Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchEpisode 187 - Giving readers what they want.
We writers should consider giving readers what they want. Well, what do they want? Here is a discussion of the five things readers want in a novel.…
11 months, 2 weeks ago
Episode 186 - Showing--not telling--what a character is thinking.
Thoughts are interior, in our minds. But there are ways to show--to give evidence--that reveal to the reader what our character is thinking. Also, …
11 months, 3 weeks ago
Episode 185 - The keys to musical writing.
The three most important words in our fiction are, "Story, story, story." But we can also shoot for lovely, musical language that makes each sentenc…
1 year ago
Episode 184 - Skipping the dull stuff in our plot.
In his famous ten rules of writing, Elmore Leonard says that we shouldn't write things readers tend to skip. What are those things? How can we avoi…
1 year ago
Episode 183 - A key to making our sentences forceful.
What do Ernest Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy, and Elmore Leonard have in common? Powerful stories, yes. But also lean and forceful sentences. Here's…
1 year ago
Episode 182 - Things to think about as we write the end of our story.
After months and month if writing, we'll near the end of our story. Our novel is almost finished. Here are things we should consider as we wrap up …
1 year ago
Episode 181 - A critical difference between scene and summary.
Why should almost all of our story be scenes rather than summaries? Here's how we can avoid summaries and instead write moment-by-moment real-time s…
1 year, 1 month ago
Episode 180 - The critical distance between the reader and the action.
The reader is like a camera as the scene unfolds. Where should that camera be? How far away from the characters and the action? Here are thoughts …
1 year, 1 month ago
Episode 179 - The critical writing techniques all in one episode.
Here are the most important fiction writing techniques boiled down to twenty-five minutes. I've talked about all these elements in prior episodes bu…
1 year, 1 month ago
Episode 178 - How to make readers laugh.
We may be writing a comic novel or we may want to add humor to our thriller or romance or horror or literary novel. Humor adds a strong element to m…
1 year, 1 month ago