Art celebrates Tim's personal challenge that helped Art break out of his creative rut and love the process of writing once again.

To contact the show, email us at TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com.

Tim and Art welcome acclaimed writer and editor Aaron Burch to the corner booth to talk about his process and his newly released novel Tacoma.

Aaron Burch is the author of the essay collection, A Kind of In-Between; the novel, Year of the Buffalo; the memoir/literary analysis Stephen King's The Body; and the short story collection, Backswing. He edited the craft anthology How to Write a Novel: An Anthology of 20 Craft Essays About Writing, None of Which Ever Mention Writing, and is currently the editor of the journals Short Story, Long and HAD. He grew up in Tacoma and lives in Michigan, where he teaches at the University of Michigan.

To contact us, e-mail TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com.

Tim tries to answer the question from the end of last episode: "What about the work that you are doing makes you feel like it matters so much that you want to finish it?"

To contact the show, email us at TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com.

Art comes clean about his current aversion to writing fiction, where he is struggling to find the relevance of fiction amidst the chaos of modern life. Tim asserts a much more optimistic perspective and tries to convince Art to explore his own personal history as way to reignite his love of writing, whether creative nonfiction or fiction. Enjoy the unfiltererd angst of the creative process!

To contact us, e-mail TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com.

Art explores how mining your own personal history can help create characters who feel real by sharing an embarassing similarity between his life and The Great Gatsby.

To contact the show, email us at TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com.

Tim and Art welcome "friend of the show" Emily Rinkema to the corner booth! Emily shares that she is now an Assistant Editor at FlashFrog. The gang discusses how to write into a narrative with dialogue and spends a good deal of time exploring the pros and cons of the components of "Point of View" - person, tense, and mood - in practical terms so they can apply it to their own fiction.

The following were resources were referenced in the discussion:

How to Kill a Fisher (2nd person) : Mudroom Magazine (by Emily Rinkema)

Matt Kendrick's amazing writing resource page

The Power of Love (3rd person) : Jake (by Tim Goodwin)

To contact us, e-mail TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com.

Art describes what "Draft Zero" is in his novel writing process and outlines a four-step process for drafting the novel in 2026.

To contact the show, email us at TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com.

Tim reveals how he is prepping for his 2nd draft of his novel while Art explores how his process differs from Tim's, especially in what constitutes a "first draft." Join this spirited discussion already in progress to compare the ah-ha! moments to your process.

To contact us, e-mail TiffinInnWritingWorkshop@gmail.com.