# Exploratory writing with Alison Jones Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-might-work-7856602/exploratory-writing-with-alison-jones Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-might-work-7856602/exploratory-writing-with-alison-jones.md Podcast: [This Might Work](https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-might-work-7856602) Published: 2026-06-03T05:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/this-might-work/episodes/exploratory-writing-with-alison-jones Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/69f4a8b3e1fad0f98a5abc72/e/6a1570e3cb11d38a8bb35870/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/this-might-work-7856602/episodes/exploratory-writing-with-alison-jones Duration seconds: 721 ## Resource What if the answer to a stuck writing project wasn't more time, more planning, or more thinking - but six minutes and a scrappy piece of paper? In this episode of This Might Work , host Bec Evans explores 'exploratory writing', a daily practice developed by author and publisher Alison Jones that uses questions to discover what you don't yet know. Then she puts it to the test with Margaret O'Brien, a novelist and creative non-fiction writer whose project has been lingering in her files - almost finished, but not quite. Can six minutes of messy writing open it up? About the guests Alison Jones, MA, MBA, is director of Practical Inspiration Publishing and host of The Extraordinary Business Book Club , a podcast and community for writers and readers of extraordinary business books. A veteran of the publishing industry, she regularly speaks and writes on the business of books. Former head judge of the Business Book Awards she’s written several books herself, including the bestselling This Book Means Business (2018) and Exploratory Writing: Everyday magic for life and work (2022). She is passionate about the value of both reading and writing for leaders, and particularly the extraordinary power of exploratory writing as a tool for thinking.   Margaret O'Brien lives in south-east Ireland, within sight of the Mountain of the Women. Her book, Weather Report is a 90-day journal that grew out of a creative community project during Covid. She is currently writing a hybrid novel that features the challenges and changes wrought by two quite different viruses - rabies in late 1890s Ireland and the coronavirus in the 21st century. She is a former lecturer, an affiliate of Amherst Writers & Artists, and leads various writing related events under the umbrella of 'Writing C… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/this-might-work-7856602/episodes/exploratory-writing-with-alison-jones/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-might-work-7856602/exploratory-writing-with-alison-jones.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.