Podcast Episodes

Moonstruck: writing female characters

Season 10 Episode 1001

We're kicking off a brand new season with two new story concepts. Melanie will be studying female characters and how women are presented in modern st…

2 years, 1 month ago

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What do agents do?

Season 9

This bonus episode was prompted by a chat I saw on Threads. It started with the question, what excites you most about having an agent? Offline, Melan…

2 years, 1 month ago

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Our Best Advice: left-brained stories

Season 9 Episode 911

Left-brained stories (mysteries, crime thrillers, spy stories) are among the highest selling books on the market today. Readers can't get enough of t…

2 years, 1 month ago

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The Sixth Sense: the art of the gotcha ending

Season 9 Episode 910

Are you planning to use a twist at the end of your story? Have you ever wondered how M. Night Shyamalan pulled off this famous gotcha ending? If so, …

2 years, 1 month ago

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Breakout Books v. Words on a Page

Season 9

To be a career author, you must have a breakout book. And, a breakout book is one that contains a story that works. In this episode, I tell you the s…

2 years, 1 month ago

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How to Write a Breakout Book

Season 9

I just attended a training session with a literary agent who said that failure to write a breakout book is one of the most common mistakes writers ma…

2 years, 1 month ago

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The Last of Sheila: soooo good

Season 9 Episode 909

Now this is the epitome of a left-brained story. THE LAST OF SHEILA has puzzles within puzzles, an intricate plot that has been expertly set up, and …

2 years, 2 months ago

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How do stories work?

Season 9

If you're writing a novel or memoir, you're writing a story. Sounds obvious, right? That may be, but most authors don't know how to tell a story that…

2 years, 2 months ago

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Gosford Park: did he deserve it?

Season 9 Episode 908

This film offers two hugely valuable lessons to writers of all genres. The first is about the inciting incident and when it needs to happen. The seco…

2 years, 2 months ago

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One Line Writing Secret You Need to Know

Season 9

In our last episode about our most embarrassing literary moments, Melanie and I said that line writing (or prose writing) means learning to write a n…

2 years, 2 months ago

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