We’ve gotten to some hearty chapters in Ann Lamott’s book Bird by Bird. First up is plot, which “grows out of characters.” We discuss what this means and if it’s applicable to genre writing. Then we turn to dialog, and how you distill intent from the rambling conversation of what people say while maintaining their unique voice.

Putting our writing chops to the test, Renee took a hilarious 3000 word monolog by the Afternoona Delightpodcast ladies and condensed it down to 600. Definitely worth a listen before you go hiking to the top of Mt Washington.

Want to hear more of our exercise workshop? We post the bonus podcast, SnarkNotes, and detailed write up of the exercises on our Words to Write by Patreon account.

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