Introducing you to WRENCast

Welcome to WrEnCast. My name is Kate Myall. I run the writing support service WrEn Co, which stands for Written English Collaboration. 

Let me introduce you to this podcast. At WrEn Co I work one on one with folks to help them and their writing grow more confident, creative, and persuasive. We do most of this work through discussion. Why discussion? Because, and this may be a bit strange coming from a writer, to me writing that only exists on a page doesn’t truly live. To me, writing comes alive when it is spoken, heard, and discussed. Speaking fundamentally transforms what’s on a page. Speaking literally breathes life into words. So while documents and drafts fly around plenty, the heart of my approach is dialog. 

This is why I couldn’t bring myself to just write a blog for WrEn Co’s website. I knew that if I were simply putting up a blog post I’d be doing the kind of writing I don’t want folks to be doing: writing alone, making minimal revisions, only reading it in my head, and not providing the conditions for my writing to be witnessed (because who actually reads blogs anymore?) Blogposts seem lonely to me, floating and helpless with little agency in the attention economy. 

To my mind podcasts are more friendly and conversational. You can take me with you on a short walk, blast through some dishwashing, make a cup of coffee, or take a break from the news. You can hear me fumble my own words, or laugh at a not-so-great joke, or delight in some bit of cadence that struck my fancy. You may even catch me editing on the fly.

Lastly, I hope to use this space to feature the voices of other writers. These may be people I already know or people I meet through this work. But they’re not necessarily published authors because part of the mission of WrEnCo is to support and boost people writing for themselves, and disentangling the idea of success in writing is marked by publishing. I mean I’m not opposed if you want to come on sometime John Green, but I’m just as open to featuring the writing of a student or retiree or working parent. Maybe you’d even like to come on some time and share a piece you’ve written.

So here is WrEn Cast; a weekly(ish) short piece that I’ve written, recorded, re-written, and re-recorded for you. Each piece is a little about writing, a little about me, and maybe a little about you and the world we share. 

But that’s enough of an introduction. I’m starting this week with a piece called The Author as an Arborist.