DBS #91: Has Inclusive Language Gotten Out Of Hand?

Meet
Our Hosts

Caleb James K.

Caleb James K. is the former Editor-in-Chief of the literary journal, Drunken Pen Writing, and the host of the DPW Podcast. He’s also a fiction writer, poet, and aspiring novelist.

Spencer Church

A former aspiring comic book artist, Spencer is the cohost of the DPW Podcast as well as a short story writer and avid reader.


We start the episode with some harmless Dragon Ball talk. After that, we continue the civil conversation with a fresh look at our writing habits: We discuss the importance of setting, hooking the reader early, establishing characters, and creating atmosphere. 

Once we exhaust the civil conversation, we get into the meat and potatoes of the stew and discuss inclusive language in writing. This includes a list of words you used to be able to say but are now considered outdated and what you should use instead. This of course digresses into our opinions of inclusive language. And boy howdy do we give our opinions!

In today's cold open, we talk about our current writing progress. After that, we discuss Stephen King's bestselling novel IT. Rather than talk about the story, which almost everyone knows already, we discuss the icky bits that nobody wants to hear about. You know the scene! Also, all the racism and gross nonsense, but we don't dwell on that stuff too much. We break down some of the writing tricks Stephen King used to scare readers, and we end the episode by giving a quick top five of our favorite King novels. You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @dpwpodcast You can check out Caleb's work at http://www.calebjamesk.com. 
  1. BOTM #26: IT
  2. A Murakami Minute: 1Q84 Book Three
  3. #230: Literary Masterpieces That Actually Suck
  4. A Murakami Minute: 1Q84 Book Two
  5. #229: How To Fix Bad Writing And A Secret Book Club

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