Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchEpisode 27 - The importance of genres and formulas. And thoughts about titles.
Formulas became formulas because they work. Our genre will offer guidelines (formulas) for our plots. And: titles are fun to think about but it's s…
4 years, 1 month ago
Episode 26 - Navel gazing and how to avoid it. And more on showing
Interior monologue and how to avoid it. And more techniques regarding the critical skill of showing rather than telling. And visits to John Steinbe…
4 years, 1 month ago
Episode 25: The magic of writing. Cause and effect. And thinking.
We writers may never know to whom our words will have a profound meaning. Plus, the importance of cause and effect. And the perils of interior mono…
4 years, 1 month ago
Episode 24 - Showing others our work. And strong sentence-by-sentence writing techniques.
Should we show friends and family our manuscripts as we compose them? Good reasons for and against exist. The key to vivid writing: be specific, de…
4 years, 1 month ago
Episode 23: Editing our own manuscript
What should we look for when editing our own manuscript? How do famous authors do it? What should we look for as we edit? This episode discusses t…
4 years, 2 months ago
Episode 22: A summary of earlier episodes, and techniques for musical writing.
Topics of earlier episodes are boiled down to sixteen points, and we'll talk about them briefly. Also, here are some things we can do to make our se…
4 years, 2 months ago
Episode 21: Creativity and how to get it.
How can we shake loose from our brains plots for our novels? Here's my favorite way. Plus, benefits and perils of writing with a partner. More on …
4 years, 2 months ago
Episode 20 - Reasons we fail to start.
Why don't we begin our novel? Here's a reason, and a way to avoid it. Plus, we'll talk about qualifiers and intensifiers, the leeches of language. …
4 years, 2 months ago
Episode 19 - More on modifiers, including the useless and the dangling. And clunky reach words.
Many adjective and adverb s do nothing but pad a sentence, making the sentence rickety. Here are some techniques on avoiding these useless or uninte…
4 years, 3 months ago
Episode 18 - Lots of things to avoid: the negative, cliches, and too many modifiers.
In this episode we focus on sentence-by-sentence writing. How can we make our sentences vivid and powerful? Some strong techniques are discussed, …
4 years, 3 months ago