Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchEpisode 127 - Go big or go home plotting.
Classic novelists knew the strong technique regarding plotting and it's a terrific lesson for us: go big or go home. And what if we want to ignore a…
2 years, 1 month ago
Episode 126 - Should we hire a book coach?
When can a book coach help us and when can a coach not help us? Here are thoughts on book coaches. Also, the master George Orwell on describing a c…
2 years, 1 month ago
Episode 125 - When to avoid the proven writing technique.
Sometimes we don't need to use the standard and strong writing technique, and we can deviate from the proven technique. When? We'll talk about it h…
2 years, 1 month ago
Episode 124 - Save the cat plotting.
Blake Snyder's famous Save the Cat plotting--where he describes fifteen beats a movie screenplay should have--is useful for us novelists. And wonder…
2 years, 2 months ago
Episode 123 - The beauty of a professional submission.
How can we submit a manuscript that meets the industry's format expectations and so avoids an amateurish look? Here's how to do it. Also, how the b…
2 years, 2 months ago
Episode 122 - Getting inside a villain's mind.
We aren't villains, and we likely don't have the background and personality of a villain. How can we get inside the mind of a villain for our story,…
2 years, 2 months ago
Episode 121 - The biggest mistakes new writers make.
Sometimes new writers have a strong plot idea and they begin writing without learning much about fiction writing. Here are the ten most common mista…
2 years, 2 months ago
Episode 120 - The most important element in fiction.
We learn many techniques to improve our fiction writing. Is there one big thing we should think about first, the most important element? Yes, and w…
2 years, 3 months ago
Episode 119 - Making our sentences instantly stronger.
Here is a technique--it's magical--to make our sentence-by-sentence writing instantly stronger; avoiding qualifiers. And how to use good dialogue ta…
2 years, 3 months ago
Episode 118 - Naming characters and the framing device.
Naming our story's characters is fun but there is a big technique involved, which we talk about in this episode. Also; the iceberg theory of writing…
2 years, 3 months ago