Today on our show, we’re talking about structure, voice, commitment, and especially happy endings. The story you’ll hear was written, read, and sung by Amber Petty. What makes this story so much fun? You know it when you hear it. Amber Petty used to be an actor but now she writes and helps other writers get into freelance writing. In her acting days, she performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and did over 500 shows of the Off-Broadway 50 Shades! The Musical . She's written for The New...
Oct 20, 2021•22 min•Ep 114•Transcript available on Metacast Today on our show, we’re talking about how to frame a story. Not all publications are looking for the same thing. Actually, all pubs are different. On Writing Class Radio, we look for a change in the narrator or a discovery by the narrator. We want the narrator to reveal something big and vulnerable and important. We want something dramatic to happen. And then we want the narrator to make meaning of what happened. The story we bring you today doesn’t exactly fit into what we call a story, ...
Oct 06, 2021•22 min•Ep 113•Transcript available on Metacast Today on our show, we’re talking about voice in a new way. We always say, write like you speak. That’s one of the most important writing tenets, because if you write like you speak, you’re writing in the most truthful way. If you curse, curse. If you don’t speak in fancy prose, don’t write fancy prose. To hear more about voice, listen to Episode 43: Voices in Your Head , and Episode 44: Voices Carry . On today's episode, we ask the question, What if your physical voice says something...
Sep 22, 2021•19 min•Ep 112•Transcript available on Metacast Today on our show, we are featuring an essay by former student Sharon Rothberg. Sharon uses a philosophical concept to work out her feelings about the death of her daughter-in-law. Sharon's use of time and all lingo related to time is masterful. The story structure is also exceptional as is the balanced use of humor and vulnerability. This story really shows how writing helps people figure out things we can’t really understand. Sharon Rothberg lives in Miami, Florida with her hu...
Sep 08, 2021•22 min•Ep 111•Transcript available on Metacast For the month of August, 2021, we’re bringing back four of our listeners’ favorite episodes. Writing Class Radio brings you personal stories and tips on how to write your own stories. This episode originally aired March 3, 2020 on episode 79. Today on our show, we take a look at bringing an obsession into a story. It’s possible to go deep into an obsession that has almost nothing to do with the story you are trying to tell without being distracting. That obsession can deepen the meaning of ...
Aug 25, 2021•24 min•Ep 110•Transcript available on Metacast For the month of August, 2021, we’re bringing back four of our listeners’ favorite episodes. Writing Class Radio brings you personal stories and tips on how to write your own stories. This episode originally aired July 31, 2018 on episode 47. In this episode, we examine the popular writing tenet, show DON’T tell. We believe just showing is not only impossible, but detrimental to your story. Telling gives insight into what the narrator is thinking and feeling. To test this theory, we asked o...
Aug 18, 2021•27 min•Ep 109•Transcript available on Metacast For the month of August, 2021, we’re bringing back four of our listeners’ favorite episodes. Writing Class Radio brings you personal stories and tips on how to write your own stories. This episode originally aired May 18, 2017 on episode 30. The format for this episode is a little different. Today we’re bringing you a guest teacher, because we think it’s smart to get different perspectives. Joyce Maynard is one of Andrea’s favorite teachers in the world. Joyce has 17 books and has bee...
Aug 11, 2021•23 min•Ep 108•Transcript available on Metacast For the month of August, 2021, we’re bringing back four of our listeners’ favorite episodes. Writing Class Radio brings you personal stories and tips on how to write your own stories. This episode originally aired April 20, 2017 on episode 29. Allison Langer loves the process of working out her shit and reading it out loud. In class, she can’t hide behind a facade. Andrea Askowitz loves thinking about writing and ways to make stories stronger. She breaks down every sentence and takes out ne...
Aug 04, 2021•27 min•Ep 107•Transcript available on Metacast On episode 106, host Allison Langer tells a story about her post cancer hair. Allison’s story was rejected by The Washington Post. Should Allison give up and write something new? Or should she continue to send her story to other publications? Most often, even expertly-written stories get rejected because they’re just not a perfect fit for a particular publication at a particular time. But, how do you know if your story just sucks? Had Allison listened to Andrea’s edits, would she have gotten pub...
Jul 28, 2021•25 min•Ep 106•Transcript available on Metacast This episode is about teaching the reader/listener something they don’t know anything about. Teaching can be done in two ways. One, by taking the reader into a world foreign to most people and two, by relaying information that’s rarely discussed and possibly unknown to the average person. In the story we bring you today, listener and student Danielle Huggins does both. Danielle has Bipolar Disorder and takes us inside her mind while she’s depressed. She also teaches us about Electro Convulsive T...
Jul 14, 2021•20 min•Ep 105•Transcript available on Metacast This episode is about commitment. Not commitment to love, exactly, but commitment to a concept. Listener Lucie Frost writes a satirical essay where sleep is her lover. She never slips from the concept. Humor writing requires committing to an idea and pushing that idea as far as you can go. Lucie Frost is a humor and satire writer in San Antonio, Texas. She recently retired from a lifetime as a human resources/employment lawyer. This story was originally published in Slackjaw. Her work has also b...
Jun 30, 2021•16 min•Ep 104•Transcript available on Metacast On this episode, we bring you a story that the narrator has returned to and will probably return to all her life. Everyone has their themes and it’s okay to return to them at different points in our lives. Trigger warning… The story you will hear on this episode documents the loss of a child. If this is a sensitive issue for you, please listen to another episode. Our student and listener Emily Henderson writes a beautiful story about the loss of her son to brain cancer. In this essay, she uses h...
Jun 16, 2021•25 min•Ep 103•Transcript available on Metacast On this episode, we bring you a story that is not one you hear too often but addresses a very serious situation: breast cancer in men. Kevin Wood shares his essay, A Boyhood Brush with Breast Cancer. This essay was previously published on The Good Men Project. We sat on this story for a few years not because it wasn’t expertly written, but because it lacked an important detail we felt was left out. You'll hear us discuss what happens when a key element seems to be left out of a story. ...
Jun 02, 2021•27 min•Ep 102•Transcript available on Metacast This episode is about writing like you speak, which is the best way to tell a true, authentic story. Andrea and Allison discuss why bringing your voice into a written essay makes the story so much better. You will hear an essay by Anthea Rowan , a writer and listener from Tanzania, Africa. Anthea’s story is about social anxiety. She uses her brilliant British vernacular and charms the listener. Allison and Andrea discuss the writing after the story, why writing class has fucked them up for...
May 19, 2021•34 min•Ep 101•Transcript available on Metacast This episode features an extreme mother story by Diana Kupershmit who is honest and vulnerable. Diana tells the truth about a very tough decision she and her husband made when their daughter Emma was born with a severe disability. Diana reads her story and then Andrea and Allison discuss the brilliant writing and why is it important to be gut wrenchingly honest. Diana’s essay was previously published in Still Standing Magazine, June 9, 2020 . On this episode, we mention Krista Tippett’s On Being...
May 05, 2021•43 min•Ep 100•Transcript available on Metacast This episode is about secrets, a mom/daughter relationship, and donor-conception, a subject that hit both Andrea and Allison in the heart. When Amanda Serenyi’s friend gets pregnant using donor sperm, Amanda freaks out because she herself was donor-conceived and her mother kept this a secret until she was 33. When Amanda first submitted this essay, Allison loved it and Andrea was reluctant to publish it. You will hear why despite great writing and an interesting story, this story was almos...
Mar 03, 2021•37 min•Ep 96•Transcript available on Metacast Are you writing like crazy but just can’t seem to push the send button on your submissions? Today on our show, Writing Class Radio student Margery Berger tells us what’s been holding her back. Margery Berger has told a story on this podcast before. On Episode 46: An Object is Not Just an Object she told a stunner about her obsession with her scale. Margery has been in class with us for 3, maybe 4, years. She has every ingredient to be a published writer, except one. She is perfectly ...
Feb 17, 2021•32 min•Ep 95•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s episode is about two things. 1. A great way to tell a relationship story is to choose a subject or activity that’s dear to the person you’re writing about. Then, describe that activity. 2. Stories are puzzles. There’s a false binary idea that writers are creative and therefore not good at math. We disagree. You have to tap into both sides of the brain to create good stories because there’s a mathematical equation in stories. Writing about a subject or activity or in today’s case, a puzzl...
Feb 03, 2021•14 min•Ep 94•Transcript available on Metacast We asked you, our listeners, to send in your unfinished essays. We didn’t mean first drafts. We meant those essays you’ve been working on forever that you can’t get to the bottom of. Today on our show, we bring you an unfinished essay by listener Julie Schoelzel, a writer from Keene, New Hampshire. We hope to offer Julie insights into figuring out what she’s come to say and how to finish her essay. In every class, of every essay, we ask: What is the story about? After several drafts, we ho...
Jan 20, 2021•21 min•Ep 93•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s show is about transformation. How does the narrator change? How does the narrator grow? You’ll hear a story by Autumn Hudson , an elite body tattoo artist, who went from dropping out of school, to drug addiction, to fulfilling her dream of becoming a tattoo artist. Autumn’s story exemplifies a narrator’s transformation. Writing Class Radio is co-hosted by Allison Langer (www.allisonlanger.com) and Andrea Askowitz (www.andreaaskowitz.com). This episode of Writing Class Radio is produced b...
Jan 06, 2021•29 min•Ep 92•Transcript available on Metacast On today’s episode hosts Andrea and Allison say goodbye to a shit year. They each took the prompt: Bye Bye 2020. Andrea got nothing and explains that the story she kept coming to--about her daughter having a rough time--is a story she’s not yet prepared to tell. Nothing else felt honest. Allison writes about her last chemo treatment on January 9, 2020. She was ready to move on from cancer forever, when six months later her dad sat down in her office midday and gave her the news: he had can...
Dec 23, 2020•28 min•Ep 91•Transcript available on Metacast On today’s episode you’ll hear a story that takes a bad situation and finds the good. We don’t love sappy happy endings, but honest happy endings are the best, especially when they bring joy to the world. Jamie Katz got married on her balcony during lockdown and was greeted with some pleasant surprises. Her story also shows how much can be told with very few words. Writing Class Radio is co-hosted by Allison Langer (www.allisonlanger.com) and Andrea Askowitz (www.andreaaskowitz.com). This ...
Dec 02, 2020•17 min•Ep 90•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s episode is the last in a series called Home. Writing Class Radio helped produce a documentary with Chapman Partnership, a homeless center in South Florida, exploring the meaning of home. Our documentary will air on PBS, date (tba). On this episode, you will hear a story by Marvin Jenkins, a past student, poet, Boeing employee, and dad. Marvin lost his home after he wrote an explicit text message to his girlfriend’s best friend and she kicked him out. Marvin has always been in love with S...
Nov 18, 2020•18 min•Ep 89•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s episode is part of a series called Home. Writing Class Radio helped produce a documentary to help end homelessness for Chapman Partnership, a homeless center in South Florida. On this episode, you will hear a story by writer Tiffanie Drayton who takes an idea that most Americans hold about our country and turns it on its head. Typically, people come to America to seek asylum. But, Tiffanie left America to seek asylum. She left because she didn’t feel safe here as a Black American. ...
Nov 09, 2020•34 min•Ep 88•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s show is part of a series called Home. Writing Class Radio helped produce a documentary to help end homelessness for Chapman Partnership, a homeless center in South Florida. We put out a public call for submissions for stories about home. The call brought so many different and fascinating takes. Thank you to all the people who submitted stories. In our series, you’ll hear a story about a woman who is torn between two homes, a man who finds home through love with a woman while he’s d...
Oct 21, 2020•18 min•Ep 87•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s show is the first in a four-part miniseries called Home. Writing Class Radio helped produce a documentary to help end homelessness for Chapman Partnership, a homeless center in South Florida. We put out a public call for submissions for stories about home. The call brought so many different and fascinating takes on home. Thank you to all the people who submitted stories. In our series, you’ll hear a story about a woman finally feeling at home in her body, a man who find...
Oct 07, 2020•21 min•Ep 86•Transcript available on Metacast This episode is about story structure and all things done well in an essay. LiAnne Yu tells a story about watching TV with her Chinese immigrant parents. As a narrator she brings us into her world--dinners in front of the TV with her parents. She uses detail to reveal character--Mork & Mindy, Sex and the City, and Fox News. She follows the five Cs of story structure: context, circumstance, complication, change, consequence. LiAnne Yu is an anthropologist and writer based in San Francisco and...
Sep 02, 2020•20 min•Ep 85•Transcript available on Metacast This episode is about using a character to express the voice of reason. So often in a story, the narrator is in a bind and can’t see clearly. In the story we bring you today, the narrator’s wife says something that opens the narrator’s mind to a different point of view. The narrator went years believing something that might not be true. In this story, he artfully showed us the moment the story he told himself was called into question. Today’s story is by listener Nicholas Garnett , an adju...
Aug 05, 2020•19 min•Ep 84•Transcript available on Metacast Today on our show, we’re talking about how every word in a story matters. We have a story to share that illustrates this point so well. Essayist, teacher, and Writing Class Radio listener Amy Paturel submitted her story called “The Other Love of His Life,” which was originally published in Newsweek, April 2009. Amy’s story is a great example of how every word must lead to the final conclusion. Every scene, detail, and description should move the story forward. If not...cut. This got ...
Jul 01, 2020•22 min•Ep 83•Transcript available on Metacast This episode of Writing Class Radio is dedicated to George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and all those who have lost their lives in a senseless murder. The story we share with you on this episode is by student and poet Zorina Frey . Last Saturday, May 30, 2020, Andrea gave students a writing prompt and 14 minutes to write about whatever came to mind. Zorina’s response is helping us sit with the sadness, anger, and grief. It is a story that’s helping us reflect and process everything that’s going on.&nbs...
Jun 03, 2020•7 min•Ep 82•Transcript available on Metacast 
