As a writer working on my first novel, this is one of my favorite podcasts to learn more about the fiction-writing craft. Jim’s podcasts are brief, just under 30 minutes. I start and end my day inspired by his musings. He provides vignettes of the craft which may include book recommendations, story structure, common mistakes new writers make; each episode has fresh ideas and information. He’s upbeat, informative, and fun. It feels like I’m listening to a friend that is encouraging me to write my best novel possible while simultaneously earning an MFA. His cat, Jack, critiques his shows periodically; we can hear him whispering pointers to Jim. I highly recommend this podcast to anyone contemplating or in the process of writing a novel and for anyone that would like pointers on how to improve their writing skills.

I’ve read many good books on the craft of fiction writing. This podcast distills the best advice I’ve ever read into short, digestible podcast episodes. Jim knows his stuff and conveys that knowledge in his warm, avuncular way. Start at episode 1 and don’t skip any.

Keep tapping those keys.

After plodding through a dozen or so writing podcasts that weren’t resonating, I finally discovered James Thayer. His insights are invaluable. Prepare yourself for a bruised ego and painful cuts as you embark on this eye opening adventure.

This is the podcast to listen to if you’re trying to write fiction, or even just appreciate writing. Where so many other podcasts in this niche focus on cliches and “motivational poster” style advice, Thayer gives concrete instructions and examples, in practical, followable formats. He collects and distills advice from all the best writers and publishers. Beyond being a writer himself, he’s a teacher - this podcast has the feel of the best creative writing courses. Do practiced writing after listening, and you’ll have an experience better than most actual classrooms. The instruction and clarity would be enough, but he caps it off by bringing fatherly charm, inspiration, and a love of the craft that’s infectious. When I am going to sit down to write, I listen to an episode of this show as warm up, and what I create is better for it. 10/10.

Imagine that you have a healthy relationship with your father, and that he is supportive of your writing. Imagine that he himself is also a successful writer. Now picture sitting down with him for a cup of coffee while he muses on authors, techniques, tips and tricks that have seen him through his career. Some of it will make you smile, some will be incredibly vital to your future work. That is the experience of listening to this podcast.

This one covers it all - from the how tos of story, character, and punctuation to actual examples from literary fiction and other genres. Easy to listen to and just the right length.

The host provides quality advice and examples and stays on topic far better than other similar shows.

I can’t tell you how much I like listening to this podcast. It is like taking a writing class and for someone who already has a great idea, but hasn’t put it all together, it’s like finding a muse to help bring the idea to life as a story. Thank you for taking the time to put this together, a simple explanation, in order to make it simple, needs explanation. This podcast scratches my itch.

I’ve only listened to one episode but my book is already stronger! Will be listening to this whole series!

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!

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.

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.

I enjoy listening to Jim‘s podcast (I just omitted the word really from the previous sentence tehee). He gets down to Business tells us what we need to know and I learn a lot. Other podcasts get into personal chitchat, to much giggling. Those are not podcasts I want to spend my time on. Thank you, Jim, Elaine.

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.

I love the “wise folksiness” of Jim’s delivery. It makes the whole thing better. In this world of highly scripted and large staff-edited podcasts, his style is a refreshing way to revel in his deep knowledge of the world of writing. He speaks naturally as if in conversation with you and has a great sense of humor, throwing in little vignettes about his travels or his cat Jack jumping up on the desk during recording. I’m jotting down great ideas more than I have with other podcasts and it’s actually useful as a combination of a tool and entertainment. Jim is just a pleasure to listen to!

Host sometimes sounds like he needs a glass of water because of dry mouth.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. The opportunity to learn from a professional, without fees or ads, is exceptional. The joy you take in teaching is so refreshing, your format is clear and structured, and your voice is so calming and peaceful. Perfect podcast for writers, both novice and advanced. Wishing you continued success!

Are you really continuing the academic tradition of celebrating books that uphold white supremacy and denigrate black people as subhuman and deserving of their enslavement like Gone With The Wind because it’s such a great story? If it were a great story that made you sympathize with the Germans and ignore what horrors they’re doing to the Jews, would you still uphold its’ “greatness?” Do you not know how your great American novel, Gone with the wind, along with Birth of a nation inspired the Klan resulting in the lynchings of innocent black people; the dehumanizing system of Jim and Jane Crow; and helped perpetuate the lie that the Civil war was not about slavery? Because if you don’t you have to be willfully ignorant and have a lot of nerve instructing writers. I’ve listened to your podcast for some time without knowing how ignorant you are. Now I know, and now I’m gone.

I’m going through this podcast for my second time. I listen to it at work and have learned so much. Thank you!

There are many wonderful podcasts that focus on writers and their books. This podcast, however, is one if the few that focuses on the craft of writing. I may not agree with everything he says but I have not yet found an episode that didn’t make me think and explore new ideas. Thank you Mr. Thayer.

Well, you could get a lot of this from his book, and probably take it in better by highlighting and making notes, it’s a wonderful audio format. Sometimes I like to listen to it when I’m walking my dog between brakes and writing and then it will spark ideas, ideas for me to improve, or add to my novel draft. But for the love of God, could we figure out a way to mute the lip smack inhale sound between sentences? Love you but is there anyway, some of us with misophonia find that as bad and it kills me ha. Anyway thanks for the podcast

Thayer’s podcast is inspiring and well prepared. The advice is spot on with great examples.

Love this podcast. Episodes are short and sweet but not too short. Super helpful advice with examples to back it up. He knows what he’s talking about and he honestly just seems like a genuinely nice person who wants to help people hone their craft.

This is entertaining, educating and useful. I don’t plan to write a novel but appreciate learning something from someone that can teach and make it enjoyable. It’s helping me in other endeavors that use the creative side.

Great way to learn tried and true rules for what works as a sellable story today, delivered in a mellow and likable voice. If you want to write more experimental literary fiction, the rules won’t all apply, but at least you’ll know what rules you’re breaking.

I enjoyed Jim Thayer's podcast up until a recent cast. In it, he advocated using AI to create scenes, then to polish them up to avoid tripping the AI detection software. I'm done. This is wrong in so many ways.

Really beneficial advice and information delivered in a friendly way. Mr. Thayer's voice is soothing and encouraging. Five stars!

I just listened to one episode about scenes versus summary and it’s awesome…. I’m curled up in my brown leather chair, listening through my AirPods, as the crows squad loudly outside my window.

James Thayer’s podcast is a must for writers of fiction. His podcast was my guide for completing my first ever manuscript. He will teach you how to craft a scene, develop strong characters and how to string the chapters together. He provides examples from published works of fiction and offers advice on improving your creative writing skills. This is the best podcast on writing that I have found and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to hone their creative writing skills.

This guy is absolutely the best in the biz. Each episode gives invaluable information that will help you become a better writer. I’m so happy I stumbled across this podcast.

As an emerging writer I have been searching for some time a podcast or workshops that teach you from beginning to end the basics of writing a book. They either were brief or all over the place with the material presented. It helps that Jim Thayer is a published author and a professor. His instruction is good and I have learned good tips from the first few episodes alone.

As a published author with lots of books to my credit, it’s hard to find a podcast focusing on craft. Especially hosted by a host with wit and great examples. The lessons are short enough to binge. And each episode uses classic great novels instead of obscure nitsch-y genre novels. Too many podcasts out there focus on how to get published or start writing but this focuses on the nuts and bolts of making your writing sing. Thanks!

This podcast is a recent discovery for me and I’m binging on it. I love it! The speaker has some really hilarious comments here and there and I think it’s really funny when he seems tickled himself 🤣🤣🤣 Aside from the wit and funniness, he makes some amazing suggestions about improving your novel. Loving it!

Outstanding concise episodes to put to use immediately.

I have learned something useful in every single episode I’ve listened to. Jim Thayer offers practical advice for writers, along with easy to understand examples of the concepts he discusses. I have learned so much from listening in, and I find this podcast to be extremely helpful and informative.

I started listening at the beginning of February and now I am getting caught up. I’m hooked. Can’t get enough as each episode is filled with awesome stories, thoughts, and lessons. Thank you!!!

Sure, I may have just started this podcast, but I already love it. I’ve been using each episode of this so far as a writing sprint with a five minute break between each episode of the podcast. It’s been helping already, and it’s a good break from writing with music.

This podcast plays like a pro writing book you should be paying big money for. Episodes are short and to the point and full of little gems.

I have written stuff my whole life, and Jim Thayer has moved my knowledge further and faster than anything else I have done to hone the craft. What a wonderful podcast.

I’ve only recently started writing and knew next to nothing of the technical prior to listening to this podcast. I now know a whole lot more and am beyond excited to put this new knowledge to use. As an aside, Mr. Thayer is lovely to listen to. He has a calm, relaxed, joy about him I find contagious.

Jim Thayer has a gentle and humorous voice that I find very comforting. You can tell he's genuinely excited about sharing what he knows. I strongly recommend this podcast as the perfect entry point to writing your first novel.

James Thayer is not only a good novelist but a terrific teacher. His segment are well thought out with excellent examples. Not only that but Mr. Thayer is generous not only to his audience but to fellow writers that he admires. He spends more time plugging other writer’s books than his own. He’s generous and self effacing. Thank you! Vera

Great information resource for new writers. Really appreciate the multiple examples for techniques and principles of creating a great novel.

I adore everything about this podcast, from Jim’s voice to the advice it shares. In just the few weeks of listening my writing has improved significantly. I’ll listen then re-listen to each episode at least three times to ensure I absorb it all. The only thing I don’t like is there aren’t hundreds of episodes for me to binge all day long. Thank you for making this show, Jim!

Just one thing- something’s it sounds like the speaker is eating, the audible swallowing and even occasional silent belching is very distracting, e.g, in the Dialogue episode. Please edit it out! The content is so good but I don’t want to hear mouth noises. Sorry.

This podcast is digestible, easy listening. James is a competent and constructive teacher. Thank you!

I appreciate Mr. Thayer’s teaching style and look forward to these lessons each week. His specific examples of good and bad writing are invaluable to aspiring writers. His wisdom and words of encouragement are appreciated and I particularly treasure the stories he shares about other authors. I discovered this podcast while out of town at a work conference and ended up ditching two days of class to binge listen to it. Highly recommend.

It’s nice to see I am doing some things “write” and learning new things to help reach my goal one day.

This is one of the best writing podcasts that I’ve come across. The short length makes the topics easy to digest and perfect to listen to on a walk or running an errand. Looking forward to more episodes!