newsletter so that you can do the same.
Writes4Women
Writes4Women is a podcast celebrating female writers, offering insightful interviews, industry tips and inspiring stories for emerging and established authors alike.
Hosted by authors Pamela Cook and Kel Butler, this Australian podcast aims to celebrate and empower female writers. The show features in-depth interviews with a diverse range of female voices in the writing industry. From debut authors to established bestsellers, each episode provides valuable insights, advice, and inspiration for writers at all stages of their creative journey.
With a focus on uplifting women’s voices in literature and beyond, it offers listeners a supportive community, tips on navigating the publishing world, and encouragement to keep pursuing their writing dreams.
Writers Routine
Writer’s Routine is an arts and culture podcast for writers, featuring interviews with some of the world’s most successful authors to find out how they work.
In each episode host Dan Simpson chats to a different writer, taking a sneak peek inside their working day to bring you plenty of tips, tricks and inspiration for your own work in progress.
Whether it’s a frantic night-owl burning the midnight oil, an early riser who’s at their desk by dawn or an introvert who prefer to lock themselves away for days at a time, find out how they manage their writing life now that they’ve escaped the regular 9 to 5 routine.
Write Minded
Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is a weekly podcast for writers craving a unique blend of inspiration and real talk about the ups and downs of the writing life.
Hosted by Brooke Warner of She Writes and Grant Faulkner of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), each theme-focused episode features an interview with a writer, author, or publishing industry professional.
Brooke and Grant interview writers, authors and publishing industry folk, and bring to this weekly podcast their shared spirit of community and collaboration along with a deeply held belief that everyone is a writer and everyone’s story matters.
Beautiful Writers
The Beautiful Writers podcast features insightful conversations with bestselling authors, screenwriters and creative icons, exploring their writing journeys and creative processes.
Hosted by author Linda Sivertsen, each episode takes listeners behind the scenes of the writing process, revealing the habits, challenges, and triumphs of some of the world’s most celebrated storytellers.
Guests like Elizabeth Gilbert, Cheryl Strayed and Anne Lamott share their wisdom, offering practical tips for aspiring writers along with reflections on creativity, success, and the writing life. With a mix of humour, honesty, and inspiration, it’s a must-listen for writers and anyone passionate about storytelling and the craft of writing.
Fiction Writing Made Easy
How do you create compelling characters that readers will love? How do you build a believable world for your story? What does it even mean to write a story that works?
These are just some of the big questions that developmental editor and book coach Savannah Gilbo digs into on the top-ranked Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast. Each week she shares simple, actionable tools and strategies that will help you write, edit, and publish your book.
The podcast is dedicated to helping writers of all levels improve their craft. Savannah has years of experience in the publishing industry and shares actionable tips to help you easily reach your book publishing goal. Each episode is a deep dive into topics like creating believable worlds and compelling characters, building tension and conflict, and much more. This podcast is a must-listen if you’re ready to take your fiction writing to the next level.
Guests like Elizabeth Gilbert, Cheryl Strayed and Anne Lamott share their wisdom, offering practical tips for aspiring writers along with reflections on creativity, success, and the writing life. With a mix of humour, honesty, and inspiration, it’s a must-listen for writers and anyone passionate about storytelling and the craft of writing.
Self Publishing School
Every week Chandler Bolt, host and CEO of Self Publishing School, interviews highly successful authors to discover how they write and launch their books and how they use books to grow their business.
The Self Publishing School podcast is an opportunity to learn from experts leading the industry in all things book writing, book publishing, business growth, marketing, and more.
With appearances from guests Hal Elrod, Susie Moore, Robert Kiyosaki, and many others, aspiring writers and authors who want to sell more books can learn how to successfully write and publish a book that can grow their business and change lives.
The Creative penn
Best-selling author Joanna Penn launched her website The Creative Penn in 2008, providing advice on creativity, craft and the business of being a writer.
The Creative Penn Podcast For Authors has over 700 episodes that as of January 2024 have clocked up over 9.4 million downloads across 228 countries.
Episodes are posted every Monday and include interviews, inspiration and information on writing and the business of being an author. The Creative Penn Podcast is in the top 1% of podcasts with over 10,000 downloads in the first seven days of publishing, and 10K-25K downloads per episode, so this is a must-listen for anyone serious about their writing.
London Writers’ Salon
What does it take to launch, grow and sustain a successful career as a writer? This weekly podcast is hosted by friends Parul Bavishi and Matt Trinetti, founders of the London Writers’ Salon, a home for writers around the world to grow a writing practice, refine their writing craft, build creative lives and find creative friends.
Each episode they sit down with a writer they admire, from best-selling novelists to popular bloggers, award-winning playwrights, journalists, poets, and more, to explore the mindset, practical tools, craft secrets and creative practices they use to write well, publish often, and build successful and sustainable writing careers.
In Writing
In Writing with Hattie Crisell is a podcast offering candid conversations with writers about their creative processes, habits, and the challenges of storytelling.
Host and journalist Hattie Crisell delves into the creative lives of writers, offering insightful and intimate conversations about how stories are crafted. Each episode features guests opening up about their methods, inspiration and the realities of professional writing, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the craft.
Whether you’re an aspiring writer or simply curious about how stories come to life, In Writing provides practical tips, inspiration, and an honest reflection on the art of putting words to the page.
Self-Publishing Advice Podcast
The Self-Publishing Advice Podcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors provides a comprehensive guide for indie authors.
Wednesday’s weekly Advice Podcast features a Member Q&A hosted by Sacha Black and Michael La Ronn, Publishing for Profit by Orna Ross, Creating Better Books with Howard Lovy, and Reaching More Readers led by Holly Greenland and Dale Roberts.
Friday’s weekly Self-Publishing News Podcast presents News with Dan Holloway, who breaks down the week’s key self-publishing updates, and every Sunday features either Inspirational Indie Author Interviews hosted by Howard Lovy, Creative Self Publishing with Orna Ross, or ALLi Campaigns led by Matty Dalrymple.
The Writer Files
Host Kelton Reid studies the habits, habitats, and brains of some of the biggest and brightest authors of our time.
Tune in each week to hear Kelton in conversation with best selling authors and learn about their writing habits and how they keep the ink flowing, the cursor moving, and avoid the dreaded writer’s block.
The Writer Files covers productivity, creativity and the neuroscience behind authors’ success. Guests include Nobel Prize winners, #1 New York Times bestselling novelists, short story authors, journalists, bloggers, neuroscientists and more, making this podcast a unique source of advice and inspiration from a wide variety of writers.
Great Writers Inspire
Part of Oxford University’s podcast series, Great Writers Inspire at Home is an open educational resource hub for today’s Black and British Asian writing.
Contemporary Black and Asian British writing is changing how we see and read literature in English around Britain today. This series brings some of the best writers working in and beyond the UK into conversation with readers to discuss reading, writing, and how literature shapes our perceptions of the world and our identities within it.
Included in this series you will find writers reading from and discussing their work, responses to this literature by a variety of readers including students, and a special poetic performance.
Grammar Girl
Mignon Fogarty is the founder of the Quick and Dirty Tips network and creator of Grammar Girl, which has been named one of Writer’s Digest’s 101 best websites for writers multiple times.
Mignon’s Grammar Girl podcast is a friendly guide to the English language. If grammar, punctuation and style is something that you struggle with then this is definitely the podcast to subscribe to, with fun simple tips to improve your writing.
Mignon is an inductee into the Podcasting Hall of Fame and the author of seven books on language, including the New York Times bestseller Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing.
The National Archives Podcast
The National Archives podcast On the Record, unearths the real life stories found in their vast collections.
Join The National Archives’ experts and special guests as they dig deep into the people behind the paper and unearth the real life stories found in their vast collections.
With fascinating accounts of spies, monarchs, protests and revolts, forbidden love, pandemics, and so much more, each episode draws from an archive of over 11 million records that bring the stories of everyday people of the past to life.
Video episodes are also available, including public information and education films, along with associated documents and website content.
The Writing Life
The Writing Life podcast is for anyone who writes, and aims to help you improve your writing, from theme, structure and routine to language, character and writing specific genres.
Produced by the National Centre for Writing at Dragon Hall in Norwich, each week they talk to writers about their writing journeys and techniques, from early career debuts to self-publishers and narrative designers.
Featured authors include Margaret Atwood, Jackie Kay, Sara Collins, Antti Tuomainen, Val McDermid, Sarah Perry, Elif Shafak and many more.
The substack Podcast
The Substack Podcast features conversations with writers, bloggers, and creative thinkers, exploring their journeys, successes, and how they’ve built their audiences on Substack.
The Substack Podcast offers in-depth conversations with writers, bloggers, and creative thinkers who have successfully built their platforms on Substack.
Each episode explores the personal journeys of these creators, uncovering their challenges, insights, and the unique ways they connect with readers. Hosted by the Substack team, the podcast delves into how these individuals developed their voices, grew their audiences, and turned their passions into thriving independent publications. Whether you’re a writer, creative, or just curious about building an online presence, The Substack Podcast provides valuable inspiration and practical advice for anyone looking to forge their own path.
