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Most Writers Are Fans

Most Writers Are Fans

Terry Bartley 86 Episodes Jun 25, 2026

Most Writers Are Fans is a podcast hosted by Terry Bartley that explores how storytellers first fell in love with their craft. He interviews writers, songwriters, and game designers about their inspirations, the successes and struggles of working as independent creatives, and their takes on mainstream storytelling tropes. Framed as a support group and idea workshop, the show offers encouragement and practical perspective for indie creatives pursuing their own projects.

Episodes

Stepping Away (And Not Apologizing for It)
Stepping Away (And Not Apologizing for It) Jun 25, 2026 00:20:54 Terry gets real about why the podcast has been quiet and why he's not sorry about it. For the past several months, he's been navigating his grandmother's medical crisis, the labyrinthine nightmare of American elder care, and the financial brutality of a system designed to strip elderly people of everything they've worked for. It's been a lot.But this episode isn't just a pe
Content Without Context: What Girls Told Us About the World We'd Become
Content Without Context: What Girls Told Us About the World We'd Become Jun 11, 2026 00:16:36 Episode SummaryTerry revisits HBO's Girls as a long-overdue cultural blind spot and comes away with something more interesting than a hot take. This minisode unpacks what the show did and didn't do well, why Lena Dunham's approach was genuinely ahead of its time, and what Girls accidentally predicted about the content ecosystem we're all living (and creating) in today.What We Get I
Not a Token: What It Really Takes to Write Outside Your Experience
Not a Token: What It Really Takes to Write Outside Your Experience May 28, 2026 00:57:54 What does it actually mean to write diverse characters, and who gets to do it? In this conversation, Terry sits down with Black romance author Rae Shawn to dig into one of the messiest, most necessary questions in contemporary fiction: when writers reach beyond their own experience, what separates authentic representation from tokenism, trend-chasing, or outright harm?Rae writes contemporary Black
When Did We Stop Believing In Magic?
When Did We Stop Believing In Magic? May 21, 2026 00:16:06 We've been told that "main character energy" is a symptom of a screen-addicted generation that can't tell reality from performance. But what if the real problem isn't that we see ourselves as protagonists? It's that we've lost the understanding of what fiction is actually for. Using Megan Garber's Screen People as a jumping off point, this episode makes the case t
Special: The Article That Started It All — Rose Horowitch on Reading, Education, and What's at Stake
Special: The Article That Started It All — Rose Horowitch on Reading, Education, and What's at Stake Apr 2, 2026 00:25:12 In this special minisode, a kind of proto-episode of the Ink Over AI series, Terry sits down with Rose Horowitch, staff writer at The Atlantic, to discuss her widely-read article "The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books." What begins as a conversation about struggling college readers quickly opens up into something much larger: a wide-ranging diagnosis of why students across
The ‘Move Fast and Break Things’ Scam
The ‘Move Fast and Break Things’ Scam Mar 26, 2026 00:18:12 In this solo minisode of Ink Over AI, Terry starts where a lot of good rabbit holes begin: a personal frustration. While working with Claude to spec out a new gaming PC capable of running Dragon Age: The Veilguard, he noticed that RAM and storage prices were dramatically inflated, a direct consequence of AI companies gobbling up hardware at scale. That observation sent him down a research spiral a
How to Crowdfund as an Indie Author
How to Crowdfund as an Indie Author Mar 19, 2026 00:39:33 In this episode of Most Writers Are Fans, Terry sits down with old friend and fellow teacher-author Cody Walker to talk about one of the most practical and often intimidating tools in the indie author's toolkit: crowdfunding.The conversation starts at the beginning, Cody's first campaign for a comic called Noir City, launched in the shadow of the Sullivan Sluggers controversy, an early cau
The Lost Generation Problem
The Lost Generation Problem Mar 12, 2026 00:16:50 In this minisode of Most Writers Are Fans, Terry steps back from writing craft to dig into something that's been on his mind as a lifelong comics fan: a phenomenon he's calling the Lost Generation Problem.It starts personally. Terry came to comics in college through Geoff Johns' Teen Titans — Tim Drake, Conner Kent, Cassie Sandsmark — and fell in love with the energy of younger heroes
AI Can Mimic Writing. But It Can’t Mimic Voice
AI Can Mimic Writing. But It Can’t Mimic Voice Mar 5, 2026 00:40:23 In this episode of Ink Over AI, Terry steps outside the usual solo format to welcome educator and author Patty McGee, whose book Not Your Granny's Grammar connects directly to a theory he's been developing: that teaching students to find and own their individual writing voice is one of the most powerful tools teachers have against AI in the classroom, both as a goal and as a form of inocul
Where Do Short Story Collections Come From?
Where Do Short Story Collections Come From? Feb 26, 2026 00:39:41 In this episode of Most Writers Are Fans, Terry sits down with Brent Lambert, Black queer writer, founding member of the Hugo Award-winning FIYAH Literary Magazine, and author of Necessary Chaos, to talk about community building, creative collaboration, and what it actually takes to put a short story collection together when the traditional industry doors aren't opening for you.The episode&#39
How to Comission A Cover As An Indie Author
How to Comission A Cover As An Indie Author Feb 19, 2026 00:14:22 We know we're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but we also know everyone does. Getting a great cover is an important part of the publishing process. Terry shares his experiences getting covers designed, and he also reveals the cover for his newest book, Destined for Greater Things.
Keep Writing in Hard Times!
Keep Writing in Hard Times! Feb 12, 2026 00:09:55 I've been having some thoughts about how it often feels difficult to create things when the world is what it is right now. Big line message: Keep creating. We have to tell the story of this world is right now.(00:00) - Intro(00:34) - How do you write with all that's going on in the U.S.?(3:26) - How fiction teaches us about reality(7:12) - Why writing during tough times matters"Cranes

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