Writing Roots: Recent Episodes
Ley Esses, Leigh Hull, AspenHouse Publishing
We're here to help authors, published or not, improve. Each episode focuses on a step in the process, whether it's actually writing or getting your book out into the world through self-publishing.
Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter. - Neil Gaiman
The post S46E3 – Writing for Short Story Contests appeared first on Writing Roots.
There are many different writing contests out there, especially in this digital age. Anyone can technically host a contest and charge a fee for submissions. That can make it difficult to find ones that align with both your budget and your writing goals.
In this episode, we discuss how to find contests and how to determine if submitting will be worth your time.
First aired September 7, 2023.
The post S46E2 – Finding the Right Writing Contest appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writing contests can be a foot in the door or a way to gain experience for authors of all kinds. There are many different contests you can enter, from short stories and poetry to cover design and audiobooks.
Throughout this series, we will be talking about contests, how to write for them, how to find them, and the pros and cons of submitting your name. We start by talking about the different kinds of contests and the most common sources.
First aired September 4, 2023.
The post S46E1 – Different Types of Writing Contests appeared first on Writing Roots.
Let’s face it: The ‘genius’ stuff happens in the editing process. - Jeff Goins
The post S45E9 – The Editor’s Toolkit appeared first on Writing Roots.
To write is human, to edit is divine. - Stephen King
The post S45E8 – How to Charge for Editing appeared first on Writing Roots.
The secret to editing your work is simple: you need to become its reader instead of its writer. - Zadie Smith
The post S45 Bonus – Being an Author Editors Want to Work With appeared first on Writing Roots.
Editing is a kind of creative activity where, in a perfect world, an author and an editor find that elusive oneness to understand each other intuitively. - Sahara Sanders
The post S45E7 – Questions for the Author/Editor Interview appeared first on Writing Roots.
Editors are extremely fallible people, all of them. Don’t put too much trust in them. - Maxwell Perkins
The post S45E6 – Personal Editing Cheat Sheets appeared first on Writing Roots.
For the relationship to work, the writer and editor must respect each other’s expertise and passion. - Rebecca Wenrich Wheeler
The post S45E5 – Style Guides for Editing appeared first on Writing Roots.
It’s hard to take someone seriously when they leave a note saying ‘your ugly.’ My ugly what? The idiot didn’t even know the difference between your and you’re. - Cara Lynn Shultz
The post S45E4 – The Job of a Proofreader appeared first on Writing Roots.
Words. Words. I play with words, hoping that some combination, even a chance combination, will say what I want. - Doris Lessing
The post S45E3 – The Job of a Line Editor appeared first on Writing Roots.
Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should say to himself, ‘How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?’ and avoid ‘How can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?’ - James Thurber
The post S45E2 – The Job of a Developmental Editor appeared first on Writing Roots.
Editors have to be vicious. They’re working for the reader, not the writer. - Brendan Wolfe
The post S45E1 – Becoming an Editor appeared first on Writing Roots.
If you want to captivate your readers, a good beginning is essential. Even more so, however, is the story needs to continue to hold them. When the plot meanders and wanders from place to place without much direction or motivation for the characters. When you look at each scene, consider what purpose it has for...
The post Extended Archives: When a Story Meanders appeared first on Writing Roots.
Picking the right name for a book is about more than what sounds good to you or what feels right for the story. It is important to look at the title as part of your marketing. Along with the cover, titles will draw in the readers at first glance. And because it’s part of marketing,...
The post Extended Archives: Choosing the Right Title appeared first on Writing Roots.
Choreography is usually something you think of in relation to plays and movies. As authors, however, having appropriate choreography as your characters move through a scene is just as important. After all, you’re creating a movie of sorts in the minds of your readers. All you’ll do is create confusion if characters hop from one...
The post Extended Archives: The Problems with Bad Blocking appeared first on Writing Roots.
When you close the book, does the story end? No! That's such a bland way to read. Every story goes on forever in our imaginations, and its characters live on. - Mizuki Nomura
The post S44E9 – The Denouement and Epilogue appeared first on Writing Roots.
I tend to relate to a character in terms of the arc: what’s interesting is where he starts versus where he ends up. - Edward Norton
The post S44E8 – During Act III: The Interior Plot appeared first on Writing Roots.
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is a hot topic in the world today. From funny TikTok filters to a partial cause for the WGA strike, AI is becoming a larger part of our daily lives and, in particular, creativity. It’s hard to deny there are benefits to technology advancing as it has with AI. It has...
The post S44 Bonus – Using AI in the Arts appeared first on Writing Roots.
Act 3 is the whole book in miniature. There’s a beginning, middle, and end. Rising action, climax, and falling action. - Jeff Gerke
The post S44E7 – During Act III: The Exterior Plot appeared first on Writing Roots.
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. - Helen Keller
The post S44E6 – During Act II: The Interior Plot appeared first on Writing Roots.
When you are in the middle of a story, it isn’t a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood; like a house in a whirlwind, or else a boat crushed by the icebergs or swept over the rapids, and all aboard powerless to stop it. It’s only afterwards that it becomes anything like a story at all. When you are telling it, to yourself or to someone else. - Margaret Atwood
The post S44E5 – Plot: The Halfway Point appeared first on Writing Roots.
Never let up. In stories, things go from bad to worse, even if nobody wants them to. If she wants to apologize, interrupt her. Whenever anyone is about to release tension, interrupt her. Is the couple on the date about to kiss? Pull them apart. You might think the audience will love you if you give them what they want. Not true. Make them want it, then yank it away. - Matt Bird
The post S44E4 – During Act II: The Exterior Plot appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writing a story isn’t about making your peaceful fantasies come true. The whole point of the story is the character arc. You didn’t think joy could change a person, did you? Joy is what you feel when the conflict is over. But it’s conflict that changes a person…. You put your characters through hell. You put them through hell. That’s the only way we change. - Donald Miller
The post S44E3 – During Act I: The Interior Plot appeared first on Writing Roots.
Plots often have two aspects: interior and exterior. The exterior part is often the main conflict with a villain or antagonist of some kind. In most kinds of fictional stories, the exterior plot will be the focus, especially near the beginning as we are getting introduced to the characters. It’s the exterior plot that holds the hook and inciting incident.
In this episode, we break down what happens in the external plot during Act I of a story.
First aired June 5, 2023.
The post S44E2 – During Act I: The Exterior Plot appeared first on Writing Roots.
We are on to our third pillar of storytelling: plot. Even pantsers need to have a plot to their story. But what is a plot? What happens when? Throughout this series, we’ll look at the plot in the three act structure, breaking down the steps along the way so you can apply it to whichever structure you’re using.
Some things in your story happen before the first chapter even begins. There’s a whole history of how the world came to be and become what it is when the events start. While you don’t necessarily need to put those down on the page, there are some things you should know as you begin.
In this episode, our hosts take a look at what happens before the first act, including what happens in a prologue.
First aired June 1, 2023.
The post S44E1 – Plot: Before Act 1 appeared first on Writing Roots.
Not all characters have to have a speaking role to be influential to the plot. One type of character you may consider is an inanimate object. These can have some external influence, such as The One Ring, or simply exist as a comedic relief.
Listen to this episode for a breakdown of how to use objects as characters, their common tropes and roles, and why it can help in your storytelling process.
First aired May 29, 2023.
The post S43E9 – Characters: Inanimate Objects appeared first on Writing Roots.
Each character needs both successes and failure. This is important especially for your main protagonist(s). They need to struggle, to fight, but they also need the occasional spot of hope that helps them continue on.
In this bonus episode, we talk about how to create successes and failures for your characters whether you’re a plotter or pantser.
First aired May 27, 2023.
The post S43 Bonus – Successes and Failure of the Characters appeared first on Writing Roots.
The Greek Chorus is a character type most often used, but least often recognized outright. In a few examples, such as Disney’s Hercules, the Greek Chorus is literal. In others, this type of character is melded with another character type. What you as the author needs to know, is that this character is essential in helping your reader understand what’s happening.
Whether they’re asking questions the readers will inevitably be asking, or providing a narrative framework, consider including a Greek Chorus for your readers.
First aired May 25, 2023.
The post S43E8 – Characters: The Greek Chorus appeared first on Writing Roots.
A society can be its own kind of character within a story, designed to be the support system for the main character. It can be the team for a heist, the organization of magic users, an underground network, or a leadership council.
Whatever role they play within the structure of the world, there are a few things you should know about the typical role of the society that will help you develop one for your story.
First aired May 22, 2023.
The post S43E7 – Characters: The Society appeared first on Writing Roots.
Bad guys need helpers. These can be characters to help carry out their plan, to be roadblocks for the protagonist, or even to be the comedic relief. There are many uses for the Villain’s Chorus.
Like the Greek Chorus, these are usually secondary and tertiary characters. They fill the ranks and help the antagonist appear to have power and control, even if it’s simply one character. They aren’t limited to being minions, though. Listen for more ideas on common tropes and traits to include with the supporting cast of your villain.
First aired May 18, 2023.
The post S43E6 – Characters: The Villain’s Chorus appeared first on Writing Roots.
Even if you’re telling a grim story, having a character to fulfil the role of comedic relief can go a long way in holding your readers. This character breaks tension, is usually likeable, and serves the story in a unique way.
In this episode, we talk about common tropes and uses for the comedic relief to help you as you craft the perfect cast of characters.
First aired May 15, 2023.
The post S43E5 – Characters: The Comedic Relief appeared first on Writing Roots.
In the process of crafting a story, you may find that you need a character that will turn the tides. Not your main character or maybe not even one of their crew. What you need is a secret ingredient that for one reason or another helps tip the scales.
This can be a character whose ability was thought useless, or a mistreated helper to the villain. The secret ingredient character plays an essential role in the end of the story. Listen to this episode for more about how to create that secret ingredient in a way that helps the story come together.
First aired May 11, 2023.
The post S43E4 – Characters: The Secret Ingredient appeared first on Writing Roots.
You will find in most stories that the main character is surrounded by a supporting cast. These secondary characters often fill specific roles as they help the main character progress through the story. They cheer on the hero, provide key knowledge and skills to the team, and are often the source of much-needed comedic relief.
Listen to this episode for more on the common tropes, traits, and archetypes for your secondary characters.
First aired May 8, 2023.
The post S43E3 – Characters: Secondary Characters appeared first on Writing Roots.
Even if you aren’t telling a Hero’s Journey story, you may have a mentor in your cast. They don’t have to be the wizened old person who lives as a hermit. They can simply be a friend or family member who helps guide the character through their trials.
In this episode, we talk about what makes a mentor and how their story can grow without interfering with the main character’s arc.
First aired May 4, 2023.
The post S43E2 – Characters: The Mentor appeared first on Writing Roots.
This month, we are covering the second of the three pillars of storytelling: characters. Without characters, there is no story. But it’s more than simply the hero and the villain. There is a whole cast of characters who can help you build a story that will draw readers in and keep them interested in the outcome.
Our first focus will be on the trusty sidekick. This is an essential piece of support for your main character. They need someone to turn to, to rely on, and to motivate them into taking down the antagonist. A sidekick can take many forms.
In this episode, we look at types of sidekicks and what kind of role they can play in your story.
First aired May 2, 2023.
The post S43E1 – Characters: The Sidekick appeared first on Writing Roots.
Part of your job in worldbuilding is knowing when to stop. Knowing when you don’t actually need to give the information to the readers, or even know it yourself. Knowing when to not worldbuild applies no matter what kind of writer you are.
There are a few theories to help you decide what you need to know and what actually needs to go onto the page. We take a closer look at these, as well as give you advice on how to go about showing off your world without the info dump.
First aired April 29, 2023.
The post S42 Bonus – When Not to Worldbuild appeared first on Writing Roots.
This is our 400th episode! Thank you to all of our followers and supporters for helping us make it this long talking about writing.
The concept of a multiverse is incredibly popular in today’s media. From big names like Marvel to smaller stories that explore extra dimensional concepts, there seems to be plenty of room to play in this particular genre of worldbuilding.
Listen to this episode for a look into what a multiverse can be and how you can use it in your own story.
First aired April 27, 2023.
The post S42E8 – Worldbuilding: Creating a Multiverse appeared first on Writing Roots.
When you build your world, you also need to consider how the reader will understand what you’ve created. If you throw a bunch of new words at them with little to no explanation, they get lost. If all you are doing is explain, they get bored.
In this episode, we talk about the best ways to make your world accessible to the reader, from making sure you minimize made-up terms to finding ways to connect it to our own world.
First aired April 24, 2023.
The post S42E7 – Worldbuilding: Make it Accessible appeared first on Writing Roots.
Fans love getting immersed in the worlds of the media they consume. This can be anything from detailed worldbuilding to providing them with ways to make it their own. As an author, one of the best ways you can make this possible is by leaving room for your world to be explorable.
An explorable world can be for you to expand in the future or for your readers to build upon with fanfiction. Listen for more on how.
First aired April 20, 2023.
The post S42E6 – Worldbuilding: Make it Explorable appeared first on Writing Roots.
Scene-setting is one of the hardest parts of the author’s job, especially if you’re dealing with made-up worlds and locations. Even if you’re basing the story in the modern, known world, you will need to set the scene for your readers. That can be anything from describing the room they’re in, or a whole country.
The problem when it comes to scene-setting is the level of detail involved. Too much and it’s overwhelming or boring, too little and the book becomes a blank stage without any real environment for the characters.
In this episode, we talk about finding that balance to make your world immersive.
First aired April 17, 2023.
The post S42E5 – Worldbuilding: Make it Immersive appeared first on Writing Roots.
Even if you are writing fantasy, sci-fi or any other speculative fiction, you need to make your worldbuilding feel real. There needs to be reason and order to those cool elements you want to include. As fun as it is to be able to add dragons and magic and incredible artificial intelligence, if you don’t connect it to the world, readers will feel lost.
In this episode, we talk about ways to help your world feel real and make it easier to convey those cool concepts without harming your reader.
First aired April 13, 2023.
The post S42E4 – Worldbuilding: Make it Real appeared first on Writing Roots.
Zooming in is one of the most powerful tools of storytelling. The same goes for the worldbuilding. Authors can, at times, get wrapped up in the expanse and scope of the world they’ve created – on the geography and cultures, the monsters and heroes. It can be easy to forget the most powerful way to show that worldbuilding is to focus on the small pieces.
By zooming in, explaining something small, you can show your reader you’ve put thought and attention into creating the world. That allows you to skip over those details which don’t matter to the actual story. (This principle was explained well by TikTok user, studentofwhim.)
In this episode, we talk about ways to zoom in, how to go for the emotional impact in large-scale worldbuilding, and focusing on the details that will mean much more to your reader.
First aired April 10, 2023.
The post S42E3 – Worldbuilding: Make it Small appeared first on Writing Roots.
Readers explore the world through the eyes of your character. This means that if you want to make your worldbuilding real to your reader, you need to make it relevant to your characters.
This can be done through having the character learn about the world, such as in a portal fantasy or hidden society story. Or you can simply reveal the world by showing how the world interests the characters.
Listen for more about how to make your worldbuilding personal.
First aired April 6, 2023.
The post S41E2 – Worldbuilding: Make it Personal appeared first on Writing Roots.
Storytelling rests on three main pillars: the world, the characters, and the plot. All three should work together to help you craft a story that will capture the reader’s heart and mind. Over the next three months, we will talk about these pillars, starting with worldbuilding.
When it comes to creating the world, from the physical locations to the cultures to the magic, you need to know a lot less than you think you do. Trust us.
Worldbuilding is an easy trap to get stuck in that will keep you from ever telling the story. In this episode, we talk about what you actually need to know in order to begin writing, and what you can discover along the way.
First aired April 3, 2023.
The post S42E1 – Pillars of Storytelling: Before You Begin appeared first on Writing Roots.
Characters don’t always know what’s happening as the plot unfolds. When they get confused, as the author, it is your job to make sure the reader isn’t also confused. This is why understanding how to convey this emotion is so important.
It comes down to a delicate balance of giving a reason for the character to be confused while still making your reader feel comfortable that they know enough – or will soon know enough – to keep them from feeling like they missed something.
In this episode, we break down that balance, as well as how you can portray a confused character.
First aired March 30, 2023.
The post S41E9 – Writing Emotions: Confusion appeared first on Writing Roots.
While this is one of the four core emotions we have covered before, we wanted to take a deeper dive into it. Happiness is often forgotten in storytelling, especially when the characters are in a world full of war, destruction or constant fighting. Yet happiness is essential in order to show the full range of a character, and for the readers to truly experience the tragedy of losing that happiness.
From the nuances of happiness at different levels to how to set up a moment of joy, we talk about everything you need to know to write this emotions.
First aired March 27, 2023.
The post S41E8 – Writing Emotions: Happiness appeared first on Writing Roots.
Characters have secrets. It’s a given, really, in the realm of storytelling. Some characters, however, have more secrets than others. In this episode, we are talking about the types of characters who play things close to the chest – where no matter what the subject, they’re likely to hold something back for one reason or another.
This often stems from one of two reasons: they’re either just like that naturally (such as introverts and some neurodivergents) or they have a past trauma that has taught them a “lesson” to keep things to themselves.
Listen for more about these two different kinds of characters and how to write their secrets in a way that won’t confuse readers.
First aired March 25, 2023.
The post S41 Bonus – Playing it Close to the Chest appeared first on Writing Roots.
Guilt weights heavily on many protagonists in a story. It’s not often an emotion felt by the villain, though it can be the root for a different emotion which they use to fuel their motivation. Overall, guilt is a useful tool to include in your arsenal of characters. Which means you need to understand it and its companion emotions.
In this episode, Ley and Leigh discuss both guilty and apologetic emotions, how they play into different characters, and what circumstances usually surround them.
First aired March 23, 2023.
The post S41E7 – Writing Emotions: Guilty and Apologetic appeared first on Writing Roots.
Whether it’s a lovable but infuriating protagonist or a punchable antagonist, it is quite common to include a character whose defining trait is smugness. In this episode, we take a look at this form of pride and break down the variety of ways to employ it in a story.
First aired March 20, 2023.
The post S41E6 – Writing Emotions: Smugness appeared first on Writing Roots.
Much like courage, the emotion of vengeance is easily a plot device. It’s common enough in stories and has seen a rise in popularity with the morally gray heroes. If you want to use it in your own story, it’s important to understand the emotion itself – how it starts and grows into action.
Listen for a breakdown of vengeance, what it is, what it means, and how you can use it in your own story.
First aired March 16, 2023.
The post S41E5 – Writing Emotion: Vengeance appeared first on Writing Roots.
If you ever write a physical conflict, pain will be a key element to the story. Too many authors forget about injuries or gloss over the reality of what a punch or stab would mean for the character. Unless magical healing is involved, any hit will have consequences.
In this episode, we break down what pain means, how it affects the body, and how you can accurately include it in your story.
First aired March 13, 2023.
The post S41E4 – Writing Emotions: Physical Pain appeared first on Writing Roots.
While similar, terror and horror are two different ways to represent fear in your story. Knowing when to apply each one is the important part. Most characters will feel some kind of fear during their story. It could be the fear of the unknown future, fear of loss, fear of something they just witnessed, and many more. Listen for more about the specific fear experienced with terror and horror and how you can use it in your story.
First aired March 8, 2023.
The post S41E3 – Writing Emotions: Terror and Horror appeared first on Writing Roots.
Courage is one of the niche emotions that nearly every book will contain regardless of genre, age group or tropes. Protagonists especially will have a moment when they need to be courageous despite their circumstances. This emotion, however, is often misunderstood and misapplied to writing.
Fear is not the opposite. Courage is best represented by action despite fear. In this episode, we talk about courage, what it looks like in writing, and how you can use it in any genre to help progress a story and develop your characters.
First aired March 6, 2023.
The post S41E2 – Writing Emotions: Courage appeared first on Writing Roots.
Throughout March, we will be covering a variety of specific emotions, starting with reverence. This is not solely a religious emotion. A character can experience reverence towards many things, from a hero the idolize to a place of significant trauma.
Listen for more as we break down what reverence is and how you can use it in your story.
First aired March 2, 2023.
The post S41E1 – Writing Emotions: Reverence appeared first on Writing Roots.
In some ways, releasing a book to the world means it’s no longer yours. The world and its characters belong to the audience. However, the responsibilities still belong to you. The post-launch mindset is a delicate balance of accepting and letting go while doggedly pursuing another success.
Listen to this episode for more about what to do after a book launches and the mindset you need to continue growing as an author.
First aired February 27, 2023.
The post S40E8 – The Post-Launch Mindset appeared first on Writing Roots.
A book blurb is one of the most important steps on the road to publishing. A blurb – that text on the back of your book or in the website description – can make or break any sale. Writing a simple synopsis is not nearly good enough. Blurb writing is an art of its own.
We invited Jessie Cunniffe of Book Blurb Magic to join us and discuss the process of writing a blurb. She breaks down the elements of a good blurb, gives advice on what common mistakes to avoid, and explains what kind of content should actually go in a blurb.
Find out more about Book Blurb Magic on our Resource page. You can find the Anatomy of a Book Blurb downloadable PDF here. For a discount of Jessie’s services, use code WRITINGROOTS at checkout.
The post S40 Bonus – Crafting a Book Blurb with Jessie of Book Blurb Magic appeared first on Writing Roots.
There is a lot of work that goes into publishing a book beyond writing. Getting into the right mindset and having a checklist of things to accomplish can help make the process easier to tackle.
In this episode, we breakdown the steps you should take to get it from a final draft to published.
First aired February 23, 2023.
The post S40E7 – The Pre-Launch Mindset appeared first on Writing Roots.
Having representation in fiction is important. It reflects the reality of our world to have a varied character base. This includes having characters with disabilities, from different races, or of varied sexual orientation and gender identities. When writing those characters, you also need to make sure they’re more than a stereotyped token character. A sensitivity reader can help with that.
In this episode, we discuss the process of finding and using a sensitivity reader so you can be inclusive in your representation without causing harm.
First aired February 20, 2023.
There was a lot to discuss in this episode that had to be cut for time. If you would like an extended version, please contact us at writingroots@aspenhousepublishing.com.
The post S40E6 – Why to Get a Sensitivity Reader appeared first on Writing Roots.
We’ve said before, when you market your books, you want to market yourself as an author. You want people to be as much a fan of you as they are of your writing. Part of this is making sure you have a good author bio.
If you’re writing non-fiction, a bio is critical to getting the audience to trust you. For fiction, it’s more about connecting with them. In this episode, we talk about the tips and tricks to help create a memorable bio that will get the readers wanting to know more about you and your works.
First aired February 16, 2023.
For more on this topic, you can visit Kindlepreneur.
The post S40E5 – Writing an Author Bio appeared first on Writing Roots.
Audiences have certain expectations for books, from the plot and themes to how long it should be. And while there is no set standard and plenty of exceptions, there are guidelines to help you know the target word count based on the genre.
It’s been a while since we’ve talked about word counts. In Series 13, we discussed how to add or subtract to reach a target, and in our genre episodes, we briefly mentioned them. This episode, we’re taking a deep dive into those targets and why they exist.
First aired February 13, 2023.
For additional resources on this topic, click here.
The post S40E4 – Meeting Target Word Counts appeared first on Writing Roots.
Whether you divide your chapters as you write or do it as you edit, picking the right beginning and end of each chapter is vital. It can dictate the flow of your book, how fast a reader progresses through the story, and often how much they put the book down.
Each reader views chapters in a different way. For some, chapters are good breaks. A time to pause and put the book down. For others, especially young readers, chapters are milestones and accomplishments. It’s important to understand your audience as you finalize where those chapters begin and end.
Listen to this episode for tips and tricks to knowing when to end and begin each chapter.
First aired February 9, 2023.
The post S40E3 – What Makes a Good Chapter appeared first on Writing Roots.
Editing your story is vital, but it can be one of the most difficult things to begin. Writers often have a passion, a fire driving them to continue to the end of their manuscript. Editing is where things begin to feel more like work. That’s why in this episode, we’re addressing the topic of finding the motivation to edit.
From anxiety over the mistakes you know are there to believing the first draft is already perfect, there’s a wide range of reasons why someone might not want to edit. Listen to this episode to help identify what’s holding you back and how to cultivate ways to make editing easier.
First published February 6, 2023.
The post S40E2 – Finding Motivation to Edit appeared first on Writing Roots.
When you are getting a book ready for publishing, the first step is going to be accepting that the book will never be perfect. And then you need to accept that just because it’s imperfect doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take steps to making it better.
Perfection is a paralytic. Holding ourselves to high and unrealistic standards can keep us from achieving anything. Trying to make a manuscript perfect will lead to a dozen drafts of a book that will never be published. In this episode, Leigh and Ley discuss some of the best ways to accept imperfection in the process yet still achieve a product you can be proud of.
First aired February 2, 2023.
The post S40E1 – Accepting Imperfection appeared first on Writing Roots.
When we communicate with each other, most of what is relayed and understood has nothing to do with the words we actually say. When you’re dealing with a written format, conveying meaning with something like tone or body language is incredibly difficult. Yet it is absolutely essential. That is why we are taking this episode to look at subtext within dialogue specifically.
For a breakdown of what subtext is and how it can be used, you can listen to S16E3 – Between the Lines: Importance of Subtext. In this episode, we look at what it looks like in and around dialogue and the different tools to help you convey the meaning you intended.
First aired January 30, 2023.
The post S39E9 – Using Subtext in Dialogue appeared first on Writing Roots.
Choices are the crux of your character’s progression through a story. Those choices will paint the picture about who your character is and what is important to them. As the author, it is your duty to actually give your characters an opportunity to choose. Instead of forcing them in the direction that would be good for your story, you need to consider several things.
There are two types of choices you can throw at the character: big ones that impact the plot, and little ones that help define character. Each person is going to make choices based on what they need and want out of life. Consider Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. If your character is in need of shelter, they’re not going to make a decision based on emotional fulfillment. Even then, what they choose should be in-character.
In our bonus episode, we break down how to give your characters choices in meaningful ways to both advance the plot and build the characters.
First aired January 28, 2022.
The post S39 Bonus – Giving Your Characters Choices appeared first on Writing Roots.
If you’ve been writing for any length of time, you may have noticed a habit that is easy to fall into. From new to experienced writers, all of us have accidentally started sentences using the main character’s pronoun one too many times. There will be times, of course, where that is the best avenue. However, if you continue to use the same words and pattern to start each sentence, it begins to feel like a play-by-play rather than a detailed story.
Listen to this episode for tips and tricks on how to avoid starting each sentence with your MC’s name or pronoun.
First aired January 26, 2023.
The post S39E8 – Starting Sentences Without Using the MC’s Pronoun appeared first on Writing Roots.
Psychic distance is a useful tool to understand in order to improve your writing in a way that will help the reader connect with the story. After all, that’s the basis of this concept.
According to John Gardner in his book The Art of Fiction, psychic distance is the “distance that the reader feels between [themselves] and the events of the story.” The closer the reader feels, the more invested they will be in the story’s ending. We break down psychic distance, how it relates to POV, and why it’s important to understand.
First aired January 23, 2023.
The post S39E7 – Understanding Psychic Distance for Your Writing appeared first on Writing Roots.
Emphasis can completely change the meaning of a sentence. Too much emphasis and the sentence looses meaning entirely. That’s why knowing how and when to use italics in the formatting of your writing is so important. Using too many italics is is often a sign of a new author.
You can use italics for more than just emphasis, though. In this episode, we talk about when and where to use this formatting technique to help deliver the right kind of message to your audience.
First aired January 19, 2023.
The post S39E6 – Knowing How to Use Italics in Your Novel appeared first on Writing Roots.
If you really want to improve your writing, you need to start pushing yourself. Try things you never would have considered before. Even if it turns out terribly, there is a lesson to be learned in the process of trying something else.
First aired January 16, 2022.
The post S39E5 – Going Outside Your Writing Comfort Zone appeared first on Writing Roots.
Short stories take all of the nuances of crafting a novel and slam them into fewer than ten-thousand words. No, you won’t have a lot of sub-plots or side characters or even points of view. You will, however, need an entire beginning, middle, and end. Writing short stories is one of the best ways to learn the arc of storytelling quickly.
In this episode, we talk specifically about how short stories can help improve your skills. If you’d like more information about how to write a short story, visit our past episode on the topic. Here, we talk about the principles of keeping it simple and condensed, along with why it’s such a useful tool to write outside of your main work in progress.
First aired January 12, 2023.
The post S39E4 – Improving Your Writing Through Short Stories appeared first on Writing Roots.
We’ve often said that reading is one of your best tools to learn how to write. It’s more than simply consuming the stories, though. To learn the art of writing through reading, you need to be able to read critically.
Critical reading is the process of analyzing not only the writing style, but your own thoughts and feelings toward the story. Writing is subjective. Not everyone is going to view a story in the same way. If you want to appeal to an audience like yourself, you need to know what about a story you find enticing or curious or compelling. You also need to identify what you specifically don’t like, so you can avoid it.
In this episode, we discuss the process of critical reading, some tricks we’ve learned to help in the process, and break down how it can help you.
First aired January 9, 2022.
The post S39E3 – Learning to Critically Read appeared first on Writing Roots.
An important step in improving your writing is learning how to participate in the feedback process. It’s more than just learning how to to take criticism of your work. You need to learn how to give feedback to other authors in a constructive and analytical way.
Giving and getting feedback will help you figure out what works in your writing. We are often blind to our own works for various reasons. Most notably, we know what it should say, and we know what we meant. It’s difficult to read our own writing with the same eye as a reader. To get better, you simply need to start critically reading writing from other people.
Listen to this episode for more about the feedback process and how to improve your writing by being critical.
First aired January 5, 2023.
The post S39E2 – Giving and Getting Feedback appeared first on Writing Roots.
It’s time to level up your writing.
If you’re new to writing communities, you may be daunted by the amount of acronyms, abbreviations, and jargon you encounter every day. Sifting through seemingly nonsensical posts makes an already difficult process feel overwhelming.
For our first episode of 2023, we wanted to dive into this lingo to help you understand. After all, if you can’t communicate with the community of writers, it’s difficult to get help improving your own works.
First aired January 2, 2023.
The post S38E1 – Understanding Writing Community Lingo appeared first on Writing Roots.
If you’re new to the podcast, you may have asked these questions. “Who are you? Who are these people telling me about writing?” To wrap up 2022 and our FAQ series, we wanted to give you some answers.
The podcast has grown so much in the last year. We are thrilled to be able to share our knowledge with all of you. For you to trust us, you should know our backgrounds.
Overall, we’re writers and editors. We are on the same journey as you, and we’re trying to share the things we’ve learned along the way so you don’t have to learn it the hard way. But there’s more to it than simply that we write.
Listen for more about who we are at Writing Roots, what we do, and how we aim to help new and aspiring authors.
First aired December 31, 2022.
The post S38 Bonus – Who Are You? appeared first on Writing Roots.
A surprising question we get often is “how do I make a podcast?” Though it may not be directly related to writing, it is still a topic we wanted to cover this month. Especially when you consider the benefits of using a fiction podcast to share your writing with the world.
Podcasts, whether fiction or non-fiction, are a great way to reach a wide audience. It’s easy enough to set one up and to create content. The difficulty, then, comes in trying to stand out. The podcast market is saturated with all kinds of shows. The ones that do the best are the ones that find a unique edge to a common topic.
First aired December 29, 2022.
The post S38E9 – How Do I Make a Podcast? appeared first on Writing Roots.
New authors are constantly asking how to write someone of a different gender or background. Readers are constantly making fun of authors who wildly misrepresent or stereotype their gender. Our goal in this episode to help show you the best practices for writing characters who don’t share the same experiences as you.
There are physical characteristics to consider when writing someone of certain genders*. Those born female have a different center of balance than those born male. They each have their advantages and disadvantages in things like combat.
Most importantly, though, is that they are human. The only consideration for the time and effort you put into developing a character is the role they play in the story, not their gender role. Listen for more.
*We are not covering transgender or non-binary in this episode as those topics are much broader than we could fit into this episode. Refer to our LGBTQ+ episode from 2020 for a brief overview.
The post S38E8 – How Do I Write Women/Men? appeared first on Writing Roots.
A good plot twist is a wonderful addition to a story. It can reframe how the reader views the rest of the story, spark a strong emotional reaction that will help them remember, or simply create a thrilling segment to experience. Writing a good plot twist takes planning and care (or for pantsers, a lot of detailed editing).
There are plenty of places to go wrong with plot twists. Namely, don’t try to make a twist just to shock and surprise the reader. It needs to make sense within the framework of the story. It’s actually better if the reader can figure it out just before its revealed. That helps the reader feel engaged and clever, which helps them like the book.
Listen to this episode for more on the dos and don’ts of writing plot twists.
First aired December 22, 2022.
The post S38E7 – How Do I Write a Story with a Plot Twist? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Once you’ve hit “publish” on your manuscript, knowing what to do next is overwhelming. You get inundated with all sorts of marketing ideas. For authors who usually don’t like to go out into public, one of the most common forms of marketing include live author events, from signings to fairs.
If you’re just getting started, you may be asking yourself how to prepare, what to do, and if there are small tricks to make it all easier. That’s where this episode comes in. Ley and Leigh have done several live events, from hosting to attending, and have a list of things to help simplify the process and make it less daunting. Especially for those of you who may not enjoy public events.
First aired December 19, 2022.
The post S38E6 – What Do I Do At a Live Author Event? appeared first on Writing Roots.
One of the main jobs an author has is to immerse their audience in the story. One of the most effective ways to do this is to engage all of the reader’s senses – or at least their memories of those senses. We need to use sights, sound, smell, touch, and taste as we craft worlds and scenes. But that can be difficult. Books are limited in what they can actually show. Most of us tend to focus mostly on the sights of the world since it’s easiest to paint that mental picture. True worldbuilding involves so much more. That’s why we wanted to address this question.
Listen to this episode for a breakdown of how to include sensory details, both as you write and as you edit.
First aired December 15, 2022.
The post S38E5 – How Do I Add Sensory Details to My Writing? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Not all main characters have perfect plot armor. There will be times in your writing career where you will need to kill of the main character of your story. However, this is a delicate topic, as it is entirely too easy to incorrectly get rid of the hero.
In this episode, we break down a list of Dos and Don’ts to help guide you in the decision to unalive those MCs. But it all comes down to one important thing: make it mean something.
First aired December 12, 2022.
The post S38E4 – How Do I Kill a Main Character? appeared first on Writing Roots.
It’s becoming more and more common to have a large cast of main characters, especially in the fantasy and sci-fi genres. Having a dozen or more named, active characters in a single scene, though, is complicated. It takes a lot of work to make sure it’s balance, easy to follow, and still serves a purpose.
In this episode, our hosts break down some of the best ways to have a large cast for scenes while avoiding confusion. We talk about how to sort them, how to track them, and how to make sure they all have a purpose.
First aired December 8, 2022.
The post S38E3 – How Do I Write a Scene With Several Active Characters? appeared first on Writing Roots.
If you want to self-publish your book, you may be considering doing the formatting on your own. While we often advise to turn to professionals who know how to do this step, doing that is simply not plausible for everyone. That’s why we’re tackling this question in our FAQ series: how do I format a book for publishing or querying?
There is a lot that goes into making sure a published book looks correct. You have to consider font, margins, headers, chapter titles, and more. In this episode, we do our best to break down the basics to get you started. Also keep in mind that whether you are directly publishing or setting out to query, the formatting will be different. Listen for more on the differences and important pieces.
First aired December 5, 2022.
If you’d like a more in-depth version of this episode, contact us at writingroots@aspenhousepublishing.com
The post S38E2 – How Do I Format My Book For Publishing? appeared first on Writing Roots.
You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer. - Steven Leigh
The post S38E1 – Does Taking a Break Mean I’m Not a Real Writer? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Getting published is really exciting, but it’s not the point of writing. The actual writing is what it’s all about - the daily joy in sitting down to a blank page and crafting something beautiful or funny or heartwrenching or even just blah (depending on the day). - Bridget McNulty
The post S37E9 – It’s Published, It Must Be Good appeared first on Writing Roots.
Start telling the stories that only you can tell. - Neil Gaiman
The post S37 Bonus – Write What You Know appeared first on Writing Roots.
The expression ‘Those who can’t do, teach’ is a curious one, because if you look at the world, you’ll see that teachers aren’t particularly worse at doing things than anyone else, so perhaps the expression might be better worded as ‘nobody can do anything.’ - Lemony Snicket
The post S37E8 – Those Who Can’t Do, Teach appeared first on Writing Roots.
Make him honest. I don't mean 'never fish for spare change in a pay phone honest.' I mean 'tell it like it is and own up to it' honest. Readers will forgive a character for any number of flaws if the character is honest about who he is and what he's doing. - K.M. Weiland
The post S37E6 – Characters Must Be Practically Perfect in Every Way appeared first on Writing Roots.
I learned long ago, never wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it. - George Bernard Shaw
The post S37E5 – You Should Publicly Respond to Criticism of Your Books appeared first on Writing Roots.
Different authors write different ways, and have different relationships with their audiences, and those are all legitimate. - John Green
The post S37E4 – Other Authors are Your Competition appeared first on Writing Roots.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without agreeing with it. - Aristotle
The post S37E3 – Don’t Write Dark Things, It Just Glorifies It appeared first on Writing Roots.
The first draft is for you, the writer; the second and subsequent drafts are for the reader. Trying to do both things at once - figuring out what we want to say, while also fashioning it for another human being to read - is the curse of writer’s block. - Karen Karbo
The post S37E2 – If You’re Good Enough, You Don’t Need a Second Draft appeared first on Writing Roots.
You fail only if you stop writing. - Ray Bradbury
The post S37E1 – You Should Only Write When You’re Inspired appeared first on Writing Roots.
Barbossa : You don't know what this is, do ye?
Elizabeth : It's a pirate medallion...
Barbossa : This is Aztec gold. One of 882 identical pieces they delivered in a stone chest to Cortez himself. Blood money paid to stem the slaughter he wreaked upon them with his armies. But the greed of Cortez was insatiable. So the heathen gods placed upon the gold a terrible curse. Any mortal that removes but a piece from that stone chest shall be punished for eternity.
- Pirates of the Caribbean
The post S36E9 – Dark Psychology: Supernatural Curses appeared first on Writing Roots.
Hannibal Lecter: What if I did it for you?
Clarice Starling: Did what?
Hannibal Lecter: Harmed them, Clarice. The ones who've harmed you. What if I made them scream apologies? No, I shouldn't even say it because you'll feel - with your perfect grasp on right and wrong - that you were somehow accompli- even though you wouldn't be.
- Hannibal
The post S36 Bonus – The Dark Triad: Psychopathy, Narcissism, and Machiavellianism appeared first on Writing Roots.
Gollum: We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky little Hobbitses. Wicked. Tricksy. False!
Smeagol: No. Not master.
Gollum: Yes, precious. False. They will cheat you, hurt you, LIE.
Smeagol: Master's my friend!
Gollum: You don't have any friends. Nobody likes you!
Smeagol: Not listening, I'm not listening.
Gollum: You're a liar and a thief.
Smeagol: No.
Gollum: Mur-der-er.
Smeagol: Go away!
- The Lord of the Rings
The post S36E8 – Dark Psychology: Writing Realistic Dissociative Identity Disorder appeared first on Writing Roots.
ELLA: How’s your blog going?
JOHN: Yeah, good. (He clears his throat awkwardly.) Very good.
ELLA: You haven’t written a word, have you?
JOHN (pointing to Ella’s notepad on her lap): You just wrote, “Still has trust issues.”
ELLA: And you read my writing upside down. D’you see what I mean?
(John smiles awkwardly.)
ELLA: John, you’re a soldier, and it’s gonna take you a while to adjust to civilian life; and writing a blog about everything that happens to you will honestly help you.
JOHN: Nothing happens to me.
- Sherlock, BBC
The post S36E7 – Dark Psychology: Writing Realistic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder appeared first on Writing Roots.
BELLE: Who's there? Who are you?
BEAST: The master of this castle.
BELLE: I've come for my father. Please let him out! Can't you see he's sick?
BEAST: Then he shouldn't have trespassed here.
BELLE: But he could die. Please, I'll do anything!
BEAST: There's nothing you can do. He's my prisoner.
BELLE: Oh, there must be some way I can...wait! Take me, instead!
BEAST: You! You would take his place?
BELLE: If I did, would you let him go?
BEAST: Yes, but you must promise to stay here forever.
- Beauty and the Beast
The post S36E6 – Dark Psychology: The Effects of Imprisonment appeared first on Writing Roots.
KYRA: I'm feeling much better now.
MRS. COLLINS: I'm glad, honey. (beat) Time for your food.
KYRA: Can I go outside, if I eat this?
MRS. COLLINS: We'll see. You know how you get sick in the afternoon. Don't say it tastes funny. You know I don't like to hear that.
- The Sixth Sense
The post S36E5 – Dark Psychology: Including Munchausen Syndrome in a Story appeared first on Writing Roots.
Steve Rogers: You know me.
The Winter Soldier: No, I don’t!
Steve Rogers: Bucky. you’ve known me your entire life. Your name is James Buchanan Barnes…
The Winter Soldier: SHUT UP!
Steve Rogers: I’m not gonna fight you. You’re my friend.
The Winter Soldier: You’re my mission! YOU ARE MY MISSION!
Steve Rogers: Then finish it. ‘Cause I’m with you ’til the end of the line.
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The post S36E4 – Dark Psychology: Brainwashing in Fiction appeared first on Writing Roots.
People with happy families don't become spies. A bad childhood is the perfect background for covert ops. You don't trust anyone, you're used to getting smacked around, and you never get homesick. - Michael Westen, Burn Notice
The post S36E3 – Dark Psychology: Adverse Childhood Experiences appeared first on Writing Roots.
Earl : What is that, Jenna? What is that?
Jenna : Money.
Earl : It's all over the [darned] house! In cabinets, in drawers, under chairs, in closets! Money hidden all over my house!
Jenna : [whispering] I'm sorry.
Earl : After everything I've done for you, you go and hide money from me? [falls to his knees, sobbing] You're the only thing I ever loved, Jenna. You're the only person that ever belonged to me. And you having a secret from me tears me up. - Waitress (2007)
The post S36E2 – Dark Psychology: Writing Domestic Abuse appeared first on Writing Roots.
Enough with the lights, Rapunzel! You are not leaving this tower! Ever! … Great. Now I’m the bad guy. - Mother Gothel, Tangled
The post S36E1 – Dark Psychology: The Use of Gaslighting in Fiction appeared first on Writing Roots.
I can’t separate the process of writing from the visual process. I’m speaking only for myself here, but I’m a highly visual writer. In my imagination, when I’m thinking of a scene, I think of every last detail of it: the space, the color palette, the blocking of the actors, the placement of the camera. - Stephen Gaghan
The post S35E9 – The Confusion Caused by Bad Blocking appeared first on Writing Roots.
My fear now is of cliche, of complacency, of not being able to feel authenticity in myself and those around me. - John Hawkes
The post S35E8 – When the Cliché is Too Cliché appeared first on Writing Roots.
Read good books. Read bad books - and figure out why you don’t like them. Then don’t do it when you write. - Patricia Briggs
The post S35 Bonus – Bad Writing Distracts from the Book appeared first on Writing Roots.
I don’t get far enough into a boring book to hate it. - Gary Wills
The post S35E7 – Slow Beginnings Ruin Stories appeared first on Writing Roots.
Think of your main characters as dinner guests. Would your friends want to spend ten hours with the characters you’ve created? Your characters can be loveable, or they can be evil, but they’d better be compelling. ― Po Bronson
The post S35E6 – The Problem with Annoying Main Characters appeared first on Writing Roots.
Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them ― in order that the reader may see what they are made of. ― Kurt Vonnegut
The post S35E5 – When Characters Make Bad Decisions appeared first on Writing Roots.
In older science fiction stories, they had to rely on storytelling as opposed to spectacle. The old run of the Twilight Zone, the star was the writing and the storytelling, and the characters and the twists and the cleverness in the setup and payoff and execution. - Josh Trank
The post S35E4 – One Impossible Thing in Fiction appeared first on Writing Roots.
When telling a story, you should have three primary phases in order: the setup, the buildup, and the payoff. - Tynan
The post S35E3 – When There’s Buildup Without a Payoff appeared first on Writing Roots.
The opening lines of a book are so important. You really need to somehow charm your reader. If you can’t get her attention in the first pages, you may have lost her. There has to be an ambiance. - Tatiana de Rosnay
The post S35E2 – Bad Beginnings Ruin a Story appeared first on Writing Roots.
Even if your readers don’t know what head-hopping is, by removing it from your novel you’ll give them a more immersive, suspenseful and authentic journey through the world you’ve built. Plus, you’ll ensure they’re reading your story, not trying to work out who’s telling it. - Louise Harnby
The post S35E1 – The Problem with Head-Hopping appeared first on Writing Roots.
Books have a publishing standard, and every Indie Author is responsible to their readers in making sure those standards are met or exceeded. - Eeva Lancaster
The post S34E9 – Two Publishing Paths: Pros and Cons appeared first on Writing Roots.
If you look at all of the villains in the course of human history, they’ve all believed, delusionally, in the virtue of their actions. Every villain is a hero in his own mind. – Tom Hiddleston
The post S34 Bonus – Elements of a Villain appeared first on Writing Roots.
We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things because we're curious. And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. - Walt Disney
The post S34E8 – How to Know When to Stop appeared first on Writing Roots.
Describing your writing as trash while you’re still drafting is like looking at a bag of flour and an egg and saying “My cake tastes like crap.” – Paul Grealish
The post S34E7 – Imposter Syndrome and Your Writing Skills appeared first on Writing Roots.
Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke. – Joss Whedon
The post S34E6 – Writing Humor and Comedy appeared first on Writing Roots.
If two wrongs don’t make a right, try three. – Laurence J. Peter
The post S34E5 – The Rule of Three in Writing appeared first on Writing Roots.
If reading makes you smart, then how come when you read a book they have to put the title of the book on top of every single page? Does anyone get halfway through a book, [and ask] what the hell am I reading? - Brian Regan
The post S34E4 – What’s in a (Book’s) Name? appeared first on Writing Roots.
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague…. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet. - William Shakespeare
The post S34E3 – What’s in a (Pen)Name? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Write down everything that happens in the story, then in the second draft make it look like you knew what you were doing all along. – Neil Gaiman
The post S34E2 – Plotting vs. Pantsing, Take Two appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writing is a demanding profession and a selfish one. And because it is selfish and demanding, because it is compulsive and exacting, I didn’t embrace it. I succumbed to it. - Rod Sterling
The post S34E1 – The Lessons We’ve Learned appeared first on Writing Roots.
You are to become the Shaper of the Cosmos. It is you who will give form and content to all the universe. You will breathe life into the stillness, giving meaning and purpose to all the actions which are to follow. - Gary Gygax
The post Creating and Tracking Your Magic Systems appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writing a first-draft battle scene is akin to real combat - chaos, confusion, and you must keep your cool as you fire word bullets downrange. - Don Roff
The post Notetaking: Crafting Fight Scenes and Fighters appeared first on Writing Roots.
It's important to create a sense of culture even if it is just a fantasy, and the best way to do that is to look at a real human culture and see what makes it cohesive. - Laine Taylor
The post Worldbuilding: How to Create Realistic Fictional Cultures appeared first on Writing Roots.
I'll turn him into a flea, a harmless, little flea, and then I'll put that flea in a box, and then I'll put that box inside of another box, and then I'll mail that box to myself, and when it arrives, I'll smash it with a hammer! It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, I tell you! Genius I say! Or, to save on postage, I’ll just poison him with this.- Yzma, Emperor’s New Groove
The post S33E9 – Avoiding the Info Dump: The Villain Monologue appeared first on Writing Roots.
Readers take in dialogue one thought at a time. A frequent mistake of beginners is to combine thoughts, which may be suitable for other forms of writing but not for dialogue. Another mistake is speechifying. Three sentences at a time is tops, yet many beginners write speeches that go on and on. - Sol Stein
The post S33E8 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Within Dialogue appeared first on Writing Roots.
Exposition can serve as an explanation. It’s all in the arrangement…. Make them want the exposition so that, when you give it, it answers the questions they already possess. - Chuck Wendig
The post S33 Bonus – It’s Okay to Info Dump, If You Do It Right appeared first on Writing Roots.
A little story is supported by a lot of untold backstory. What they get is more than what they see. - Karen Lord
The post S33E7 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Backstory appeared first on Writing Roots.
Creating characters is like throwing together ingredients for a recipe. I take characteristics I like and dislike in real people I know, or know of, and use them to embellish and define characters. - Cassandra Clare
The post S33E6 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Personalities and Descriptions appeared first on Writing Roots.
I think the hardest part of writing anything is getting exposition out easily, without hitting people over the head with it. - Jillian Bell
The post S33E5 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Character Abilities appeared first on Writing Roots.
Not all readers are satisfied by the “And then the wizard saved the day!” plot point. Some want to understand the magic. They want to know its boundaries, see its limitations, and be able to anticipate the main character’s struggle. - Moriah Richard
The post S33E4 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Magic Systems appeared first on Writing Roots.
The world doesn’t fully make sense until the writer has secured his version of it on the page. And the act of writing is strangely more lifelike than life. - Betsy Lerner
The post S33E3 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Your World’s Culture appeared first on Writing Roots.
History is made not simply with events, but by remembering those events. A double drumbeat like a heartbeat. History can be written not only with books, but with ceremonies. - Christopher Bram
The post S33E3 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Your World’s History appeared first on Writing Roots.
Good books don’t give up all their secrets at once. - Stephen King
The post S33E1 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Your World’s Politics appeared first on Writing Roots.
Language is the source of misunderstandings. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The post S32E9 – Misunderstandings Between the Reader and the Story appeared first on Writing Roots.
The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - that you’d thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you’ve never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it’s as if a hand has come out, and taken yours. - The History Boys
The post S23 Bonus – Evoking the Right Emotions in the Reader appeared first on Writing Roots.
I wondered, reading about the college discussions, whether, one day, people would put a trigger warning on my fiction. I wondered whether or not they would be justified in doing it. And then I decided to do it first. - Neil Gaiman
The idea that you have to be protected from any kind of uncomfortable emotion is what I absolutely do not subscribe to. - John Cleese
The post S32E8 – The Debate About Trigger Warnings appeared first on Writing Roots.
Hey! Yeah, you! I'm down here, busting my ***, while you sit on yours watching me jump around? How is that fair? -
Deadpool
The post S32E7 – The Reader and the Fourth Wall appeared first on Writing Roots.
Plenty of masterpieces are just one cliché after another, Mozart for example, but that's quite natural, because if you think about it, two clichés that have met one another can beget the most original and profound effect. - Thomas Ades
The post S32E6 – How Tropes and Clichés Play Into Reader Psychology appeared first on Writing Roots.
Never trust a man with two first names, especially if one of them's a woman's. - Joel Hodgson, Mystery Science Theater 3000
The post S32E5 – The Psychology of Names and Sounds appeared first on Writing Roots.
You can make anything by writing. - C.S. Lewis
The post S32E4 – Because I Said So: When Readers Accept Fudged Facts appeared first on Writing Roots.
The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon. - Brandon Sanderson
The post S32E3 – Impact of Opinions on the Reader appeared first on Writing Roots.
Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are. - Mason Cooley
The post S32E2 – Reading to Escape appeared first on Writing Roots.
Consolation from imaginary things is not imaginary consolation. - Roger Scruton
The post S32E1 – The Mechanics of Reading appeared first on Writing Roots.
The act of choosing - the stories we tell versus the stories we leave out - will reverberate across the rest of your life. - Lin-Manuel Miranda
The post S31 Bonus – Using Writing Skills from Multiple Mediums appeared first on Writing Roots.
As a practical matter, I like the dramatic monologue for its compelling intimacy. To be inside one’s character, to register his or her every vagrant thought, emotion, and response - the first-person viewpoint grants this privilege and immediacy. - Norman Lock
The post S31E8 – The Art of Writing Monologues for Actors appeared first on Writing Roots.
Video games foster the mindset that allows creativity to grow. - Nolan Bushnell
The post S31E7 – Finding Story Within Gaming appeared first on Writing Roots.
Words and pictures are yin and yang. Married, they produce a progeny more interesting than either parent. - Dr. Seuss
The post S31E6 – Artistic Storytelling Through Comics appeared first on Writing Roots.
From journalism I learned to write under pressure, to work with deadlines, to have limited space and time, to conduct an interview, to find information, to research, and above all, to use language as efficiently as possible and to remember always that there is a reader out there. - Isabel Allende
The post S31E5 – Journalistic Storytelling appeared first on Writing Roots.
Creative without strategy is called art. Creative with strategy is called advertising. - Jef I. Richards
The post S31E4 – Stories in Advertising and Commercials appeared first on Writing Roots.
Playwriting gets into your blood and you can’t stop it. At least not until the producers or the public tell you to. - T.S. Eliot
The post S31E3 – What Makes Playwriting Unique appeared first on Writing Roots.
To make a great film, you need three things: the script, the script, and the script. - Alfred Hitchcock
The post S31E2 – Writing for the Silver Screen appeared first on Writing Roots.
The Internet is allowing us to get back to what’s really more natural, which is that storytelling is a shared thing. It is our natural way to be communal. - Joseph Gordon Levitt
The post S31E1 – Storytelling for the Internet: Blogging, YouTubing, and Podcasting appeared first on Writing Roots.
I don't give a damn, except that I get bored sometimes when people tell me to act my age. Sometimes I act a lot older than I am - I really do - but people never notice it. People never notice anything. - JD Salinger, Catcher in the Rye
The post S30E9 – Coming of Age Stories appeared first on Writing Roots.
What's wrong with policemen on television these days? They're always complete opposites. One's of them fat and poor, the other one's thin and posh. One of them's a woman, the other one's a Martian. One of them has four heads, one of them's allergic to heads. - Inspector Fowler, The Thin Blue Line
The post S30E8 – The Odd Couple appeared first on Writing Roots.
Don’t worry: These ramblings will not be insufferably gloomy…. When at first I proved unable to keep the tone light, Ozzie suggested that I be an unreliable narrator. “It worked for Agatha Christie in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,” he said. In that first-person mystery novel, the nice-guy narrator turns out to be the murderer of Roger Ackroyd, a fact he conceals from the reader until the end. Understand, I am not a murderer. I have done nothing evil that I am concealing from you. My unreliability as a narrator has to do largely with the tense of certain verbs…. - Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas
The post S30BE – The Unreliable Narrator appeared first on Writing Roots.
“I think that it would be best if we laid down some ground rules. Before starting.”
“Ground rules?”
“Yes. You know. What we are allowed and not allowed to do. What we can expect from this arrangement. I think that’s pretty standard protocol, before embarking on a fake-dating relationship.” - Ali Hazelwood, The Love Hypothesis
The post S30E7 – The Fake Dating Experience appeared first on Writing Roots.
Charlie, there are two kinds of thieves in this world: The ones who steal to enrich their lives, and those who steal to define their lives. Don't be the latter. Makes you miss out on what's really important in this life. - Italian Job
The post S30E6 – Heist Stories, aka The Caper appeared first on Writing Roots.
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep…
To sleep, perchance to dream
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet
The post S30E5 – A Descent Into Villainy and Madness appeared first on Writing Roots.
When I used to read fairy tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one! - Lewis Caroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The post S30E4 – The Portal Fantasy appeared first on Writing Roots.
The door had been locked from the inside. The windows were barred, locked from the inside, didn't open and were made of brick. All the books were chained to the shelf save one, open on the table at a page entitled 'How to secure a room from the inside'. All the boxes had been ticked. And even the pen used to make the ticks was one of those ones on a little chain you get in banks.- John Finnemore, Souvenir Programme
The post S30E3 – The Locked Room Mystery appeared first on Writing Roots.
The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated. - My Fair Lady
The post S30E2 – Rags to Riches appeared first on Writing Roots.
Miss Elizabeth. I have struggled in vain and I can bear it no longer. These past months have been a torment. I came to Rosings with the single object of seeing you... I had to see you. I have fought against my better judgment, my family's expectations, the inferiority of your birth by rank and circumstance. All these things I am willing to put aside and ask you to end my agony. - Pride and Prejudice (2005)
The post S30E1 – Enemies to Lovers appeared first on Writing Roots.
Technology allows more people to tell more stories in more ways. Storytelling knows no boundaries. I believe print and web can work beautifully together. - Donna Talarico
The post S29E8 – Making the Most of Keywords and Blurbs appeared first on Writing Roots.
At its very core, marketing is storytelling. The best advertising campaigns take us on an emotional journey - appealing to our wants, needs, and desires - while at the same time telling us about a product or service. - Melinda Partin
The post S29 Bonus – Marketing Professionals with Janine Pangantihon appeared first on Writing Roots.
You were the author when you wrote the book; now you’re the publisher making publishing and marketing plans - Joel Friedlander
The post S29E7 – What To Do While Your Editor Edits appeared first on Writing Roots.
We tell stories because we have a hollow place in our heart. You don’t fill that with success. You fill it by finding yourself in the stories you tell. - Guillermo Del Toro
The post S29E6 – Developing Your Author Identity appeared first on Writing Roots.
Without publicity, a terrible thing happens: nothing. - PT Barnum
The post S29E5 – The Purpose and Value of News Releases appeared first on Writing Roots.
Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches - at scale. - David Newman
The post S29E4 – Marketing Books Through Newsletters appeared first on Writing Roots.
A good website gets stronger over time, puts you directly in touch with your readers, and is a long-term investment in your author career. - Jane Friedman
The post S29E3 – Building an Effective Author Website appeared first on Writing Roots.
Book marketing is like opening doors for your readers to find you, not a stick you hit them with. - Heather Hart
The post S29E2 – About the AIDA Funnel appeared first on Writing Roots.
Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half. - John Wanamaker
The post S29E1 – How to Waste Money on Marketing appeared first on Writing Roots.
They belong to their readers now, which is a great thing–because the books are more powerful in the hands of my readers than they could ever be in my hands. - John Green
The post S28E9 – The Habit of Finishing Your Work appeared first on Writing Roots.
You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. - Jack London
The post S28BE – Staying Inspired During the Writing Process appeared first on Writing Roots.
If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy. - Dorothy Parker
The post S28E8 – The Best Resources for Your Writing appeared first on Writing Roots.
I always read books twice. The first time, you appreciate the story. The second time, you appreciate the writing. - Anonymous
The post S28E7 – Learning While Consuming Stories appeared first on Writing Roots.
So writing is not just writing. It is also having a relationship with other writers. And don’t be jealous, especially in secret. That’s the worst kind. If someone writes something great, it’s just more clarity in the world for all of us. - Natalie Goldberg
The post S28E6 – Building a Writing Community appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writing a great book requires its own form of privacy or solitude - a room or corner where you can be creative, productive, relaxed, and not be distracted by people or things while you write. - David K Jeremiah
The post S28E5 – Preparing Your Environment for Writing appeared first on Writing Roots.
The brain is like the muscle; books are the diet and writing is the workout. - Stewart Stafford
The post S28E4 – Hacking Your Brain to Make Writing an Addiction appeared first on Writing Roots.
It’s not enough to be busy… The question is: what are we busy about? - Henry David Thoreau
The post S28E3 – Improving Your Writing Through Time Management appeared first on Writing Roots.
The goal is not to be perfect by the end. The goal is to be better tomorrow. - Simon Sinek
The post S28E2 – Setting Realistic Writing Goals appeared first on Writing Roots.
My writing is a very authentic journey of discovery. I’m going out there to learn who I am. My readers, consequently, take the same journey as my protagonist. - Ted Dekker
The post S28E1 – Discovering Yourself Through Writing appeared first on Writing Roots.
You are not the next Stephen King. You are not the next Emma Bull. You are not the next anyone. You are the very first you. - Seanan McGuire
The post S27E9 – What Are the Current Trends in Fiction, and Should I Follow Them? appeared first on Writing Roots.
It’s like a piece of music; you never lose sight of the theme. Each scene pushes off to the next like music builds and you can almost hear the next chord progression, so it has a strict structure, which is very compelling. - David Strathairn
The post S27E8 – How Do I Transition From One Scene to Another? appeared first on Writing Roots.
The hardest thing about writing a novel is getting it published. - Marianne Cushing
The post S27 Bonus – What Is a Query Letter, and How Do I Write One? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writing the opening lines of a story is a bit like starting to ski at the steepest part of the hill. You must have all your skills under control from the first instant. - Marion Dane Bauer
The post S27E7 – How Do I Know Where My Story Begins? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writing for adults often means just increasing the swearing - but find an alternative to swearing and you’ve probably got a better line. - Steven Moffat
I am the master of all the words, and F*** is the best one. - Tumblr user headspace-hotel
The post S27E6 – Can I Use Swear Words in My Novel? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Sometimes, the smaller roles in movies can be the most interesting. If you only take the stance that you'll only play central characters in movies, you’ll find yourself not being able to indulge in that morally gray terrain that makes support characters so rich and interesting. - Joel Edgerton
The post S27E5 – How Do I Write Morally Gray Characters? appeared first on Writing Roots.
A fight scene cannot be in your work simply because it is awesome. Hot dogs are awesome too. But not if what you are making is a hot fudge sundae. - Carla Hoch
The post S27E4 – How Do I Write a Fight Scene? How Accurate Should It Be? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original. Whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence about how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. - CS Lewis
The post S27E3 – How Important is Being Unique? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Good description is a learned skill, one of those primary reasons you cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot. It’s not just a question of how-to, you see; it’s also a question of how much to. Reading will help you answer how much, and only reams of writing will help you with the how. You can learn only by doing. - Stephen King
The post S7E2 – How Do I Describe Characters Without Boring the Reader? appeared first on Writing Roots.
A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph, a novel is a film. - Lorrie Moore
The post S27E1 – How Do I Write a Good Short Story? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writing long sentences is like adding water to tea; the more words, the weaker the message. - Diana Booher
The post S26E9 – How to Avoid Crippling Your Language appeared first on Writing Roots.
The English language is a work in progress. Have fun with it. - Jonathan Culver
The post S26 Bonus – Playing with Language appeared first on Writing Roots.
I think sometimes we give people a lot of credit just because they’re writing nice sentences, even if it isn’t adding up to much. - James Patterson
The post S26E8 – When in Doubt, Leave it Out appeared first on Writing Roots.
A lot of aspiring writers are all ready to write a novel, but they don’t know how to write sentences. - Tom Robbins
The post S26E7 – The Basics of Sentence Structure appeared first on Writing Roots.
Grammar is to a writer what anatomy is to a sculptor, or the scales to a musician. You may loathe it, it may bore you, but nothing will replace it, and once mastered it will support you like a rock. - B.J. Chute
The post S26E6 – Uh, Phrasing! appeared first on Writing Roots.
The rule is: don’t use commas like a stupid person. I mean it. - Lynne Truss
The post S26E5 – The Rules of Commas appeared first on Writing Roots.
The world is emblematic. Parts of speech are metaphors, because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
The post S26E4 – The Parts of Speech (Part Two) appeared first on Writing Roots.
There are ten parts of speech and they are all troublesome. - Mark Twain
The post S26E3 – The Parts of Speech (Part One) appeared first on Writing Roots.
The beauty of type lies in its utility; prettiness without readability serves neither the author nor the reader. - James Felici
The post S26E2 – The Basics of Formatting Styles appeared first on Writing Roots.
Loving your language means a command of its vocabulary beyond the level of the everyday. - John H. McWhorter
The post S26E1 – Becoming a Student of Language appeared first on Writing Roots.
For more than three years I wrote more than 400 words every day. I mean, every calendar day. If, in those pre-portable days, I couldn’t get to a keyboard, I wrote hard the previous night and caught up the following day, and if it ever seemed that it was easy to do the average I upped the average. - Terry Pratchett
The post S25 Bonus – A Guide to Finishing Your Book appeared first on Writing Roots.
Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works. - Virginia Woolf
The post S25E8 – A Guide to Building an Author Brand appeared first on Writing Roots.
In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. - Mortimer J. Adler
The post S25E7 – A Guide to Publishing appeared first on Writing Roots.
There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story. - Frank Herbert
The post S25E6 – A Guide to Plotting the Series appeared first on Writing Roots.
Some battles are best fought with a sidekick. - Krista Ritchie
The post S25E5 – A Guide to Designing Support Characters appeared first on Writing Roots.
A hero is a person who says yes to adventure. - Kendra Levin
The post S25E4 – A Guide to Designing the Main Character appeared first on Writing Roots.
In many ways, a book is, in itself, a tiny universe. Each page is like a newly formed galaxy, fashioned from a single, pulsing thought. A book travels for days, for years, sometimes for centuries to meet you at an exact point in time. - Lang Leav
The post S25E3 – A Guide to Worldbuilding appeared first on Writing Roots.
There is what I would call the hero journey, the night sea journey, the hero quest, where the individual is going to bring forth in his life something that was never beheld before. - Joseph Campbell
The post S25E2 – A Guide to Plotting a Hero’s Journey appeared first on Writing Roots.
Indulge your imagination in every possible flight. - Jane Austen
The post S25E1 – A Guide to Stirring the Imagination appeared first on Writing Roots.
If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten. - Rudyard Kipling
The post S24E9 – Futuristic and Dystopian Stories appeared first on Writing Roots.
The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come. - Steve Jobs
The post S24E8 – The History of Superheroes appeared first on Writing Roots.
The older I get, the more I look at movies as a moving miracle. Audiences are harder to please if you’re just giving them special effects… but they’re easy to please if it’s a good story. - Steven Spielberg
The post S24 Bonus – How Film Impacted Storytelling appeared first on Writing Roots.
Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win. - Stephen King
The post S24E7 – The Creation of Monster Fiction appeared first on Writing Roots.
Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. - C.S. Lewis
The post S24E6 – Fairy Tales and Bedtime Stories appeared first on Writing Roots.
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players - William Shakespeare
The post S23E5 – Shakespeare and the Printing Press appeared first on Writing Roots.
That’s what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again. - Walt Disney
The post S24E4 – Educational Storytelling and the Use of Theater appeared first on Writing Roots.
At the heart of every story is conflict. Whether external or internal, make it a good one, and remember that this problem is going to shape your character, leaving her forever changed. - Jennifer McMahon
The post S24E3 – Introduction of Man vs. Man and Character Arcs appeared first on Writing Roots.
Upon my word, just see how mortal men always put the blame on us gods! We are the source of evil, so they say - when they have only their own madness to think if their miseries are worse than they ought to be. - The Odyssey
The post S24E2 – Stories of Gods and Fate appeared first on Writing Roots.
Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution - more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to. - Lisa Cron
The post S24E1 – Storytelling in Prehistoric Times appeared first on Writing Roots.
I wish it need not have happened in my time.
So do I and so do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkein
The post S23E9 – Choose Your Adventure appeared first on Writing Roots.
Because it’s episodic, you can explore any area because you have time to do that. You can take risks on the kinds of storytelling that you’re doing. - Seth Gabel
The post S23 Bonus – Episodic and Serial Stories appeared first on Writing Roots.
Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still. - Dorothea Lange
The post S23E8 – Reverse, Reverse! Telling a Story Backwards appeared first on Writing Roots.
Will you take a look at that? Pretty pathetic, huh? Well, you'll never believe this, but that llama you're looking at was once a human being. And not just any human being. That guy was an emperor. A rich, powerful ball of charisma. Oh, yeah! This is his story. Well, actually, my story. - Emperor's New Groove
The post S23E7 – A Story Within a Story appeared first on Writing Roots.
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. - Wayne Dyer
The post S23E6 – Structuring a Paradigm Shift appeared first on Writing Roots.
Time has a wonderful way of showing us what really matters. - Margaret Peters
The post S23E5 – Using Amnesia in a Story Plot appeared first on Writing Roots.
Only myths and fables do not know the limits of possibility. - Andrzej Sapkowski
The post S23E4 – Structure with Recursion appeared first on Writing Roots.
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once. - Albert Einstein
The post S23E3 – Rashomon Stories appeared first on Writing Roots.
You wizards are all the same. You speak nonsense while making wise and meaningful faces. - The Witcher
The post S23E2 – Parallel Structure appeared first on Writing Roots.
People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect. But actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. - The Doctor (Doctor Who)
The post S23E1 – Stories About Time appeared first on Writing Roots.
Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. - Mark Twain
The post S22 Bonus – Favorite Moments appeared first on Writing Roots.
Worldbuilding is different than setting in my opinion. Setting is a room. A backdrop. It’s scenery. But without good worldbuilding, you can’t have realistic feeling scenery. You can’t have cool, unique backdrops for your story. - Patrick Rothfuss
The post S22E9 – Fog and Flame: Worldbuilding appeared first on Writing Roots.
Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. - Benjamin Franklin
The post S22E8 – K/D Ratio: Beats in Dialogue appeared first on Writing Roots.
I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose. - Stephen King
The post S22E7 – Fog and Flame: Character Development appeared first on Writing Roots.
Character is plot, plot is character. - F Scott Fitzgerald
The post S22E6 – K/D Ratio: Character Voice appeared first on Writing Roots.
This parrot is no more. It has ceased to be. It’s expired and gone to meet its maker. This is a late parrot. It’s a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. If you hadn’t nailed it to the perch, it would be pushing up the daisies. It’s rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-parrot. - Graham Chapman
The post S22E5 – Fog and Flame: Take it Back Now Y’all! appeared first on Writing Roots.
There’s an old rule of theater that goes, “If there’s a gun on the mantle in act one, it must go off in act two.” The reverse is also true. - Steven King
The post S22E4 – K/D Ratio: Setup and Payoff appeared first on Writing Roots.
The voice of the narrator who knows the whole story cannot be dismissed as old-fashioned or uncool. It’s not only the oldest and the most widely used storytelling voice, it’s also the most versatile, flexible, and complex of the points of view. - Ursula K. LeGuin
The post S22E3 – Fog and Flame: First-Person Omniscient appeared first on Writing Roots.
Plots may be simple or complex, but suspense and climactic progress from one incident to another, are essential. - HP Lovecraft
The post S22E2 – K/D Ratio: Structural Changes appeared first on Writing Roots.
Sometimes a change of perspective is all it takes to see the light. - Dan Brown
The post S22E1 – Editing Demonstration: Overview appeared first on Writing Roots.
There are so many subgenres listed in KDP and other self-publishing sites that it can be more than overwhelming to figure out the right ones. Experienced authors and publishers know the importance of picking the right one, which just increases that pressure. In this extended episode from our archives, we take a closer look at… Read More »Extended Archives: Determining the Genre
The post Extended Archives: Determining the Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.
No matter where you are in your writing journey or what kind of writer you are, there are some things you need to know before you ever put that pen to paper (or fingers to a keyboard). It doesn’t always have to be the plot of the story or a detailed history of the characters.… Read More »Extended Archives – Before You Write
The post Extended Archives – Before You Write appeared first on Writing Roots.
Reviews can mean everything for book sales. Good ones can help a book thrive, while bad ones can drive away potential readers. In this episode, Leigh and Ley discuss ways to get the most effective reviews. Original episode aired July 23, 2020.
The post Extended Archives – Getting Effective Reviews appeared first on Writing Roots.
Book marketing is like opening doors for your readers to find you, not a stick you hit them with. - Heather Hart
The post Extended Archives – Social Media and Marketing appeared first on Writing Roots.
I'm writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles. - Shannon Hale
The post Extended Archives – Writing Right Right Now appeared first on Writing Roots.
Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter. - Neil Gaiman
The post Extended Archives – Rules of Writing appeared first on Writing Roots.
If your target audience isn't listening, it's not their fault. It's yours. - Seth Godin
The post Extended Archives – Target Audience appeared first on Writing Roots.
There is indeed good and there is indeed evil, and both walk the earth…. Both good and evil vie for the passions of the heart. For love! - Ted Dekker
Every villain is a hero in his own mind. - Tom Hiddleston
The post S21E9 – Villainy: Should Villains Be Evil? appeared first on Writing Roots.
A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one. - George RR Martin
Find out what your hero or heroine wants, and when he or she wakes up in the morning, just follow him or her all day. - Ray Bradbury
The post S21E8 – Point of View: Single or Multiple? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. - Ray Bradbury
But how do you know if an ending is truly good for the characters unless you've traveled with them through every page? - Shannon Hale
The post S21 Bonus – Story Building: Plot First or Character First? appeared first on Writing Roots.
There is nothing new, from Greek mythology to Shakespeare to every romcom ever made, we’re just reimagining the same 12 plots over and over again -so what makes people keep watching and listening? It’s all about the character. - Jeremy Renner
The inner story, though the same in essence for all, is always single and unique to each human being, never before lived and never to be repeated. - Helen M. Luke
The post S21E7 – Stories: How Many Different Stories Exist? appeared first on Writing Roots.
I often will write a scene from three different points of view to find out which has the most tension and which way I’m able to conceal the information I’m trying to conceal. And that is, at the end of the day, what writing suspense is all about. - Dan Brown
The post S21E6 – Point of View: Third- or First-Person? appeared first on Writing Roots.
When I was young, I craved romance in books, but I didn’t want to read just romance. Love plays such a big part in our lives, it shouldn’t be cut out and restricted to its own fiction. - Rainbow Rowell
The thing about romance and romantic movies is that they can be somewhat melodramatic…. There’s a certain cringe factor that’s involved with that. - David Lyons
The post S21E5 – Romantic Subplots: Are They Necessary? appeared first on Writing Roots.
The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail. - Charles R Swindoll
The secret of being boring is to say everything. - Voltaire
The post S21E4 – Word Count: Push the Limits or Stay Reserved? appeared first on Writing Roots.
A new word is like a fresh seed sown on the ground of the discussion. - Ludwig Wittgenstein
Poor Faulkner. Does he really think that big emotions come from big words? - Earnest Hemingway
The post S21E3 – Word Choice: To Use Big Words or Not to Use Big Words appeared first on Writing Roots.
To be honest, I don’t really have much of an opinion on fanfiction. As long as people aren’t commercially exploiting characters I’ve created, and are doing it for each other, I don’t see that there’s any harm in it. Either way, it’s a good place to write while you’ve still got your training wheels on. - Neil Gaiman
The post S21E2 – Fanfiction: Is it Really Writing? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on. - Louis L’Amour
The post S21E1 – Writing Prompts: Helpful or Not? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Snowballing a story into a series to establish yourself as an author can be a smart strategy. But if you try to snowball a weak story, you’ll have a snowball’s chance in hell of success. - Lisa Poisso
The post S20E9 – Myth Nine: Everything is Better as a Trilogy appeared first on Writing Roots.
At heart, self-publishing is kind of like a bake sale. The end product does not need to resemble the one that comes from a commercial bakery, but it must taste good. No one wants the lumpy, under-baked oatmeal cookies with spinach and alfalfa flavored chips. - D.C. Williams
The post S20 Bonus – Myth Ten: Self-Publishing is Free appeared first on Writing Roots.
One can steal ideas, but no one can steal execution or passion. - Tim Ferriss
The post S20E8 – Myth Eight: Worthy Ideas are Unique appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find writing is hard, it’s because writing is hard. - William Zinsser
The post S20E7 – Myth Seven: Writing is Easy appeared first on Writing Roots.
Some succeed because they are destined to, but most succeed because they are determined to. - Henry Van Dyke
The post S20E6 – Myth Six: A Good Book Will Sell Itself appeared first on Writing Roots.
No one is born a writer. You must become a writer. In fact, you never cease becoming, because you never stop learning how to write. Even now, I am becoming a writer. And so are you. - Joe Bunting
The post S20E5 – Myth Five: A True Writer is _____ appeared first on Writing Roots.
I craft everything in the beginning. I know where the characters are going before I start writing the book. - Ann Patchett
The post S20E4 – Myth Four: Characters Control the Author appeared first on Writing Roots.
Books full of inept dialogue tags get published all the time. Of course they do. Not all published writers are good writers. - Dean Koontz
The post S20E3 – Myth Three: Said is Dead appeared first on Writing Roots.
Don’t write what you know. Write what you love. That’s what will keep you writing. - Chris Humphreys
The post S20E2 – Myth Two: Write What You Know appeared first on Writing Roots.
If people don’t notice your cover or don’t connect with it, the author of the book next to yours will be very grateful. - David Leonhardt
The post S20E1 – Myth One: Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover appeared first on Writing Roots.
People will forget what you say but they won’t forget how you make them feel. - Maya Angelou
The post S19 Bonus – Always Add a Fight, featuring Fight Write appeared first on Writing Roots.
I took a master class with Billy Wilder once and he said that in the first act of a story you put your character up in a tree and the second act you set the tree on fire and then in the third you get him down. - Gary Kurtz
The post S19E8 – Preparing for Act III appeared first on Writing Roots.
They are one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy - not actually evil, but bad tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without an order, signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters. If you want to get a lift from a Vogon, forget it. They are vile and ill tempered. If you want to get a drink from a Vogon, stick your finger down his throat. If you want to annoy a Vogon, feed his grandmother to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal. - Douglas Adams
The post S19E7 – A Leader’s Bad Decision appeared first on Writing Roots.
Sometimes it takes a natural disaster to reveal a social disaster. - Jim Wallis
The post S19E6 – Using the Weather and Other Acts of God appeared first on Writing Roots.
A man’s true character comes out when he’s drunk. - Charlie Chaplin
The post S19E5 – Romance and Drunkenness appeared first on Writing Roots.
Look within your fictional cultures at their day to day lives. And ask what’s important to them. Some holidays come up whole cloth out of your world’s history and cultural diversity. If it was important to their view of history, it’s important enough to have a day set aside for it, with reenactments, good food, and traditional music, dance, and acting. - Robert A. Sloan
The post S19E4 – Creating a Holiday for Worldbuilding appeared first on Writing Roots.
My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play in it, for good or evil, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many. - J.R.R. Tolkien
The post S18E3 – Time for a Casting Change appeared first on Writing Roots.
Secrets have power. And that power diminishes when they are shared, so they are best kept and kept well. Sharing secrets, real secrets, important ones, with even one other person, will change them. Writing them down is worse, because who can tell how many eyes might see them inscribed on paper, no matter how careful you might be with it. So it's really best to keep your secrets when you have them, for their own good, as well as yours. - Erin Morgenstern
The post S19E2 – A Secret Revealed appeared first on Writing Roots.
But a singular sense of impending calamity, that should indeed have served me as a warning, drove me onward. - H.G. Wells
The post S19E1 – Using Footholds to Find Direction appeared first on Writing Roots.
You could be writing the book that changes your life. - Brandon Sanderson
The post S18 Bonus – Pearls from the Masters: Brandon Sanderson appeared first on Writing Roots.
All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know. - Ernest Hemingway
The post S18E8 – Pearls from the Masters: Ernest Hemingway appeared first on Writing Roots.
It simply isn't an adventure worth telling if there aren't any dragons. - J.R.R. Tolkein
It doesn’t matter what we write..., so long as we write continually as well as we can. - C.S. Lewis
The post S18E7 – Pearls from the Masters: J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis appeared first on Writing Roots.
Never tell all you know - not even to the person you know best. - Agatha Christie
The post S18E6 – Pearls from the Masters: Agatha Christie appeared first on Writing Roots.
To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man. - Aristotle
The post S18E5 – Pearls from the Masters: Aristotle appeared first on Writing Roots.
I became a writer not principally because I’m in love with the idea of being a writer, but I’m in love with the idea of entertainment. I just want to entertain people. - Lee Child
The post S18E4 – Pearls from the Masters: Lee Child appeared first on Writing Roots.
Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. - Neil Gaiman
The post S18E3 – Pearls from the Masters: Neil Gaiman appeared first on Writing Roots.
I often get mad at myself because I’m writing poorly, or worry that I’ll never write another book, or feel frustrated because I’m up against the limits of my talents, but I never dread writing. So I often feel that I’m not up to the task, but I never dread it. - John Green
The post S18E2 – Pearls from the Masters: John Green appeared first on Writing Roots.
Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work. - Stephen King
The post S18E1 – Pearls from the Masters: Stephen King appeared first on Writing Roots.
All worthy work is open to interpretations the author did not intend. Art isn’t your pet - it’s your kid. It grows up and talks back to you. - Joss Whedon
The post S17E9 – How Do I Learn to Become a Better Writer? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. - Leonardo da Vinci
The post S17E8 – What Do I Need to Know to Start Writing My Book? appeared first on Writing Roots.
It’s not the fear of writing that blocks people, it’s fear of not writing well. Something quite different. - Scott Berkun
The post S17 Bonus – How Do I Get Over Writer’s Block? appeared first on Writing Roots.
People constantly make pop culture references. That’s why it’s called popular culture, because people are aware of it and reference it constantly. - Seth Rogan
The post S17E7 – Can I Mention Copyrighted or Trademarked Material? appeared first on Writing Roots.
The best investment is in the tools of one’s own trade. - Benjamin Franklin
The post S17E6 – What Software is Good for Writing and Formatting? appeared first on Writing Roots.
The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. - Henry David Thoreau
The post S17E5 – What Price Should I Set for My Book? appeared first on Writing Roots.
By reading a lot of novels in a variety of genres, and asking questions, it's possible to learn how things are done - the mechanics of writing, so to speak - and which genres and authors excel in various areas. - Nicholas Sparks
The post S17E4 – How Do I Determine the Genre of a Book? appeared first on Writing Roots.
A cliffhanger is when… - Buffy Andrews
The post S17E3 – To Cliffhang or Not to Cliffhang? appeared first on Writing Roots.
You could be writing the book that changes your life. - Brandon Sanderson
The post S17E2 – What Makes a Book Impactful and Unforgettable? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Readers tend to like a character who is at least superficially like themselves. But they quickly lose interest unless this particular character is somehow out of the ordinary. - Orson Scott Card
The post S17E1 – How Descriptive Should I Get With Appearances? appeared first on Writing Roots.
The glory of the protagonist is always paid for by a lot of secondary characters. - Tony Hoagland
The post S16E9 – Sharing the Spotlight: Including Victories for Secondary Characters appeared first on Writing Roots.
Let grammar, punctuation, and spelling into your life! Even the most energetic and wonderful mess has to be turned into sentences. - Terry Pratchett
The post S16 Bonus – Punctuation and Paragraphing appeared first on Writing Roots.
I must be cruel, only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. - William Shakespeare
The post S15E8 – Pet the Dog: Moments to Humanize Characters appeared first on Writing Roots.
The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last. - Oscar Wilde
The post S16E7 – Yes, But… appeared first on Writing Roots.
Whatever these forces are that make people do dumb things, they are powerful, they are often invisible, and they lurk even in the best of environments. - Ed Catmull
The post S16E6 – Throw in an Obstacle appeared first on Writing Roots.
The way to tell a really big story, I think, is to tell a really small story. - Bruce Feiler
The post S16E5 – Make it Small appeared first on Writing Roots.
The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes. - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The post S16E4 – Using the Senses to Connect with Readers appeared first on Writing Roots.
Yet the deepest truths are best read between the lines, and, for the most part, refuse to be written. - Amos Bronson Alcott
The post S16E3 – Between the Lines: Importance of Subtext appeared first on Writing Roots.
Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space. - Orson Scott Card
The post S16E2 – Using Similes and Metaphors appeared first on Writing Roots.
Very often we write down a sentence too early, then another too late; what we have to do is write it down at the proper time, otherwise it's lost. - Thomas Bernhard
The post S16E1 – Writing Right Right Now appeared first on Writing Roots.
As much as I am fascinated with the stereotypical narcissistic serial killer, it’s the unsuspecting, truly friendly person next door who you smile and wave to as you pass by that are the scariest. They are the ones who hide in plain sight. The ones who don’t get caught because no one suspects that they could do anything like that. It’s the ones you don’t know whom you should fear. - Brianna Joy
The post S15 Bonus – The Worst Monsters: Features of True Crime appeared first on Writing Roots.
He who fights with monsters should take care that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. - Friedrich Nietzsche
The post S15E9 – Ancient and Prehistoric Monsters and Gods appeared first on Writing Roots.
Even a wooden coffin and six feet of earth can’t hold back a story if it needs to be told. - Anonymous
The post S15E8 – Ghosts and Hauntings with Lori Juszak appeared first on Writing Roots.
To us forever are the gates of heaven shut. For who shall open them to us again? We go on for all time abhorred by all; a blot on the face of God’s sunshine; an arrow in the side of Him who died for man. - Bram Stoker, Dracula
The post S15E7 – Hordes of the Undead appeared first on Writing Roots.
Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence…. Someone might possibly have escaped from their singing; but from their silence, certainly never. - Franz Kafka
The post S15E6 – Creatures from the Deep appeared first on Writing Roots.
She was of divine stock, not of men, in the fore part a lion, in the hinder a serpent, and in the midst a goat, breathing forth in terrible wise the might of blazing fire. - Homer’s Illiad
The post S15E5 – Chimera: The Mix-and-Match Monsters appeared first on Writing Roots.
From those that go bump in the night to ones that offer hope, mythical creatures and monsters are abound in fiction. You can find them in anything from horror to science fiction and fantasy. But where do our ideas for creatures to scare or inspire come from? Throughout October, Writing Roots will be delving into… Read More »S15E4 – Giants and Creatures of Large Stature
The post S15E4 – Giants and Creatures of Large Stature appeared first on Writing Roots.
Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
The post S15E3 – Man-Made Monsters and Creatures appeared first on Writing Roots.
Go not to the elves for counsel. For they will say both no and yes. - JRR Tolkein
The post S15E2 – The Fae and Fairies appeared first on Writing Roots.
When a unicorn is slain, men have destroyed again the image of beauty that they seek. - Nicholas Stuart Gray
The post S15E1 – Mythical Creatures of Purity appeared first on Writing Roots.
Every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down. - Hector Berlioz
The post S14E8 – Artists with Travis Micheal appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writers are a superior breed. No one else can face so much rejection and still thrive. - Susie Smith
The post S14BE – We Liked You First: A Podcast for Writers and Performers appeared first on Writing Roots.
Magic happens between the notes. - Linda Bott
The post S14E7 – Performance Arts with Linda Bott appeared first on Writing Roots.
Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity. - Hippocrates
The post S14E6 – Nursing with Lorainne Woodworth appeared first on Writing Roots.
Violence is rarely the answer, but when it is, it's the only answer. - Tim Larkins
The post S14E5 – Martial Arts with Jeremiah appeared first on Writing Roots.
Make friends with physicists and mathematicians, writers. It pays off. - Brandon Sanderson
The post S14E4 – Biochemistry with Megan Browning appeared first on Writing Roots.
Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it. - John Hersey
The post S14E3 – Journalism with Julia Avery appeared first on Writing Roots.
I will put you, the writer, behind the wheel of the squad car, walking a beat, investigating crime scenes and sitting behind a desk writing reports. So, put on your Sam Brown belt, strap on your vest and let’s go experience what cops do and learn why they do it. - Patrick O’Donnell
The post S14E2 – Law Enforcement with Patrick O’Donnell appeared first on Writing Roots.
An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it. - Jeff Cooper
The post S14E1 – Firearms with Nick Mangum appeared first on Writing Roots.
New things are coming to the Writing Roots Podcast! Leigh and Ley decided to condense all of the announcements into one bonus episode to introduce you to what’s to come. Our first announcement is about a problem recently discovered and fixed. If you listen to Writing Roots on podcast apps such as Stitcher, Google, and… Read More »Writing Roots: What’s New and Upcoming for the Podcast
The post Writing Roots: What’s New and Upcoming for the Podcast appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writers aren’t people exactly. Or, if they’re any good, they’re a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person. - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The post S13E9 – All Characters Feel the Same appeared first on Writing Roots.
I used to be afraid about what people might say or think after reading what I had written. I am not afraid anymore, because when I write, I am not trying to prove anything to anyone, I am just expressing myself and my opinions. It’s ok if my opinions are different from those of the reader, each of us can have his own opinions. So writing is like talking, if you are afraid of writing, you may end up being afraid of talking. - Bangambiki Habyarimana
The post S13BE – Why We Write Selfishly appeared first on Writing Roots.
Sentences must stir in a book like leaves in a forest, each distinct from each despite their resemblance. - Gustave Flaubert
The post S13E8 – All Sentences Start the Same Way appeared first on Writing Roots.
Plotters. Pantsers. Plantsers, even. As Harry Potter fans sort themselves into Hogwarts houses, many writers sort themselves into a few different writing styles. Sometimes you’ll hear them called a gardener or architect, but to me this has always felt like a move to be more politically correct. Either way, the motive is the same. What… Read More »Plotters and Pantsers: Why Most Authors are Both
The post Plotters and Pantsers: Why Most Authors are Both appeared first on Writing Roots.
A novel must show how the world truly is, how characters genuinely think, how events actually occur. A novel should somehow reveal the true source of our actions. - Kevin Hood
The post S13E7 – When a Story is Fake or Forced appeared first on Writing Roots.
Continuity isn’t actually something that I ever worry about. You use it where you need to, and you don’t use it where you don’t need to. - Neil Gaiman
The post S13E6 – When Continuity Breaks appeared first on Writing Roots.
The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. - Mark Twain
The post S13E5 – Red Flag Words appeared first on Writing Roots.
Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something - Plato
The post S13E4 – Why Didn’t They Think of That? appeared first on Writing Roots.
I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread. - JRR Tolkein
The post S13E3 – Worrying About Word Count appeared first on Writing Roots.
This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety.
Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important. - Gary Provost
The post S13E2 – It’s Just Boring! appeared first on Writing Roots.
Dialogue is not just quotation. It is grimaces, pauses, adjustments of blouse buttons, doodles on a napkin, and crossings of legs. - Jerome Stern
The post S13E1 – The Solution to Awkward Dialogue appeared first on Writing Roots.
Start with short stories. After all, if you were to take up rock climbing, you wouldn’t start with Mount Everest. So if you’re starting fantasy, don’t start with a nine-book series. - George RR Martin
The post S12E9 – Awards and Competitions appeared first on Writing Roots.
A book series is never truly over. The story lives on, even when the final page has been turned. - Richard Denney
The post S12E8 – Using Sequels During Marketing appeared first on Writing Roots.
There are only two types of speakers in the world: the nervous, and liars. - Mark Twain
The post S12 Bonus – Tips and Tricks for Interviews appeared first on Writing Roots.
Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that.- Anthony Volodkin
The post S12E7 – Getting the Most Effective Reviews appeared first on Writing Roots.
Books choose their readers, not the other way around. I believe that booksellers are the matchmakers. - Cecelia Ahern
The post S12E6 – Where to Sell Your Books appeared first on Writing Roots.
If your target audience isn't listening, it's not their fault, it's yours. - Seth Godin
The post S12E5 – Writing Effective Ads and Teases appeared first on Writing Roots.
It’s a dialogue, not a monologue, and some people don’t understand that. Social media is more like a telephone than a television. - Amy Jo Martin
The post S12E4 – Using Social Media to Market appeared first on Writing Roots.
Lovers of print are simply confusing the plate for the food. - Douglas Adams
The post S12E3 – Choosing the Right Medium for Your Book appeared first on Writing Roots.
In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is a failure. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible. - Seth Godin
The post S12E2 – Building an Author Brand appeared first on Writing Roots.
In my opinion, understanding who your target audience is, and what they want, and writing to them (and only them!) is the most important component of being successful as an author. - John Locke
The post S12E1 – Finding Your Target Audience appeared first on Writing Roots.
Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy. - Robert Half
The post S11E9 – Best: Improving Your Writing to Achieve Your Best appeared first on Writing Roots.
The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book. - Samuel Johnson
The post S11 Bonus Episode – Read: How to Read as a Writer appeared first on Writing Roots.
I don’t plot my books rigidly, follow a preconceived structure. A novel mustn’t be a closed system - it’s a quest. - Kurt Vonnegut
The post S11E8 – Plan: Basics of Planning a Story from Start to Finish appeared first on Writing Roots.
Making sure that geography and timelines work is always the hardest part of writing. But you owe it to the readers to get it right. - Michael Scott
The post S11E7 – Time: Maintaining Momentum Through a Story appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writing without revising is the literary equivalent of waltzing gaily out of the house in your underwear. - Patricia Fuller
The post S11E6 – Edit: Why Editing is Essential for the Business of Publishing appeared first on Writing Roots.
We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things because we’re curious. And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. - Walt Disney
The post S11E5 – Stop: Making the Decision to Abandon or Pause a Story appeared first on Writing Roots.
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. - Oscar Wilde
The post S11E4 Extended – LGBT+: Further Discussion of Quality Representation of the LGBTQ+ Community in Writing appeared first on Writing Roots.
The truth is rarely pure and never simple. - Oscar Wilde
The post S11E4 – LGBT: Writing Quality Representation of the LGBTQ+ Community appeared first on Writing Roots.
I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity, and her flaming self respect. And it's these things I'd believe in, even if the whole world indulged in wild suspicions that she wasn't all she should be. I love her and it is the beginning of everything. - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The post S11E3 – Kiss: Why and How to Include Romantic Subplots appeared first on Writing Roots.
Books. It's always easier to tell people that a character is funny rather than attempt to hit the punchline of a joke that character would've said. But if we all simply told, books would cease to exist. And so would empathy. And feeling. - Joyce Rachelle
The post S11E2 – Tell: How to Identify and Correct Cases of Telling appeared first on Writing Roots.
If a book about failures doesn't sell, is it a success? - Jerry Seinfeld
The post S11E1 – Sell: How to Decide to Market Your Writing appeared first on Writing Roots.
The only characters I ever don’t like are the ones that leave no impression on me. And I don’t write characters that leave no impression on me. - Lauren DeStefano
The post S10 Bonus – Character Interviews appeared first on Writing Roots.
The librarian, the warrior, the free spirit… archetypes are a great jumping off point to help clarify where we want to go with a character. - Kristan Higgins
The post S10E8 – Character Archetypes appeared first on Writing Roots.
You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are. - Joss Whedon
The post S10E7 – Developing Character Strengths appeared first on Writing Roots.
In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations! - Anton Chekhov
The post S10E6 – Developing Character Flaws appeared first on Writing Roots.
People - and characters - are made up of their past experiences. When crafting a character, one of the most important aspects we consider is her past. - Sky Fairwin
The post S10E5 – Character History: Nurture appeared first on Writing Roots.
One brain’s blueprint may promote joy more readily than most; in another, pessimism reigns. Whether happiness infuses or eludes a person depends, in part, on the DNA he has chanced to receive. - Thomas Lewis
The post S10E4 – Character History: Nature appeared first on Writing Roots.
A lone protagonist never receives as great a reaction as one with a well-developed supporting cast. - Susan Spann
The post S10E3 – Creating and Developing Character Relationships appeared first on Writing Roots.
You are not entering this world in the usual manner, for you are setting forth to be a Dungeon Master. Certainly there are stout fighters, mighty magic-users, wily thieves, and courageous clerics who will make their mark in the magical lands of D&D adventure. You however, are above even the greatest of these, for as DM you are to become the Shaper of the Cosmos. It is you who will give form and content to all the universe. You will breathe life into the stillness, giving meaning and purpose to all the actions which are to follow. - Gary Gygax
The post S10E2 – Using D&D to Create a Story Character appeared first on Writing Roots.
When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature. - Ernest Hemingway
The post S10E1 – Statistics of a Character appeared first on Writing Roots.
It all begins with drawing yourself and your reader into what I call the Fictive Bubble. Think of it like a large soap bubble. That bubble is your story world and everything that happens there, regardless of genre. Your first objective is to pull a reader into it, where they will take an incredible journey with your characters. Your second objective is to keep the reader there, in that bubble. - Ted Dekker
The post S9E9 – Suspension of Disbelief appeared first on Writing Roots.
Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing. - Melinda Haynes
The post S9E8 – The Rules of Writing appeared first on Writing Roots.
Every book, every volume you see, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and the soul of those who read it and lived it and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The post S9 Bonus – Audience Participation appeared first on Writing Roots.
Who I am as a person heavily influences what I write, and I draw from everything I can find–whether it be LDS, Buddhist, Islamic, or Atheist. It’s all jumbled up there in that head of mine, and comes out in different characters who are seeking different things. - Brandon Sanderson
The post S9E7 – Cultural Appropriation appeared first on Writing Roots.
There are some crimes people can commit that aren’t punishable by law. This series is dedicated to those involved with writing, whether they be committed by the author or the readers. To be clear, this series isn’t designed to help writers better create crimes (murder, theft, etc.) within their novels. The kinds of crimes we’ll… Read More »S9E6 – Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll
The post S9E6 – Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll appeared first on Writing Roots.
I certainly love writing books. I’ve always loved writing short stories and novels because in prose, you get all the control. - Maria Headley
The post S9E5 – God Mode appeared first on Writing Roots.
Lesser artists borrow; great artists steal. - Igor Stravinsky
The post S9E4 – Plagiarism appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. - George Orwell
The post S9E3 – “I Have an Idea For a Book” appeared first on Writing Roots.
In many cases, when a reader puts a story aside because “it got boring”, the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description, and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling. - Stephen King
The post S9E2 – Wasting the Reader’s Time appeared first on Writing Roots.
I love books way more than movies. Movies tell you what to think. A good book lets you choose a few thoughts for yourself. - Karen Marie Moning
The post S9E1 – “The Movie Was Better” appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writing nonfiction means I tell people's stories for them, not because they're special but because we all are. - Jo Deurbrouck
The post S8E9 – The Non-Fiction Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.
It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened. But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something. That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for. - The Lord of the Rings
The post S8 Bonus – The Hero’s Journey appeared first on Writing Roots.
Bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do― to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street. - Stephen King
The post S8E8 – The Horror Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.
The good end happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means. - Oscar Wilde
The post S8E7 – The Comedy Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.
Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. - Nicholas Sparks
The post S8E6 – The Romance Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.
Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions. - Agatha Christie
The post S8E5 – The Mystery Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.
The way to write a thriller is to ask a question at the beginning, and answer it at the end. - Lee Child
The post S8E4 – The Thriller and Suspense Genres appeared first on Writing Roots.
May the odds be ever in your favor. - Suzanne Collins
The post S8E3 – The Young Adult Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.
"God created dinosaurs. God destroyed dinosaurs. God created Man. Man destroyed God. Man created dinosaurs."
"Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth.” - Michael Crichton
The post S8E2 – The Science Fiction Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.
This is going to take a while. I’m a fantasy author. We have trouble with the concept of brevity. - Brandon Sanderson
The post S8E1 – The Fantasy Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.
Why do you always write these strong women characters? Because you’re still asking me that question. - Joss Whedon
The post S7 Bonus – Women in Fiction appeared first on Writing Roots.
“The three natures of man. Good, evil, and the man struggling between!... The capacity for good and evil is within every person from birth, I think.” - Ted Dekker
The post S7E8 – Shoulder Angels appeared first on Writing Roots.
"For any villains we may meet, we haven't any fears;
Paramount will protect us, 'cause we're signed for five more years." - Road to Morocco
The post S7E7 – Plot Armor appeared first on Writing Roots.
"Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating." - Emma Coats
The post S7E6 – Deus Ex Machina appeared first on Writing Roots.
"The MacGuffin is the thing that the spies are after but the audience don't care.” - Alfred Hitchcock
The post S7E5 – MacGuffins appeared first on Writing Roots.
Two men fought for the sake of a single woman. Though indeed foolish, it was a tale as old as time. - Dies Irae, Interview with Kaziklu Bey
The post S7E4 – Love Triangles appeared first on Writing Roots.
If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there. It's wrong to make promises you don't mean to keep. - Anton Chekhov
The post S7E3 – Chekhov’s Gun appeared first on Writing Roots.
There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The post S7E2 – Chekhov’s Red Herring and the Shaggy Dog appeared first on Writing Roots.
Perfect people are boring. Perfect people are obnoxious because they're better than us. Perfect people are, above all, too good to be true. - Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman
The post S7E1 – The Mary Sue appeared first on Writing Roots.
It was never about a plot twist, ever. It was always about, “tell the story, tell the characters, complicate their lives, make things get worse,” but we never worked backwards from the plot, and it was always a great lesson. - Drew Goddard
The post S6E9 – Writing Plot Twists appeared first on Writing Roots.
If two wrongs don’t make a right, try three. - Laurence J. Peter
The post S6E8 – The Use of Three appeared first on Writing Roots.
If you look at all of the villains in the course of human history, they’ve all believed, delusionally, in the virtue of their actions. Every villain is a hero in his own mind. - Tom Hiddleston
The post S6 Bonus Episode – What Makes a Good Villain appeared first on Writing Roots.
Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke. - Joss Whedon
The post S6E7 – Writing Humor appeared first on Writing Roots.
I love the adventure of telling all types of stories and trying to conquer each one - Jon M. Chu
The post S6E6 – Writing Stories Which Aren’t Good vs. Evil appeared first on Writing Roots.
I don't know where people got the idea that characters in books are supposed to be likable. Books are not in the business of creating merely likeable characters with whom you can have some simple identification with. Books are in the business of creating great stories that make you're brain go ahhbdgbdmerhbergurhbudgerbudbaaarr. - John Green
The post S6E5 – Character Voice and Point of View appeared first on Writing Roots.
Always make the audience suffer as much as possible. - Alfred Hitchcock
The post S6E4 – When to Kill a Character appeared first on Writing Roots.
The art of prophecy is very difficult especially with respect to the future. - Mark Twain
The post S6E3 – The Use of Prologues, Dreams, and Flashbacks appeared first on Writing Roots.
You should write the fast stuff slow and the slow stuff fast. - Lee Child
The post S6E2 – Maintaining Momentum appeared first on Writing Roots.
I knew it, I just knew it! The person who had the job of writing my life's dialogue used to work on a very low budget soap opera. - Marian Keyes
The post S6E1 – Writing Dialogue appeared first on Writing Roots.
Every book, ever volume you see, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and the soul of those who read it and lived it and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The post S5E9 – How Do I Help Authors I Support? appeared first on Writing Roots.
The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done. - Daniel Handler
I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops. - Stephen King
The post S5 Bonus – Battle of the Hosts: Adverbs appeared first on Writing Roots.
I think new authors are too worried that it has all been said before. Sure it has, but not by you. - Asha Dornfest
The post S5E8 – Is it All in My Head? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Books have a publishing standard, and every indie author is responsible to their readers in making sure those standards are met or exceeded. - Eeva Lancaster
The post S5E7 – What’s the Difference? Traditional vs. Self-Publishing appeared first on Writing Roots.
In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody. - Oscar Wilde
The post S5E6 – How Do I Become a Writer? Pt. 2 appeared first on Writing Roots.
There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately no one knows what they are. - W. Somerset Maugham
The post S5E5 – How Do I Become a Writer? appeared first on Writing Roots.
I had to come to terms with the fact that writing about something was not the moral equivalent of doing it. I would not commit adultery, but I wanted to write a whole book about an affair. I know it sounds simpleminded, but I actually had to have a conversation with myself about this in the beginning, convincing myself that it was alright to depict this affair. - Jonellen Heckler
The post S5E4 – Is it Okay if I Write _____? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writing a book is like telling a joke and having to wait two years to know whether or not it was funny - Alain de Botton
The post S5E3 – Is Time a Construct or an Illusion? appeared first on Writing Roots.
Lindsey Teske, head editor and publisher at Of Ink and Pearls, joins us in this Industry Spotlight episode of Writing Roots. She and hosts Ley Esses and Leigh Hull discuss the job of an editor, what writers should know, and the publishing process. Of Ink and Pearls, started by Lindsey, is a boutique publisher much… Read More »Industry Spotlight – Lindsey Teske
The post Industry Spotlight – Lindsey Teske appeared first on Writing Roots.
Describing your writing as trash while you're still drafting is like looking at a bag of flour and an egg and saying "My cake tastes like crap." - Paul Grealish
The post S5E2 – Am I a Terrible Writer? appeared first on Writing Roots.
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague…. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? That which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet. - William Shakespeare
The post S5E1 – What’s in a Name? appeared first on Writing Roots.
You want weapons? We’re in a library! Books are the best weapon in the world. This room's the greatest arsenal we could have. Arm yourself! - The Doctor
The post S4 Bonus – Resources: Public Libraries appeared first on Writing Roots.
I’ve always loved brainstorming with other writers, and I consider having my work critiqued a part of that brainstorming. - Jay Asher
The post S4E8 – Working with Other Writers appeared first on Writing Roots.
I could be just a writer very easily. I am not a writer. I am a screenwriter, which is half a filmmaker.... But it is not an art form, because screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art. - Paul Schrader
The post S4E7 – Writing Other Media appeared first on Writing Roots.
Don't use a big word when a singularly unloquacious and diminutive linguistic expression will satisfactorily accomplish the contemporary necessity. - Steve Green
The post S4E6 – Using a Thesaurus appeared first on Writing Roots.
Punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop. - Lynne Truss
The post S4E5 – Back to Basics: Punctuation appeared first on Writing Roots.
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. - Maya Angelou
The post S4E4 – Answering the Muse appeared first on Writing Roots.
“Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.” - Stephen King
The post S4E3 – Finding the Right Place to Write appeared first on Writing Roots.
Writing Roots is beginning a new segment called Industry Spotlight. These episodes will feature interviews with people involved in the publishing process, including authors, editors, and publishers. Our first Industry Spotlight features Dennis Medbury, author of the newly-released Secrets of the Runestones. First aired November 9, 2019. Author information– Amazon: Secrets of the Runestones– Facebook:… Read More »Industry Spotlight – Dennis Medbury
The post Industry Spotlight – Dennis Medbury appeared first on Writing Roots.
There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. - Ernest Hemingway
The post S4E2 – Battle of the Pen and Keyboard appeared first on Writing Roots.
Keep your head in the clouds and your hands on the keyboard. - Marissa Me
The post S4E1 – Getting the Most from NaNoWriMo appeared first on Writing Roots.
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. - H.P. Lovecraft
The post S3E9 – Monsters and Horror appeared first on Writing Roots.
Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life. - Aristotle
The post S3E8 – Building a Pantheon appeared first on Writing Roots.
Every writer has heard the adage “write what you know” at least a dozen times. What does it even mean? As writers, especially of fiction, we constantly write what we don’t know. This month, we explore how to navigate the balance between imagination and reality. We return with the Forge in this episode, the writing… Read More »S3 Bonus – The Forge: Short Horror Stories
The post S3 Bonus – The Forge: Short Horror Stories appeared first on Writing Roots.
The more limitations you put on a character often times the better a character you'll make them, the more interesting the story becomes because the character can't simply wave a hand and make something happen. They have to work within the framework. - Brandon Sanderson
The post S3E7 – Weaknesses appeared first on Writing Roots.
We all wish we had superpowers. We all wish we could do more than we can do. - Stan Lee
The post S3E6 – Superpowers appeared first on Writing Roots.
They taught me that inhibitions would kill me. Hit early, hit hard. Kill with the first blow. Get your retaliation in first. Cheat. The gentlemen who behaved decently weren’t there to train anybody. They were already dead. - Lee Child
The post S3E5.5 – Murder 102: Director’s Cut appeared first on Writing Roots.
Hit early, hit hard. Kill with the first blow. Get your retaliation in first. - Lee Child
The post S3E5 – Murder 101 appeared first on Writing Roots.
The weird thing about houses is that they almost always look like nothing is happening inside of them, even though they contain most of our lives. I wondered if that was sort of the point of architecture. - John Green
The post S3E4 – Weather and Architecture appeared first on Writing Roots.
One of my challenges [as a writer] is to make sure that I'm giving the reader details that the character cares about rather than details that I care about. I’d say that's key to world-building. - Jessica Andersen
The post S3E3 – Building Magic Systems appeared first on Writing Roots.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C Clarke
The post S3E2 – Magic and Technology appeared first on Writing Roots.
Though in this genre we write about the fantastic, the stories work best when there is solid grounding in our world. - Brandon Sanderson
The post S3E1 – Writing Outside Your Expertise appeared first on Writing Roots.
All readers come to fiction as willing accomplices to your lies. Such is the basic goodwill contract made the moment we pick up a work of fiction. - Steve Almond, WD
The post S2E9 – Release and Launch appeared first on Writing Roots.
Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. - CS Lewis
The post S2 Bonus – Writing Emotion: Mad, Glad, Sad, and Scared appeared first on Writing Roots.
I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story. - Tom Clancy
The post S2E8 – Preparing the Metadata appeared first on Writing Roots.
“We will speak for the books."
"Like the Lorax?"
"The Lorax speaks for the trees."
"Books are made out of paper.”
“Paper is made out of trees."
"What about e-books?"
"We can speak for them too."
"Audiobooks?"
"Audiobooks speak for themselves."
― Paul Acampora
The post S2E7 – Audiobooks appeared first on Writing Roots.
Advertising brings in customers, but word-of-mouth brings in the best customers. - Jonah Berger
The post S2E6 – Marketing Yourself and Your Book appeared first on Writing Roots.
Good cover design is not only about beauty. It’s a visual sales pitch. It’s your first contact with a potential reader. Your cover only has around three seconds to catch a browsing reader’s attention. You want to stand out and make them pause and consider, and read the synopsis. - Eeva Lancaster
The post S2E5 – Designing Your Own Cover appeared first on Writing Roots.
I don't care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book. - Roald Dahl
The post S2E4 – Beta Readers appeared first on Writing Roots.
I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide. - Harper Lee
The post S2E3 – Being Edited appeared first on Writing Roots.
Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. - Anton Chekhov
The post S2E2 – Self Editing: Proofing and Continuity appeared first on Writing Roots.
An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this. - Stephen King
The post S2E1 – Self-Editing: The First Chapter appeared first on Writing Roots.
“The isolated imagination is easily corrupted by theory, but the writer inside his community seldom has such a problem.” - Flannery O'Connor
The post S1 Bonus – The Forge appeared first on Writing Roots.
“A problem that a character can walk away from is a book a reader can walk away from.” - Unknown
The post S1E9 – Alpha Readers and Developmental Editors appeared first on Writing Roots.
“If you want to be a writer that's the hardest and most important lesson: Finish it. Then go back to fix it.” - Tad Williams
The post S1E8 – Getting it Written appeared first on Writing Roots.
If you don’t think there is magic in writing, you probably won’t write anything magical. - Terry Brooks
The post S1E7 – Worldbuilding: Fantasy and Magic appeared first on Writing Roots.
There is no beauty without some strangeness. - Edgar Allan Poe
The post S1E6 – Worldbuilding: The World Around You appeared first on Writing Roots.
When reading, we don’t fall in love with the characters’ appearances. We fall in love with their words, their thoughts, and their hearts. We fall in love with their souls. - Unknown
The post S1E5 – Character Design: Support appeared first on Writing Roots.
Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. - CS Lewis
The post S1E4 – Character Design: Primary appeared first on Writing Roots.
Pixar's story model:
Once upon a time there was a ____
Every day, ____
Until one day, _____
Because of that, _____
Because of that, _____
Until finally,______
The post S1E3 – Story Structure appeared first on Writing Roots.
If you don’t see the book you want on the shelf, write it. - Beverly Cleary
The post S1E2 – Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.
Hey, quick question: how do I plot a book?
Write down everything that happens in the story, then in the second draft make it look like you knew what you were doing all along. - Neil Gaiman
The post S1E1 – Plotting vs. Pantsing appeared first on Writing Roots.