Write Better Now: Recent Episodes
Carrie Jones Books
Quick writing tips to help you become a better writer and author from NYT best-selling author, editor, and writing coach Carrie Jones
Sometimes you see these little bastards in text or sometimes you might want to put them in there yourself. Gasp! We aren’t here to tell you how to be fancy or not, but we are here to let you know how to be fancy correctly and not look like a schmuck. E.g. is short for exempli … Continue reading "To e.g. or to i.e., that is the question"
It’s sexy to know the difference. This podcast delves into the difference between weather, whether and (God forbid!) wether. Come hang out for a quick writing tip.
Last week, I took a little break because of the holiday in the U.S., but this week, we’re talking about cause and effect in fiction novels. Troubleshooting Your Novel by Steven James has a big section about this: He suggests asking yourself these questions to fine-tune your story. And for a quicker fix, he suggests: “Analyze … Continue reading "Cause and Effect in Novel Writing"
This podcast we quickly (so quickly) talk about writing evil people’s dialogue. And a great link that we reference is right here. There are a ton of resources as Matt Bird’s site that you can check out.
This week’s podcast focuses on some advice from Roy Peter Clark. I hope you’ll join me for one of our short weekly writing tips!
Hi, I’m breaking format this week, for once. Our high school had a credible and serious threat yesterday, staff and teachers and kids were locked down for hours and I want to talk about how people telling their stories makes things much more real than cut-up newspaper reports. And that’s important. Don’t forget how powerful … Continue reading "The Power of Personal Narrative"
This week’s podcast is some quick tips about how to make your scene memorable. I hope you’ll check it out. QUICK EDIT! There was a glitch with the podcasting host, but it should be the right podcast now. Apologies!
Super Important Writing Tip For When You Think Your Story Is a Little Boring This podcast we super quickly talk about something you can do when it feels like your novel got a little boring. Come hang out!
Here’s a big truth. I don’t know how to fangirl, and one time I was taking photos in Maine for the Maine Democratic Party at a house rented by famous writers and all my writer friends got excited. They squeed. They were super thrilled. My own book had just made the NYT bestseller’s list, but … Continue reading "I Don’t Know How To Fangirl Even About Writers and Some Advice"
Steve Martin had a catch phrase from his time on SNL and standup that he was a wild and crazy guy. He had an entirely different persona in the skit but you could feel it and tell he’d been inspired by something in real life and turned it into comedy through exaggeration. Now, decades after … Continue reading "Not So Wild and Crazy Writing Advice"
The character in your story is the heart of your story. It does not matter if that character is a person or a troll or a manatee. That character is the soul of your story. Setting, theme, plot are important, but the most important aspect is creating a character that the reader can connect with. … Continue reading "How To Make Your Characters Flawed As F And Why You Should"
Without knowing the backstory, we wouldn’t know the emotional goals of the character, the why for their tangible goals. Instead we’d be reading and thinking, yeah, he wants this. So what?
Hey! Join us this week as we talk about writing exceptional characters starting with backstory! It’s quick. It’ll make you a better author. It’s free. 🙂 In between starting a new business, a new true-crime podcast, and local news blog, and editing other people’s stories, I’ve actually started my own new book that I’m pretty … Continue reading "Writing Exceptional Characters Part One Backstory"
It’s the last in our three-week series on scene and structure the Dwight Swain way. Let’s go. Like we said in the first week, Swain makes us writers think of basic elemental structure and creating our novels in four steps: Making cool characters. Grouping your sentences and paragraphs into motivation reaction units. Grouping those motivation … Continue reading "Writing Tips Putting Scene and Sequel Together"
So last week on the podcast and on our blog where we elaborated a bit, we talked about the four main elements of story structure according to Dwight Swain, who wrote The Techniques of the Selling Writer. Those were: Making cool characters. Grouping your sentences and paragraphs into motivation reaction units. Grouping those motivation reaction … Continue reading "The sexy part of story structure: Scene and Sequel"
When I talk about novel structure, I talk a lot about Dwight Swain who wrote Techniques of the Selling Writer. Swain has some really cool elemental aspects that he talks about and no, they don’t have to do with inciting incidents or the climax—at least not initially, and I thought it would be fun if … Continue reading "It is Super Natural: Four Basic Elements To Your Story"
Dwight Swain has a book, The Techniques of a Selling Writer, and there’s a chapter (well many) that talk about story structure, but one specifically begins like this: “All stories are ‘about’ the same thing: desire versus danger.” Swain So that’s a really good place to start. What does your character desire (or as we … Continue reading "Desire vs danger, it’s what your story is about"
K.M. Weiland writes, “Character chemistry can make all the difference in creating a superior story.” So, how do you put the chemistry sizzle between characters in your story? That’s a big question for a lot of us writers because a lot of readers want romance and fire and good swoony things between characters even when the book … Continue reading "MAKING THINGS SIZZLE – HOW DO YOU MAKE CHEMISTRY HAPPEN BETWEEN CHARACTERS"
I am a big fan of boiling things down to simple components and not spending a ton of time on things blathering on, so let’s get to it, okay? Novel structure and character development are related. Not just that, they are creepy best friends. You know the kind. They do EVERYTHING together, drink the same … Continue reading "Character Development and Novel Structures are Creepy Besties. Here’s why."
It’s this element of structure for the story. We all write them, but sometimes it seems like this overlooked aspect of our stories. I’m not sure why this is. It’s not as elemental as the word or punctuation. It’s not as long and sexy as a chapter. It’s not as easily diagramed as a sentence, … Continue reading "WTF EVEN IS A SCENE"
This week we’re going to give a quick rundown of the pros and cons of present and past tense. For some books, you just write in one of these bad boys and it’s all good. But sometimes it’s not so easy and you waffle back and forth trying to choose which one to write in. … Continue reading "PROS AND CONS OF PRESENT AND PAST TENSE"
Astonishers. Gaspers. Screamers. What your exclamation point addiction or avoidance says about you.
I come from a theater background—a sort of. Basically, I spent a lot of my time singing and dancing and acting (badly) when I was growing up and then in college I spent a lot of my time directing and acting (badly) while I was getting my political science degree. I’ve always talked about how … Continue reading "Using the Tools of Actors to Be a Better Writer"
There’s a demon that infiltrates a lot of our fiction and memoirs and that demon has a name. Learn about White Room Syndrome with us on this week’s episode of Write Better Now! So, white rooms are all the rage right now in 2020 thanks to the Swedish Cozy Minimalist design movement, but what might … Continue reading "The Demon Named White Room Syndrome and How to Exorcise It From Your Story"
A quick ramble about setting. Writers, you need it. You might not want it. You might not be good at it, but setting is like a good fart. Sometimes you have to expel a little gas out of your rectum in order to be your best. Similarly, you want to have some setting in your … Continue reading "Fill Your Setting With Farts"
Showing details in your writing isn’t just some annoying comment that agents, editors, and writing coaches and teachers paste into every student’s work. You can see it now, right? Big red letters. Loopy script. Maybe an exclamation point: SHOW MORE DETAILS! Every writing person ever We do this not to be annoying (well, most of … Continue reading "Show More Details, Writers"
Story is basically a sequence of events, right? And to create a story you have to put that sequence of events together in a way that’s going to jive to the reader or for the reader. To do that you need scenes, which make up that sequence of events. A scene is the basic unit … Continue reading "THREE BIG PIECES TO BUILDING BETTER STORY VIA SCENE AND SEQUEL"
First, we should define point of view just in case you need a refresher. Truth is, we all often need a refresher even when we don’t want to admit it. Point of view is all about who is talking and/or telling the story. YOUR NEXT QUESTION IS: Is There One Narrator Or Many? And who … Continue reading "A Quick Overview About Point of View"
Sometimes us writers become a little stylistic. We get addictions. We might fall in love with the ellipses or certain words. Or, we might forget things like what a comma splice is or—gasp—what a sentence is. Yes, I said it. Sometimes writers forget what it is to make an awesome sentence. So we’re here to … Continue reading "Writers Get Addicted to Things Not Just Drugs and Booze and Coffee"
Here are some fast and dirty writing tips today that’s going to make your writing more intense. Ready? Think about your tenses What’s that mean? It means don’t be writing like things are happening now and then shift over to writing like things were happening in the past. If you want the most immediate writing … Continue reading "A Couple Tips On How to Write More Engagingly"
SUBORDINATE ME, SANTA CLAUS Subordinate clauses are baby clauses that can’t stand all by themselves as complete thoughts and they demand a certain kind of punctuation – or lack of punctuation. HERE ARE EXAMPLES: If I can find Santa, then we can go party. We can go party if Santa ever freaking shows up. So, … Continue reading "Subordinate Clauses – a quick, sexy guide"
One of my favorite writing exercises is super simple. I take a bunch of novelists and ask them: What is your protagonists more afraid of happening than anything else in the whole freaking universe? We authors talk a lot about what our characters wants are, their yearnings, their goals, but we often forget about the … Continue reading "The Big Scary Fear Monster Is Really the Rock Star of Your Novel"
It’s a super quick writing tip again today. Ready? When you’re writing dialogue, make every new speaker a new paragraph. If you’re writing kids books? You might as well just keep each dialogue a paragraph of their own? Why? Our brains are wired to read each paragraph as a new speaker. If we jumble a … Continue reading "Don’t Be Chunky – Put Your Dialogue in Paragraphs"
No lofty talk about exposition or your story’s theme this week. Instead, we’re going back to basics with an easy grammar tip. Some day (two words) vs. someday (one word). It’s a debate that happens on the page over and over. Here’s how it works. Someday (one word) is basically “at an indefinite time in … Continue reading "Grammar Break Some Day vs Someday"
Exposition. It’s a beast. And I never have a problem with it as a writer until I’m writing middle grade fiction. This podcast we’re going to explain what exactly an agent or editor or writing coach or a teacher means when they look disdainfully down their noses at you and say, “You have too much … Continue reading "How to Conquer The Beast Called Exposition"
Carrie has been talking to a lot of her authors lately about the beginning of their stories and how to make them awesome. And Carrie has a lot of tips for the writers she works with, but we’re going to be fast here. Make it Tense AF You don’t want to make readers in our … Continue reading "Three Hot Tips To Make Awesome First Pages"
Here’s a really simple writing tip to make you a better writer. I (Carrie) talk a lot to my writers about distancing words, which are words in writing that keep the reader away from the action. Those are words like: Saw, Heard, Noticed, Smelled, And they take away from the immediacy of the story. A … Continue reading "The Simplest Writing Tip to Make You a Better Writer"
What is your story? Really? It’s more than you’re a writer. You’re a citizen of your community, your country, your world. You might be a certain race, religion, a sex (or not). You might have a faith, an economic status, a job. You might have hobbies, traits. But you might not think you have a … Continue reading "Never Shut Up: You Get To Write History"
So, over here on WRITE BETTER NOW, we’ve had a three-post series about how to develop your theme and what the hell even in a theme and blah, blah, blah. This last post is really just focusing quickly on how to develop your theme. Step One: Think what the hell kind of insight you want … Continue reading "Other Quick Ways To Develop Your Theme in Your Novel"
Last week on our podcast we talked about theme, and we’re going back there again. We know! We know! So scary. Why risk it again? We risk it for you, dear listener. Like a matyr-parent from the early 2000s, we’re writing your college essays and yelling at the soccer coach and doing the work. Once … Continue reading "I Lost My Damn Theme How Do I Find It"
What is theme? This is the first in our three-week series about what theme is and how to find this abstract bugger and even develop it in your own stories. And to start things off, we have to define theme. Turns out there are a lot of different takes on this bad boy, but for … Continue reading "What is Theme?"
A long time ago we talked about backstory on our podcast, DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE, but we thought it would be pretty helpful to quickly talk about it here on WRITE BETTER NOW. Hey baby, what’s your backstory? It’s that I married you, honey. Hey baby, what’s your backstory? It should be a pick-up … Continue reading "Baby Got Backstory Using Backstory in Your Writing"
One of the big things that Carrie sees in stories a lot is nodding. Here’s what it looks like: Shaun nodded. “I agree that’s a lot nodding.” Carrie nodded in affirmation. “Yes. There really is.” For a moment they sat there and then Shaun smiled. “You want to get out of this excerpt and do … Continue reading "No More Nodding in Books"
It’s Writing Tip Time and we’re going to give you three fast and dirty writing tips today that’s going to make your writing more intense. Ready? Think about your tense What’s that mean? It means don’t be writing like things are happening now and then shift over to writing like things were happening in the … Continue reading "How To Make Your Writing More Intense"
Carrie got really confused this week because she went on YouTube and looked up “Writing Advice” and there was a really popular vlogger who gives a ton of writing advice, but she’s not published things. She is, however, really definite on her views on how to be a good writer, which is lovely. It’s lovely … Continue reading "The Biggest Thing Holding Back Your Writing"
Hi, welcome to Write Better Now, a podcast of quick, weekly writing tips meant to help you become a better writer. We’re your hosts with NYT bestselling author Carrie Jones and copyeditor extraordinaire Shaun Farrar. Thank you for joining us. One of the coolest things you can do when writing fiction or longer nonfiction is … Continue reading "How to Use Foreshadowing in Your Story’s Opener Like a Boss"