Paper versus pixels, telekinesis versus typing, and an unexpectedly heated polemic against Charles Dickens that absolutely nobody asked for. In this episode of First Person Present, Josh and Dasha explore the tactile, vulnerable act of writing by hand in an increasingly digital age, and why the process of typing up handwritten drafts might be more valuable than you think.

Fresh off their first Hewes House community write-together session, they dive into the reading life: Tove Ditlevsen's incisive characterization, the mortifying experience of returning books to bookstores, and why one of them thinks Charles Dickens "just sucks" (spoiler: it's Josh, and he's ready for your angry voice memos). Dasha champions the radical act of marking up your books, while Josh makes a case for SparkNotes as a legitimate literary alternative to Great Expectations.

Then it's back to Reddit, where the questions get existential: How do you deal with the pain of transcribing handwritten drafts when telekinesis remains frustratingly unavailable? And what do you do when your suspense novel has so many interconnected plot points it requires an actual equation to explain? The answers involve Lauren Groff's ceremonial burning habits, the vulnerability of exposed handwriting in cafes, and a plea to just let things happen in the present tense already.

Plus: handbag subreddits, tree murder via excessive printing, and the atmospheric difference between writing on paper versus hiding behind password-protected documents.

Links:

• Dasha’s new Substack column

• The Case for Paper: Handwriting vs Typing

• If Your Novel’s Plot Is a Math Problem, Maybe It’s Time to Simplify

• The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen

• Flesh by David Szalay

• Pk: A Report on the Power of Psychokinesis, Mental Energy That Moves Matter by Michael H. Brown

• Peter Warren on IMDb

• r/writing subreddit

Theme music: "1982" by See Jazz

Dry January, the Year of the Red Horse, and the unexpected productivity of writing longhand in busy airports open Season 2 of First Person Present. When routine becomes stale and your home office starts feeling like a creative prison, what happens if you embrace the "scrappy performative energy" of public writing, even if it makes you feel exposed? (Exhibitionism, anybody?)

Josh and Dasha introduce their new format with listener voicemails, starting with Brian B.'s guilty confession about generating a thousand words in an airport versus struggling in his quiet home office. The conversation explores the tension between beloved routines and the creative stagnation they can cause, from writing in bars (not this month) to the strategic use of location changes as a tool for breaking through writer's block.

Then, diving into the science of habit formation and BJ Fogg's concept of habit anchoring, we examine why switching up small elements of your writing process (time of day, lighting, music, handwriting versus typing) can reveal something essential about the machine you're building. Plus: failed vampire novels, romance novels that turn into grief novels, and why Brad Listi's decade-long novel-in-progress should give us all hope.

Links

• The Vampire Novel I’ll Never Write (And Why That's Okay)

• Habit Chaining for Writers: How to Build a Sustainable Writing Practice Without Forcing It

• Beach Read by Emily Henry

• Otherppl Podcast

• Be Brief and Tell Them Everything by Brad Listi

• BJ Fogg's Tiny Habits

• Atomic Habits by James Clear

• Too Much Birthday - The Cut (not New York Magazine lol)

Theme music: "1982" by See Jazz

When brilliant ideas feel perfect in your head but turn "stale and ugly" on the page, is the problem your execution—or your expectations? Josh and Dasha tackle a writer's confession about motivation, world events, and the seductive comfort of ideation over actual writing. The conversation spirals into Ira Glass's famous gap between taste and execution, the dangerous pleasure of keeping ideas pristine in your mind, and why furniture acquisition has become an unexpected recurring theme on the podcast.

Then, addressing another Reddit user’s litany of writing struggles—from romance without relationship experience to repetitive battle scenes—the hosts explore how fight choreography reveals character, why description works in layers like painting, and what Lord of the Rings' Battle of Helm's Deep can teach us about sustaining tension across long action sequences. Plus: the Gmail-to-self era of note-taking, WikiHow illustrations, and why you shouldn't trust the magic of unwritten ideas.

Links

• When Loving an Idea Keeps Your from Writing It

• Why Action Scenes Get Boring (and What They’re Really About)

• Ira Glass on The Gap

• The Battle of Helms Deep

Theme music: "1982" by See Jazz

Episode Description

Brain fog, baby preparation, and the brutal honesty of Reddit comments converge in a conversation about what happens when life's major changes collide with a writing practice you've maintained for years. Can discipline and self-compassion coexist? And when does productive routine become unsustainable perfectionism?

Josh and Dasha wrestle with the culture of self-permission in 2025—the tendency to tell struggling writers that it's okay to step away, rest, take a break. But what happens when you've spent your entire adult life showing up to the page, and suddenly someone tells you that your baby and pregnant partner should matter more than your novel? The tension between Eastern European work ethic and modern self-care wisdom reveals something deeper about habit, choice elimination, and the unglamorous middle sections of long projects.

Then, tackling questions about the dreaded query letter process and academic writing obligations that cannibalize creative work, we explore how distilling your entire novel into four sentences can actually teach you something essential about your story. Plus: why some writers need to keep their day jobs far away from their creative practice, and the controversial strategy of writing first thing in the morning while giving students "the dregs."

Links

• The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark

• Fresh, Green Life by Sebastian Castillo

• Chelsea Hodson’s Morning Writing Club

• Beyond How to Write a Query: Unlock Your Story’s Essence

• Is a Creative Writing Degree Worth It?

• /r/writing subreddit

Theme music: "1982" by See Jazz

Facebook Marketplace truck negotiations and café tethering lead to a deeper conversation about the habits we practice—both the ones that serve our writing and the ones that sabotage it. When life gets scattered, so does the writing schedule, but the real revelation comes from recognizing how skillfully we can master avoidance behaviors without even noticing.

From Annie Dillard's wisdom about how we spend our days to the harsh realities of penny-a-word fiction markets, Josh and Dasha tackle the uncomfortable truth about making money as a writer in 2025. The publishing landscape has shifted dramatically since the pulp fiction era, leaving even successful authors scraping by while the literary world runs on "goodwill and farts."

Then, addressing questions about payment rates that haven't changed since the 1940s and the overwhelming possibilities of fiction writing, we explore when to research versus when to just write "it was raining" and move on. Sometimes the biggest obstacle to finishing isn't perfectionism—it's getting lost in preparation instead of prose.

Links:

• ​Annie Dillard - "The Writing Life"
• ​Big Fiction by Dan Sinykin
• ​April Davila's newsletter
• ​Why Your Writing Coach Won't Promise You a Six Figure Book Deal
• ​Why Writers Excel at Avoiding Writing

Theme music: “1982” by See Jazz

Episode Description

What do psychedelic concert visuals, furniture shopping, and Raymond Carver's comma obsession have in common? They're all ways writers process the concept of spectacle—and avoid talking about revision while actually talking about revision the entire time.

From King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard's mass hypnosis event to the masculine ambition of doorstop novels, Josh and Dasha explore what makes art spectacular and whether quiet, dialogue-driven stories can compete with literary behemoths like Moby Dick. Along the way, furniture becomes a metaphor for creative decision-making, and the eternal struggle between gut instinct and endless tinkering reveals itself in both interior design and sentence-level revision.

Then, addressing a vulnerable question from Table Grapes about writing difficult autobiographical material for YA audiences, we navigate the delicate balance between graphic honesty and age-appropriate storytelling, plus practical strategies for creating emotional distance from traumatic personal material—including the therapeutic power of puppy videos.

Links:

• How Book Revision Is Like Buying New Furniture

• King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

• Forest Hills Stadium, Queens

• Moby Dick by Herman Melville

• Middlemarch by George Eliot

• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

• Edith Wharton

• Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”

• When Your Characters Break Free: Character Defamiliarization Techniques for Writing Trauma Fiction Safely

• /r/writing

• Too Cute on Animal Planet

• Puppy videos for recovery

Theme music: “1982” by See Jazz

Seven drafts. Four years. One novel that refuses to surrender. In the inaugural episode of First Person Present, we step into the vulnerable territory where craft meets psychology, exploring why revision feels like such an emotional battlefield, and how our relationship with our own work can become our greatest obstacle.

Through candid conversation about their current projects, Hewes House writing coaches Josh and Dasha examine the delicate balance between expansion and contraction in the writing process, the myth of "show, don't tell," and what happens when perfectionism becomes paralysis. We tackle questions from the writing community about writer's block, creative obsession, and the courage required to truly re-envision your work.

Links:

• The Sixth Sense's Narrative Theory

• Hemingway's Iceberg Theory

• Cold Eyes for Revision

• Peter Ho Davies - "The Art of Revision" (Graywolf Press)

• Helen Zell Writers' Program (University of Michigan)

• r/writing subreddit

Theme music: “1982” by See Jazz