Beacons Podcast

Beware the writers for they’ll eat all your cake, but they’ll leave you a beautifully written short story as an apology. Kat Ogden and Leah Lopez host this podcast about writing you can have with your morning coffee.

Nano '22: Stick a fork in it 12/01/2022

Nano '22: Stick a fork in it Nano '22 is in the books and finished! Kat and Leah debrief about their nano experience this year and talk about how they are moving forward with writing in December. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/25191129

Nano '22: Big push! 11/28/2022

Nano '22: Big push! What is time and why does it? Week four in the books with some f'bombs and pie. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/25154016

Nano '22: Deep in the word mines 11/22/2022

Nano '22: Deep in the word mines Week three completed and Kat and Leah are deep in the word mines as they prep for the big push that is the last week of Nano. Everything looks fuzzy from here. Send donuts. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/25099476

Nano '22: Still Oof 11/14/2022

Nano '22: Still Oof Two weeks into Nanowrimo 2022 and "oof" is the word of the day. Kat is doing great, Leah is up and down, but with an oof and a coffee, they keep going. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/25009944

Nano '22: On Failure and Regrouping 11/07/2022

Nano '22: On Failure and Regrouping Kat and Leah discuss their crap first week of Nanowrimo 2022 and how they are bouncing back into week two. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/24933495

Nano '22: Preparation, Simplicity, and Forgiveness 10/28/2022

Nano '22: Preparation, Simplicity, and Forgiveness National Novel Writing Month starts next week and Kat and Leah talk about how they are, or rather are not, preparing to enter the 50k word mines with the howling of the November winds at their beck and call. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/24836133

Creating a Writing Life 10/10/2022

Creating a Writing Life Things we need to write ebb and flow. In this episode, Kat and Leah share their needs to create a writing life. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/24521628

To Trope or not to Trope 10/03/2022

To Trope or not to Trope In this episode about tropes (for real this time!), Kat and Leah talk about how they love tropes and how they approach them as both readers and writers. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/24521589

On Being Consistent 09/03/2022

On Being Consistent With life ever conspiring to thwart creativity, Kat and Leah share how they keep things consistent in the writer's room and beyond. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/24229050

Outlining and Why We (Now) Love It 09/01/2022

Outlining and Why We (Now) Love It On this first episode of Season Three (huzzah!), Kat and Leah talk about outlining their projects for success. It's not about tropes. That's later. Welcome back Beacons! /episode/index/show/beacons/id/24227973

2022 Writing Goals 12/13/2021

2022 Writing Goals In which Kat and Leah talk about creating your 2022 writing goals and how to run like hell towards them. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/21448361

An Interview with Leah Lopez, Space Pirate and All Around Bad Influence 12/06/2021

An Interview with Leah Lopez, Space Pirate and All Around Bad Influence In which Kat interviews Leah who has to talk about herself and answer questions because those are the rules (said Kat). /episode/index/show/beacons/id/20734355

An Interview with Kat Ogden, Shimmering Skate Queen and Bookwitch of Lore 11/15/2021

An Interview with Kat Ogden, Shimmering Skate Queen and Bookwitch of Lore In which Leah asks Kat questions about reading and writing and we all get to be nosy about Kat together, learning of Kat's brilliance and wisdom and cleverness. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/20734331

Why We Write 11/08/2021

Why We Write In which Kat and Leah talk about why they write and how those roots come from books and writers they've been exposed to over their lives. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/20734265

Scaffolding 11/01/2021

Scaffolding In which Kat and Leah discuss their approach to and feelings about scaffolding, the parts around a story authors add like how many parts stories are broken into or chapter titles or poetic interludes. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/20727512

Revision Revisited (Again) 10/25/2021

Revision Revisited (Again) In which Kat and Leah talk a little about the beginning of the revising process in order to give themselves confidence for the long process ahead of them. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/20727002

Hitting Curve Balls 10/18/2021

Hitting Curve Balls In which Kat and Leah go into more detail about how they wrote during the curve ball that is the pandemic. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/20718497

Beacons! Are! Back! 10/11/2021

Beacons! Are! Back! In which Kat and Leah attempt to get their podcasting legs under them and do a passable job. Updates about what they've been doing since the pandemic started and how they fared over the last year and three/fourths. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/20713589

NANO '19: A Debrief 12/02/2019

NANO '19: A Debrief In this sixth and final episode in the series on Nanowrimo, Kat and Leah talk about the "what next" part to finishing the first draft of a book. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/11349317

NANO '19: The Final Push 11/25/2019

NANO '19: The Final Push In the fifth episode of the Nanowrimo series, Kat and Leah talk about the final push in these last few days of writing an entire book in a month. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/11349263

NANO '19: (Just Over) Halfway Done! 11/18/2019

NANO '19: (Just Over) Halfway Done! Fourth up in the series on Nanowrimo, Kat and Leah talk about some issues that may be tripping up writers at the halfway mark from confidence to idea shifts to story management. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/11349230

NANO '19: Breaking Through Blocks 11/11/2019

NANO '19: Breaking Through Blocks In this third episode in the Nanowrimo series, Kat and Leah talk about potential blocks that marathon writers have in their writing, from inspiration to time to plot. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/11349203

NANO '19: Ready! Set! WRITE! 11/04/2019

NANO '19: Ready! Set! WRITE! In the second episode of a series about Nanowrimo, Kat and Leah talk about Nano writers harnessing that Day One energy so that we all begin as we wish to continue while writing our novels. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/11349179

NANO '19: Dissecting the Novel Writing Process 10/31/2019

NANO '19: Dissecting the Novel Writing Process In this first episode of a series of episodes about National Novel Writing Month, endearingly shortened by those in the trenches to Nanowrimo or Nano to save time for writing, Kat and Leah dissect the novel writing process as they prepare to churn out their 50K words in November. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/11349149

Character Study 10/28/2019

Character Study Kat and Leah discuss what they consider when creating interesting and dynamic characters in their writing. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/11349107

Why Reading Matters 10/21/2019

Why Reading Matters The Beacons talk about why reading matters to people who want to publish stories and they tell you all about it in this episode about how to approach reading as a writer. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/11349074

Letting Go of Expectations 10/14/2019

Letting Go of Expectations The Beacons talk about the kinds of expectations writers have for themselves and why letting go of these often hindering ideas make for a better writing life. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/11321819

Revisiting Side Writing 10/07/2019

Revisiting Side Writing In today's episode, Kat and Leah revisit how they've been using side writing, which is the writing they do while working on a project. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/11321777

Self-Sabotage 09/30/2019

Self-Sabotage Kat and Leah talk about the ways writers sabotage their own writing lives and how they course correct their own writing processes. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/11321576

A Day in the Life of a Writer 09/23/2019

A Day in the Life of a Writer Kat and Leah throw open the writerly veil and talk about what their days look like as they try to squeeze writing into their lives. /episode/index/show/beacons/id/11226125

Beacons Podcast

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