Oct 23, 2026 · 28 min · 12 segments
Award-winning journalist and writer Jeff Oloizia joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about his new podcast, *Writing Forward*, where Oloizia talks to Wisconsin scribes about carving out a creative life…
And I wonder what are the common misconceptions you think people have either as they're getting started as writers, as young writers, or just in general? Like what...
Like I think I grew up thinking somebody writes a book and they become an author.
Um, I, I got an MFA in fiction from the university of North Carolina, Wilmington.
Um, and I remember I had a classmate who kept saying to me like, oh, I need to, I need to sell my book so I can make some money and do, and I was like, man, if that's what you're banking on you know i think it is really hard now to earn a living and a career on just writing you know most writers i know have a day job whether they're teaching or working communications or or doing whatever um yeah i think that is a misconception very few people get the big advances um and even then you know you think about say you got a six-figure advance from one of the big houses uh that's typically for i don't know four or five six seven eight nine ten years of work so if you're if you're you know uh looking at it over that span um so i guess the takeaway is you really have to love what you're doing because the tangible rewards if they are there um are pretty fleeting um so we talk about that a lot on the podcast um The good news is I think most writers enjoy what they do.
It just means you might have to find some more intrinsic motivation for what you're doing.
And I mean, if I think of a writer's life, I'm probably thinking of somebody in New England sitting in a beautiful home in a perfect writer's room.
And there's dozens of movies that portray exactly that scene, right? But that's not what it is.
And I feel like guys like Michael Perry and people like Maggie Ginsberg, they have this intrinsic need to contribute this Wisconsin nugget to that whole picture.
You know, Mike has been writing for years about volunteer firefighters in rural Wisconsin.
Maggie wrote an amazing debut novel that takes place in the sort of surrounding areas of Madison.
I think, you know, for a while here, we got to a place where it felt like every other book I was reading was about like a young kid guy or gal who was a writer in brooklyn and they hung out with the other writers in brooklyn and you know it's just like i think everybody deserves to see themselves on the page uh and it's a big tent there's there's plenty of room for everything and so if we can carve out a little bit of uh that landscape for ourselves as wisconsin writers all the better
It's nice to think of like, I'm just going to go down to the coffee shop and hang out with all these other writers.
And I wonder what are the common misconceptions you think people have either as they're getting started as writers, as young writers, or just in general? Like what...
Like I think I grew up thinking somebody writes a book and they become an author.
Um, I, I got an MFA in fiction from the university of North Carolina, Wilmington.
Um, and I remember I had a classmate who kept saying to me like, oh, I need to, I need to sell my book so I can make some money and do, and I was like, man, if that's what you're banking on you know i think it is really hard now to earn a living and a career on just writing you know most writers i know have a day job whether they're teaching or working communications or or doing whatever um yeah i think that is a misconception very few people get the big advances um and even then you know you think about say you got a six-figure advance from one of the big houses uh that's typically for i don't know four or five six seven eight nine ten years of work so if you're if you're you know uh looking at it over that span um so i guess the takeaway is you really have to love what you're doing because the tangible rewards if they are there um are pretty fleeting um so we talk about that a lot on the podcast um The good news is I think most writers enjoy what they do.
It just means you might have to find some more intrinsic motivation for what you're doing.
And I mean, if I think of a writer's life, I'm probably thinking of somebody in New England sitting in a beautiful home in a perfect writer's room.
And there's dozens of movies that portray exactly that scene, right? But that's not what it is.
And I feel like guys like Michael Perry and people like Maggie Ginsberg, they have this intrinsic need to contribute this Wisconsin nugget to that whole picture.
You know, Mike has been writing for years about volunteer firefighters in rural Wisconsin.
Maggie wrote an amazing debut novel that takes place in the sort of surrounding areas of Madison.
I think, you know, for a while here, we got to a place where it felt like every other book I was reading was about like a young kid guy or gal who was a writer in brooklyn and they hung out with the other writers in brooklyn and you know it's just like i think everybody deserves to see themselves on the page uh and it's a big tent there's there's plenty of room for everything and so if we can carve out a little bit of uh that landscape for ourselves as wisconsin writers all the better
It's nice to think of like, I'm just going to go down to the coffee shop and hang out with all these other writers.
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