Right now I am looking for people who are willing to be guests on my podcast. If you are interested, please contact me!
What does being a guest on “Writing Alchemy” entail?
In short, guests join me on my podcast “Writing Alchemy” to discuss that episode’s story.
There is some prep work that I am asking guests to do to ensure a good discussion. Guests should look over/read the story that they will be discussing and its matching discussion document. Depending on their process, guests may wish to take down a few notes on the things they wish to discuss. I am also asking guests to write a one-sentence description of who they are which will be used to introduce them (more details on this are given in the discussion of promotion).
Recording the podcast is expected to take about an hour. Ideally guests will be in person, but doing things over the phone will also work. The podcast will start with the two of us listening to a recording of me reading a 15-20 min story, or story segment (though it is possible I may record the reading at that time). Then I will read the introductions from the podcast script, give my guest 2-5 min to introduce themselves, and then we will engage in a 20-30 min discussion of the story. The discussion should avoid spoilers for later portions of the story, but can include material covered in previous podcasts.
What will discussions be like?
I am not really sure, as I haven’t done them yet. I imagine they will vary a lot based on the guest. I have an extensive amount of discussion materials about my writing in general and information documents on most of the stories specifically and these will hopefully help spark a lot of conversation. Some discussions may operate by having the guests asking me questions about the story, or bringing up things from the discussion material that they connected with. Other discussions may operate more like a back-and-forth conversation where guests share their own personal stories, perspectives, and political analyses that relate to the story. Some discussions will probably range over a selection of interesting details from a story while others may focus on one larger theme or story aspect.
How will guests be matched up with stories?
I will make an effort to match people up with the stories (and story segments) that they are most interested in discussing. I am hoping to have my third Tala story, “Tala and Prince Hart,” posted online before assigning stories.
Can guests promote themselves and their projects?
In the current podcast script there is a one-sentence summary of who each guest is that is repeated three times over the course of the podcast. I am asking my guests to write this sentence themselves, starting with “My guest today is…” and aiming for 15-30 words in total. Here is an example: “My guest today is writer and activist Tobi Hill-Meyer of Doing It Online.com, an erotic documentary series exploring trans women’s sexuality.” In addition to this, at the beginning of the discussion there will be 2-5 min for each guest to introduce themselves to the audience and share any projects or organizations the guest is involved in. The rest of the discussion will focus on the story, but if there is a connection between it and the guest’s personal experiences and projects, they are welcome to talk about that. At the end of the podcast more information will be given on how the audience can connect with or follow the guest and their work/project/organization. Websites for these will also be posted as links in the show notes.
