In this solo mini-episode of Write Your Heart Out, host Kayla Ogden dives headfirst into the lyrical feud—or maybe flirtation?—between pop titans Taylor Swift and Charli XCX. With Taylor’s The Life of a Showgirl and Charli’s Brat still dominating playlists, Kayla unpacks the songs that set off a thousand think-pieces: “Actually Romantic” and “Sympathy Is a Knife.”

She breaks down the verses, tone, and writing style of each, tracing the messy, fascinating overlap of art, ego, and emotional honesty. Is Taylor’s diss playful or petty? Is Charli’s spiral self-aware or self-sabotaging? Kayla compares their craft—not just their conflict—and explores how two brilliant lyricists can write from the same moment in completely different emotional keys.

Whether you’re a Swiftie, a Brat, or just a writer obsessed with subtext, this episode is for you.

Please subscribe, rate and review!

New episodes every Wednesday.

E-mail us your short story at contact@writeyourheartoutpod.com

Follow us on instagram @writeyourheartoutpod

Leave us a message at 650-260-4885

Kayla and Rachel host a reader-submitted showcase featuring three luminous poems by Blair Vischer—“Easy Dark,” “Halfway Heroes,” and “Salt”—plus Rachel’s one-hour continuation of her “Enemies to Lovers” work-in-progress, a moody, Poe-tinted short piece by Dave Richanbach that riffs on “more weight” and the Salem trials, and MJ’s aching new poem “Strangers,” a call-and-response to Scott Gibson’s piece from last week.
Along the way, we talk rejection resilience (hi, Novelry shortlist), why humor sometimes masks sadness, and how we’re inviting listeners to share their work via email (contact@writeyourheartoutpod.com) or our new

Reddit community (@WriteYourHeartOutPod) for future Storytime episodes.
Next up: character development deep-dive—yes, with Enneagram tricks writers can steal.

Please subscribe, rate and review!

New episodes every Wednesday.

E-mail us your short story at contact@writeyourheartoutpod.com

Follow us on instagram @writeyourheartoutpod

Leave us a message at 650-260-4885

This week we go full craft-nerd. Kayla shares how adding interiority (yes, telling!) is transforming Pillow Forts Down, and we break down the long-misunderstood “show, don’t tell” rule—from Chekhov to Hemingway’s iceberg theory—and land on a modern balance: show and tell. We walk through quick edit tools (for every scene: desire, fear, misbelief), why character expectations create delicious reversals, and how to build emotional dynamic change in scenes (with detours through Little Women adaptations, Friends, and a murderous “Gertrude” example).

Rachel celebrates an Honorable Mention from Reader’s Digest for “Extra Scoop of Revenge,” we read our Two Sentences entries, and Kayla talks printing the manuscript and aiming at Book Pipeline. Next week: Storytime (Scott & MJ’s “switcheroo” poems + Blair’s pieces).

Send us your short fiction or poems to be featured—and please rate, review, and, as the YouTubers say, smash that subscribe button.

Please subscribe, rate and review!

New episodes every Wednesday.

E-mail us your short story at contact@writeyourheartoutpod.com

Follow us on instagram @writeyourheartoutpod

Leave us a message at 650-260-4885

This week we’re back with a Storytime episode! Kayla shares a whirlwind night at a Mountain View writers group (hello, kindred spirits), then we dive into short pieces we wrote in under 2 hours.

We’re also featuring two terrific listener pieces:

• “Fairytale in Bangkok” by Scott Gibson — a tender, whiskey-soaked poem about young love. Scott is currently working on a documentary where he interviews the longstanding, bona fide punk artists of Indonesia.
• “Elon” by MJ — a sharp, slam-poetry critique.

Stick around as we set goals and swap contest plans.This week we’re back with a Storytime episode—vulnerable, messy, and so much fun. Kayla shares a whirlwind night at a Mountain View writers group (hello, kindred spirits), then we dive into fresh, two-hour, barely-edited short pieces sparked by Instagram prompt threads (enemies-to-lovers, angry confessions, and injury/sickness lines like “Get behind me” and “Tell me where it hurts”). Expect AI dread, cheeky gallows humor, and a very smirky maybe-hero named Jared.

We’re also featuring two terrific listener pieces:

• “Fairytale in Bangkok” by Scott Gibson — a tender, whiskey-soaked poem about love, visas, and the kind of dancing that ignores dignity and keeps going.
• “Elon” by MJ — a sharp, slam-poetry critique that rockets from Teslas to Mars with wit to spare.

Stick around as we set goals and swap contest plans:

Got something for the next Storytime? Send audio or text to contact@writeyourheartoutpod.com
(we can read for you if you’d like!). Follow us on IG @writeyourheartoutpod and, pretty please, drop a 5-star review so more writers can find us.

Enjoy, and send us your stories + poems for a future read!

Please subscribe, rate and review!

New episodes every Wednesday.

E-mail us your short story at contact@writeyourheartoutpod.com

Follow us on instagram @writeyourheartoutpod

Leave us a message at 650-260-4885

A Challenge to Listeners!

We're going to spend two hours or less drafting something new. We want you to do it too! Send us your fast writing at Contact@writeyourheartoutpod.com with the subject line: Two Hour Story and we'll read it on the next storytime episode! That means you, David. These are the prompts (via Writer Threads) that can inspire your new work:


Enemies to Lovers:

1. Bold of you to assume that I'd care.

2. You're hurt? Why are you always hurt?

3. Get behind me.

Angry Confession:

4. Trust me, I am also trying to understand how in the shit this happened.

5. Tell me how I'm supposed to unlove you, then. Tell me. Spare me.

6. "Since when did you ever care about me?"

"Since fucking forever you idiotic dunce."

Sickness or Injury:

7. Tell me where it hurts.

8. Can you carry me?

9. Why didn't you tell me it hurt so bad?


This week on Write Your Heart Out, Kayla and Rachel pick up where their AI debate left off—spiraling from apocalyptic predictions about tech to the timeless question: why do we write at all? From Steven Pressfield’s wisdom about creating art even on a deserted island to the very real resistance of reorganizing your medicine cabinet instead of writing, the conversation swings between hilarious tangents and raw honesty about staying creative when life gets messy.

The duo also dive into upcoming writing contests (Book Pipeline Unpublished, the John Steinbeck Award, Driftwood Press, and Writes of November’s two-sentence challenge) and challenge themselves—and listeners—to draft something new under a two-hour time limit for their next Storytime episode. Plus: murder-mystery birthday parties, navigating writer’s groups with your kid’s teacher, and the eternal sausage metaphor for publishing.

If you’ve ever felt bogged down, distracted, or just plain stuck in your writing life, this episode will leave you laughing, nodding, and maybe even pulling out your label maker before you get back to the page.

Please subscribe, rate and review!

New episodes every Wednesday.

E-mail us your short story at contact@writeyourheartoutpod.com

Follow us on instagram @writeyourheartoutpod

Leave us a message at 650-260-4885

As promised, we take out our hoops and smear vaseline on our cheeks to battle. Kayla is pro ChatGPT in helping her. Rachel thinks it's cheating. Rachel is scared of ChatGPT. Kayla is scared of dolls coming to life and taunting her. Who will be victorious?

(ChatGPT refused to help me with this description! Seriously. I think it's hurt. - Kayla)

Trigger warnings: Suicide
Also scary A.I. stories, tipsy banter and irreverence

Please subscribe, rate and review!

New episodes every Wednesday.

E-mail us your short story at contact@writeyourheartoutpod.com

Follow us on instagram @writeyourheartoutpod

Leave us a message at 650-260-4885

After a summer hiatus, Kayla and Rachel are back—and ready to get into a new writing flow. Rachel shares her progress on Dinner for Eight, including how she’s realizing her protagonist’s marriage needs more depth (or maybe more dysfunction). Kayla talks about experimenting with feeding her dystopian novel The Woman Tree into ChatGPT for a Save the Cat breakdown—only to discover some hilariously creepy “cry triggers” involving underwear drawers and divorce letters.

The two dive into craft with insights from James A. Hurst’s YouTube channel, exploring the ideas of “the hero’s gift” and “the unity of opposites,” and how these concepts can deepen both conflict and character. They also swap stories about questionable teenage fashion choices, brainstorm writing groups they might join, and get interrupted mid-recording by breaking news about Taylor Swift.

It’s a mix of craft talk, laughter, and candid writing-life updates—plus a teaser for next week’s episode, where Kayla and Rachel face off in their own “unity of opposites”: Kayla’s growing appreciation for AI tools vs. Rachel’s anti-AI stance. Will it end in conflict…or clarity?

Please subscribe, rate and review!

New episodes every Wednesday.

E-mail us your short story at contact@writeyourheartoutpod.com

Follow us on instagram @writeyourheartoutpod

Leave us a message at 650-260-4885

After a little summer hiatus (camping, in-laws, a spiral-bound manuscript from FedEx…), Kayla and Rachel are back in the podcast saddle and diving deep into the storytelling structure that screenwriters love and novelists love to hate: Save the Cat.

Rachel reveals she finished a whole-ass book (?!), and together they break down Blake Snyder’s iconic 15-beat “beat sheet” and genre system—using Dinner for Eight and The Woman Tree (working title) to show how the structure can help shape a novel without crushing your muse.

Along the way, we tackle:

• Whether all the women or all the men should die in a dystopian future (whoops, we go there),
• That weird masculine energy in the culture right now 👀,
• The ex that might actually be the monster in your house (literally or emotionally),
• And our shared rage at the YouTuber who said “Why Female Authors Don’t Matter” (no, we won’t link it).

There's also some spicy talk about ghosts, sperm vials, and Judd Apatow movies. Plus: why your protagonist's breakdown in the shower might just be their “Dark Night of the Soul.”

This one’s juicy. And crinkly. (Sorry, Rachel’s mic did a thing.)

🕯️✨ Writers, readers, and story nerds — if you’ve ever wondered whether Save the Cat is helpful or heinous, this one’s for you.

Please subscribe, rate and review!

New episodes every Wednesday.

E-mail us your short story at contact@writeyourheartoutpod.com

Follow us on instagram @writeyourheartoutpod

Leave us a message at 650-260-4885