The gang got together to talk about what aspects of our writing we have confidence in, and where we think we can improve. Chapter endings, dialogue, dialogue tags, multi-layered plots, time travel, and more came up for discussion. All that, plus Wile E. Coyote.

Work discussed in this episode include:

"The Lighthouse at the End of the World" by Philip Suggars

"Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo

"The City and Its Uncertain Walls" by Haruki Murakami

"Lincoln in the Bardo" and "Victory Lap" by George Saunders

"Exit Party" by Emily St. John Mandel

Jim Butcher (but not "The Dresden Files" for this particular example)

"Coyote Vs. Acme"

The gang has had curveballs thrown at them, been hit by pitches, sacked, fouled, slashed, and other sports analogies. We brought our big feelings to the Carnegie Diner to talk about them and what our plans were going forward. We talked writer relationships, changing course on a project, and the joy of finding the perfect words that keeps us going.

The gang sits down with AWG poets Ashwin Verghese and Ron Giegle who do a great job of making poetry accessible. They talk form, their personal approaches to reading and writing poetry, what makes a poem "break containment," and more. They analyze poems selected in advance and then Ashwin and Ron recite poems of their own.

Here's what we talked about:

The Poetry Foundation

"We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks

"Good Bones" by Maggie Smith

"Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins

"Ars Poetica" by Archibald Macleish

And here's the link to the performance of "The Stranger's Case" the gang discussed...they got 2 details right (it was Ian McKellen on Stephen Colbert) and everything else wrong...but it's defiitely worth a watch.