Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchEpisode 210 - Timeless plot patterns.
Folks new to fiction may think because there are a million stories and dozens of genres, plots can be presented in any way imaginable. But successfu…
4 months, 2 weeks ago
Episode 209 - Avoiding blunders in our story.
How and why should we avoid our character traveling? And how does Orson Scott Card not make blunders in his novels? Here is his tool for having a …
4 months, 3 weeks ago
Episode 208 - How to paint pictures with words.
Writing is magic. We type on a keyboard, and then the words we type create powerful images in readers' minds. Here is a discussion of our main tool…
5 months ago
Episode 207 - When the hero lies to the reader.
Sometimes an unreliable narrator can be great fun to create, and great fun to read about. Here are techniques for developing a protagonist the reade…
5 months, 1 week ago
Episode 206 - How to get lots of plot ideas.
Novelist John D. McDonald said he had more plot ideas than time to write them. That's not the case for most of us writers. We usually are in chroni…
5 months, 2 weeks ago
Episiode 205 - How to stop stalling and get going.
Sometimes we are full of ambition to write. Yet we don't. We put off our writing, then put it off again. Why do we do that? And what can be done…
5 months, 3 weeks ago
Episode 204 - Meaningless modifiers and what to cut.
Some words don't add anything to a sentence other than confusion. Here are several modifiers that our story is better without. Also, is cutting te…
6 months ago
Episode 203 - Argument makes our dialogue riveting.
Dialogue lets the reader become part of the story, as if the reader is standing next to the characters listening to them talk. Not all conversation …
6 months, 1 week ago
Episode 202 - How to have fun while writing.
Writing fiction is work but it doesn't need to be a grind. Here's how we can have fun while we write, things that'll give us a joyful kick, maybe ev…
6 months, 2 weeks ago
Episode 201 - A formula for strong sentences.
Physics loves formulas: E=MC2. How about writing? Here is a formula for writing strong sentences, ones that are clear and have energy. Our setting…
6 months, 3 weeks ago