Essential Guide to Writing a Novel - Podcast Rankings and reviews

Every episode of this outstanding podcast moves me closer to my goal of becoming a published author. The advice is practical and the host comes across as authentic and personable, the kind of guy you’d love to hang out with as he shares stories from his years in the business. Every time he says “Isn’t that wonderful?” (about a character’s name or an author’s eloquent turn of phrase), I nod in agreement. Thanks for the advice and encouragement, Jim.

The Essential Guide to Writing a Novel has proven to be a found treasure for me. I’ve been writing fictional stories since I could hold a pencil—though I’m sure the spelling was treacherous at the time. During my school years, English class was the only one to which I paid any attention. I lived for creative writing! Although I continued writing for fun after graduating, I greatly missed learning about the craft. I found a few podcasts on writing, but they didn’t provide the depth of knowledge I was seeking, nor fed the passion I was craving to more deeply reignite. Jim’s is perfect! It’s given me more confidence in my now-growing novel.

I think Jim has helpful advice, his voice is great, and sound quality is good (minus some mouth sounds). However, after he introduces a topic he doesn’t give one example. Ohhh no. Instead he reads several passages from classic literature that end up comprising the majority of the episode. I end up struggling to pay attention because it feels like half a novel’s worth of quotes, read without expression. I feel like if he gave one example and focused more heavily on how to use the applicable topic, this could be great.

Absolutely love this podcast. I’ve probably listened to 50 hours of Thayer’s voice at this point and no sign of slowing down. I’ve long wanted to write a novel and this podcast finally gave me the confidence to sit down and start writing. Thank you, Jim!