Your weekend is not weird enough without Brainstoryum! Join award-winning fantasy and dreampunk author, Anna Tizard, in a journey into short story writing using the surrealist word game of Exquisite Corpse. Listeners’ words are drawn from the legendary Socks of Destiny and mixed into writing prompts which lead to the most unexpected story ideas – and a fascinating exploration of writing craft. This new year show includes stories around circuses, gargoyles, hunters and a mysterious stone. Ignite your imagination with these stories and ideas for the ultimate writing prompt challenge.

Subscribe for free to Anna Tizard’s private email list and get vol 1 in The Book of Exquisite Corpse plus exclusive material not published anywhere else! All at www.annatizard.com.

INTRO: Happy new year to you, imaginative people! I’m Anna Tizard and this is episode 71 of Brainstoryum. It’s 2025. It really is. Actually, it’s the first of January as I record this and in the UK it is ridiculously windy.

Anyway: happy new year to you; I hope you’ve had a wonderful and restful break over Christmas.

Have you made any new year’s resolutions? Have I?

I tend to avoid making heavy-going decisions in the middle of winter when my natural inclination is to hide under a duvet with a torch and a good book. But it’s a difficult idea to resist, because it seems to positive, plus everything seems to scream at you, “new year, new you”, when really, your personal new year is your birthday; although I’d say springtime is the natural new year, if anything. If the trees and the plants can be bothered to wake up and do something, well, maybe I can make the same effort. I’d say, don’t make resolutions because the adverts say you should (or if other people say you should); do it if it helps you gain clarity on what you’d like to achieve.

For my part, it’s difficult to set goals beyond my regular goal of producing this show. I don’t talk about it much, but...