The Write Focus: Recent Episodes
M.A. Lee
Successful writing requires The Write Focus. Hosted by M.A. Lee with occasional forays from Remi Black and Edie Roones, we focus on productivity / tools / craft / process for fiction and nonfiction, entertainment and academic writing.
Tackling the next book requires three sets of seven. The Plot 7 determines the conflict that will drive the story. 7 Character Sets will develop the story’s heart and mind.
Our focus in this segment will be the 7 Writing Stages.
I did not say seven drafts of the novel—These are the seven work stages, each requiring a different part of your writing mind.
We're using 7 different parts of the brain!
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 01:10 Seven Work Stages
- 10:56 Closing
Total Run Time = 11:56
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/05/7-stages-of-writing-quick-tips-for.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
As a Blast from the Past, our current focus is a series entitled Quick Tips for Writers. Here is a link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7JoFvT3aJEZPpneLjOH1Ur_&si=j8n2yOeaJz05H4bY Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Content copyright is 2020 to 2026, Writers Ink Books.
As with the seven scenes that build the story, introduced in the last segment, seven character sets develop the story, increasing the conflict, intensifying suspense or adding complications.
The four main characters who drive the conflict of the story are protagonist, antagonist, an important friend or ally, and the seeming ally.
Our purpose in this segment is to list and briefly explain these 7 Characters. We need more than their skeletons; we need their minds and hearts.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 01:10 7 Character Sets
- 11:20 Closing
Total Run Time = 12:21
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/05/7-character-sets-quick-tips-for-writers.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
As a Blast from the Past, our current focus is a series entitled Quick Tips for Writers. Here is a link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7JoFvT3aJEZPpneLjOH1Ur_&si=j8n2yOeaJz05H4bY Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Content copyright is 2020 to 2026, Writers Ink Books.
In considering your next writing, what is your first approach?
Many start with a situation: a thriller in the backwoods. Others start with character: a free-willing type faced with his two orphaned nieces. Or you wake up with a title, and the story springs out when you sketch a few ideas.
We are never truly blank when we start.
No sooner do we have an idea than a main character emerges, a glimmer that solidifies as we consider that shining idea for the protagonist.
At this point, many say start with character templates. I disagree. I think our best start is that shining character in conflict. I propose a start with what I call the Plot 7 ~ seven major scenes that will tell if you have a story or not.
What are these 7 scenes?
TIMINGS
- 00:41 Introduction
- 01:10 Plot 7
- 13:01 Closing
Total Run Time = 14:01
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/07/tackle-next-writing-quick-tips-for.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
As a Blast from the Past, our current focus is a series entitled Quick Tips for Writers. Here is a link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7JoFvT3aJEZPpneLjOH1Ur_&si=j8n2yOeaJz05H4bY Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Overcoming difficulties is a constant process, no matter which profession you enter.
All my guidebooks on writing contain insights that I wish I had understood then. Instead, I nodded along, thinking I understood, but I didn’t turn those insights into practical application.
Many writers talked about difficulties and consistency, but they usually added the dreaded word “Deadlines” whenever they talked about keys to success.
After years of experience, I must agree with them. Every project has a deadline, and deadlines get things done.
TIMINGS
- 00:41 Introduction
- 01:10 Deadline Tricks
- 08:07 Closing
Total Run Time = 9:07
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/07/overcoming-difficulties-quick-tips-for.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
As a Blast from the Past, our current focus is a series entitled Quick Tips for Writers. Here is a link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7JoFvT3aJEZPpneLjOH1Ur_&si=j8n2yOeaJz05H4bY Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Content copyright is 2020 to 2026, Writers Ink Books.
Alice followed the White Rabbit into a hole that dropped her into a strange world.
Writing is like that, a hole into a strange wonderland. A project is an intriguing white rabbit luring us to follow even as it reminds us that the project has to meet a deadline or be “late for that important date”.
Our Writing Wonderland operates on 3 Basic Rules. Get these writing rules right, and your Wonderland will not turn into a horror story.
TIMINGS
- 00:41 Introduction
- 01:15 The Writing Wonderland
- 04:20 Closing
Total Run Time = 5:20
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/07/writing-is-wonderland-quick-tips-for.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
As a Blast from the Past, our current focus is a series entitled Quick Tips for Writers. Here is a link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7JoFvT3aJEZPpneLjOH1Ur_&si=j8n2yOeaJz05H4bY Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Content copyright is 2020 to 2026, Writers Ink Books.
Consider your Cover is Quick Tip #12.
One of the greatest expenses that an indie writer will have is the cost of a professional cover.
Yes, yes, people say that the editorial cost is the highest one. Development editors and content editors and line editors are expensive.
Let me argue with that. The first attractor for a book is the cover design. To capture and charm readers, invest in a great cover design.
How do we ensure the best cover design? Follow along for the tips.
TIMINGS
- 00:41 Introduction
- 01:15 Cover Considerations
- 04:56 Closing
Total Run Time = 5:57
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/07/cover-considerations-quick-tips-for.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
As a Blast from the Past, our current focus is a series entitled Quick Tips for Writers. Here is a link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7JoFvT3aJEZPpneLjOH1Ur_&si=j8n2yOeaJz05H4bY Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Content copyright is 2020 to 2026, Writers Ink Books.
Writing constantly, writing fast ~ these can outpace our creativity, leaving us drained. The answer is to Juggle Projects.
I cannot simultaneously write two fiction projects; the projects we juggle have to be different.
This episode talks about that HOW.
TIMINGS
- 00:41 Introduction
- 01:15 Juggle Projects
- 04:50 Closing
Total Run Time = 5:49
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/06/juggle-projects-quick-tips-for-writers.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
“Cocoons” is the Quick Tip for Writing in this episode.
When the words do not come as soon as we are ready to write, what can we do? We have to think like inchworms, the ones that eventually become beautiful butterflies.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 01:15 Think Cocoons
- 03:43 Closing
Total Run Time = 4:42
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/06/think-cocoons-quick-tips-for-writers-10.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
As a Blast from the Past, our current focus is a series entitled Quick Tips for Writers. Here is a link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7JoFvT3aJEZPpneLjOH1Ur_&si=j8n2yOeaJz05H4bY Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Long before a writer pens the last word in a story and launches into the Proof-Plus, that writer is considering promotions.
Promotions, marketing, that’s the same thing.
So much of marketing depends on spare cash and good fortune in eyes discovering it. The chief marketing tool, however, is something the writer can totally control.
Let’s look at the Loss Leader, also known as the Reader Magnet.
TIMINGS
- 00:41 Introduction
- 01:15 Reader Magnets
- 06:18 Closing
Total Run Time = 3:45
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/06/reader-magnets-quick-tips-for-writers-9.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
As a Blast from the Past, our current focus is a series entitled Quick Tips for Writers. Here is a link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7JoFvT3aJEZPpneLjOH1Ur_&si=j8n2yOeaJz05H4bY Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Every successful story, short or long, has two key elements. These two keys recur throughout the story.
One takes a new form at every instance, teasing the reader into reading more. The other also teases the reader, but this time the key remains the same, merely doubling and re-doubling, increasing and intensifying.
What are these key elements?
You’ll have to listen to discover that answer. ;)
TIMINGS
- 00:41 Introduction
- 01:15 Two Key Elements for Successful Stories
- 04:16 Closing
Total Run Time = 5:17
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/06/2-keys-to-successful-stories-quick-tips.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
In our second episode on antagonists, we discuss the additional evil actors that drive a plot, as much a part as our main character, our Protagonists.
We offer three Quick Tips, first about our major antagonist and then two more about minor antagonists.
A key element whips by pretty rapidly, in that each minor antagonist teaches the protagonist a skill or a way to defeat the major antagonist. We don’t want you to miss that. ;)
Quick Tips for Writers continues next week with 2 Requirements for Every Story.
TIMINGS
- 00:41 Introduction
- 01:15 Antagonists, part 2
- 03:31 Closing
Total Run Time = 4:31
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/03/antagonists-part-2-quick-tips-for.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube.
Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus.
We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
As a Blast from the Past, our current focus is a series entitled Quick Tips for Writers. Here is a link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7JoFvT3aJEZPpneLjOH1Ur_&si=j8n2yOeaJz05H4bY
Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters series.
• Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Pentecost concludes the Easter Season.
Fifty days after the Resurrection, ten days after Ascension, it completes the jubilation that starts before sunrise on Easter Day with the Son’s rise.
“He is risen” does not complete everything. Pentecost is the completion.
Let’s ground ourselves in the reasons.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 00:50 Pentecost
- 08:55 Closing
Total Run Time = 9:54
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/05/pentecost-concludes-easter-season.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.
In the Quick Tips series, episodes 6 and 7 are linked, for both are about antagonists, twisty and surprising antagonists.
A truth of conflict is that a weak antagonist creates a weak Protagonist. Since we writers want our main characters to be strong, then the conflict-creator of the story needs to be equally strong.
The first way to do this is to twist our readers’ expectations of the antagonist.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 0:1:12 Learn to Twist / Antagonists
- 06:18 Closing
Total Run Time = 3:36
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/03/quick-tip-6-learn-to-twist-721.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
As a Blast from the Past, our current focus is a series entitled Quick Tips for Writers. Here is a link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7JoFvT3aJEZPpneLjOH1Ur_&si=j8n2yOeaJz05H4bY Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
40.
Forty days after Easter, the Resurrection of Christ Jesus, we have another important date to commemorate, a date that’s been part of the Christian Church since the early days. The first documented festival occurred in 68 A.D.
Along with Easter Day, the regular observance of Sunday, and Pentecost, we have Ascension Day, the day when Christ ascended to Heaven, back to His Father.
The later additions of Christmas and Epiphany were added to these four foundational dates, and all became the beating heart of the Church year.
Let’s examine that 40-day span, a unit of God-time, and set our own plan for this time of transition.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 00:50 Ascension
- 06:10 Closing
Total Run Time = 7:10
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/05/ascension-more-easter-season-725.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.
As writers we control many things about our writing, but times do come when we lose control.
And that is not a bad thing. It’s actually a blessing.
That’s our topic: Be willing to lose control.
The Write Focus offers the Quick Tips for Writers series from Spring into Summer. We hope these bite-sized takes on writing inspire your words this week.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 01:10 Be Willing to Lose Control
- 03:00 Closing
Total Run Time = 3:59
LINKS
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/05/be-willing-to-lose-control-quick-tips.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
As a Blast from the Past, our current focus is a series entitled Quick Tips for Writers. Here is a link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7JoFvT3aJEZPpneLjOH1Ur_&si=j8n2yOeaJz05H4bY Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Our topic this time is a little tricky, but we have a fairly simple solution—if we will use that solution.
Here’s the question: How do I make my writing form a coherent story?
Because if the story confuses us when we finish it, in what state will our readers be?
Quick Tips for Writers is a Blast from the Past, extricated from much longer episodes a year ago. TWF hopes you enjoy these quick takes.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 01:08 QT 4 Write a Coherent Story
- 03:38 Closing
Total Run Time = 4:38
LINKS
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/05/write-coherent-story-quick-tips-for.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
As a Blast from the Past, our current focus is a series entitled Quick Tips for Writers. Here is a link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7JoFvT3aJEZPpneLjOH1Ur_&si=j8n2yOeaJz05H4bY Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We’re onto our third episode in the Quick Tips for Writers series. What are the three cornerstones of every story we write, no matter the length or genre or purpose?
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 01:10 QT 3: Three Cornerstones of Every Story
- 03:17 Closing
Total Run Time = 4:17
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/04/three-cornerstones-of-story-quick-tips.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
In this second episode of the Quick Tips for Writers series, we look at another topic which trips writers up. Whether a total newbie or a seasoned writer, we all ask the same question. It’s the same questions every time we start a new story. How much do I need before I start writing?
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome
- 01:10 How much do I need before I start writing?
- 04:33 Closing
Total Run Time = 5:33
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/04/quick-tips-for-writers-2-717.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Content copyright is 2020 to 2026, Writers Ink Books.
The Write Focus brings in a Blast from the Past, from Summer 2025. Thirteen—count `em, 13—posts that distill over 30 years of writing knowledge and 10 years of publishing writing.
Host M.A. Lee has 60-plus novel-length titles under three pen names that guide this information. We hope you find a spot of wisdom in each of these Quick Tips for Writers.
In our first episode of the series, we answer every writer’s burning question: “What do I need to start writing?”
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 01:10 Quick Tip 1
- 4:14 Closing
Total Run Time = 5:14
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/04/quick-tips-for-writers-1-716.html
Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
As a Blast from the Past, our current focus is a series entitled Quick Tips for Writers. Here is a link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7JoFvT3aJEZPpneLjOH1Ur_&si=j8n2yOeaJz05H4bY Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Listen on your favorite podcast site: from Apple to YouTube, Spotify and Podbean (my favs), Google Play, Amazon Music and Audible, Samsung and Player FM, Deezer and Podcaster, the rivals iHeart and Tune-in, and too many to list.
Here are the easiest. Make us a favorite, and follow along easy-peasy, once a week, while you fix a quick dinner, drive a short commute, or take a brisk walk.
My favorite podcast is Podbean. https://eden5695.podbean.com/
YouTube direct link to the Current Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7IZWMlW9kLwMNEkuLMySGnq
Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=ffeb71ed17c3409d
Amazon/Audible https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/062ecc60-d61c-432a-ad99-8234c1044ef1
ListenNotes https://lnns.co/y_Jg5rpaMNo
Google https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL2VkZW41Njk1L2ZlZWQueG1s
Tune-In https://tunein.com/podcasts/p1608565/
IHeart Radio https://iheart.com/podcast/90647163
Content copyright is 2020 to 2026, Writers Ink Books.
Our More: Easter series concludes in this episode with my confession of a longtime failing and the way I’m casting off that sin … which was one of the motivations for the entire series on More.
And our final Creativity for Writers segment, we consider the daily practice of gratitude to the greatest Creator of all.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 00:50 Bright Sunday
- 06:20 Creativity Refresh 15
- 10:22 Last Words and Next Series
- 11:05 Closing
Total Run Time = 12:05
LINKS
Prazoli Christian Bible Prayer Journal https://www.amazon.com/Prazoli-Christian-Prayer-Journal-3-Month/dp/B0D3PFXNX5/
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/02/more-easter-bright-sunday-with.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
David’s prayer in Psalm 143 is our focus, following God’s timeline rather than the world’s.
In the Creativity for Writers segment, we look at three techniques to generate new ideas from the blankness.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 00:50 Bright Saturday
- 06:06 Creativity Refresh 14
- 11:12 Closing
Total Run Time = 12:12
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/02/more-easter-bright-saturday-and.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
As we age, we think the three most common bedtime prayers for children are only for the little people. They seem too plain for our complex lives.
Our mistake is when we try to make our prayers more when simple is better.
In looking at the simple, we often see things we have forgotten because our so-called complex lives are actually only filled with distractions.
In the Creativity for Writers segment, we look at overcoming the burdens of the daily grind by awakening our child.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 00:50 Bright Friday
- 08:40 Creativity Refresh 13
- 12:02 Closing
Total Run Time = 13:03
LINKS
Versions of Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_I_Lay_Me_Down_to_Sleep
The Shema https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KQLOuIKaRA
Christ with four arch-angels Painting https://media.craiyon.com/2025-04-10/cNA-qexEQ2SwteWDcqbNKg.webp
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/02/more-easter-bright-friday-with.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
While the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed and even little Glory Be offer the basic tenets of Christian faith, we can still add more to intensify our daily walk with Christ.
More can mean a greater understanding of the church year, such as knowing Holy Week and Bright Week. More can also mean additional readings to add to our daily devotions.
Reading through the Bible can be a challenging daily devotion, especially when we are deep into Leviticus or the minor prophets or weeping Jeremiah. Supplementing with additional small readings can make the uphill struggle of the laws or the Lamentations bearable.
The Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi is one such addition.
In the Creativity for Writers segment, we consider the hardest method of all to refresh our creativity.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 00:50 Bright Thursday
- 04:40 Creativity Refresh 12
- 09:05 Closing
Total Run Time = 10:30
LINKS
The Prayer As a Song https://youtu.be/ZABZroCGXTU?si=J0OYhJ763_KXJnZf
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/02/more-easter-bright-thursday-with.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
He is Risen! That’s the word the women gave, based on the evidence of the tomb and the word of the bright angel who reassured them.
Yet the disciples could not bring themselves to believe. They wanted to, desperately, but their earthly realism prevented complete belief.
Our focus today is on the event three days after the Crucifixion, on the day of the Resurrection, when two of the Jesus’ followers are walking on the road to Emmaus.
In the Creativity Refresh segment, we discuss the management of two guiding principles of writing that constantly affect creativity.
TIMINGS
- 00:41 Introduction
- 00:50 Bright Wednesday
- 06:00 Creativity Refresh 11
- 10:50 Closing
Total Run Time = 11:51
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/02/more-easter-bright-wednesday-emmaus-and.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.
In this day of contemporary music and blended worship services, with guitars and drums accompanying the pianos and organs, the bland traditional services of my childhood now seem strange.
God calls upon us to make a joyful noise in praise to Him. Music creates a harmonious celebration. Psalm 150 even lists the instruments for accompaniment.
Our question today is how do we use music in our daily life?
In the Creativity Refresh segment, we focus on managing the flatness of our ideas and words and encountering roadblocks.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 00:50 Bright Tuesday
- 03:35 Creativity Refresh 10
- 11:05 Closing
Total Run Time = 12:05
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/02/more-easter-bright-tuesday-and.html
Audio
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.
Easter began with Sunrise—the tomb open and empty, the faithful women first to see, first to receive the good news, first to spread the good news.
This week should be the most celebrated time in the church, yet it is often more neglected than any other time of the church.
Fasting and grief are over; feast and joy return. Christ is Risen! Christ is Lord of All!
Today is Easter Monday, Bright Monday. On this day, let’s examine one of the foundational creeds of Christianity, a creed that helped fight heresies of the past and that can fight heresies of today.
In our Creativity for Writers segment, our focus continues to be ways to fuel the creative spark.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 00:50 Bright Monday / Apostles’ Creed
- 10:10 Fuel for the Creative Spark / Refresh 9
- 17:17 Closing
Total Run Time = 18:16
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/04/more-easter-bright-monday-with.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.
On Easter, we greet each other with “He is risen.”
The traditional response is “He is risen indeed.”
Easter is our great hope and assurance, the fulfillment of the promise of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
My efforts for an Easter reflection to share with you were poor indeed, and it is a wise writer who recognizes her inadequacies. Thus, I have three reflections by others to share on this most holy day.
In the Creativity for Writers segment, the topic is finding a new perspective.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 00:50 Easter Day
- 05:15 Refresh 8
- 10:30 Closing
Total Run Time = 11:30
LINKS
Johann Habermann https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Habermann
Book of Common Prayer, 1552 :: 1928 edition https://www.amazon.com/1928-Book-Common-Prayer/dp/0195285255/ OR 1979 edition https://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Deluxe-Personal/dp/0898691117/
Charles Spurgeon, sermon delivered April 21, 1889, in London. Available in its entirety in The Complete Spurgeon Sermons Collection. https://www.amazon.com/Spurgeons-Sermons-Volumes-C-Spurgeon/dp/1598568329/ OR https://www.spurgeongems.org/spurgeon-sermons/
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/04/more-easter-easter-day-with-creativity.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.
What is the key to Holy Saturday? The church is bare, the altar blackened, all hope entombed with Christ.
Black Saturday is the vigil before Easter’s Resurrection. After the Crucifixion, the black veil is removed from the altar cross, for Christ is brought down from the 300-pound cross that the Sanhedrin and the Romans intended to be His failure.
They didn't know the key, though.
After our focus on Black Saturday, the creativity segment considers our physical workspace for writing.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 00:50 Black Saturday
- 05:05 Refresh 7
- 09:36 Closing
Total Run Time = 10:37
LINKS
Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/2/3-michelangelos-sistine-chapel-michele-falzone.jpg
Matt Papa “The Story of God” https://youtu.be/E4cL-Zcxa9M
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/01/more-easter-black-saturday-with.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.
Why is Good Friday “Good”?
That is the official title of this meditation, but the focus is something else.
First, the answer to the question is basically because we received the best gift in the world, the gift of redeeming salvation from Christ Jesus.
Our focus is an aspect of that question / answer, wrapped up in a behavior of self-denial. On this Good Friday, let us consider the reason we say no to opportunities.
In the Refresh that Creativity segment, we focus on a strong method to awaken new ideas.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 00:50 Good Friday
- 10:00 Refresh 6
- 14:52 Closing
Total Run Time = 15:53
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/04/more-easter-good-friday-and-creativity.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.
The “Maundy” of Maundy Thursday is such an odd word.
It comes down to us from the Middle Ages, entering English in the old French form of mandé, which leads back to Latin and mandatum, meaning command, order.
The mandatum comes from Jesus’ words to his disciples. In this episode, we explore Christ’s new commandment to his disciples at the Last Supper.
- We also have a bit on the Tenebrae service that often concludes a Maundy Thursday service.
In the Writing segment, we look at several types of journals in order to Refresh that Creativity that writers depend upon.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 00:50 Maundy Thursday
- 06:30 The Tenebrae
- 08:20 Creativity Refresh # 5
- 13:46 Closing
Total Run Time = 14:35
LINKS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y9qCsIPzNo taken from The Passion of Christ
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/04/more-easter-maundy-thursday-tenebrae.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.
Easter #Maundythursday #holyweek #creativity #journal #morningpages #tenebrae #writing
Holy Wednesday is often called Spy Wednesday.
Spy Wednesday sounds like a cool name with more going on than simply Holy Wednesday.
Holy Wednesday is given the name Spy to remind us of the horrible conspiracy that began on this day: Judas Iscariot and the high priests negotiated a deal in which Judas would betray Christ Jesus, who would then be brought before the Sanhedrin Court, an assembly of rabbis.
That means SPY Wednesday is not cool.
In our writing segment, our focus is seeking the other arts to Refresh our Creativity.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
00:50 Spy Wednesday
08:06 Refresh # 4
13:00 Closing
Total Run Time = 13:59
LINKS
Who Can Be Called Rabbi? - Torah Musings https://www.torahmusings.com/2012/05/who-can-be-called-rabbi/
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/01/more-easter-spy-wednesday-704.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
In this episode for Holy Tuesday, The Write Focus looks at the More we need to do for God.
I think most of us live a minimalist lifestyle with God. He’s in a neat little corner, tucked away, with a bit of brightness, brought out only when we need him. There He is, over there. See Him? He’s for Sunday.
No. No, no, no. He’s for every day.
For writers, Refresh 3 offers a way to sink into Flow while drowning out unnatural noises.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:44 Holy Tuesday
04:48 Refresh 3
09:42 Closing
Total Run Time = 10:41
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/01/more-easter-holy-tuesday-703.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.
On Holy Monday, many churches observe the anointing of Christ with oil at Bethany. The scourging of the money-lenders from the churches may also have occurred on this date.
Most modern paintings and captions on old artwork say “cleansing” rather than “scourging”, which requires anger. Christ became angry at the people who turned the church into a money-making scheme. People could not reach God unless they passed the money-lenders.
Here’s the question for this episode: What often stands between us and Christ?
For writers, Refresh 2 offers a whole-body experience to spark the mind.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:42 Holy Monday
05:50 Refresh 2
10:14 Closing
Total Run Time = 11:13
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/01/more-easter-holy-monday.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.
Changing churches will change your life, especially if you are Wanting More.
I grew up in one of those stripped-down Protestant churches that barely, barely noticed the church year. We had Easter—which was usually a competition to see who brought the most family members. (Yes, I know. I thought that promotion inappropriate, too.) I wanted More.
Join The Write Focus throughout the 15 days of the Easter season, called Holy and Bright Weeks, when I share my journey and findings as a Christian.
Each episode concludes with an appropriate writing focus for Spring, Refresh that Creativity. Our first writing focus offers 3 solutions to that tricky problem of starting a new project from total blankness.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:42 Intro and Palm Sunday
07:50 Refresh 1
14:32 Closing
Total Run Time = 15:32
LINKS
Hosanna (Praise is Rising) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMBDWG9tseU
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/01/more-easter-palm-sunday.html
Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music with opening and closing is provided in the audio.
All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.
The fourth candle for the last Advent Sunday stands for Love. What Christ has done for us, what He is doing, and what He will do—all reveal His love for us.
The greatest gift in the world? That is giving what is most dear. Sacrificing what we want to provide what others need.
The dearest thing in the world? Our own lives.
What would cause us to sacrifice ourselves for others? Great love.
So, we ask again ~ what is the greatest gift in the world? Christ, who sacrificed His mortal life to grant redemption for us all.
In today’s episode of The Write Focus, we discuss Christian Love and review our last seven Chrismons.
The Writing Connection discusses crafting stories with flow and breaking the flow, positive and negative, order and chaos, appropriate at this transition time, Old Year becoming New Year.
TIMINGS
00:00 Intro
00:40 Advent ~ the Week of Love
02:30 Chrismons ~ last 7
06:21 Twelve Days of Christmas
09:35 For Writers
12:30 Closing
Total Run Time = 13:33
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/12/more-advent-week-4.html
Look around. Even with the sun radiantly bright, our world is dark.
Humans can argue about raising a family, budgeting for expenses, politics, politicians, climate change, whether the change is cyclical or anthropogenic, diet, exercise, sleep deprivation, big Pharma, vaccines, green spaces, carbon footprints, and more and more and more and more.
That list barely grazes the debatable differences we have with each other. Shadows upon shadows create a darkening world.
Then we remember cancer and other diseases, the bad health suffer from our own causes and the poisoning that the modern industrial world causes. Drug abuse and depression and other psychical injuries can destroy our interest in the world, damaging us as much as disease does. And I haven’t even touched upon digital addictions.
Count all of these shadows, and our world is dark.
What gives us light? What gives us Joy?
Hope. Promise. Unconditional love. Peace. All embodied in Christ our Savior, the Light of the World.
Christ’s all-powerful light casts the darkness away.
That gives us JOY, the theme of the third week of Advent.
In this episode, we discuss the spectrum of crosses that reveal all aspects of Christ, then in the Writing Connection, we reveal the uses a writer can make of spectrum as well as how to use spectrum, with an example story discussed.
TIMINGS
00:00 Opening
00:40 Content
03:37 Chrismons
05:42 For Writers
08:48 Closing
Total Run Time = 9:48
LINK
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/12/more-advent-week-3.html
As the first week is Hope, the second week is preparing the way for Christ. That knowledge—of what Christ has done, is doing, and will do—gives us PEACE, for we know that He directs our lives.
Many people become caught up in the questions: Who and What? Why and How? Christ is a mystery that we can’t answer. Should we try to understand Him? Yes, but the factual details only reveal bits and pieces. We have historical evidence of His life. Yet we also have Truth, and Truth is eternal. Christ is Truth, at one with God the Father, the great Atoner. Everything He does and says reveals to us the Kingdom of Heaven. When we believe on Him, we have our entry to Heaven.
This is the heavenly Peace, when everyone is dealt with equally, when the innocent are protected and the violent are judged.
The Chrismons for this week all contain symbolic imagery, a picture or icon. Each presents an essay of meaning through the image.
The Lighted Candle / the Burning Bush / Manger / Lyre / Alpha & Omega / Crossed Keys / the Lamb with a Flag
The Writing Connection of More:
This time let’s look at motifs, metaphorical imagery that return several times during the course of a story. Chrismons are metaphorical imagery, images that carry meanings. Motifs occur several times for stories as long as novellas and longer, at 30,000 words and more. For shorter than novellas, think of repeating the motifs about one per 4,000 to 5,000 words. More than that becomes too repetitive and obvious.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Content
02:36 Chrismons
07:23 Writing Connection
10:58 Closing
Total Run Time = 11:56
Website Link: https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/12/more-advent-week-2.html
More: Advent, Chrismons, & Writing ~ 1st Week
Welcome to More and a celebration of the Advent season.
The denomination of my formative Christian years didn’t celebrate the church year. We had Easter and Christmas, but those two Sundays were the only ones devoted to special events of the church: Sunrise Service and Gift-Giving for the Poor. All the other Sundays were a ceaseless progression of one sermon to the next.
My soul was unhappy. I didn’t know that I needed more, and that part of that more was discovering the church year as a constant reminder of God’s relationship with people.
Gradually, I encountered elements of the church year. Lent was mentioned because my high school French class celebrated Mardi Gras. All Hallow’s Eve was followed by All Hallow’s Day on an almanac calendar. Epiphany and Pentecost were Christian words; while I knew them, I didn’t understand their importance.
Advent is upon us, and I’ve learned to celebrate More. Join me as I share a bit of More with you as well as relate each Advent with More on Writing.
TIMINGS
00:00 Intro
1:15 Opening
1:55 Advent ~ the Week of Hope
4:10 Chrismons ~ 1st 7
7:12 For Writers
10:00 Closing
Total Run Time = 11:00
LINKS
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/11/more-advent-week-1.html
Well, this has never happened. Changes disrupt ~ but do bring progress. Listen to learn while The Write Focus is on hiatus.
Nancy Brewka-Clark is our guest poet for this episode of The Write Focus. With clever one-liners, Nancy shares how poetry affects writing and life.
Her collection Beautiful Corpus published just as Covid struck, and the intended splash of a new publication became lost in the lock-down world and had lost all shiny newness when society re-opened its doors. Yet Nancy continued, for—as with any true writer—we are happiest when we are creating.
BIO: Winner of the 2019 Amy Lowell Poetry Prize and the 2024 Maria Faust Sonnet Laureate Prize, Nancy Brewka-Clark is the author of the 2020 poetry collection Beautiful Corpus. Her short mysteries have been anthologized in the U.S. by Malice Domestic and Crime Spell Books, in the U.K. by Flame Tree and Midnight Street Press, in Australia by Black Hare Press and in South Africa by Sentinel Creatives. She's a member of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and lives in Beverly, MA.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome and Introduction
- 1:19 Interview with Nancy Brewka-Clark
- 34:54 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time = 36:33
LINKS
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/10/642-fall-into-poetry-with-poets-nancy.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry, 12 episodes of writers sharing how poetry improves their fiction. These 12 episodes will broadcast this autumn, September to December. Here is a link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Returning to The Write Focus podcast, this time to talk poetry and fiction, is Canadian writer donalee Moulton. We talk free verse vs. pure verse, twilight creativity, the benefits of poetry to our writing and to our souls, and many more topics.
We also consider the dilemma facing many writers. It’s the question Am I spreading myself too thin by pursuing many different types of writing, or does pursuing poetry and fiction and different genres keep me fresh? Is there an easy answer to this?
donalee Moulton’s first mystery book Hung out to Die was published in 2023. A historical mystery, Conflagration!, was published in 2024. It won the 2024 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense (Historical Fiction). Her newest release is Melt.
A short story “Swan Song” was one of 21 selected for publication in Cold Canadian Crime. It was shortlisted for an Award of Excellence. Other short stories have been published in numerous magazines, journals, and anthologies. donalee’s short story “Troubled Water” was shortlisted for a 2024 Derringer Award and a 2024 Award of Excellence from the Crime Writers of Canada.
donalee is an award-winning freelance journalist. She has written articles for print and online publications across North America including The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Lawyer’s Daily, National Post, and Canadian Business.
As well, donalee is the author of The Thong Principle: Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You Say and co-authored the book, Celebrity Court Cases: Trials of the Rich and Famous.
TIMINGS
00:40 Welcome and Introduction
1:21 Interview with donalee Moulton
28:15 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time = 29:43
LINKS
Website: donaleemoulton.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donaleemoultonauthor
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaleemoulton/
X: @donaleeMoulton
Instagram: donaleemoulton
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/10/641-fall-into-poetry-with-poet-donalee.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry, 12 episodes of writers sharing how poetry improves their fiction. These 12 episodes will broadcast this autumn, September to December. Here is a link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Welcome Back to Fall into Poetry with a Poet, from The Write Focus. Our poet for this episode is crime fiction writer Janet Innis. While we suffer through storms and glitches, we do still manage to have a great conversation about poetry, fiction, and writing in general.
Poet before she began writing crime, Janet Innes has always told stories, writing narrative poetry as well as flash fiction, short stories, longer poems, and novels. Whether poetry or prose, her focus is the exploration of personality, with the motivators and drive toward boundary-breaking action.
Janet Innes is a crime fiction writer whose work can be found in Mystery Tribune, Guilty Flash, Lucent Dreaming, Savage Cheese, and the anthology Futures That Never Were. Based in Rhode Island, she's a member of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and Sisters in Crime.
When she’s not writing, she’s logging the insect life in her native plant garden.
Find her at janetinnes.net or on Bluesky @janetinnes.bsky.social
TIMINGS
00:40 Welcome and Introduction
1:30 Interview with Janet Innis
33:57 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time = 35:15
LINKS
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/10/640-fall-into-poetry-janet-innes.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry, 12 episodes of writers sharing how poetry improves their fiction. These 12 episodes will broadcast this autumn, September to December. Here is a link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Welcome to the official start of autumn. We’re two episodes into our Fall into Poetry series—this is the third—with a focus this season on poets who also write fiction.
Our primary question is How Writing Poetry Made our Guest a Better Fiction Writer, but I guarantee we will delve into a lot of other corners of writing as well.
Today’s guest is Michael Cody, a songwriter-poet who has added fiction to his repertoire, with short stories and novels. He finds poetry does more than enrich his words, deepening the work in a wealth of ways.
Here’s the Interview.
Bio: Michael Amos Cody is author of the novel Gabriel’s Songbook (Pisgah Press, 2017) and the story collection A Twilight Reel (Pisgah Press, 2021), winner of the Short Story category in the Feathered Quill Book Awards 2022.
His literary suspense novel Streets of Nashville appeared in April 2025 from Madville Publishing. He lives in Jonesborough, TN, with his wife Leesa and teaches in the Department of Literature and Language at East Tennessee State University.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome and Introduction
- 01:35 Interview with Michael Cody
- 30:15 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time = 31:36
LINKS
michaelamoscody@gmail.com
https://michaelamoscody.com/
https://michaelamoscody.com/michael-amos-cody/macblog/
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Michael-Cody/author/B001KHHWW6
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17352683.Michael_Amos_Cody
https://soundcloud.com/michael-cody-9
The Write Focus website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/10/639-fall-into-poetry-michael-cody.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry, 12 episodes of writers sharing how poetry improves their fiction. These 12 episodes will broadcast this autumn, September to December. Here is a link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Welcome to our second episode for Fall into Poetry with a Poet.
Our poet this time is Pam Ebel, and this makes her third appearance on the podcast. Pam is a pure writer, which in my opinion means she writes many different styles and she shares her knowledge freely with us, with other writers at local seminars, and with other writers at national conferences. This year she’s one of the keynote speakers at the Killer Nashville awards banquet.
In our wide-ranging conversation, Pam talks specifically about poetry as performance and immediate audience interconnection which guides writers as they place words on the page. While some poems are not suitable for performance, other poems lend themselves naturally to that combination art form, poetry performance. Pam covers many topics in our scant time. Here’s the interview.
Bio: Ebel has been published in Shotgun Honey, YELLOW MAMA EZINE, Kings River Life Magazine, The BOULD AWARDS 2020 and 2021 Anthology, Tomorrow and Tomorrow 2021 Anthology, and other venues. Her poetry has appeared in the Delta Poetry Review. A native of California, she now concentrates on tales from her original home state and tales from the highways of the South. She also knows, like the Ancient Greeks and the Irish, that as a Southern writer you can’t outrun your blood.
She has turned to writing full time as of 2020, obviously either perfect or bizarre timing, and this will be her fifth career. She lives in Metairie, Louisiana, with her husband and two cats.
TIMINGS
00:40 Welcome and Introduction
2:00 Interview with Pam Ebel
Topics: Killer Nashville, Bouchercon in NOLA, sharing with writers, poetry as performance, audience reaction, influence of “Howl” by A. Ginsberg, Aristotle, poems not suitable for performance, One Rule when performing, how poems live on after the presentation, poems inserted into fiction
34:00 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time = 35:29
LINKS
Pamela Ebel https://pamebel.com/
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/09/638-fall-into-poetry-with-poets-pam-ebel.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry, 12 episodes of writers sharing how poetry improves their fiction. These 12 episodes will broadcast this autumn, September to December. Here is a link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Welcome to our autumn series Fall into Poetry.
Here where I live, it’s not quite Fall, but I’m desperate for it, and this series is one way I can feed that devouring desperation.
This season, we have poets who also write fiction, and that informs the direction of our episodes. While we writers may weave multiple strands into these episodes, the tapestry created depicts creative writing at its best ~ formed of many, many threads in a variety of writing styles, black-and-white nonfiction, the red-hot colors of the mystery genre, the blues and purples of speculative fiction, the glorious greens that run through all of our writing.
Our very first interview is with Joan Leotta, whose first publication occurred at 14 with a poem. Life offered many opportunities for writing, and she’s woven the diverse threads into a glorious tapestry melding desire and passion with duty and obligation.
Let’s begin our interview with Joan Leotta.
Bio: Joan Leotta plays with words on page and stage. She’s a multiple nominee for Pushcart and Best of the Net. Her poetry, essays, and stories have appeared in many journals in the US and abroad. She performs folktale programs on stage, radio, television, and zoom, often highlighting heritage, food, family, and strong women, and offers the one-woman show, “Meet Louisa May Alcott, Civil War Nurse, and Writer”.
TIMINGS
00:40 Welcome and Introduction
02:20 Interview
- Topics: Poetry helping Fiction, Value of Each Word / Conciseness / Form, Haiku / Tanka / Haibun poetic forms, her novels and children’s books & rights reversion, backburner items, performance of writing, ideas & more ideas, her poetry background and her various types of writing
31:19 Closing
Total Run Time: = 32:21
Links
Joan's Facebook https://www.facebook.com/joanleotta
Two Mini-Chapbooks are available free to download from Origami Press:
https://www.origamipoems.com/poets/257-joan-leotta
Morning by Morning and Dancing Under the Moon
Feathers on Stone" poetry chapbook available from me and at
https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/feathers-on-stone-joan-leotta/
Languid Lusciousness with Lemon from Finishing Line Press
https://www.amazon.com/Languid-Lusciousness-Lemon-Joan-Leotta/dp/1635341450/
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We have reached the last episode associated with the Summer Writing Challenge.
Our Quick Tip covers the 3 Sets of 7 that we writers need for every story start—because you’re moving on to the next writing, right?
Reiner Prochaska offers a fascinating view of writing challenges in discussing his two novels and scripts for stage.
- Reiner Prochaska is a playwright, a novelist, an actor, a director, a filmmaker, and a university lecturer. His plays have been produced at Maryland Ensemble Theatre and published nationally and internationally.
- His new novel, Bergthora’s Saga: A Heathen Revenge in a Christian Iceland—a historical fantasy set in Iceland in the late tenth and early eleventh century, as well as in mid-fourteenth century Greenland—was published by Europe Books in London in November 2024.
- His previous novel, Captives, which tells the story of German soldiers interned at the historical POW camp in Frederick, Maryland, between 1944 and 1946, was published by The Permanent Press in 2019.
- He is the Producer and a Co-Director of the Catoctin Furnace Living History Festival, to which he contributes in creative and administrative capacities. A graduate of Towson University, Reiner teaches writing at his alma mater. He lives in Frederick, Maryland.
For our Check-In, I’m talking the next series.
We’re wrapping up everything, so let’s begin.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome & Quick Tip # 15
- 09:22 Interview with Reiner Prochaska
- 43:33 Next with The Write Focus (2 series)
- 44:08 Closing
Total Run Time = 45:08
LINKS
His Site https://reinerprochaska.com/
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/09/636-summer-writing-challenge-week-15.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 15 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
A sidestep into screenwriting led Ryan Hines back to writing short stories, novels, and flash fiction. He talks challenges and the Writer as a Thief of Life. That’s the best Quick Tip any writer can offer.
- Ryan Michael Hines is a novelist, podcaster, and screenwriter based in Los Angeles, CA, who loves the Southland sun but misses the beauty and mystery of the Appalachian Mountains every day.
- A graduate of UCLA’s prestigious MFA Screenwriting Program, Ryan has written several award-winning scripts. His TV pilot EASTSIDE OUTLAWS was developed under a First Look Agreement with Sony Crackle. His feature adaptation of EASTSIDE OUTLAWS won Best Crime Feature Screenplay at the 5th LA Crime and Horror Film Festival.
- Ryan is the author of MOONSHINELAND: A Tale of Haunted Appalachia and the writer / director of the MOONSHINELAND podcast. Connect to the podcast at this link: https://moonshineland.podbean.com/
Our Summer Writing Challenge has concluded, and in the last Check-In I offer stats and more. We open with a Quick Tip before Ryan talks writing challenges.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 14
- 6:33 Interview with Ryan Hines
- 36:36 Final Check-In
- 38:30 Closing
Total Run Time = 39:28
LINKS
Ryan’s Site https://ryanmhines.com/
His podcast https://moonshineland.podbean.com/
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/09/635-summer-writing-challenge-week-14.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Santa Barbara screenwriter Todd Goodlett talks scripts, drafting and revising, conflict, and more in this week’s episode of our Summer Writing Challenge.
- Todd Goodlett is a screenwriter and a playwright. He is the recipient of the 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in Screenwriting. Todd is also the winner of the 2019 Final Draft Big Break TV Grand Prize. His plays have been developed and produced across the country including the Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespeare Festival. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.
Our last Quick Tip, # 13, is entitled the Writing Wonderland, and it feels like a Wonderland when I considered the statistics for our 13th Check-In. Our final Check-In will be the next episode.
On to our last August episode, with two more to come in September.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome & Quick Tip #13
- 04:25 Interview with Todd Goodlett
- 35:00 Check-In # 13
- 36:53 Closing
Total Run Time = 37:53
LINKS
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/08/634-summer-writing-challenge-week-13.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Thriller writer Jeffrey James Higgins turns our interview into a smooth journey without any hitches in today’s episode. Located in the DC area, he helps writers with his salon, located at Elaine’s Restaurant , the literary hub of Alexandria, VA. If you’re in that area, do check out the salon.
- Jeffrey James Higgins is a retired supervisory special agent who writes thrillers, short stories, creative nonfiction, and essays. He has wrestled a suicide bomber, fought the Taliban in combat, and chased terrorists across five continents.
- Jeffrey received the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Heroism and the DEA Award of Valor. Jeffrey has been interviewed by CNN, National Geographic, and The New York Times. He’s a #1 Amazon bestselling author with numerous literary awards, including the Claymore Award, PenCraft’s Best Fiction Book, and a Reader’s Favorite Gold Medal. He has been a panelist at ThrillerFest, Killer Nashville, Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity, and other conferences.
- Black Rose Writing published his first three novels, FURIOUS, UNSEEN, and THE FOREVER GAME. Severn River Publishing acquired Jeffrey's forthcoming Nathan Burke espionage series, which will launch in June 2025. Jeffrey is an active member of the Authors Guild, The Virginia
Writers Club, International Thriller Writers, Sisters in Crime, and the Royal Writers Secret Society. Discover Jeffrey's writing at https://JeffreyJamesHiggins.com. - The podcast for writers can be found at Inkandescent Radio http://www.inkandescentradio.com/ .
We’re winding down the last days of the Summer Writing Challenge with a Quick Tip on Cover Considerations.
Check-In # 12 and my novella is finally on the last portion of its journey, all smooth traveling now.
Let’s begin.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 12
- 05:15 Interview with Jeffrey James Higgins
- 36:12 Check-In #12
- 37:42 Closing
Total Run Time = 38:42
LINKS
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/633-summer-writing-challenge-week-12.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Can you see Autumn yet? I’m yearning for it, my special time of the year.
Autumn is the anniversary of this podcast, starting five years ago, and my publishing journey, 10 years ago. It’s always wonderful to me. I see no signs yet, but I’m definitely looking—even though it’s much too soon.
We can be that way with our writing: rushing toward the end, especially when we juggle multiple projects—that’s the focus of our Quick Tip this week
Our interview is with Michael Dabney, a former journalist now inspired to write about a private detective in mid-1980s Philadelphia.
- MB Dabney is a retired award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in numerous local and national publications, including Indianapolis Monthly, the Indianapolis Business Journal, Ebony magazine, and Black Enterprise.com. He has co-edited two anthologies, and has published a number of short mystery stories.
- Michael’s latest novel, A Deadly Game: A David Blaise Mystery, is a prequel to his 2021 debut novel, An Untidy Affair. The third novel in the David Blaise series is scheduled for Fall 2025 publication. The father of two adult daughters, Michael lives in Indianapolis with his wife, Angela.
The Check-In closes the episode. Let’s begin.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 11
- 05:35 Interview with Michael Dabney
- 37:55 Check-In # 11
- 40:20 Closing
Total Run Time = 41:21
LINKS
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/08/632-summer-writing-challenge-week-11.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Into August and the last month of the Summer Writing Challenge with Week 10. Our interviews will stretch two extra weeks of September.
Delia Pitts gives us a wonderful interview with fantastic information to share.
- Born and raised in Chicago, Delia Pitts graduated from Oberlin College with a Bachelor’s degree in history. After working as a journalist, she earned a Ph.D. in African history from the University of Chicago. She is a former university administrator and U.S. diplomat.
- Her contemporary noir mystery, Trouble in Queenstown, was published by Minotaur Books in 2024. It features a Black private investigator who solves tough cases in her New Jersey hometown. The second book in this series, Death of an Ex, was published on July 15, 2025 by Minotaur Books.
- Delia is also the author of the Ross Agency Mysteries, a series set in Harlem. She has published several acclaimed short stories, including “The Killer,” which was selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021. Delia is an active member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Crime Writers of Color.
- Delia and her husband live in central New Jersey and have twin sons living in Texas. To learn more about Delia and her books visit her website, deliapitts.com.
We’re thinking Cocoons in the Quick Tip ~ it’s always wise for writers to think in metaphors, don’t you think?
My Check-In is all over the place as I’m finishing the Rough and Drafting the manuscript and working on this podcast, all at once.
Let’s begin.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 10
- 03:51 Interview with Delia Pitts
- 36:38 Check-In # 10
- 38:39 Closing
Total Run Time = 39:40
LINKS
Delia’s site deliapitts.com
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/08/631-summer-writing-challenge-week-10.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We’ve reached the end of July, two-thirds of our Summer Writing Challenge. How are you doing on your summer goal? Share your progress in the Comments.
In this week’s episode our talk is with cozy fantasy mystery writer Elle Hartford.
- Elle writes the award-winning Alchemical Tales series, a blend of cozy mystery and cozy fantasy. She has also published a spin-off series, Pomegranate Cafe Romance, and numerous short mysteries in anthologies.
- For other writers and authors looking to go “wide,” Elle is excited to offer coaching services and support. She made all the self-publishing mistakes, and you can learn from her experience! Check out her indie publishing blog at ellehartford.substack.com.
- When not writing, Elle is an active member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. As a historian and educator, she believes in the value of stories as a mirror for complicated realities. She currently lives in New Jersey with a grumpy tortoise and a three-legged cat. Find free stories and more at ellehartford.com.
We start with a Quick Tip on creating Reader Magnets, and we conclude with our Check-In.
Let’s begin.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 9
- 02:50 Interview with Elle Hartford
- 25:45 Check-In # 9
- 28:05 Closing
Total Run Time = 29:04
LINKS
Elle's website: https://ellehartford.com/
The Silver Deck Link: https://books2read.com/the-silver-deck *The ebook is still free for new newsletter subscribers! The purchase link is for anyone interested in the special print edition.
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/07/630-summer-writing-challenge-week-9.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
It’s Week 8 of the Summer Writing Challenge.
Eight is symbolic of two disparate meanings: 1] almost to completion, when completion is symbolic 10, and 2] a step beyond perfection, as 7 is the perfect number.
We’re not perfect. We’re not even a step before, let alone beyond. We do try.
After a Quick Tip on the 2 Requirements for Every Story, we have our interview with writer Paula Messina. Closing, as usual, is the Check-In.
- Paula Messina grew up on the site of the Ursuline convent and school destroyed by a violent, hate-filled mob on August 11 and 12, 1834. She writes contemporary, historical, and humorous fiction and essays.
- Her work has appeared in various publications, including Black Cat Weekly, Devil’s Snare, Wolfsbane, Indelible Literary and Arts Journal, and Ovunque Siamo. She is writing a novel set in Boston’s North End during 1944. She does not own a cat.
Let’s begin.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 8
- 04:30 Interview with Paula Messina
- 20:46 Check-In # 8
- 22:55 Closing
Total Run Time = 23:55
LINKS
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/07/629-summer-writing-challenge-wk-8-and.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Welcome to our mid-July week for the Summer Writing Challenge.
Our interview introduces Ron Katz, who brands his mysteries as The Sleuthing Silvers.
We open with a Quick Tip on Antagonists and close with a Check-In. I’m burning ahead to my goal—which is always a good place to be.
On to the episode!
- Ron Katz, a lifetime Baby Boomer, was a trial lawyer for over four decades. A Rhodes Scholar, in 2016 he was a Fellow at Stanford University’s Distinguished Careers Institute, which inspired him to start a new writing career.
- He has given a one-hour presentation, “Becoming a Mystery Writer at Age 74”, to numerous groups in person and by Zoom. For more information, visit his website https://www.thesleuthingsilvers.com
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 7
- 3:30 Ron Katz’s Interview
- 18:17 Check-In # 7
- 20:18 Closing
Total Run Time = 20:52
LINKS
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/07/628-summer-writing-challenge-interview.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
July 9 means we’re in the 6th week of the Summer Writing Challenge.
Returning to us in this episode is donalee Moulton, a great writer living in one of my favorite locations, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
We open with a Quick Writing Tip on Using Twists then close with a Check-In, as usual.
donalee Moulton’s first mystery book Hung out to Die was published in 2023. A historical mystery, Conflagration!, was published in 2024. It won the 2024 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense (Historical Fiction). donalee has two new books coming out in 2025, Bind and Melt, the first novels in a new series, the Lotus Detective Agency.
A short story “Swan Song” was one of 21 selected for publication in Cold Canadian Crime. It was shortlisted for an Award of Excellence. Other short stories have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines. donalee’s short story “Troubled Water” was shortlisted for a 2024 Derringer Award and a 2024 Award of Excellence from the Crime Writers of Canada.
donalee is an award-winning freelance journalist. She has written articles for print and online publications across North America including The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Lawyer’s Daily, National Post, and Canadian Business. As well, donalee is the author of The Thong Principle: Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You Say and co-authored the book, Celebrity Court Cases: Trials of the Rich and Famous.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 6
- 04:46 Interview with donalee Moulton
The Wide Set of Writing Challenges / Repeating Challenges / Challenges when Writing in Different Genres / Developing a Second Skin / Conflicting Feedback / Acquiring Objective Distance / New Releases in a Series
- 29:17 Check-In # 6
- 33:18 Closing
Total Run Time = 34:17
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Midsummer brings us to July, and we start July with an interview of Toronto writer Karen Grose.
Before the interview, we have a Quick Writing Tip: Don’t completely panic when characters take over the story. It’s then that we cede control of the story to them.
After our interview, we close with the 5th Check-In.
We’re early days still for our writing challenge and the novella that I’ve chosen to write.
Share your successes and problems AND solutions in the Comments.
Karen Grose’s debut novel, The Dime Box, was selected by Amnesty International for its 2021 Book Club. The Chinese language version, retitled as The Lost Daughters, was published by Sharp Point Press, Taiwan, in 2023. Karen’s second and third novels are Flat Out Lies and All June Left Behind.
Karen has flash, poems and short stories in journals and anthologies, both in print and online. She is a member of Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters-in-Crime-Toronto and National, and the #thrillsandchills writing group. Track her down on X: @kgrose2, IG: karengrosewrites, FB or at www.karengrose.ca
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 5
- 03:18 Interview with Karen Grose
Her Writing / Revising based on Themes / Using Writers’ Groups / Paying it Forward / Newest Release
- 21:40 Check-In # 5
- 24:50 Closing
Total Run Time = 26:00
LINKS
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/07/626-summer-writing-challenge-wk-5-and.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
The Summer Writing Challenge enters the 4th week of June with a slight tiptoe into July.How is your challenge progressing? Share your goal and project, problems and solutions, and successes in the Comment Section.
Our interview this week is with Judy Penz Sheluk. As a Quick Tip, I chatter about writing a coherent story. We finish with the Check-in.
A former journalist and magazine editor, Judy Penz Sheluk is the bestselling author of two mystery series: The Glass Dolphin Mysteries and Marketville Mysteries. Her short crime fiction appears in several collections, including the Superior Shores Anthologies, which she also edited.
With a passion for understanding the ins and outs of all aspects of publishing, Judy is the founder and owner of Superior Shores Press, which she established in February 2018.
Judy has also written two how-to guides to publishing. Finding Your Path to Publication: A Step-by-Step Guide was the Winner of the 2024 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for Best Nonfiction. Finding Your Path to Publication also won First Place in the Prescriptive/Informative Nonfiction category of the 12th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published E-book Awards (to be announced May 2025). The follow-up to that book, Self-publishing: The Ins & Outs of Going Indie, provides an insider’s insight into the world of self-publishing.
Judy is a member of International Thriller Writers, Inc., the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and Crime Writers of Canada, where she served on the Board of Directors, most recently as Chair.
She lives in Northern Ontario, Canada, with her husband, Mike, and their golden retriever, Enzo. Find her at www.judypenzsheluk.com.
Here we go.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 4
- 04:20 Interview with Judy Penz Sheluk
Challenges with health and attending Killer Nashville / Challenges with a Publishing Closing / Challenges with Self-Publishing / Writing Short Chapters / Killing the Darlings / Judy’s Newest Release
- 29:15 Check-In # 4
- 32:05 Closing
Total Run Time = 32:44
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Welcome to our third week of June and our third week of the Summer Writing Challenge.
How is your challenge going? Share your progress in the Comments, and hit the LIKE button whenever you enjoy an episode.
Our interview this week is with veteran writer Al Sirois, based in North Carolina although he began writing in his home state of Connecticutt.
We’ll conclude this episode with our check-in.
However, first is our third Quick Tip. We’ve started our idea, and we’ve prepped the background. Now we must consider the 3 Cornerstones of Story.
Sirois’ Bio~
I am a writer, ghostwriter, developmental editor & graphic artist. I sold my first story in 1973. I’ve appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Fantastic, Amazing Stories, andonline at Electric Spec, Mystery Weekly, Every Day Fiction and Flash Fiction Online, et al. My first book was a children's book, DINOSAUR DRESS UP, from William Morrow in 1992. My story “In the Conservatory” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. I have also ghostwritten more than a dozen works of science fiction and fantasy, as well as memoirs and cozy mysteries. In June 2024, Regal House Press published MURDER IN MENNEFER, the first volume of my YA trilogy set in ancient Egypt. The second volume, IMHOTEP AND THE QUEST FOR KUSH, will be published in June of 2025. My first self-published book, BEFORE BAKER STREET, is now available from Amazon. I live in North Carolina with my wife, novelist Grace Marcus.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip #3
- 03:40 Interview with Al Sirois
His Challenge View / Pantstering vs. Plotting / Using Life Experiences / Outlining / Juggling Projects / Freelancing since 2009 / Collaborating / Benefit of Change
- 27:55 Check-in #3
- 30:28 Closing
Total Run Time = 31:28
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
In this episode of the Summer Writing Challenge~
A Quick Tip on what you need before you start writing, the Interview with Joan Ramirez on Organizing and Prioritizing and Reaching into Characters, and our Check-in for the week.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome
- 01:18 Quick Tip #2
- 5:00 Interview with Joan Ramirez
Bio and The Write Rules, Challenges in Writing, Prioritizing Tasks, Solutions to Challenges, Allotting Specific Times for the Major Elements of Story, Using Life to Inform Writing, Notes in Writing and Presentations, Letting Characters Lead, Using Body Language and Sensory Details
- 29:20 Check-in #2
- 31:15 Closing
Total Run Time = 32:15
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Welcome to the Summer Writing Challenge which continues all through June, July, and August for 13 episodes.
Join us for quick writing tips, writers talking about challenges, and goal check-ins. [The final check-in will occur the first Wednesday in September, in the 1st episode of the Fall into Poetry series.]
In today’s episode, host M.A. Lee talks tech tools (only one with a cost) that create this series as well as the nuts and bolts for the writing challenge. 65,000 total words. 5,000 words per week. Counting all the words that go through the fingers.
Share your own challenge goals in the comments … and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode of The Write Focus. And whatever occurs, Write on!
Host M.A. Lee has published over 60 book-length titles of fiction and nonfiction under her three pen names. The Write Focus, started in 2020, offers information and guidance on productivity, process, craft, and tools, all for writers.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome / Intro to the Summer Writing Challenge
- 01:48 Quick Tip #1 How to Start Writing
- 04:52 “Interview” with M.A. Lee on Tech Tools
- 10:15 Check-In How-Tos for the SWC
- 11:34 Closing
Total Run Time = 12:34
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Writing in her car at midday is all Teresa Inge needs to create stories with strong protagonists. With 18 years of publishing experience, she keeps writing simple with laptop and trusty battery.
Once she has a theme placed in her Outer Banks setting, she gives her sleuth a business so they can encounter and investigate murder.
Teresa Inge is an award-winning mystery author in over a dozen anthologies and novellas. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, the Virginia Writer’s Club, and Hampton Roads Writers. By day, Teresa is an administrative assistant, notary administrator, and corporate reporter for a global financial firm. When not writing, she can be found on the classic car show circuit with her Torch Red 1955 Thunderbird.
This episode concludes our Writers on Writing series. Coming Next is the Summer Writing Challenge. M.A. Lee is setting the goal of 500 words daily, persistent and consistent—which can be very hard with all the distractions and disruptions of summer. The episode opens with a couple of minutes on the Challenge. The first SWC episode is June 4. Join in.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Wrapping Up this Series / Unwrapping the Next Series
- 2:20 Welcome / Introduction to Teresa Inge
- 4:50 Writing Anywhere
- 8:00 Her Writing Process
- 15:35 Writing Humor / Researching
- 22:22 Marketing & Promotions / Her Upcoming Releases
- 24:40 Considering Indie
- 28:15 Books at the Banks Festival, October 18, 2025
- 30:10 Closing
Total Run Time = 31:15
LINKS
Teresa’s Website: http://www.teresainge.com
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/621-writers-on-writing-teresa-inge-next.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Linda Kay Hardie may appear as the classic cat lady, but a conversation quickly revealed the deadly mind for dastardly deeds that she applies to her fiction.
Hardie is vice president of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and is an award-winning author who has appeared in many anthologies, four in 2024 and three in 2023.
She writes crime, horror, and fantasy stories but no romance. She tried once, and everyone ended up dead. Tragic. When not writing adult short stories, she writes stories and books for children, ages 2 to 12.
Linda writes recipes and is the reigning Spam champion for Nevada (yes, the tasty treat canned mystery meat) for her blue-ribbon recipe. Her first writing award was in fifth grade, when she won a first place trophy for an essay on fire safety. In 2022, she was honored with the Sierra Arts Foundation Literary Arts Award for fiction.
Linda is a member of Short Mystery Fiction Writers, Horror Writers Association, Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, and Cat Writers’ Association. She has a master’s in English from the University of Nevada, Reno, where she makes a living as a freelance writer and as staff working for Abyssinian cats.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome / Introduction
- 3:00 A Knack for Dastardly Deeds
- 7:15 Tech from the Early Days
- 11:35 Word Perfect and Open Office
- 15:25 Tech Refined but not New
- 21:00 Writing Stories, Short vs. Long
- 27:50 Brainstorming / the Subconscious
- 30:30 Charity Anthologies
- 35:30 Independent Bookstores
- 38:40 Closing
Total Run Time = 39:41
LINKS
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/620-writers-on-writing-linda-kay-hardie.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Lois Winston is a strong writer, best known for her Anastasia Pollock Crafting series of cozy mysteries.
Early in her career, with Manuscript #2, she acquired an agent, but the roses of her writing journey still had thorns, a lesson to us writers that we control our success. Winston definitely controlled her success. She survived a bankrupt publishing house and the closure of a publisher’s entire cozy mystery line, but it was shenanigans with the contract that brought her into self-publishing.
She talks about it all, along with writing tools that can be a distraction, in this episode of The Write Focus.
Bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, middle-grade, and nonfiction. She sold her first book in 2005.
Currently she writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, featuring magazine crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack, along with a supporting cast of characters, including Ralph, the Shakespeare-quoting parrot. Learn more at www.loiswinston.com where you can sign up for her newsletter and receive a free Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome / Writing Bug Bites
- 4:15 First Cozy Mystery
- 6:40 Writing with Humor
- 12:00 Finding the Direction for the Anastasia Pollock series
- 15:00 Crime Scene Writer / Researching
- 17:33 Saving the Work
- 20:50 Story Collages, Images for Story, and on to Covers
- 25:00 Dealing with Distractions
- 29:25 Writing is a Marathon, not a Sprint
- 35:00 Winston’s Next Release and Audiobooks Releasing
- 37:25 Closing
Total Run Time = 38:25
LINKS
Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com
Booklover’s Bench: https://bookloversbench.com
The Stiletto Gang: https://www.thestilettogang.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anasleuth
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/722763.Lois_Winston
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lois-winston
TWF Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/619-writers-on-writing-lois-winston.html
While most writers settle into the comfort of one format, Elizabeth Zelvin explores the contrasting realms of poetry, novels, novellas, short stories, and flash fiction, all of them distinctly different in approach, situation, and writing style. Zelvin even loves writing cross-genre. She shares freely her writing, building a community, and writing tool tips.
Elizabeth Zelvin is the author of two long-running series, the Bruce Kohler Mysteries and the Jewish historical Mendoza Family Saga as well as the Emerald Love urban fantasy mysteries. Her series and standalone short stories appear in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and Black Cat Mystery Magazine. EQMM has called her "one of our genre's most celebrated short story writers." She currently blogs on SleuthSayers.
In addition to writing fiction, Liz is a poet, a singer-songwriter and a psychotherapist who was one of the pioneers of online mental health. Liz lives in New York City and summers at the unpretentious end of East Hampton, where she swims in the ocean, gardens, photographs the resident hummingbird, and exchanges waves with the occasional whale.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome and Introduction
- 2:30 When Poetry, Mystery, and Therapy Combine
- 6:00 The Wide-Ranging and Expanding Mendoza Family Saga
- 11:45 Narrative License yet Maintaining Historical Fact
- 14:26 Group Mystery Blogging
- 17:00 Networking and the Short Mystery Fiction Society
- 21:00 Using Track Changes in Word
- 28:45 Correcting Text, Designing Books, and Creating Covers
- 30:45 Cross-Genre Writing
- 35:00 Finding Places to Read Poetry Online
- 37:20 Closing
Total Run Time = 38:26
LINKS
Her website https://www.elizabethzelvin.com/
Poe's Deadly Daughters https://poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/
Short Mystery Fiction Society https://shortmystery.blogspot.com/ and Subscribe to https://shortmystery.groups.io/g/main
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/618-writers-on-writing-elizabeth-zelvin.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Pamela Ebel offers a wealth of wisdom in this interview for our writer-focused series. She pursues writing with the drive and curiosity and wit that she devoted to her previous careers.
Ebel has been published in Shotgun Honey, YELLOW MAMA EZINE, Kings River Life Magazine, The BOULD AWARDS 2020 and 2021 Anthology, Tomorrow and Tomorrow 2021 Anthology, and other venues. Her poetry has appeared in the Delta Poetry Review. A native of California, she now concentrates on tales from her original home state and tales from the highways of the South. She also knows, like the Ancient Greeks and the Irish, that as a Southern writer you can’t outrun your blood.
She has turned to writing full time as of 2020, obviously either perfect or bizarre timing, and this will be her fifth career. She lives in Metairie, Louisiana, with her husband and two cats.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome / Introduction
- 6:25 Writing for the Love of It
- 8:45 The Money that Writers Make
- 11:35 Treat Writing as a Business
- 14:35 Connecting with other Writers / SMART Plan
- 18:12 Submission Guidelines / the Shunn Format
- 23:40 Writing Tools
- 26:15 Traditional vs Self-Publishing / Writing is Competitive
- 28:15 Short Story Advantages / Opening up Creativity
- 33:30 Building the Writing Resumé
- 36:36 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time: 38:47
LINKS
The Shunn MS Format https://www.shunn.net/format/
Pamela Ebel https://pamebel.com/
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/04/617-writers-on-writing-pamela-ebel.html
Charlotte Morganti uses a variety of tech, tracking her words, editing to improve those words, and formatting, all the way into marketing and newsletters. She shares tech helps, including ones that I haven’t heard of, as well as her journey into indie writing and publishing.
Before turning to writing award-winning mysteries, Charlotte Morganti was, at various times, a burger flipper, a beer slinger, and a corporate finance/mining lawyer.
Her novels and short stories range from gritty investigations to lighter capers. She usually sets her stories in small towns that miraculously harbor both villains and the sleuths who pursue them. Find out more at https://charlottemorganti.com.
TIMINGS
00:40 Welcome / Introduction
03:05 Morganti’s Writing Journey
07:05 Going Indie
13:09 Tech and the Writing Basics
16:25 Editing Helps
21:15 Vellum / Atticus
22:55 Tracking Progress
23:40 Marketing Tech
27:45 Newsletters
30:35 Her Releases this Spring
33:08 Closing
Total Run Time = 34:08
LINKS
Morganti’s site https://charlottemorganti.com.
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/04/616-writers-on-writing-charlotte.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
A writer does more than work with words. The heart becomes involved, often draining us emotionally. The logical side of our brain helps balance out emotions. When we venture beyond our desks and interact as Writer with the world, the ways we present ourselves and the opportunities we explore enrich us when we return to our little corner desks.
Joan Ramirez discusses all of the above and more in this episode of Writers on Writing. Her guidebook The Write Rules covers the various aspects of speaking, writing, presentations, and representing our official “writer-dom” to the world.
Joan Ramirez holds a Master of Science in Business, Medical, and Technical Journalism as well as two others in English as a Second Language and Elementary Education/Autism. She has published on a variety of topics from cochlear implants to the economy and has conducted workshops –domestic and foreign–on the nuances of business communications for managers and start-up companies. She is the leader of her own enterprise with training programs (over twenty-five years of expertise) for entrepreneurs at all levels. For many years she trained the technical staff of a large engineering firm in the nuances of business writing and verbal presentations.
The Write Rules, her latest publication, offers communications guidelines for becoming an entrepreneur. She has short stories in several anthologies and is working on a historical suspense trilogy set in WWII. She can be reached at writerjr1044@gmail.com.
TIMINGS
00:40 Welcome / Introduction
05:13 The Write Rules, a guidebook for English and Non-English Speakers
10:50 Importance of the Non-Verbal when Presenting Yourself
16:40 Writing The Write Rules
19:40 Writing Historical Fiction that Comes from the Heart
23:07 Opportunities Lurk Beyond the Job Description
26:32 Writing NonFiction vs. Historical Fiction
27:55 Venturing into other Writing
30:22 Closing
Total Run Time = 31:23
LINKS
https://www.facebook.com/joan.ramirez.98031
www,joansbookshelf.com
TWF Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/04/615-writers-on-writing-joan-ramirez.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Does a life in law enforcement give a special insight into crime? It certainly seems that way to me after interviewing O’Neil de Noux.
His first books were police procedurals, following his career in law enforcement just outside of New Orleans. Now he’s writing about private investigators and semi-retired detectives … and pursuing his stories in historical fiction as a satisfying challenge.
Like many writers, O’Neil delves into many genres, following his curiosity into multiple stories.
O’Neil De Noux (www.oneildenoux.com) is a retired police officer, a former homicide detective, and former private eye with 49 books and over 400 short stories published. His writing has been awarded the SHAMUS AWARD twice as well as the DERRINGER AWARD and POLICE BOOK of the YEAR (www.PoliceWriters.com). Two of his stories have been featured in the BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES annual anthology (2003 and 2013). He is a past Vice-President of the Private Eye Writers of America.
TIMINGS
00:40 Welcome / Introduction
2:11 Historical Fiction vs. Mystery Fiction
10:10 Writing Mentors
15:00 Indies Control Everything: Idea to Cover Design
18:46 Ideas Drive his Character Selection
24:30 Inspiration from Titles
28:00 Newest Release
32:00 Using Downtime to allow Drafts to Percolate
36:48 Closing
Total Run Time = 37:48
LINKS
website: https://www.oneildenoux.com/
Latest book: https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Dandelions-Lucien-Caye-Private-ebook/dp/B0D5YVPVHZ
Amazon Author’s Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/ONeil-De-Noux/author/
TWF Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/04/614-writers-on-writing-oneil-de-noux.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Fellow Podcaster (and fellow former English teacher) talks technology, writing, and his Haunted Shores mysteries. We delve into ways to avoid anachronisms when writing historical fiction before venturing into his writing process, linear rather than a mix-match puzzle process.
Overbeck’s novel Cruel Lessons was categorized as “one of the best mysteries of 2023” and “ene of the best thrillers I’ve ever read!” Of his Haunted Shores mysteries, critics have called Overbeck a “master storyteller” who provides a “rollicking good” read.
TIMINGS
00:40 Introduction / Welcome
3:42 From Paper to Electronic
8:40 Authenticity with Historical Writing
13:30 Linear Story Writing
19:25 Podcast Creation
26:10 Echoes of Life in his 1st Novel
30:50 Haunted Shores mysteries
36:15 Closing
Total Run Time = 37:15
LINKS
Randy Overbeck’s site https://www.authorrandyoverbeck.com/books
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/04/613-writers-on-writing-randy-overbeck.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Business by day, fiction by night, writer Denise Forsythe is constantly looking for new ways to bring her writing into the world. She’s pursuing her longtime dream of writing fiction around the corners of her world and finding the vast differences between fiction and nonfiction, writing short vs. writing long, pantstering vs. outlining. Creativity comes with all of it.
Denise Forsythe is an awarded and recognized writer of mystery, horror, and science fiction short stories under the pen name Denise Johnson. Her domestic suspense debut novel, MISCONCEPTION, is now available for purchase. A member of Sisters in Crime, Inc. and multiple Sisters in Crime chapters, she is a Charter Member of the Sisters in Crime Grand Canyon Writers chapter. Find out more about upcoming projects at deniseforsythe.com
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Introduction
- 1:20 Constant Writing Tools
- 3:27 Scrivener vs. Word
- 5:40 Search Engines: an Indie Writer’s Friend
- 7:50 Marketing / Distributing
- 8:50 Catchy Ways to Attract Readers
- 15:33 Writing Dream / Writing Short vs. Long
- 18:40 Pantstering vs. Outlining
- 25:45 Closing
Total Run Time = 26:46
LINKS
https://deniseforsythe.com/
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/03/612-writers-on-writing-denise-forsythe.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Jam-packed with goodness is this interview with Paul O’Connor, a writer of short stories and novels.
You’re going to take tons of notes and bookmark this episode; the guidance is that fantastic. (No, that’s not hyperbole; that’s reality.)
Paul O’Connor came into writing after he left the data-driven gaming industry. Gaming’s focus on productivity, Agile Planning, Return on Investment, and more to determine a product’s profitability are ideas that he converted to his own writing. He shares the simple yet important ways he uses data in this interview and in a slide show.
Look for the Slide Show on Paul O’Connor’s page on the TWF website. Click the shareable link to copy, load into the URL of your browser, “go” and voila: the slide show.
Paul Ryan O’Connor is a frequent contributor to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, where his debut short story, “Teddy’s Favorite Thing,” was voted a 2023 Readers Award. He has also been published by Mystery Magazine and Shotgun Honey. Paul is an active member of the Mystery Writers of America, and lives in Carlsbad, California, with his family and a borrowed dog.
TIMINGS
00:40 Welcome / Opening Info
02:50 Tech’s Job = Speed our Process and Increase Publication
09:25 Slide Show Begins / Writing Process
13:50 Word Count vs. Writing Log
22:00 Marketing Trackers and Platforms for Submissions & Agents
30:00 Progress / Idea Tracking / Productivity
33:40 Closing
Total Run Time = 34:40
writing #writingtools #plotting #marketing #submissions #agents #progresstracker #revision #AI
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/03/611-writers-on-writing-paul-oconnor.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
First-time author Deede Blake shares the story of her first novel, The Russian Orphan. This epic thriller was a ten-year journey, required tons of research, and tells a story that demanded to be told. And we’re all over the world of writing in this interview.
Deede is new to publishing although she’s been working on writing projects for years.
While her training is in science, her greatest passion is reading, writing, traveling, history, and learning in general. Indeed, Deede has traveled to places on the globe that no American has ever been. She dabbled in writing poetry, essays op-eds and newsletters while practicing pharmacy until in her mid 30’s.
She is currently working on a sequel to The Russian Orphan, entitled We Were Lost. This novel will deal directly with the issue of human trafficking.
TIMIINGS / None
Total Run Time = 38:08
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/03/610-writers-on-writing-deede-blake.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
The mystery writer and seasoned audio broadcast pro Kathleen Kalb joins TWF for this episode. We have a wide-ranging conversation, touching on tech, the writing community and social media, her process, and changes in software. We end with her next release featuring Grace the Hit Mom, a consecrated assassin. That I have to read.
Kathleen Marple Kalb describes herself as an Author/Anchor/Mom…not in that order. An award-winning weekend anchor at New York’s 1010 WINS Radio, she writes short stories and novels including the The Stuff of Murder, and the upcoming Ella Shane mystery, A Fatal Reception, both from Level Best Books. The Stuff of Murder will publish this March.
As Nikki Knight, she writes the Grace the Hit Mom and Vermont Radio mysteries. Her most recent publication is Hound of the Bonnevilles, also coming out in March.
Her stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, and others, and been short-listed for Derringer and Black Orchid Novella Awards. She’s served as Vice President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and is a co-VP of the New York/Tri-State Chapter of Sisters in Crime. She, her husband, and son live in a Connecticut house owned by their cat.
TIMINGS
00:40 Intro / Clock-watching and More
04:17 Tech for Writing / the Writing Community
09:55 Instagram vs. TikTok / Writing Bibles in Tech / Tracking Changes
15:10 Outlining / Ideas File / Timelines
17:46 Avoiding Strict Strucure / Maintaining Character Voice
22:47 From Typewriter to Word
26:10 Grace the Hit Mom
32:00 Closing
Total Run Time = 33:05
writing #writingtools #plotting #coverdesign #booknarration #AI
LINKS
Website: https://kathleenmarplekalb.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kathleen-Marple-Kalb-1082949845220373/
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/03/609-writers-on-writing-kathleen-kalb.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
The whimsy on a coffee cup is Rebecca Olmstead’s motto for her writing life.
In an interview about that technology that started with a tech failure—a laptop crash—Rebecca Olmstead begins by discussing her bravery in moving from Word to Scrivener to Atticus to bring the best experience to readers of her fiction and nonfiction.
Rebecca Olmstead is the award-winning author of the Gabrielle Dorian Mystery Series as well as several nonfiction books and multiple short stories.
Her stories and articles have appeared in Malice, Matrimony, & Murder anthology, The Cellar Door: Dark Highways #3, The Upper Room, Focus on the Family’s Clubhouse, Jr., Live, Now What?, and Houseboat Magazine. Her story “A Deadly Conundrum” appeared in MURDER NEWYORK STYLE: NEWYORK STATE OF CRIME this year.
She lives with her husband and the youngest of their five children in southeastern Washington with Sophie, their dorky black lab, Agatha, a black cat, and host of Jersey Wooly show bunnies.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Intro / Tech Failures
- 02:25 Pacemaker and Tech Successes
- 6:03 Tech as a Distraction
- 11:10 Problems with Writing a Series
- 13:33 Beginning her Writing Career
- 18:45 Writing (like Crochet) Opens the Unconscious
- 21:37 the Gabrielle Doran series / Newest Release
- 24:42 Venturing into another Series and Nonfiction
- 28:18 Writers Thrive on Reviews
- 29:18 Closing
Total Run Time = 30:20
LINKS
www.rebeccaolmstead.com
www.watchgodwork.com
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/02/608-writers-on-writing-rebecca-olmstead.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
In cold Halifax, we meet writer donalee Moulton, who talks all aspects of technology. It’s everything tech: from the tech that we take for granted to knowing how detailed our tech descriptions have to be, and from the depths and limits we have on understanding tech to the practicalities of tech that’s helpful in our daily writing lives.
donalee Moulton’s first mystery book Hung out to Die was published in 2023. A historical mystery, Conflagration!, was published in 2024. It won the 2024 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense (Historical Fiction).
A short story “Swan Song” was one of 21 selected for publication in Cold Canadian Crime. It was shortlisted for an Award of Excellence. Other short stories have been published in numerous magazines, journals, and anthologies. donalee’s short story “Troubled Water” was shortlisted for a 2024 Derringer Award and a 2024 Award of Excellence from the Crime Writers of Canada.
donalee is an award-winning freelance journalist. She has written articles for print and online publications across North America including The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Lawyer’s Daily, National Post, and Canadian Business.
As well, donalee is the author of The Thong Principle: Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You Say and co-authored the book, Celebrity Court Cases: Trials of the Rich and Famous.
LINKS
Website: donaleemoulton.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donaleemoultonauthor
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaleemoulton/
X: @donaleeMoulton
Instagram: donaleemoulton
TIMINGS
00:40 Welcome / Distractions and Disruptions
04:35 Tech Tools
08:22 Tech that we take for granted
13:36 How deeply we need to understand tech in our novels
20:00 Helpful Tech
26:27 donalee’s Writing journey
33:00 A Psychopath for a Protagonist
36:00 Closing
Total Run Time = 37:29
writing #writingtools #plotting #coverdesign #revision #AI
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/02/607-writers-on-writing-donalee-moulton.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
A Couple of Bees came for an interview, and we laughed all the way through. Elise Brown is a young writer who has reached the pinnacle that some never achieve: a book on the verge of publishing and another book in revision, an agent who loves her work and a publisher eager to get the books out.
Elise Burke Brown comes from a family of detectives, including a grandfather who filled her childhood with true crime stories she learned not to repeat at daycare. She is the award-winning author of the New Orleans-based Chase Harlem series. She teaches composition at the University of Alabama and runs the popular book blog A Couple of Bees Read, https://coupleofbeesread.com/. You can connect with her on Instagram as @EliseBurkeBrown_Author on on X as @couple_of_bees.
Becky Brown has had several careers in her lifetime: retail management, stay at home mom, a charity organizer, a teacher, and a principal. She loves taking care of her granddaughters, quilting, photography, and reading. She’s new to writing and just started her memoir, Wings of Eagles: My Journey of Faith. Becky currently is president of her local quilters guild and is active in her church. She enjoys working with her daughter-in-law on our blog A Couple of Bees Read as well as serving as her beta reader and acting as her amateur publicist.
TIMINGS
00:40 Welcome / their Podcast A Couple of Bees Read
04:50 Weekly Wine
9:00 Tech and more
14:57 Reading Out Loud
17:48 An agent who supports the work
23:55 A Two-Book Deal
27:00 Elise’s Process
Total Run Time = 30:52
writing #writingtools #plotting #coverdesign #revision #AI
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/02/606-writers-on-writing-couple-of-bees.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Travel and Death. We don’t normally put these two topics together unless we’re talking tragic accidents, but Dawn Barclay has found a way to create entertaining mysteries and relate true crime stories.
After talking about Tech and tools, the writing process and productivity, she shares with us the two publications she will have this winter. In January she’ll release her newest domestic thriller, Deadly When Disturbed. February sees the multi-volume nonfiction Vacations Can Be Murder: The True Crime Lovers’ Travel Guide to New England. She will return with more true crime in a Mid-Atlantic edition followed by the Southeast before she explores bloody murder in the Mid-West.
D.M. Barr is the pseudonym for Dawn M. Barclay, an award-winning author who writes psychological and romantic suspense under this pen name and non-fiction under her own. Her published novels include Expired Listings, Murder Worth the Weight, Saving Grace: A Psychological Thriller, The Queen of Second Chances, and Simple Tryst of Fate.
TIMINGS
- 00:40 Welcome / Introduction / Tech Tools
- 5:09 Finding True Crimes of the Past
- 7:53 Trying AI for Translations
- 10:50 Problems with Tech and AI
- 19:30 Tech used in Active Writing
- 23:54 Dawn’s Process
- 25:00 True Crime, RomComs, and Domestic Thrillers
Total Run Time = 31:10
writing #writingtools #plotting #coverdesign #booknarration #AI
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/02/605-writers-on-writing-dawn-barclay-and.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Coming in this episode is a wealth of technology resources which only someone with a tech background can provide. Sarah Smith presents a powerpoint packed with resources.
From assists in idea generation and organization, to plot and structure, formatting manuscripts and crafting covers, book descriptions, and audiobook development (so necessary in today’s marketplace), Sarah explains the riches available.
We end with Sarah’s offer to consult with 25 writers through Zoom interviews about all things related to audiobooks.
Check the Show Notes and the website for her powerpoint and special offer.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome / Introduction
02:22 Four Requirements of Tech
11:10 Powerpoint Tools begins / Planning and Plotting
18:30 Unusual Helps: Beeftext and Reverso
21:20 Editing / Formatting / Covers / Publishing
29:00 Audiobooks / AI Narration
35:14 Consultation Offer / https://app.simplymeet.me/soundwrights
37:33 Closing
Total Run Time = 38:33
writing #writingtools #plotting #coverdesign #booknarration #AI
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/01/604-writers-on-writing-sarah-smith.html
Special Offer https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/p/sarah-smiths-special-offer.html
Powerpoint Access to Tools as an mp4 https://youtu.be/S1qe1AFg1EM
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Two fountain pens and specific paper to encourage creativity. Computer systems like Linux as best tools. In a wide-ranging interview with everything from fonts to covers, John Connor with the UK press Murderous Ink shares it all.
A connectivity glitch smack in the middle of the interview didn’t derail Connor. We continued on, with manuscript format and the concerns of publishers about document file types. The interview could easily have lasted all afternoon, but alas, Zoom called for an end.
John ‘Jay’ Andrew Connorhas been writing and publishing under a menagerie of names and genres since the late 1970s—sometimes even professionally. He’s worked at a variety of jobs, in various locations, and has also published small press, and semi-pro magazines in the past. Sadly, even though he is now on full time medication, he’s at it again.
Memindip and the Persian Poet is the second in the Memindip Quartet—The Death and Life of an Unwilling Investigator series, set in an ‘alternative’ North African city, in 1969. The first of the four, Memindip Solves a Problem, appears in Crimeucopia — We’ll Be Right Back — After This!
www.murderousinkpress.co.uk
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome and Introduction
- 5:40 “Write what you want to write.”
- 11:50 Tech and Critical Failures
- 15:30 Word Processing / MS Format & into Fonts
- 25:00 International Connection Glitching !*#@(%&)
- 27:00 Finding Software that Works
- 36:00 Print “Reads” Differently in Audio Form
- 39:00 Closing
Total Run Time = 39:30
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/01/603-john-connor-on-writing-publishing.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
In this episode we have All Things Narration ~ clearly, concisely, professionally ~ explained by the award-winning narrator / producer Scott Ellis of Scott Ellis Reads.
From the various unseen and unheard jobs of the narrator before beginning, through major job of recording sessions and re-recording and the pick-ups after, to making the many files easily available for the writer’s use, the role of a great narrator is to help the writer’s story become more accessible to a wider audience.
And Scott Ellis knows all of these jobs.
He’s narrated over 100 audiobooks and coached several authors through the production or narration of their first audiobook. Being a retired teacher, Scott is all about performing and teaching. Scott Ellis Reads, his audiobook production company, started in 2019 and has a team of over 20 people that work in narrating, editing, marketing, and managing the business.
Awards
Audiobook Producer of Magda, Standing - IBPA 2024 Gold Medal Winner Young Adult Fiction Audiobook of the Year
Narrator of Puck and Minnie: All That Is - named 2021 Young Adult Fiction Audiobook of the Year by Audiobook Reviewer.
LINKS
Visit his website:www.scottellisreads.com
Visit his Classroom www.serclassroom.com
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction / Narration as a Business
- 03:15 Technology and Narration
- 07:55 How a Narrator Works
- 11:50 Launching into a Narration
- 16:57 Funny Story about Accents
- 20:05 Taking a Chance on the Narration Biz
- 26:00 A Team of Narrators
- 33:55 No-No's
- 36:33 Closing
TOTAL RUN TIME = 37:29
narrationforwriters #narrationbusiness #pickinganarrator #voicesforbooks
Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/01/602-writers-scott-ellis-talks-narration.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. The previous series was Fall into Poetry, at this link ~ https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg&si=Te8Jo1vLeu3rVkS4
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Welcome to Writers on Writing, interviews with active writers to inspire us all for our great start to 2025.
In this week’s episode, our focus is Marie Still, an award-winning thriller and horror author. She’s a marketer turned writer in the coronacoaster year. She took the giant step upon the urging of a friend.
Marie Still torments her characters from Tampa Bay. She also writes women's fiction under Kristen Seeley. Her novels include My Darlings (currently in development as a television series with Amazon MGM Studios), Bad Things Happened in This Room, We're All Lying (named by Buzzfeed as one of the most anticipated mystery/thrillers of 2023), and Beverly Bonnefinche is Dead (a Silver Falchion Award finalist).
Off the page, Marie can be found attempting to corral her five mostly friendly cats for a cuddle, surviving the affection from her very cuddly 150 lb Rottweiler, or keeping up with her four children. She's also known to surprise her incredibly supportive husband with a new cat, to which he doesn't complain (too much).
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:41 Introduction / Marie’s technology use
06:18 How Marie Writes
10:00 Roller Coaster Writing
13:00 Deciding to be a Writer
17:33 Marketing a Book vs. a Product
23:13 My Darlings’ Release / Hurricane Interference
27:08 Closing
LINKS
MarieStill.com
Instagram: instagram.com/mariestillwrites
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mariestillwrites
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. The previous series was Fall into Poetry, at this link ~ https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg&si=Te8Jo1vLeu3rVkS4
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Start 2025 with information about tech tools, productivity, and process as well as a few snippets on craft, all from active writers ... and narrators and publishers. Zoom interviews give us this opportunity.
Write on!
Our poem for the Christmas holidays has two lessons for all writers. It comes from T.S. Eliot.
My introduction to TSE came in college, either a survey course in modern poetry or as part of a literature survey. Professor C. Hines Edwards, dry and erudite, was one of two that I admired for his knowledge of poetry classical and structure-less.
He introduced TSE’s “The Wasteland” to us, a long poem known for its allusions. The literary device allusions has its place in writing. In a few brief words, it opens doors to additional meaning … much as Christina Rossetti’s “From Sunrise to Starshine” did, with our realization that she’s a sleeping beauty, briefly awakened, now in her thorn-guarded tower.
The allusion is the first of our two lessons, but it leads into the second, a contradictory lesson and our final one for this series.
In January, The Write Focus starts a new series called Writers on Writing, active writers who share their knowledge of tech tools, productivity, and process, with a few snippets on the craft.
Here’s Eliot’s poem, perfect for the holiday season.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
01:17 Allusions / Easter Eggs
03:11 First Lesson
04:40 Symbolic Motifs
05:17 Re-Connecting with TSE
07:45 Second Lesson: Two-Sided
10:13 “The Journey of the Magi”
16:40 Closing
Total Run Time = 17:38
TSEliot #JourneyoftheMagi #Wasteland #HollowMen #allusion #discoverability #symbolicmotifs #motif #writingadvice
Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used
LINKS
TSEliot bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot
“The Wasteland” https://genius.it/www.bartleby.com/201/1.html
“The Hollow Men” https://poets.org/poem/hollow-men
“Journey of the Magi” https://allpoetry.com/The-Journey-Of-The-Magi
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/12/549-fall-into-poetry-journey-with-ts.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
The Write Focus wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving week ~ full of rich holiday food, joyous time with people we love, awkward encounters with other people, and a money blast on Black Friday—which usually extends to Cyber Monday.
This episode doesn’t fit with our Fall into Poetry series ~ although it does gift you with poems stuffed with thanks—and not so stuffed. No analysis or advice to writers, just poetry.
It’s a Cornucopeia of Poems to share for Thanksgiving.
TIMINGS
00:00 Introduction
00:40 “There’s Nothing like the Sun”
2:00 “November Night”, a cinquain
2:23 “I went to thank her”
3:10 Two called “November”
4:30 “Winter”
Total Run Time = 5:37
We’re a week to Thanksgiving here in the USofA, and we have not one or two but three poems of gratitude to examine, giving us 6 lessons of Advice for All Writers. These three poems have quirky ways of matching to the holiday, thanks-giving and gratitude.
The gratitude doesn’t take the gushing that usually fills most writings about thankfulness. The individual poets present their heartfelt emotion in a realistic manner. They’ve lived real lives and experienced pain and heartbreak, and they share this reality in the hopes that we can gain from their experiences.
Reality rather than gushy platitudes? I’m in for that, every time.
Like writing strong, rational characters with strong counterparts, allies and antagonists rather than weak straw-men which doesn’t prove anything about strength and intelligence and logic.
Oops, preaching again. Herewith, our six lessons and three poems for this episode.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction / Lessons 1 & 2
- 03:40 Lessons 3 & 4
- 06:22 Cowper “Gratitude”
- 08:45 Sandburg “Our Prayer of Thanks”
- 13:20 Lesson 5
- 14:45 Nesbit “Gratitude”
- 16:15 Lesson 6
- 17:25 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 19:31
audiencereaction #eclecticaudience #discoverability #williamcowper #gratitude #carlsandburg #edithnesbit
Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used
LINKS
William Cowper bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cowper
Cowper’s poem https://allpoetry.com/Gratitude-And-Love-To-God
Carl Sandburg bio https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/american-literature-biographies/carl-sandburg
Sandburg’s poem http://carl-sandburg.com/our_prayer_of_thanks.htm
Edith Nesbit bio https://www.britannica.com/biography/E-Nesbit
Nesbit’s poem https://www.poetry.com/poem/8831/gratitude
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/11/fall-into-poetry-prepare-for-6-lessons.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
When we live our life in the present, being in the moment, we can develop a love-hate relationship with people and things we encounter daily.
We don’t “love to hate” these; we love them at some times while at other times we hate them. We may happily encounter and deal with them, then on a day not too far away, we groan and say, “Not today, please, not today.”
That contradiction, that contrariness, is engrained in our human nature. We aren’t changing our minds. Five days from now, love will re-emerge. When someone reminds us “You said you hated thus-and-so,” we retort “When did I ever?”, conveniently forgotten.
As writers, we work to keep the predominant mood of a work. We don’t wish to confuse a reader. In longer works, we can gradually shirt the mood, dark to bright, Shorter works are better with one mood.
We have strong tools to create mood and manipulate our audience with that mood. Our words are influencers upon the world.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction / Mood / Lesson 1
2:53 Tools to Influence Mood / Lessons 2 and 3
5:35 Frost and Clare
6:19 Frost’s “My November Guest” / Lesson 4
9:57 Clare’s “November”
13:00 Writer as Influencer
14:00 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 16:07
Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used
Bio of Frost https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost
Bio of Clare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Clare
“My November Guest” https://poets.org/poem/my-november-guest
“November” https://pickmeuppoetry.org/november-by-john-clare/
johnclare #robertfrost #novemberpoems #mood #connotation #imagery #tone #atmosphere #poetaslegislator
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/11/fall-into-poetry-writing-dark-and-bright.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
“Share your innermost life,” marketing gurus advise writers, “with your readers, your newsletter folks, with everyone. Make it all public Make it pop-ular.”
That’s a certain way to burn out most of your audience, who just want the knowledge you have or just want to be entertained.
“Open the window. Let them see into part of your life.” That’s reasonable and rational marketing advice.
A window doesn’t give access to every room of your home, and it certainly doesn’t give access to what you’ve stored in closets or tucked deep in drawers or hidden in old boxes in the attic.
We writers have a constant push-pull dynamic of revealing ourselves. Heartfelt emotion is one of the four requirements of song, applicable to all writing. It speaks to us, touches us soul-deep, and leaves us weeping because we have a similar wound.
In this segment we have two poems by a man who wrote for public consumption but also purged his private anguish in a poem meant only to be published posthumously.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction / Public vs. Private
2:20 Deceit with Reader / Heartfelt Emotion
4:23 Longfellow / Long Rant
7:05 HWL Public vs. Private Poems
8:53 Lessons 1, 2, and 3
9:50 “The Harvest Moon”
11:00 Lessons 4 and 5
12:30 “Mezzo Cammin”
14:45 Lesson 6
15:50 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 17:58
Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used
henrywadsworthlongfellow #marketingadviceforwriters #harvestmoonpoem #mezzocamminsonnet #sonnet
LINKS
Bio on Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow
“Harvest Moon” https://poets.org/poem/harvest-moon
“Mezzo Cammin” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50629/mezzo-cammin
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/11/fall-into-poetry-writing-public-vs.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Monsters of all sorts inhabit literature, for they crowd into people’s consciousness whenever we face trials and tribulations.
The unnatural monsters, goy and terrifying, gorging themselves without mercy or conscience, these are our nightmares, rarely encountered.
The deceptive monsters, the ones that camouflage who and what they are, still gorging themselves, relishing each victim, these inhabit our everyday lives. We should be wary of them, but we still find ourselves caught in their devastating traps, even after we finally recognize them. Only when we are burned enough or wounded enough do we manage to escape, scarred for all future encounters with people who aren’t monsters.
These deceptive monsters are alluring, beautiful enticements that we can’t quite let go. And that unwillingness to escape is truly the monstrous behavior.
Join The Write Focus as we offer 6 Lessons for all Writers as we examine the famous deceptive monster of the wild fairy in two poems by John Keats and e.e.cummings.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction / Deceptive Monsters
- 02:40 Keats’ “La Belle Dame sans Merci”
- 4:00 Lessons 1 2, and 3 for All Writers
- 11:26 Lessons 4 and 5
- 14:00 e.e.cummings’ Wild Fairy
- 17:00 Lesson 6
- 18:45 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 20:51
wildfairy #labelledamesansmerci #johnkeats #eecummings #allingreenwentmyloveriding #dreams #writingtips #artasinspiration #4requirementsofsong #writingtheseasons
Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used
LINKS
Keats’ bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keats
“La Belle Dame” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44475/la-belle-dame-sans-merci-a-ballad
The Artwork https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Belle_Dame_sans_Merci
e.e.cummings bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings
[all in green went my love riding] https://allpoetry.com/all-in-green
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-deceptive-monsters.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Love. Betrayal. Death. Those subjects we discussed in our story-song and in other recent poems, including Christina Rossetti’s particular version of false love and twisted betrayal—Lust that isn’t love, summer friends abandoning her in her self-exile, her false love leaving her to face her trouble alone.
When we’ve endured betrayal, our memories of that traitors are as a monster.
Monsters need not have venom-dripping fangs and wicked-sharp talons. The worst monsters are in our own selves, the ones who want to stay with that “dragon who keeps so fair a cave” (Shakespeare).
As we near All Hallow’s Eve, we look for stories and poems and blogs about monsters. The horror genre gives us unreal monsters while the thriller genre gives over-the-top monsters, like Hannibal. We have fantasy monsters and domestic villains as monsters. We writers bend tropes.
The best monsters, though, never seem like monsters until we fall into their clutches.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction / Monsters
- 03:55 Heinrich Heine’s “The Lorelai” / the femme fatale
- 08:10 Lessons for all Writers #1 and #2
- 11:48 Lesson #3 Find your Monster
- 15:00 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 17:04
heinrichheine #lorelai #femmefatale #blackwidow #theme #thesis #womenasmonster #goddessofrevenge #nemesis #siren #gorgon #graiae #odysseus #mythology #revenge
LINKS
Heine’s bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Heine
“Lorelai” http://www.poetryatlas.com/poetry/poem/2255/the-lorelei.html#:~:text=The%20Lore-lei%20has%20done!%20The%20American%20Poet%20Thomas%20Bailey
Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-unexpected-monsters.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
October is a month of changes, of transitions, anticipation of the colors even as summer gives us a few reminders of his warmth.
And October ends with All Hallow’s Eve, the evening before a holy day ~ a time of riotous revelry by the forces defiant against God, Father, Creator, Savior.
Creeping upon me with the early chill of October mornings was the realization that Christina Rossett should be next in our Fall into Poetry series. Born 1830 and died 1894, Rossetti is sister to the artist-poet Dante Rossetti of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the Victorian painters who reached into the past and into mythology for the primary subjects of their lush artwork.
Most know Christina Rossetti for “Goblin Market”, a long narrative poem of two sisters. One sister succumbs to temptation and tastes the fruit sold by the goblins. We’re not going to look at “Goblin Market”. I know you’re disappointed.
Instead, we’re looking at three other poems, two straight-forward and people-pleasing, one personal and puzzling, all three with lessons for all writers, not just poets.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction / C.Rossetti
- 03:30 First Poem / First Lesson
- 07:25 Second Lesson
- 08:30 Second Poem / Cold Poems
- 11:00 Third Poem
- 17:02 Last 2 Lessons
- 19:00 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 21:06
Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used
LINKS
- Biography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Rossetti
- “January Cold Desolate” https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/january-cold-desolate
- “A Year’s Windfalls” https://allpoetry.com/A-Years-Windfalls
- “From Sunset to Star Rise” https://genius.com/Christina-rossetti-from-sunset-to-star-rise-annotated
- “Goblin Market” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44996/goblin-market
- “A Birthday” https://poets.org/poem/birthday
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-rossettis-3-cold-poems.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We have a theme of Dances of October for this episode ~ although one of our two poems doesn’t mention dancing and the other doesn’t mention October. How are we connecting these two works to that theme?
Well, my brain said “Put them together”, and here we are.
The first poem is by African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. He’s barely anthologized anymore, but that doesn’t mean he should be neglected. Dunbar is an excellent writer with diverse style in different forms, including prose and plays. His verse elevates him above the one-trick ponies who are studied because they represent a type (Louise May Alcott, e.g.).
Our other poem is a lesser-known work by the famous William Butler Yeats.
Follow along as we find unexpected connections with these two unconnected poems. We’ll also add in a few writing lessons that will help all writers.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 01:35 Dunbar’s “October”
- 07:09 First Lesson for All Writers
- 08:46 Yeat’s “To a Child Dancing in the Wind”
- 12:44 Second Lesson for All Writers
- 15:35 Reaching New Meaning / Dunbar & Yeats
- 17:25 Third Lesson for all Writers, A & B
- 18:25 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 20:32
LINKS
Paul Laurence Dunbar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Laurence_Dunbar
“October” https://poets.org/poem/october-2
William Butler Yeats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._B._Yeats
“To a Child …” https://www.poetryverse.com/william-butler-yeats-poems/child-dancing-the-wind
paullaurencedunbar #williambutleryeats #writingadvice #dirtydozen
Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-dances-of-october.html
become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
What sparks a love of poetry?The highbrow puzzles of e.e. cummings or the imagism of Ezra Pound. The lyrical music of John Keats or Christina Rossetti. The logical jumps and intellectual gymnastics of the metaphysical poets. The gimmick that marks Ferlinghetti. The emotions that lurk in a Longfellow sonnet. The intriguing story-songs that we just examined last month.
None of the above sparked my love of poetry. They deepened my love and enriched it, teased me by simultaneously engaging mind and heart.
My love of poetry was sparked by my mother. She gifted her daughters with a love of birds, of flowers, of nature itself. She quoted poems that she’d memorized over the years, poems that echoed with her love of nature, and those poems still echo for me. When I saw poetic lines expressed in nature, poetry lived for me.
Over my years, I’ve found more poems that live, some highbrow, some with a lowbrow snicker, some middlebrow which are frowned upon by intellectuals as “not clever enough”. I say if the poem is to a person’s taste, then who has a right to disrespect their choice?
And so we come to this episode’s poems, two that reveal autumn’s glory, both with marketing and writing ideas for anyone interested in a writing-focused life.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction / Taste in Poetry
- 02:16 Writer’s Growth / Marketing Lesson
- 03:34 Helen Hunt Jackson
- 03:51 “September”
- 05:39 Easter Eggs and Secrets
- 08:41 “October”
- 13:25 Famous Love Story / Clever Word Choice
- 16:05 Marketing Genius / Audience-Focused
- 18:00 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 20:07
Links
Helen Hunt Jackson bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Hunt_Jackson
Her poetry https://www.poemhunter.com/helen-hunt-jackson/
helenhuntjackson #writergrowth #marketingforwriters #septemberpoem #octoberpoem #octobersonnet
Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-two-autumn-poems.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Wine is heady stuff. A simple goblet of wine relaxes us; a mega-pint or a bottle can tip us into trouble.
Do you prefer the creamy full-body of a fine cabernet or the bite of a sauvignon blanc? Perhaps a medium red like a spicy Zinfandel or a lighter Riesling? Or a fruiter, sweet-forward wine, like a strawberry wine? Homemade, requiring only fresh strawberries, sugar, yeast, and water?
Hi, everyone. This week’s episode is another story-song, not a ballad of love, betrayal, and death. This is a sweet song which still has a bite, a rite of passage that leaves a heady memory in the speaker. It’s “Strawberry Wine,” launched into country music in 1996 but still speaking to all of us.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction / “Strawberry Wine”
- 02:42 Song Structure / 4 Requirements of Song
- 06:28 Impact Events / Chorus
- 08:27 Second Stanza / Bridge
- 10:51 Speaker’s Dilemma / Inherent Drives
- 14:20 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 16:29
LINKS
Song Lyrics https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/deanacarter/strawberrywine.html
Video Performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up06CryWQpE
Bio of M. Berg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matraca_Berg
Bio of G. Harrison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Harrison
Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-sweet-wine.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Here’s an odd way to start a conversation about a song: the word moron.Hi all. It’s the third episode in our autumn series Fall Into Poetry. We’ve featured two story-songs (narrative poems) that are ballads, not the modern power ballad of the music world but the literature-based ballad with its focus on the subjects of love, betrayal, and death.
This episode’s song is not a ballad, even though it concerns love and betrayal and the death of a relationship. It’s not even a story-song. It’s a lyric poem, which means that it expresses an emotion. We do have hints of a story but not really.
And we’re delving into the song by looking first at the word moron. Odd, I know. A little weird. But there you are.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 03:44 Oxymoron / Shakespeare
- 07:52 Oxymoronic Characters
- 08:03 “Little Lies”
- 11:00 Stanza 2 Twist
- 13:23 Summation for Writers
- 14:20 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 16:26
LINKS
“Little Lies” performance https://youtu.be/uCGD9dT12C0
“Little Lies” lyrics https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/fleetwoodmac/littlelies.html
fleetwoodmac #christinemcvie #littlelies #oxymoron #hamlet #romeoandjuliet #poets #fictionwriters #indiepublishingforwriters
Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-sweet-lies.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Story-songs, like last episode’s “Read my Mind” by Gordon Lightfoot, leave a mark in our memories. Very little is needed to return them to the foreground of our mind.
That’s also the case with this episode’s story-song, another ballad, this time for Broadway, written by the fantastic Stephen Sondheim, a great in American stagecraft.
I first encountered this song in 1976 as part of my chorus class, not on the radio. It requires a maturity of experience, which I didn’t have then. I caught the song’s cosmic irony but didn’t truly comprehend the personal devastation of the character who sings it. Nor did I catch the revealing epiphany of the last line.
Many greats have performed it: Frank Sinatra, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Judy Dench. The version in my head harkens to Bernadette Peters’ performance. First to perform it, though, and the singer for whom it was intended was Glynis Johns.
If you know Sondheim’s work, you’ve already guessed the song: “Send in the Clowns”.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction to “Send in the Clowns”
- 02:58 Clear Communication
- 03:30 Strong Imagery and Emotion
- 08:52 Powerful Lines / Ballad
- 13:10 Four Lessons for Fiction / Nonfiction Writers
- 15:52 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 18:02
LINKS
Lyrics https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/judycollins/sendintheclowns.html
Performance by Bernadette Peters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOZhmsp6iBQ
& by Glynnis Johns https://youtu.be/OAl-EawVobY
stephensondheim #cosmicirony #ballad #sendintheclowns #writingpoetry #writingfiction #writingnonfiction
Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used
[Fair Use declares that we can quote from copyrighted works by other writers as long as we use those quotations for analysis, explication, and teaching examples.]
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-clown-faire.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Every writer is after memorable writing, whatever will strengthen our words and ideas so they haunt our audience.
We want our audience to return again and again to our writing, either to recapture that original impact or to puzzle out a question that wasn’t answered.
Capture our audience, and they stay with our writing to the end.
Satisfy our audience, and they seek more of our writing.
This is our goal: win-win, us and them.
Our series Fall into Poetry would seem to appeal only to poets—but that’s a surface glance. We writers can learn from any writing style, poetry teaching fiction, dramas teaching nonfiction, any mix-up we can contemplate.
We begin with a story-song from the realm of popular music. This song’s endurance proves that it is memorable writing by one of our greatest modern songwriters, now sadly gone: “If You Could Read my Mind, Love” by Gordon Lightfoot, a ballad when most songs are lyrics.
If you’re unfamiliar with “Read my Mind”, then pause this podcast and head off to find a new song to add to your favorites list. Come back to hear our analysis. (Links Below)
Join The Write Focus all through autumn as we examine great poems that teach a multitude of lessons for all writers.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Word Count Challenge / Final Check-in
- 03:10 Fall into Poetry introduction
- 05:40 “If You Could Read my Mind, Love”
- 07:00 Four Requirements of Song
- 13:57 “Read my Mind” as a Ballad
- 14:55 Two Special Touches
- 18:47 Closing
Total Run Time: 19:49
LINKS
Lyrics for “Read my Mind” https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/gordonlightfoot/ifyoucouldreadmymind.html
YouTube performance of “Read my Mind” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK--A-IaZnA
Rick Beato’s analysis of the music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X33YyowZZxQ
Link to The Write Focus website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-read-my-mind.html
writing poetry #poetry #GordonLightfoot #Ifyoucouldreadmymind
Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used
[Fair Use declares that we can quote from copyrighted works by other writers as long as we use those quotations for analysis, explication, and teaching examples.]
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC73Pe3yKV5HixAUjBNOg47A
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Hi, everyone. Welcome to the fourth check-in for the Word Count Challenge with the theme of Surviving that Horrible Week for Writing.
I thought I was smart, earlier in this year, when I scheduled a Wednesday to Tuesday trip. The hectic weekend driving would be avoided. When most people would be arriving or leaving, I would be snuggled in and could enjoy. That plan is great for a trip, not so much for a Word Count Challenge.
I delayed drafting this episode to Tuesday morning. I drove home on Tuesday and had the Start2Finish recording to posting of the audio file when I reached home—with unpacking and laundry still to do. Yet I did squeeze out the words for this episode as I drank my two cups of coffee.
How did I do with the week, start to finish? Let’s do the check-in.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 The Horrible Week
01:37 Check-In #4 begins
04:26 Friday Onward
09:34 Success vs. Failure
11:20 Closing
TOTAL RUN TIME = 12:19
All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/08/word-count-challenge-check-in-4.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KcgVD4ZFyCt54chOhRtiqI
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Hello, everyone. It’s the 3rd Check-in for the Word Count Challenge here in August, and we’re discovering problems.
I continue to meet my goal of 500 new words daily, no matter the interruptions. I’ve had to write fiction and nonfiction to achieve 500 new words, and other writing tasks are still occurring, all in a mix of daily fun time with family and commitments and responsibilities that I’m promised to.
I actually started this episode draft on Monday to finish words for that day because other things were going on that prevented my finishing 500 fiction words.
And I’ve discovered issues with the daily push for new words, issues related to achieving the word count. Join in as we discuss creativity and challenging problems.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Opening / Creativity vs. Filler
- 06:43 Word Count Challenge Problems
- 08:30 WCC Check-in #3
- 12:20 Success vs. Failure / Next Steps
- 15:03 Closing
Total Run Time = 16:05
All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/08/word-count-challenge-check-in-3.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KcgVD4ZFyCt54chOhRtiqI
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Hi, Everyone. It’s the second check-in for the Word Count Challenge here in August.
How have you done? Leave a comment about your goals and successes.
I’ve managed to meet my goal of 500 words daily, no matter the interruptions, and they were many. Things tugged at me every day of the past week. The massive part of the day is lost to writing but early mornings and late evenings have saved me—and twice, both evening and morning writing saved me.
At our last check-in, the first draft of the third short story was finished and needed a week’s separation before revision started. After errands in the cool morning, the writing part of Wednesday began: something forgotten, something needing fixin’, something on the To-Do List, and finally writing.
Stay connected to hear how the rest of the week continued.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Word Count Challenge Check-in #2
- 04:55 Success or Failure?
- 05:32 Next Steps
- 07:40 Closing
Total Run Time = 08:40
All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/08/word-count-challenge-check-in-2.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KcgVD4ZFyCt54chOhRtiqI
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Old Challenge vs. New Challenge ~ that’s the theme for this week’s episode.
We say goodbye to the Summer Writing Challenge, which tracked all the pesky jobs that writers have to do in addition to the writing, and we welcome in the August Word Count Challenge, which is the kind of challenge that writers want to focus on: NEW WORDS ONLY. No sketched words, just an estimate from the Rough, any overage in changing Rough to Draft as well as overage that comes with Revision and Proofing.
The only way to achieve the challenge consistently is to Write New Words Daily.
Join us as we challenge disruptions and distractions to derail us from a daily word count.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Say Goodbye and Hello
- 01:18 Last on the Summer Writing Challenge
- 08: 35 Word Count Challenge for August
- 09:40 First Check-in for the WCC
- 12:43 Closing
Total Run Time = 13:44
All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/07/old-challenge-vs-new-challenge-word.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Hi, all. It’s the last full week of the Summer Writing Challenge. We’ll have one last day to report in our first August episode. This week, though, finishes out our challenge.
Did I succeed? Did I fail? What can I do better? What changes can I make to be more successful in the future?
Let’s start with our day-to-day report before we answer those major questions.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Check in 9
02:10 Counting Projects this Year
03:20 Priorities, Goals, Boundaries
08:34 Hurry Up to Wait
10:10 Busy Monday
17:40 Final Day to Come / New Challenge
19:10 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 21:04
All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/06/summer-writing-challenge-check-in-9.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7LEoaG-XelXEjBW_Xukjy3I
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Hi, all! It’s our 8th check-in for the Summer Writing Challenge. A little over a week to go to the end of July BUT not the end of the Summer Writing Challenge.
I’ve struggled and I’ve soared in this past week. It’s all a matter of juggling the bad with the good to keep a mental balance and motivation.
Last Wednesday, first day of our work week, is a perfect example of this juggling act.
We cover a lot this week, including characters who are ciphers and easy-out solutions to plots; objective distance; copyright, ideas, and the Fair Use doctrine; crafting newsletters and book descriptions, fiction and nonfiction; and our tally of Success vs. Failure.
We’ve a lot to discuss. Let’s do it.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Check-in 8
- 2:00 Ciphers / Objective Distance
- 7:00 Copyright, Ideas, and Fair Use
- 10:26 Newsletters
- 15:00 Book Descriptions, NonFiction and Fiction
- 17:33 Success & Failure
- 18:22 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 20:18
All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/07/summer-writing-challenge-check-in-8.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7LEoaG-XelXEjBW_Xukjy3I
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Hi, all. Time for Check-In #7 of our Summer Writing Challenge with the theme of “What’s Up, Doc?”
The challenge this week was to steady up and recover from last week’s losses. Luckily, most of my weekly activities are on hiatus in July although my personal commitment remain strong.
A Special BONUS this episode: 9 minutes from Dashiel Hammett on Accurate Details
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Check-in 7
- 02:01 Kanban Flow
- 05:55 Sputter to Flow
- 08:50 Research for Reality
- 11:15 Failure vs. Success
- 13:45 Dashiel Hammett on Accurate Details
- 22:33 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 24:30
LINKS
KanbanFlow project board https://kanbanflow.com/
Audacity Recording Software https://www.audacityteam.org/
Bach Toccata and Fugue snippet, licensed from AudioJungle, by creator sviridpavlov https://audiojungle.net/
All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/06/summer-writing-challenge-check-in-7.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7LEoaG-XelXEjBW_Xukjy3I
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Hi, All! Welcome from the Land of the Lost ~ Lost Days, Lost Time, Lost Plans, Lost Chances.
That’s me this past week, and I’m still dealing with the aftermath. I’m also scouting the area to find out who infected me.
Yes, in a week when I knew I would lose three days before it started—the holiday, you know—I lost three more days because I came down with a horrid respiratory sickness, with coughing and crusty eyes as the bane of my existence. This episode is only coming to you with the assistance of powerful drugs that are slowly pulling me back from the brink. The doctor refused to give an infection window—but I have recon going to find the culprit.
To start the week with high hopes and to end with hopes in fragments on the ground … cue violins. Let’s talk about what did happen to the good and the little highlights that keep us going.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Check-in #6
- 03:20 Task Lists / Incentives
- 05:23 Rotating Promos
- 08:35 Cover Design
- 13:40 Writing Hell
- 17:35 Writer’s 3-Part Mantra
- 19:20 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 21:17
All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to the Blog Site: https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/06/summer-writing-challenge-6th-check-in.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7LEoaG-XelXEjBW_Xukjy3I
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Hi, all! Herewith is our 5th check-in for the Summer Writing Challenge. We’ve started a new month; we still have the same goals.
Of everything that I expected to happen in June, that did happen, disruptions and distractions but also a slow-moving progress toward the goals. Of everything that I wanted to accomplish, not there yet.
Am I upset and frustrated by the disruptions? No.
Did I have some time-wasters? Yes. Do I want to kick myself for those. Yes and No.
Am I irretrievably behind? Well—One thing that I learned while in the business world and also in this writing realm is that nothing goes as smoothly as we plan.. Nothing actually functions like a regular work week. No matter where we are, disruptions occur.
We can have a Do or Die attitude about our writing … but I want to enjoy it.
I cannot enjoy it when I feel chained to the work, to constant on-demand performance.
And creativity suffers.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 The Do or Die Attitude
- 06:15 Check-In #5
- 12:25 Be a Writer, All 13 Steps Listed
- 13:27 Track Reality to Overcome Blinkered Thinking
- 15:25 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 17:21
All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/07/summer-writing-challenge-5th-check-in.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7LEoaG-XelXEjBW_Xukjy3I
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Hi, y’all! It’s been a hectic week of the expected and unexpected again, with so many things swirling about that it’s best to call this Challenge episode “Spinning Wheels” or “Tornadoes”.
“Spinning Wheels” seems more appropriate because I did gain headway in all three project areas. It’s a tornado, though, because—well, I’ll explain as I detail this week.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Check-in #4
- 03:35 Major Goal Achieved!
- 05:10 Three-Step Proofing
- 07:11 Walk Away from a Problem
- 11:03 Step 11 (continuing Be a Writer)
- 13:22 Step 12
- 15:50 Step 13
- 17:30 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 19:25
All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/06/summer-writing-challenge-4th-check-in.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Hi all! We’re onto our third check-in for the Summer Writing Challenge.
As usual, I’ve overloaded myself in contemplating everything that I want to accomplish for June and July. To complete everything may take me into August.
And I’ve already encountered one problem that may require me to extend the Challenge into August.
This means that I’ve bitten off much more than I should have with my three projects and the additional admission that I may switch a project mid-stream … if Project 2 continues giving trouble.
Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of the past week, before we discuss the problem and then head off into some musings from “Be a Writer”.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 3rd Check-In
- 05:45 Problem!
- 07:11 Be a Writer Step 7
- 08:30 Step 8
- 09:22 Step 9
- 10:50 Step 10
- 12:05 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 14:00
All Original Content / No AI Used
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Link to the Blog Site https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/06/summer-writing-challenge-3rd-check-in.html
Hi! It’s the 2nd Check-in for the Summer Writing Challenge, all through June and July, tracking not only words but also those other tasks that a write needs to do to pursue success.
For the first days of June, four days, Saturday to Tuesday, we had achievements on two of our projects in the Master Plan. Project 1 had 15,617 new words on the manuscript of Defeat Writers Block. Project 3, we had the 1st check-in Podcast, prep, draft, and everything involved in producing a podcast episode.
These past seven days, Wednesday to Tuesday, didn’t achieve as much.
Join us to hear what happened.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Second Check-in
- 04:49 Three Creative Stages for Writing
- 07:35 Lessons from the Week
- 08:40 Be a Writer Step 4
- 10:40 Step 5
- 12:25 Step 6
- 15:40 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 17:35
Link to Blogsite https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/06/summer-writing-challenge-2nd-check-in.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Welcome to our 1st Check-in for this Summer Writing Challenge, tracking not only words but also other tasks that a writer needs to pursue success. We began tracking on June 1, and we’ll continue to July 31.
As part of my Master Plan, I have three projects.
- Turning the Defeat Writer’s Block series into audiobook, ebook, and paperback.
- A massive project writing five short story, creating audiofiles for 15 stories, and publishing the 5-story collection and the 15-stoory bundle in ebook, paperback, and audiobook.
- All the miscellaneous tasks that writers do, including this podcast
The check-ins will list what occurred with the projects as well as classifying them as successes or failures.
We’ll conclude with five minutes or so of inspirational musings on writing.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 1st Check-in
- 06:50 Be a Writer
- 07:35 Step 1
- 08:14 Step 2
- 09:28 Step 3
- 11:55 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 13:51
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
All through June and July, The Write Focus turns its lens to the Summer Writing Challenge, 61 days of writing as well as presenting all the other tasks that writers should be doing in their writing business.
In addition to tracking our progress on writing projects, we’ll cover market copy, cover designers, promotional posts, and newsletters as well as audio projects. These are just a sample of the myriad additional tasks performed by every writer, indie or traditionally published.
Podcast posts covering the previous week’s work will be recorded on Tuesday evenings for publishing on Wednesday mornings.
Join us as we detail the accomplishments and failures for every writer’s Summer Challenge.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Opening
- 01:35 Raison d’Etre / Introduction
- 04:15 Project 1
- 04:55 Project 2
- 07:05 Project 3
- 07:55 Prep Work
- 11:26 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time :: 12:26
Blog Site Link https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/05/summer-writing-challenge-introduction.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
This year and the next are celebratory years for me. I began publishing in 2015 and podcasting in 2020 (yes, that coronacoaster year). It’s time for a retrospective, totting up the gains, cringing at the worst failures (some of which will never see the light of day), and dwelling on the chief lessons. You know, what I do wish that I’d known before launching into the ocean realm of writing.
The ocean of writing is a great metaphor. Writing has depths that no one will ever reach. Each writer is a tiny ship surging through the billowing waves. We dwell on the surface with only forays into the upper levels.
Where does this Writing Retrospective begin? Before publication, where all writing begins. We’ll also look at where my arrogant brain tried to take me in 2021, and finally a mistake that I keep making and having to re-learn. Geez, I know I’m slow, but still.
So, herewith, a Retrospective of Writing Regrets.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 02:02 Regret 1
- 06:11 Regret 2
- 10:17 Regret 3
- 13:05 Final Words
- 14:11 Closing
Total Run Time :: 15:12
All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/05/wish-id-known-writing-retrospective.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We don’t often take the time to look back, to do a retrospection. We track our accomplishments and diligently write down the small steps that take us to our short-term goals and on to our long-term ones.
If we’re good little bunnies, we check our Master Plan once a year and rewrite it every third or fifth or seventh year. I can’t imagine a 10-year Master Plan. I had to drop back from five to three because my plans change so much. I get new information. I clarify my goals I shove things forward that I wasn’t able to accomplish when I first envisioned them through rosy-colored glasses.
Even so—when we do stop and look back, we should consider all we’ve gained, all we’ve learned, and share that with others. Advice along the lines of “Wish I’d Known”.
Let’s start this two-episode Retrospective with Podcasting, especially since many people are exploring podcasting as a new endeavor They’ve leapened into TikTok and Instagram, and now they’re contemplating the longer format of podcasting.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
02:20 Podcast Retrospective
04:25 Podcast Decisions
06:25 Minor Wishes 1 & 2
07:40 Minor Wish 3
10:10 Major Wishes 1 & 2
12:35 Major Wish 3
14:15 Major Wish 4 & 5
15:28 Final Greatest Wish (8 total)
15:58 Closing
Total Run Time = 16:59
All Original Content / No AI Used
Link to Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/05/wish-id-known-podcast-retrospective.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
A handful of years ago, after I had started publishing, I stumbled across Phyllis A. Whitney’s Guide to Fiction Writing.
Originally published in 1982, that date was 6 years before the Mystery Writers of America gave her a Grand Master award for Lifetime Achievement and 8 years before a similar award came from the Romance Writers of America.
When she died in 2008, Whitney had published more than 70 novels, mostly for adults but a few for young teenagers were also in that total. Whitney has also been described as an inspiration for the founding of the Sisters in Crime organization. There’s a whole back story to that; needless to say, MWA and the reviewers and more were giving scant attention to women writers in the mystery field.
Many current writers decry Whitney as “Old School”. Indeed, the writers that I’ve focused on for this series on Defeating Writer’s Block—Gardner and Delton, Stewart and Whitney—have done what current names in the publishing business have not. They have numerous published works which have endured past their writing lives.
They are all “Old School”. Paper-based. With writer’s notebooks in binders and journals rather than software apps.
But their advice is highly valuable to us, for we want they achieved: long-term writing success that didn’t succumb to Writer’s Block.
And Whitney gives us the largest and strongest and final key to Defeating Writer’s Block.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 02:30 Old School Writers vs. New School Ones
- 06:48 Viewing Our Writing Selves
- 11:00 Scheduling
- 15:43 Growing the Story
- 18:34 Sparking New Ideas
- 24:55 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 26:23
SOURCE
Whitney, Phyllis A. Guide to Fiction Writing. The Writer, Inc. Publishers, 1982. https://www.amazon.com/Guide-fiction-writing-Phyllis-Whitney/dp/087116129X/
Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/05/defeat-writers-block-whitneys-solutions.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We’re approaching the finale of our examination of Writers Defeating Writer’s Block.
We’ve diagnosed the three major issues, how to recognize them, and how to resolve them to return to writing.
We’ve examined advice from 10 different writers, from Neil Gaiman to Barbara Kingsolver, Charlaine Harris to Philip Pullman.
We delved deeply into famous blockbuster Erle Stanley Gardner’s techniques as he dealt with the unmentioned unmentionable.
Mary Stewart revealed the writer’s life in her short novel The Stormy Petrel, and we analyzed Stewart’s covert and overt advice for writers.
The great storyteller / story teacher Kate Wilhelm wrote of her writing world in her writing memoir Storyteller, and we barely skimmed the surface of all she had to impart.
Now we’ve reached an odd little book—inspiration and musings, advice and commentary, compiled into For Writers Only by Sophy Burnham. Novelist, journalist, playwright, and nonfiction writer, Burnham describes her book as a “patchwork quilt about my craft”, collected over the years by her, her friends, and her editors.
I like this book for its various chapters, some not surprising, some very surprising. She has such chapter titles as Starting, How, Where, Letting Go, Productivity, Rewriting, one chapter entitled Waiting Spinning Drifting, another on jealousy, yet another on Aloneness, for writing is a lonely occupation.
And then we have the chapter on Writer’s Block.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction to the Book
- 04:27 Introduction to the Chapter
- 06:15 The Infectious Block
- 07:53 Be in the Story
- 10:59 The Frustration
- 15:23 The Other Side
- 20:00 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 22:09
LINKS and MORE
Burnham, Sophy. For Writers Only. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994.
Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/05/defeat-writers-block-burnham-talks.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Many writers—newbies, early wannabees, flash-ins before they flash out—many of these writers never reach the mature writer’s self-analysis stage.
- These writers don’t learn to seek new methods when the story won’t flow.
- They don’t seek solutions to plot conundrums and character rebellions.
- They don’t analyze their writing blocks and seek ways around or over or under or through that writer’s block.
Some mature writers don’t do this, either. They stop and wait. For what? Inspiration? The spark of the start of the way out? They should be scaling the problem or dodging it with another project or tunneling to discover a deeper issue with the story or blasting through the Block with fire and passion for writing.
We don’t want to confront Writer’s Block. We shrink away, frightened by its lingering. The great unmentioned unmentionable seeks to rule us—will we let it?
Not if we have sense. Not if we have a juggernaut of ideas barreling into us, desperate to be released into stories.
Newbie or Mature writer, we do stumble into problems. And then we seek advice from other storytellers.
Let’s look at advice from another Storyteller who is also a Story Teacher.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 02:10 Wilhelm’s Background
- 03:04 Disruptions
- 08:00 Imposter Syndrome
- 14:22 Slump vs. Block
- 18:20 Silent Partner
- 23:03 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time :: 25:09
SOURCE
Wilhelm, Kate. Storyteller. Northampton, MA: Small Beer Press, 2005. info@smallbeerpress.com
Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/04/defeat-writers-block-kate-wilhelm.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
A funny thing happened on the way through entertainment this past weekend. I read Mary Stewart’s The Stormy Petrel. That’s not the funny thing.
Mary Stewart is my all-time favorite author. Wonderful character development, intriguing plots, lovely lyrical writing. She’s a guaranteed satisfying entertainment. My favorite novel of hers is My Brother Michael with The Moonspinners as a close second. (If you’ve seen the film, you haven’t met Stewart’s story.)
I read The Stormy Petrel years ago. The story didn’t stick then: IDK the reason. I usually reach for something else when I want a delicious read. This past weekend was different.
And now we’re to the funny thing, for the protagonist Rose is a writer. Stewart included several revealing passages about the writer’s life including—get this—writer’s block.
Let’s examine what Stewart has to say.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 02:25 Spark the Start
- 05:12 Revive the Memory of Story
- 07:40 Deep into Flow
- 10:20 Finish that Bit; Don’t just Stop
- 11:17 Unfolding Inspiration
- 13:40 Many Projects
- 18:00 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time:: 20:07
SOURCE
Stewart, Mary. The Stormy Petrel. New York: Ballantine Books, 1991. https://www.amazon.com/Stormy-Petrel-Mary-Stewart-ebook/dp/B00GVFUEGS
Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/04/defeat-writers-block-m-stewart-on.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
When we’re browsing for information to help our own particular problems, we reach for the weighty titles, the ones that analyze to the nth degree and provide six or seven or thirteen examples. That kind of information scan would miss Judy Delton’s surprisingly valuable little guidebook The 29 Most Common Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.
My own bookshelf, physical and electronic, is scant on information about Writer’s Block. That doesn’t mean I haven’t suffered from it, the way many writers have.
Most of my earlier years when I plunged into Writer’s Block, I denied that I had it. It was the great “unmentioned unmentionable” such as Erle Stanley Gardner must have faced. … I, too, have looked for processes to spin out a plot or delve into characters. I haven’t gone as far as to create a 15-page outline or 7 Plot Wheels. Nor have I looked for a variety of information on Writer’s Block and how to overcome it.
I’ve simply prayed for the opportunities when my writing flows out so easily and hoped, after a stoppage, that I can return to that flowing. I have learned that writing every day prevents Writer’s Block.
If we don’t admit to Writer’s Block, can we overcome it? Most of us think we can, simply by ignoring it, keeping it unmentioned and unacknowledged … at least, that’s what we think.
The real, actual, only thing that we can do to Defeat Writer’s Block is act upon our Will to Write.
I’m not certain that Judy Delton’s little guidebook can be found. It’s not from a major publisher although Writer’s Digest Books is certainly well-known. An internet search turns up cached pages offering the book at used book dealers like Thrift Books and ebay, but the first two that I clicked only catalogued the book; it wasn’t in stock.
Anyway, on to part 2 of “Avoid These Mistakes” when attempting to find the impetus to Defeat Writer’s Block.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 03:05 Delton’s 5th Mistake to Avoid
- 07:25 Her 21st Mistake to Avoid
- 11:07 Bridge thru Guidebook / More Advice than on Writer’s Block
- 17:05 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time :: 19:23
LINKS
Delton, Judy. The 29 Most Common Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. Writer’s Digest Books, 1985.
Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/04/defeat-writers-block-avoid-these.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Writers read. In reading we are voracious consumers of anything that catches our eye.
We may also be hoarders, little dragons perched on a Keep-Forever Book Stack, surrounded by a myriad of smaller To-Be-Read stacks: This Stack First, This Stack Second, This Later, Helpful Stuff, I Wanna But Not Now, Maybe Later, I Dunno, and more. When we climb down from our hoard, we may stop and investigate those TBR stacks and do a little re-organizing.
And thus I found an unexpected gem which has a lot to say about Defeating Writer’s Block. The book is Judy Delton’s The 29 Most Common Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 04:28 Avoid Mistake #1
- 11:40 Avoid Mistake #2
- 18:25 Wilhelm’s Law of Ideas
- 21:00 Avoid Mistake #3
- 24:46 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time :: 26:52
LINKS
Delton, Judy. The 29 Most Common Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. Writer’s Digest Books, 1985.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Here we are with More Techniques from Erle Stanley Gardner. We’re tackling Gardner’s solutions for Writer’s Block.
Look to the Show Notes for information about the nonfiction book that is the source for this information.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 01:11 Unmentioned Unmentionable
- 01:54 Notes & Rules on Work
- 07:30 Plotting Machines
- 12:20 Gardner, THE Plotting Machine
- 15:16 Flying Buttresses against Writer’s Block
- 17:10 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time :: 19:17
LINKS
Secrets of the World’s Best-Selling Writer: the Storytelling Techniques of Erle Stanley Gardner. Francis L. and Roberta B. Fugate. Graymalki Media, 1975.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
- 66,000 words per week
- 140 titles published ~ novels and short stories.
- Of that number, 100 of them sold over one million copies EACH.
- Translated into dozens of languages
- Used pen names because he was so prolific he had to disguise his output from editors
Who is this great Defeater of Writer’s Block? Let’s try one more clue.
- 271 TV episodes produced with his trademark character Perry Mason.
Have you guessed the writer? Erle Stanley Gardner.
To write 66,000 words each week and to publish 140 titles, Gardner had to have methods and techniques to Defeat Writer’s Block.
In his early days, before he became best-selling, Gardner had to learn story-telling techniques, all the craft skills of character, plot, conflict, and resolution (endings). He discovered practical methods and adapted them, and those served him well over his long career as a professional writer.
Let’s analyze the ones we can adapt to super-charge our own Write Focus.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 03:08 Writing Life Work Habits
- 04:38 Gardner’s 1st Technique
- 07:48 His 2nd Technique
- 09:05 His 3rd Technique (& the most important)
- 10:30 Two Touchstones for Stories
- 13:40 These Touchstones Defeat Writer’s Block
- 15:03 Five Guides for any Story
- 20:05 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time :: 22:48
LINKS
Secrets of the World’s Best-Selling Writer: the Storytelling Techniques of Erle Stanley Gardner. Francis L. and Roberta B. Fugate. Graymalki Media, 1975.
Lester Dent’s Plot Formula (1st episode) Audio https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/322-short-narratives-part-1-mixed-miscellany-summer-series/?token=787f587776d16329864e1540c7138c9e
Video on YouTube https://youtu.be/jA6xHr44XMw
Lester Dent’s Plot Formula / printable pdf / https://mgherron.com/2015/01/lester-dents-pulp-paper-master-fiction-plot-formula/
Plot 7 (1st episode) Audio https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/504-plot-7-part-a-discovering-plot/
Archetypal Story Pattern / Greatest Plot Structure in the World (1st episode) Audio https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/stages-1-2-greatest-plot-structure-discplot-447/?token=1f886de066cbc760395ba4fc6edb7519
Link to Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/03/defeat-writers-block-how-one-pro-won.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We’re back with more advice from Pro Writers on Defeating Writer’s Block.
Let’s launch straight into business.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 00:48 Barbara Kingsolver
- 03:00 William Stafford (poet)
- 03:51 Scott McCormick
- 09:16 Philip Pullman
- 12:06 Charlaine Harris
- 14:34 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time:: 16:40
Links
None. Quotations came from a variety of internet sites.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
In the first part of this series, The Write Focus shared everything we had to say about Writer’s Block and how to defeat that three-headed monster.
When we research the topic, we find articles that claim 5 types or 10 types of Writer’s Block. Shudder. I don’t want even to contemplate 10 types. Yet I read the article—so you don’t have to. Guess what? Those 10 types are actually just an expansion of the 3 types we covered in our series—as were the 5 types.
And the solutions were exactly what we listed: breaks and escapes, switching projects, overcoming fears and learning new writing skills, pursuing a healthy lifestyle, regaining curiosity, and practicing creativity.
We can do this. We can DEFEAT WRITER’S BLOCK. (Shout it!)
In this segment, we’ll explore advice from other writers, pro writers who have to meet deadlines and are too professional to churn out boring words. Let’s explore what they say.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 01:53 Neil Gaiman
- 04:16 Ernest Hemingway
- 07:35 Hilary Mantel
- 08:53 Norman Mailer
- 10:00 Mark Twain
- 11:15 Neil Gaiman again
- 15:00 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 17:08
Links
Quotations came from a variety of internet sites
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, with all NEW information based on host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Writer’s Block looms like a sharp-clawed monster over every writer. A daily discipline—No Day without Lines—is extremely helpful, no matter how many you schedule for a particular day.
Nulla Dies Sine Linea is our mantra, right?
We can overcome a simple refusal to write by maintaining discipline and side projects and our escapes when we’re overwhelmed.
We can defeat Procrastination by overcoming the Twin Fears of Failure and of Judgment. If our worries are failure and judgment, those problems are not with our writing but are inside ourselves. Root them out. Our writing is for us. Improve whatever weaknesses we see. When people point out weaknesses, consider these learning opportunities and keep improving.
We’ve reached the slimy cave of that real Horrible, Terrible Monster than can destroy everything, not just our writing but our hopes and joys.
Type 3 Writer’s Block is Inertia, and Writer’s Inertia kills words and contentment, plans and dreams, grace and well-being.
Yet we can and must defeat Inertia. Here’s how.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 02:13 Writer’s Inertia
- 02:40 Healthy Habits Defeat Inertia
- 09:07 Avoid Stagnating Slime
- 13:36 Wrap-Up
- 14:20 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 16:25
Links to Think like a Pro, original source with other info added:
https://www.amazon.com/Think-like-Pro-Advent-Writers/dp/
Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/4AxWAd
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Defeating Writer’s Block is easy to say, not so easy to do. We writers have to discover the problem we’re having with those pesky little words.
1st, we have to find them—and they do like to hide.
2nd, we have to write them down—whether in a notebook or straight to the keyboard. That’s a whole problem on its own. We can’t count the Block as a simple disruption, a wholesale explosion of our writing time.
It’s the Desire and the Initiative to write that’s the problem.
In our diagnostic quiz, at the end of the Introduction segment, the weakness of our desire, the weakness of our initiative are driving factors that keep us out of our chair.
Type 1 of Writer’s Block is Writer’s Refusal, and I consider it the easiest of the Blocks to diagnose, admit, and defeat.
Type 2 is a harder Block to defeat. What is the Type 2 Block? Writer’s Procrastination.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 01:48 Writer’s Procrastination
- 07:05 Fear #1
- 09:35 Fear #2
- 11:47 Trolls
- 14:06 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 16:14
Links to Think like a Pro, original source with other info added:
https://www.amazon.com/Think-like-Pro-Advent-Writers/dp/
Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/4AxWAd
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Hey! Our claim is that Writer’s Block doesn’t exist? And you say, “I don’t believe it. I’m blocked. I’m suffering with Writer’s Block.”
Believe it or not, the truth is that Writer’s Block does NOT exist. Not. No way. Nope. We can write, but something keeps us from writing what we very well need to write.
At the end of our last episode, the introduction to this series on Defeating Writer’s Block, we classified 3 types. Knowing the type that’s affecting us, that’s part of the solution to any Writer’s Block . . . for we can make claims, we can repeat a mantra–but something’s blocking us.
The other part of the solution to Writer’s Block is our WILL–even if we don’t want to write, we MUST. We NEED to. We gotta!
The only problem with saying “MUST and NEED and GOTTA” is that I’m afflicted with bloody-mindedness. As soon as someone commands must / need / have to / gotta–my bloody-mindedness kicks in. “Oh yeah? I think NOT.”
That’s where WILL comes in—and that’s our focus this week. Overcoming Type I of Writer’s Block, classified as Writer’s Refusal.
[Did I shout enough?]
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 01:53 Writer’s Refusal
- 03:25 Overcome with Escape
- 05:45 Escape Exercise to Try
- 11:25 Overcome the Over-Schedule
- 17:15 When Numbers Help Words
- 22:45 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 22:51
Links to Think like a Pro, original source with other info added:
https://www.amazon.com/Think-like-Pro-Advent-Writers/dp/
Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/4AxWAd
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Can you name a phrase that every writer fears? Try “Writer’s Block”.
We writers all have a deep-seated fear when we hear those two words side by side. Writer’s Block—those should be forbidden to speak together.
We have quite a number of pro writers who claim there’s no such things as Writer’s Block, and I’m one of them—but I will admit that I find myself refusing to write or avoiding my desk or just stuck on a story. Distractions and disruptions occur, and before we know it, weeks—not days, weeks—have passed. With few words written, our writing plans are blown. Guilt descends—and the clouds of guilt and disappointment and dismay and more disrupters descend and . . . gosh, we don’t even want to think about it.
That’s the purpose of this series: we want to Defeat that Writer’s Block.
To do that, we have to look more closely at Writer’s Block than we want to. In this February month of love, let’s look at what prevents us from pursuing our love of writing.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Intro
- 01:46 Writer’s Block Doesn’t Exist
- 08:30 The Truth about Writer’s Block
- 13:55 Diagnostic Quiz
- 16:00 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 17:00
Links
Links to Think like a Pro, original source with other info added:
https://www.amazon.com/Think-like-Pro-Advent-Writers/dp/
Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/4AxWAd
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
In the last episode, we began our look at a process method I call Plot 7. This week we finish the Plot 7 and our series on Discovering Plot. Coming up for February are four episodes on Overcoming Writer’s Block.
The Plot 7 is wonderful for sparking ideas for a new novel or novella. It’s too deep for a short story.
In the Plot 7 are the 7 most important scenes for the novel. We covered the Beginning, the Very End, and the Roughest Moment / the Ordeal. This episode covers the last 4 … and these are the hardest four.
By the time writers finish these 7 scenes, we have a great start on the story.
The between-scenes and sequels will remain for us to write—but we’ll know our direction and the whole process of drafting the novel will flow easily.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 03:25 Plot 4
- 04:54 Plot 5
- 07:57 Plot 6
- 10:33 Plot 7
- 12:35 Bringing It Together
- 14:50 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 16:32
Link to Lester Dent’s Plot Formula for Short Stories
Episode 1 / Short Narratives / Mixed Miscellany https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/322-short-narratives-part-1-mixed-miscellany-summer-series/
Links to Think like a Pro, source for the Plot 7, other info added:
https://www.amazon.com/Think-like-Pro-Advent-Writers/dp/
Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/4AxWAd
Links to the Ebook Discovering Plot
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Link to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We’re winding up the Discovering Plot series with the Plot 7, a quick way to launch into story and to reach that story’s heart … and discover if it will fly—or crash like my feeble attempts at paper airplanes.
Plot 7 comes from the writer’s guidebook Think like a Pro, by M.A. Lee, designed to turn a hobby writer into a pro writer with the necessary mindset changes.
We’ll break the Plot 7 into 2 episodes.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 01:17 Plot 7 Raison d’Etre
- 04:18 Plot 1
- 05:40 Plot 2
- 06:50 Plot 3
- 11:58 Last Words / Closing
TOTAL RUN TIME = 13:42
Links to Think like a Pro
https://www.amazon.com/Think-like-Pro-Advent-Writers/dp/
Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/4AxWAd
Links to the Ebook Discovering Plot
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Link to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Welcome to our 200th episode of The Write Focus.
Yippee! We made it farther than I ever anticipated, 200 episodes and into Season 5, and we still have more episodes ahead. AND it’s all thanks to our listeners, who motivate us to keep offering more and more.
Over our 200 episodes, we’ve covered craft with plot and characters, process with sentence craft, productivity with challenges, and tools for writers.
This episode is an update to an old post, a Blast from the Past, with new insights to make it up-to-date. For those of us raised on western story-telling and conflict and characters, this method will seem an about-face. It works best for shorter tales—stories and novellas rather than novels and epics. As we analyze it, you’ll see the reason I say that.
The next two weeks will have another look back at a plotting method from the early days of The Write Focus. The Plot 7 is not a plot structure. Instead, it’s a method for writers to develop quickly the skeleton of a novel or novella. Let’s call it a Process. After a season on craft, it’s time we looked at process. Oh, and it’s a strong way to supercharge your productivity after a season of disruptions and distractions, totally suitable after the holiday season.
So, without more rattling on, let’s look at our Blast from the Past, Kishotenketsu.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 02:33 Kishotenketsu
- 06:15 Example 1 from Sanyo Rai
- 09:15 Example 2 from Nils Odlund
- 12:50 Analysis
- 16:30 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time :: 18:15
LINKS
Sanyo Rai story = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish%C5%8Dtenketsu
Nils Odlund story = https://mythicscribes.com/plot/kishotenketsu/
Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Link to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
It’s the last official episode for Discovering Plot and the final 2 stages of the greatest plot structure for writers, the Archetypal Story Pattern.
While many of us have our favorite plot structure, all the ones that I’ve analyzed and taught cannot match the adaptability and flexibility of the ASP. Hopefully, with the variety of discussed plots, many writers will see the value of the ASP.
In this episode, we have Stages 11 and 12.
Stage 11 is the Resurrection of the Evil (and of our Protagonist). This is the culminating battle between the protagonist and the antagonist, and we writers have four tasks in this stage to give our readers a satisfactory ending. For readers, endings lead to the next story—which is our writing goal. Yes, even in romantic comedies or literary fiction, we have battles. We’re writers; think metaphorically!
Stage 12 is called Return with the Elixir. This is our triumphant protagonists drinking with the gods to celebrate victory.
We’ll have three more episodes before we call this Discovering Plot series complete, done and dusted. For now, it’s on with the episode.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Introduction
- 02:05 Stage 11: Dual Enemies of Evil and Self
- 02:58 Three Examples with Three Lessons
- 09:55 Four Points of the Resurrection
- 16:35 Stage 12: Drinking with the Gods
- 17:20 The Return / The Elixir
- 21:52 Final Points
- 22:50 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time: 24:31
LINKS to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Link to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Welcome to the 5th season of The Write Focus, the podcast for writers of all types, newbies and veterans and everyone in-between. Our FOCUS is productivity, process, craft, and tools.
We are justifiably proud of achieving this 5th season. We started in 2020, that dreadful year, so good things do come from bad ones. Apart from our yearly hiatus in the hectic Decembers, we haven’t missed a weekly episode. This week, we officially open this season with Episode 198. How is that for meeting deadlines? OOO, OOO, OOO
We start our 5th season with the first of the last episodes on the greatest plot structure in the world, taken from our host M.A. Lee’s craft guide Discovering Plot.
In this episode, we delve into Stages 9 and 10 of the 12-Stage Archetypal Story Pattern, Greatest Plot Structure in the World.
Stage 9 is the protagonist’s Reward for surviving the trials and the dark ordeal. Our main characters still have a difficult journey ahead, yet Stage 9 gives a respite.
Then we descend to Stage 10, the Road Back, seemingly straightforward but still tricksy, still twisty, still dangerous.
This wave-like up-and-down pattern of events all through the Archetypal Story Pattern creates pacing and tension. The writers offers rewards to keep the readers from tumbling off the journey. The troubles continue to offer angst and suspense for reader engagement.
Don’t make the mistake of cheap thrills and unthinking, uncaring sacrifices now that you’ve brought the reader this far. Love has an emotional reward. Danger and death have consequences. Justice cannot be totally blind. Not for the reader. AND Not for us, the satisfied writer who wants to keep writing, not burn out and burn up our love of story-telling.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Introduction
- 03:03 Stage 9 / Joy after Darkness
- 07:44 Ordeal vs. Reward
- 09:20 The Difficult Reward
- 11:53 Stage 10 / Driving to Destiny
- 13:04 Driving with the Old Desired Dear
- 19:28 How to Find the Right Road Back
- 25:20 Last Words / Closing
- TOTAL TIME = 27:00
Examples from Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter series), Jane Austen’s Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice, 13th Warrior by Michael Crichton, The Crown, Castaway film with Tom Hanks, and Tolkein’s Return of the King.
LINKS
Invocation of Blood, from 13th Warrior :: https://youtu.be/qQekqWha7fg
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Link to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
“Amber Dreams”, chapter 5
Sailing with Mystery is available as an audiobook from M.A. Lee and Writers Ink Books. Visit M.A. Lee (maleebooks.blogspot.com) for more information.
“Amber Dreams”, chapter 2
Blackmail threatens a young bride when her secret diary is stolen. Her marriage of convenience is threatened if the contents are revealed to her new husband and his autocratic mother.
Can Isabella recover the diary before the bride loses all hope?
. ~ . ~ . ~ .
Sailing with Mystery is a collection of short stories in the Into Death series. The Write Focus host M.A. Lee offers these audio selections as a Merry Christmas for the TWF listeners.
Mystery and peril are dangerous shipmates for an ocean voyage.
While travel presents opportunities to meet new friends and see new places, Isabella Tarrant also encounters puzzling crimes and dangerous intrigue as she sails from England to India.
“Amber Dreams”, chapter 1
Blackmail threatens a young bride when her secret diary is stolen. Her marriage of convenience is threatened if the contents are revealed to her new husband and his autocratic mother.
Can Isabella recover the diary before the bride loses all hope?
. ~ . ~ . ~ .
Sailing with Mystery is a collection of short stories in the Into Death series. The Write Focus host M.A. Lee offers these audio selections as a Merry Christmas for the TWF listeners.
Stage 8 is the second of the two most important stages of the Archetypal Story Pattern, the greatest plot structure in the world. Many would say that it is the most important stage.
We’ve reached the Ordeal, the Dark Moment, the greatest trial for our protagonist, the point closest to Death—the near loss of a love, a goal or dream almost destroyed, a job or status at an explosive moment that could prove fatal if one more horrid mistake occurs.
While the Ordeal is not the ultimate battle, it is all-important, for our protagonist and our antagonist.
Before we delve into Stage 8 a word on the rest of December. With all the hectic holiday events, The Write Focus takes December off and will resume on the first Wednesday of the New Year. Our Discovering Plot series has two more episodes to explore the last 4 stages. We’ll start the New Year and Season 5 with those.
It’s hard to believe this little podcast is entering its 5th season. Thanks to all of our listeners who keep us going!
Do stop by after Christmas for a little audio Christmas gift from our host M.A. Lee.
Now, let’s face the Ordeal.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:30 Introduction
- 02:12 Stage 8
- 04:09 Persuasion as an example
- 07:10 13th Warrior as an example
- 09:09 Antagonists
- 11:27 Deathly Hallows as an example
- 13:07 Key Juxtapositions
- 15:05 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 16:47
Examples from Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Michael Crichton’s 13th Warrior, and JK Rowling’s Deathly Hallows
Direct Link to the Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2023/12/stage-8-greatest-plot-structure.html
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Stage 7 is the first of the two most important stages of the Archetypal Story Pattern. It is the Approach to the Inmost Cave and sets up events and character dynamics for the crucial Stage 8, the Dark Moment or the Ordeal.
The Inmost Cave is the location of the Ordeal, the point where our protagonist comes closest to Death. That could the loss of love, of a motivating goal or dream, of a job or status, an intellectual pursuit, or physical death.
We writers want to lead straight into the Ordeal, but we do our readers a disservice when we don’t give equal attention to the big build-up of the Approach to that Dark, Fearsome Cave.
Let’s get to it.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Introduction
- 01:33 Stage 7A
- 04:15 Ongoing Transformation
- 06:00 Resurrecting the Desired Dear
- 10:11 Jam Today
- 11:33 Stage 7B / What is AND isn’t a Cave?
- 15:03 The Inmost Cave and its Darkness
- 17:28 Personal Darkness
- 19:41 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 21:24
Examples from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the films 13th Warrior and Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Direct Link to the Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2023/11/stage-7-discovering-plot-series.html
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
For many writers, Openings and Closings aren’t the problem with story. We all have problems with the Messy Middle—or the Saggy Middle—or that long slog between fantastic Opening and stupendous Ending.
It’s the Middle that causes the most groans.
In the Archetypal Story Pattern, the Greatest Plot Structure in the world—that troublesome Middle is Stages 4 to 8. It’s not Stage 4 that creates the problems. It’s not Stage 8 or Stage 7.
Nope, what causes the most angst for writers is our focus in this episode—Stages 5 and 6.
Follow along for clues that will change your approach to Stages 5 and 6 and hopefully keep them from turning into the Messy Middle Mire that causes angst for so many writers.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Introduction
- 01:47 Stage 5
- 03:30 Thresholds
- 04:47 Four New Things in the Story
- 07:05 Analysis through Example
- 09:16 Crossing the First Threshold
- 10:43 Stage 6
- 12:50 Purpose-Filled Examinations
- 15:50 Thresholds are Tests (and are Try/Fail Sequences)
- 16:47 How Many Tests?
- 19:50 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time:: 21:33
Examples from Patricia Briggs’ The Hob’s Bargain, Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
This week’s episode continues our deeper and richer analysis of the stages of the Greatest Plot Structure in the World for Writers: the Archetypal Story Pattern.Stage 3 is the Refusal of the Call, which is just as necessary as the destruction that occurs in Stage 2, Call to Adventure.
Stage 4 presents one of the most intriguing and labyrinthine characters in the story realm: the Mentor.
Got those loins girded? We’re delving ever deeper into ASP.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Introduction
- 01:13 Stage 3 / Only Fools Rush In
- 03:44 Don’t Neglect the Evil
- 04:07 Jobs Not Yet Done
- 05:05 Five Psychological Stages to Maturity
- 08:02 Analysis of ROC through Example
- 11:20 Stage 4 / Wiser Eyes
- 16:47 When Mentors Become More
- 19:22 Initiation and Transformation
- 21:12 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time: 22:53
Examples from Dorothy Johnson’s short story “A Man Called Horse”, the film Taken, the Star Wars canon, the Harry Potter series, and Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
LINKS BELOW Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters series.
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
LINKSLink to “A Man Called Horse” by Dorothy Johnson (various pdfs are available online. This is a link to the story online.) A Man Called Horse ______ Dorothy M. Johnson – My Favorite Westerns
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
In this episode, we begin our in-depth analysis of the individual stages of the Archetypal Story Pattern, the greatest plot structure for writers.
Highly adaptable and flexible, the Archetypal Story Pattern, or ASP, allows the creative muse to fly. Our focus is the first two stages: Stage 1 / Ordinary World and Stage 2 / Call to Adventure.
With a deeper and richer analysis of each stage, writers will hopefully gain insights that were never before contemplated.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Introduction
- 01:22 Stage 1 Opening
- 02:28 Start with Duality
- 05:07 Build with the Latin 7
- 09:21 Stage 2 Opening
- 10:35 First Consideration
- 12:26 Second Consideration
- 15:59 Three More Takes
- 18:43 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time :: 20:25
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Archetypes invaded the world of writing decades ago. Just as an artist has her drawing box and a cook accesses her pantry. new writers—and experienced ones needed a refresher—need the archetypal frameworks in their writing kit.
Explorers will find multiple versions of archetypal charts, for plot and for characters. Social media and webinars abound with them. Numerous videos and blogs cover the basic information.
The Archetypal Story Pattern—ASP—is genius for the 12 stages of essential story scenes. We have many more scenes than these, of course, but the ASP gives up the story guidance so lacking in other types of plot structures.
In this section, we offer an introduction to Archetypal Story Pattern. In the next, we launch into the individual stages.
Gird your loins. The information is becoming intense! After this episode’s overview, we’ll cover each stage in deeper and richer detail in later episodes, all the way into the New Year.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Introduction
- 04:02 Joseph Campbell’s 17 Stages of the Hero’s Journey
- 06:47 Christopher Vogler’s 12 Stages / the Archetypal Story Pattern
- 09:10 Beginning / Middle / End
- 12:28 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time :: 14:11
BOOK LINKS are to Amazon because I’m working quickly. You can also find these at Worldwide Distributors Everywhere.
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey https://www.amazon.com/Writers-Journey-Anniversary-Mythic-Structure/dp/1615933158/
Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a 1,000 Faces https://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Faces-Collected-Joseph-Campbell-ebook/dp/B08MWW2VDL/
Carl Jung :: Gary Bobroff’s Knowledge in a Nutshell: Carl Jung https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Nutshell-psychoanalyst-unconscious-archetypes-ebook/dp/B082VJLVXR/
George Fraser The Golden Bough https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Bough-James-George-Frazer/dp/1692144219/
Links to M.A. Lee’s Discovering Your Plot, ebook format.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
In our previous two episodes, we looked at 4 plot structures that are inadequate ~ Basic Beats and Freytag’s Pyramid, both of which are reductions of Aristotle’s Plot Requirements and Shakespeare’s Dramatic Structure. None of those have enough to help writers with their own stories.
In this episode, we’re close, so close, with the Complex Plot Structure … but it’s still not the greatest.
We end with a strong hint of the Best and tell you the reason it’s the best … and always will be.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Opening
- 1:41 Complex Plot Structure
- 9:55 Plot Structure for Writers
- 15:5 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time: 17:00
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Links for the Ebook of Discovering Your Plot
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer for DiscPlot https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
In this episode, The Write Focus examines the plot structure taught to everyone. It’s basic. It’s common. It’s great for students. That’s all it is. Not good for writers. Nope. We only bring it up because everyone starts here. It actually is a reduction of Shakespeare’s dramatic structure.
Yeah, that old dude. Another old dude. Let’s move beyond, and get started.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Opening
- 1:07 Freytag’s Pyramid
- 6:45 Shakespeare’s Dramatic Structure
- 18:48 Last Words and Closing
Total Running Time: 20:29
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
As long as writers have been trying to tell successful stories, we’ve been sharing that information with other writers ~ for years, centuries, millenia!
These classifications have entered “the mainstream”, for some are taught in seminars and in courses as if these are the way to write stories. These are NOT the way to write stories; they are ways to examine the art of story-telling using common terms.
One of the famous methods for structuring a plot is the so-called Basic Beats, also known as the 3-Act or 4-Act Structure. As with anything, flaws exist.
We can overcome those flaws when we add in lessons from a source thousands of years old: Aristotle. Our stories are deeper, richer, and much more satisfying.
Don’t worry that the info is too difficult or arcane. We’ve broken down for all writers in understandable terms.
Basic Beats, Meet Aristotle!
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Opening Words
- 1:09 Plot Necessity
- 4:25 Basic Beats
- 7:28 Aristotle’s Plot Requirements
- 14:36 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time: 16:18
LINKS
Old Geeky Greeks by M.A. Lee
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082T3YVMK
Worldwide https://books2read.com/u/mgGWNR
Links for the Ebook of Discovering Your Plot
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer for DiscPlot https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Any presentation of a story’s plot can be straightforward, with scenes / sequels moving in progression from beginning to end, “as events occur”.
Few plots are simply straightforward.
In this episode, we examine foreshadowing and flashback, a non-linear plot structure, the frame story, and the allegory.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Opening Words
- 1:07 Foreshadowing & Flashback
- 3:38 Non-Linear Plot Structure
- 6:37 Frame Stories
- 8:32 Allegories
- 13:07 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time: 14:52
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Every plot has a beginning / middle / end. Tensions and suspense drive each of these sections.
Plotting prose? Poetry? That choice doesn’t matter in narrative. Telling a story is the focus, and all stories are formed through a series of scenes and sequels, which bridge between scenes.
Two things control the main plot and each subplot. These are the heart and the brain that will drive every scene and its sequel. The heart is the theme which is the key to unlock the brain, our conflict that controls the plot.
These are the four plotting essentials. Theme. Conflict. Scene. Sequel.
Timing
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Opening Words
- 01:31 Theme
- 06:32 Conflict
- 12:36 Scene & Sequel
- 20:00 Last Words and Closing
Link to Dwight Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer https://www.amazon.com/Techniques-Selling-Writer-Dwight-Swain/dp/0806111917/
Link to Think like a Pro: 7 Lessons for Writers by the host M.A. Lee https://books2read.com/u/4AxWAd or
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DYJDY5S/
Links to the Ebook Discovering Your Plot
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Tropes are those genre category-specific details, characters, and events that readers relish and anticipate: a magic sword, the hard-nosed detective who drinks on the job, and the corpse found and lost in a cozy mystery. Some tropes—such as the Golden Child—transcend a single genre and can be found in all major genres.
Genre tropes can build a plot, but tropes are not plot. They are tools. Not every screwdriver in your tool box is used every time you need to screw in a screw. If you do use every tropes to build a plot, well, as a writer, you are S.C.R.E.W.E.D.
I won’t list genre tropes in this episode. Those are easy to find. I will explain the reason we writers are screwed when we depend on tropes for our plot and characters.
Yet we can use tropes ... just don't let them use you!
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Opening Words
- 01:54 Genre Tropes
- 03:31 Folk Ballad Tropes
- 06:08 Commedia dell’ Arte Tropes
- 08:05 Epic Hero Tropes
- 12:13 Writing Fast with Stock Spinners / Story Wheels
- 15:24 Pulp Writers and Preventing Trope Repetition
- 17:48 Last Words
- 18:31 Closing
Total Run Time: 19:31
LINKS
Karen Woodward: “NaNoWriMo, Erle Stanley Gardner, Perry Mason, and Plot Wheels” – https://blog.karenwoodward.org/2013/10/nanowrimo-erle-stanley-gardner-perry-mason-plot-wheels.html
Lester Dent’s Plot Formula, as a pdf, is at multiple places on the Internet.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Genre expectations are reader expectations of the plot they will encounter. With all the books on the electronic and physical shelves, a classification system more than Fiction and NonFiction is necessary.
Here comes Genre to save the day, like the famed Mighty Mouse.
We have 10 major genres of fiction and countless subgenres within each category—and then we have stories that fuse genres or bend the genre boundaries.
As long as we writers interest, amuse, or instruct our readers, that’s all that matters.
Timings
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Opening Words
- 01:23 Genre Expectations
- 4:02 Major Genres of Literature
- 09:33 All Genres and the 1st 4
- 12:18 The Last 6 of the 10
- 17:05 Closing
Total Run Time 18:06
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, see below or visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
LINKS
Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
What do writers want to know about plot? What do writers need to know about plot?
The Write Focus takes a comprehensive view of plot in the series Discovering Your Plot. Genre expectations, major story structures, pacing / tension / suspense ~ we cover it all.
Today, we look at writers’ wants and needs for plot as well as story basics and story length.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Opening Words
- 01:23 Introduction
- 04:33 What is Story?
- 08:40 Story Length
- 14:08 Projecting MS Length
- 18:00 Closing
Total Run Time 19:01
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Our last episode on Branding continues a focus on book trailers. For sample trailers, view the Show Notes for the August 23 episode at the website. It’s the Key Fundamentals of the Script for Trailers and Clips along with the skeletal framework that can expand or contract as needed.
Beginning in September to the end of this season, The Write Focus launches the next series. Plot is the structure that develops characters in conflict. We’ll discuss different kinds of structures before examining in detail the best structure I know, highly adaptable, well-paced, with opportunities for dynamic character development and growth. It’s Discovering Your Plot.
TIMINGS * 00:00 Welcome * 00:39 Intro * 01:30 Key Fundamental #1 * 02:55 #2 with an adapting script * 05:22 #3 and #4 * 08:06 #5 with the trailer’s shape * 09:42 #6 and #7 * 11:52 Caveat * 13:00 Last Words & Closing
Total Run Time 14:25
LINKS KEY FUNDAMENTALS FOR VIDEO TRAILERS available at Buy Me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr/e/150474
A Video Trailer showing Branding in Action: https://youtu.be/uthI5gEWic8
Purchase the ebook at these inks:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YL8GBM1
https://books2read.com/u/bPyKQ7
Purchase a paperback 8 x 10 with Characters / Plot / Branding / Sentence Craft here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
As always, THANKS for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our next focus is PLOT: What Writers Want to Know and Need to Know.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters series.
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We’re talking Branding, and we’re almost through with this series.
Promotion is a key element of the writing business, for indies as well as traditional authors. All writers need to learn the basics of self-promotion.
That doesn’t mean promoting our selves. It does mean discovering and pursuing the best ways to promote our writing, the books or blogs that are our product.
1st Key Question: What amount are we willing to spend? For new writers, with few products (less than 5 or 7 stories), spending for ads doesn’t pay off. The ROI / Return on Investment isn’t strong enough. We should concentrate on building our catalog. 20 books or more is the common discoverability measure.
For writers with those 20 books, or 15 or more, spending for ads can begin to have a higher and more reasonable ROI.
2nd Key Question: Where do we place our ad expenditure? Social media, obviously.
But that’s a crowded game. So~
3rd Key Question: What kind of ad do we place? Ah, this is the interesting question.
Simple posts, without any cost, can work as a starting point.
When people browse right past ads, what can we do that will catch their attention? I’m not talking reviews; that is long past the attention-getter for the browsing reader. We’re at that first nanosecond, when the cover hooks the reader.
Ad people—pro marketers—say we need to see something 7 times before we consider buying. We need additional looks—something beyond a static image when we must complete with a crowded social media.
These last two episodes in our Branding series focus on one way to reach beyond a static image. This way may not appeal to many, but it satisfies a great need inside me. I’ve made it a hallmark of the M.A. Lee brand.
It’s the book trailer. Let’s explore.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Intro
- 03:05 Trailer and Clips
- 04:15 2 Cardinal Sins
- 08:40 3 Cardinal Virtues
- 12:41 Locating Music
- 13:50 Last Word & Closing
Total Run Time: 15:18
LINKS
- Melissa Marr’s trailer for Wicked Lovely https://youtu.be/-orEn_zdKSM
- K.M. Weiland’s Dreamlander trailer www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOLD_rTDTBU
- M.A. Lee’s historical mystery Digging Into Death https://youtu.be/zX1BPx6VUnU
- M.A. Lee’s Regency mystery The Key to Secrets https://youtu.be/1Sj7NfvxzXg
- Edie Roones and M.A. Lee’s trailer for Outlaws of Wild Sherwood https://youtu.be/aCftiZFqq1E
- A Video Trailer showing Branding in Action: https://youtu.be/uthI5gEWic8
Purchase the ebook at these inks:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YL8GBM1
https://books2read.com/u/bPyKQ7
Purchase a paperback 8 x 10 with Characters / Plot / Branding / Sentence Craft here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Branding: the Way Writers will Reach the Readers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We’re talking Branding, and we’ve covered Books and Series. Now we take a look at how writers brand their own business.
- 1st Question: Pen name or not? Different pen names?
- 2nd Q: What guide helps create our brand?
- 3rd Q: How do we create an author biography?
Finally, picking up from the last episodes, we offer a last look at Blurb Scripts, boiled down to essentials with two examples.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Intro
- 01:15 Inquiring Minds of Curious Readers
- 04:00 Author Branding & Pseudonyms
- 07:10 Key Questions / Author Bios
- 09:46 Brief Blurb Script with 2 Examples
- 15:05 Last Word & Closing
Total Run Time: 16:33
LINKS
Link to Joanna Penn’s “Using Different Author Names or a Pseudonym as a Writer” www.thecreativepenn.com/using-author-pseudonyms/
A Video Trailer showing Branding in Action: https://youtu.be/uthI5gEWic8
Purchase the ebook at these inks:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YL8GBM1
https://books2read.com/u/bPyKQ7
Purchase a paperback 8 x 10 with Characters / Plot / Branding / Sentence Craft here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Branding: the Way Writers will Reach the Readers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
It’s our Branding “between” addition for Market Copy, featuring Ellis Peters and Elizabeth Peters.
We pick up right where we left off in this stripped-down episode. No powerpoint / mp4 for this previous episode. Visit the previous episode for links and expanded show notes.
Timings
- 00:00 Start
- 00:39 Intro
- 01:04 Market Copy in Action / Ellis Peters
- 07:04 Market Copy in Action / Elizabeth Peters
- 14:12 Last Word
- 14:40 Closing
Total Run Time 15:40
Thanks for Listening!
We’re talking Branding. Clever Titles was last episode; this one is Clever Market Copy.
Market Copy means taglines and book descriptions, also known as Blurbs.
We have 3 Rules that govern all Market Copy.
Success happens with our understanding of the different roles of taglines and blurbs. Don’t be surprised if you spend hours and hours crafting the perfect market copy. Remember, along with a great cover that blazes with story and an intriguing title, clever market copy will turn that browsing reader into a buying reader.
We have an in-depth look at Tony Hillerman, first with titles that intrigue but need covers and market copy to sell and then two blurbs that clinched sales.
Look for an additional “between” episode on Saturday with examples for Ellis Peters and Elizabeth Peters (otherwise, this episode with run super-long!).
Timings
- 00:00 Start
- 00:39 Intro
- 01:39 Taglines / Taglines vs. Loglines
- 07:56 Blurbs
- 09:05 Example: Tony Hillerman
- 15;55 Last Word
- 16:23 Closing
Total Run Time: 17:23
Branding Worksheets at Buy Me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr/e/150472
A Video Trailer showing Branding in Action: https://youtu.be/uthI5gEWic8
Purchase the ebook at these inks:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YL8GBM1
https://books2read.com/u/bPyKQ7
Purchase a paperback 8 x 10 with Characters / Plot / Branding / Sentence Craft here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Branding: the Way Writers will Reach the Readers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
- Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We’re talking Branding. Before we launch into this week’s episode, let’s have a reminder.
1st ~ We have nanoseconds to capture a reader’s interest. We can capture that reader with three glances. The 1st glance is a cover that blazes with story. Our cover has to represent our story with 3 little words focusing on 1] the protagonist, 2] the subniche of our story, and 3] on setting.
2nd ~ We select images that tweak what our competition is doing. Those 3 little words, ever so important, guide us, then we narrow in to capture the mood or tone of our story.
3rd ~ Glance III, which we start this episode, seals our contract with readers through Clever Titles and Cover Copy.
Let’s look at Clever Titles.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Start
- 00:39 Intro
- 01:50 1st Job ~ What hooks a reader?
- 06:12 2nd Job ~ Understand our Keys
- 07:40 Titles with Tricks
- 09:40 Examples with Perry Mason and Victoria Holt
- 12:25 Examples with Nora Roberts and Alistair MacLean
- 14;42 Examples with Dick Francis and Phyllis A Whitney
- 17:05 Last Word
- 17:33 Closing
Total Time 18:33
A Video Trailer showing Branding in Action: https://youtu.be/uthI5gEWic8
Purchase the ebook at these inks:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YL8GBM1
https://books2read.com/u/bPyKQ7
Purchase a paperback 8 x 10 with Characters / Plot / Branding / Sentence Craft here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Branding: the Way Writers will Reach the Readers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Coming soon are worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We’re talking Branding. In this episode, we take a second look at Iconography.
“Um-what?” you ask.
Iconography is a fancy word that simply means “Writing with Images or Pictures”. Our covers catch a reader not with a blazing image but an image that blazes with story. Capturing our story on the cover is key to reaching our readers.
We can do this, paying $1000s to artists to paint a pivotal scene from our novel. Few of us can spend $1000s. We don’t need a scene, though. (Save your $$$ and your bank account!)
We need to present our niche market inside our genre, so don’t panic. Some story ideas are not hard to convey. Others, though, are tricky, and that’s our focus for this episode. Our example is Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody books.
Iconography for a Tricky Cover, with Keys 5 and 6 :: Let’s go.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Start
- 00:39 Intro
- 01:50 Iconography as a Key
- 02:35 Tricky Book Covers
- 03:50 Key 5: Tone through Image
- 06:55 Amelia Peabody and Key 5
- 09:20 Approaching Key 6
- 11:56 More Problems
- 13:25 Last Word
- 13:50 Closing
Total Time :: 14:49
A Video Trailer showing Branding in Action: https://youtu.be/uthI5gEWic8
Purchase the ebook at these inks:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YL8GBM1
https://books2read.com/u/bPyKQ7
Purchase a paperback 8 x 10 with Characters / Plot / Branding / Sentence Craft here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Branding: the Way Writers will Reach the Readers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Coming soon are worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We’re talking Branding, the way the writer reaches the reader.
In the last episode, we explored the Crucial 1st Impression, built with three glances.
- 1st, Capture the story in words.
- 2nd, Match those words with images through iconography.
- 3rd, Use clever titling and cover copy to close the deal.
Finding those three words was our first job, and we have two keys: 1] using contrast or juxtaposition and 2] narrowing to a niche market.
In this episode, we focus on the second glance and clever iconography, with Keys 3 and 4.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Start
- 00:39 Intro
- 01:28 Glance II: Clever Iconography
- 04:40 Key 3 and Ellis Peters / Cadfael series
- 05:57 Key 3 and Tony Hillerman / Leaphorn & Chee series
- 09:46 Key 4 and Elizabeth Peters / Amelia Peabody series
- 13:23 Understanding the Story
- 16:05 Last Word
- 16:32 Closing
Total Time :: 17:32
A Video Trailer showing Branding in Action: https://youtu.be/uthI5gEWic8
Purchase the ebook at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YL8GBM1
https://books2read.com/u/bPyKQ7
Purchase a paperback 8 x 10 with Characters / Plot / Branding / Sentence Craft here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Branding: the Way Writers will Reach the Readers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Coming soon are worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We’re talking Branding. In this episode, it’s the reader’s 1st Impressions.
1st Impressions are so important. In every aspect of our daily life, whenever we encounter someone or something new, it’s the first impressions that immediately strike to our souls. There’s a reason for the clichéd “Love at first sight”.
For books, 1st Impressions are CRUCIAL! It’s the crossing moment, the significant bridge that has the reader reach for the book. Without a strong 1st impression the browsing reader won’t even stop at the book. Whether in a bookstore (yes, they are coming back!) or an online catalog that only requires the tap of a finger, we have to earn the reader’s reach.
We have bare seconds—nanoseconds—to catch the reader’s attention.
Let’s look at the 3 Glances we need to catch a reader. We’ll focus on the 1st Glance and its 2 Keys today.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Start
- 00:39 Intro
- 02:07 Those Crucial 1st Impressions
- 03:59 1st Impressions Matter
- 06:49 3 Glances will Catch the Reader
- 09:19 Glance I: 3 Little Words
- 11:44 1st Job
- 13:42 Keys One and Two
- 16:45 Closing
DIRECT LINK to the Write Focus blog to exhibit the first four covers for the first Ellis Peters’ Cadfael novel, A Morbid Taste for Bones. https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2023/07/branding-1st-impressions.html
A Video Trailer showing Branding in Action: https://youtu.be/uthI5gEWic8
Purchase the ebook at these inks:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YL8GBM1
https://books2read.com/u/bPyKQ7
Purchase a paperback 8 x 10 with Characters / Plot / Branding / Sentence Craft here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Branding: the Way Writers will Reach the Readers.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Coming soon are worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
1st, we have a last check-in for the June Writing Challenge. Even if you managed only a few thousand words or a few hundred, that’s still a success ~ because it’s more than a blank sheet of paper or a blank screen. Set your goal anew for July, and have at it with a weekly breakdown to achieve the monthly goal.
This episode starts a series on Branding. We’ll talk the history and importance of branding and a few definitions. In later episodes, we’ll talk First Impressions and Iconography, wording with images, basically a story with words on the front cover. This is the focus all through July and August.
Timings
- 00:00 Start
- 00:39 Introduction
- 02:23 Branding
- 05:55 Branding is Marketing
- 09:02 Book Distribution
- 11:15 One Author’s Branding / Victoria Holt and her pen names
- 14:32 Our Keys to Branding
- 15:20 Closing
Total = 16:19
A video trailer showing branding in action is here: https://youtu.be/uthI5gEWic8
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the June Writing Challenge, starting on June 1 and continuing to June 30, with check-ins on June 7, June 14, June 21, June 28, and July 5.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We’re counting down the last days of the June Writing Challenge. Here’s the Week 4 check-in followed by my rattling chatter on inoculation against the writing doldrums ~ when we all feel like we’re accomplishing nothing even as we accomplish something great.
Last for today ~ but not the least ~ is an excerpt from Phyllis A. Whitney’s Guide to Fiction Writing. Whitney is the grande dame of American mystery and romantic suspense and a best-selling international writer, with more than 70 novels penned. In 1961, early in her career, she received the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, capping that with the Grand Master Award from MWA in 1988. In 1990, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Romance Writers of America. She died in 2008 at age of 104. Guide to Fiction Writing presents her perspective on the craft as of 1982, 41 years after her first published novel.
The final days of the June Writing Challenge will be presented in the introductory remarks to the July 5 episode of The Write Focus.
Timings
- 0:39 Intro
- 0:59 Challenge Check-in
- 3:01 Vaccine against Writing Doldrums
- 6:24 Guide to Fiction Writing excerpt
- 10:40 Closing
Total Time = 10:06
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the June Writing Challenge, starting on June 1 and continuing to June 30, with check-ins on June 7, June 14, June 21, June 28, and July 5.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Three weeks of June have vanished. How are you doing in the Writing Challenge? Today’s episode starts with the Challenge Check-in. I also present how I have developed ideas from nothing in the past … which is the method I use now and in the future. That’s the section on “Writers & Ideas”.
Timings
- 0:39 Intro
- 0:44 Challenge Check-in
- 4:35 Writers & Ideas
- 11:15 Closing
Total Time = 10:44
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the June Writing Challenge, starting on June 1 and continuing to June 30, with check-ins on June 7, June 14, June 21, June 28, and July 5.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We have the second 7 days of the June Writing Challenge. This week is the actual start of the novel; the first week sketched out scenes that would build into chapters. We also had basic research and setting up our masterbook last week.
This week shows the benefit of foundational work as we pour into the Rough-Write stage of the novel.
Besides our check-in for the first 13 days, I discuss how I’m a puzzler in the sketching stage, a pantster in the Rough-Write stage, and a Plotter in the Draft stage.
Also, here are the 8 Steps to a Perfect Scene, which I picked up somewhere ages ago and still find very helpful.
Timings
- 0:39 Intro
- 0:43 Challenge Check-in
- 3:39 Puzzler / Pantster / Plotter
- 8:15 8 Steps to a Perfect Scene
- 12:35 Closing
Total Time = 13:36
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the June Writing Challenge, starting on June 1 and continuing to June 30, with check-ins on June 7, June 14, June 21, June 28, and July 5.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
It’s the Writing Challenge, this June on The Write Focus.
In addition, we give the #1 indicator of writing success and introduce the 7 writing stages for building any content type, fiction and nonfiction.
The Writing Challenge started on June 1 (we promoted it in our May 31 episode). We’re attempting 1,500 words per day throughout the month. Achievement = 45,000, but even if we’re far short, we still have success ~ because we’ve avoided the dreaded blank page.
TIMINGS
- 0:39 Intro
- 2:10 Stages of Writing
- 8:21 Challenge Check-in
- 11:13 Closing
Total Time: 12:12
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is the June Writing Challenge.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook as well as templates from the Discovering Characters series.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
In this episode, we finish the series Discovering Characters.
Tomorrow starts June, and The Write Focus will have a June Writing Challenge. We hope to write the equivalent of 1,000 words per day, giving us 30,000 words by the end of the month. That’s a great start on a novel or nearly a complete novella, or a handful of short stories. 1,000 sounds not a lot, but summer is filled with distractions and disruptions. Join us for the June Writing Challenge, 1,000 wpd. We’ll share our progress starting on June 7, then June 14 and 21 and 28, with a final check-in on July 5.
As for this episode, last in Discovering Characters, we’re going through what I call Ornaments to the story. These are significant lists. Characters. Items. Events.
Ornaments add richness of detail to our plot, just as ornaments add richness of celebration to a Christmas tree.
TIMINGS
- 0:37 Intro
- 2:15 Ornaments
- 3:33 Honorable and Dishonorable
- 5:15 Professions and Others
- 7:55 Stereotypes than can Enrich
- 10:25 Archetypal Situations and Shapes
- 14:18 Closing
Total Time: 14:18
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We have two more episodes in the Discovering Characters series. Today’s episode is the 3rd of the Sliding Scales, the first being Progressions and the 2nd Transgressions. This 3rd Sliding Scale is Transitions.
Circumstances can cause growth and change even when our hearts and minds may have intended to avoid any transformation.
We often are pushed into our transitions, in ways that we never anticipated, and so it is for our characters. People may linger at a plateau for years. Eventually, however, they will tip into the next stage. Transitions are never chosen; they come from outside forces that propel our changes.
Timings
- 0:39 Intro
- 1:52 Transitions
- 2:42 Stages of Grief
- 5:00 Example
- 5:37 Psychological Stages to Maturity
- 14:14 Example
- 20:30 Closing
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
We’ve almost finished our Discovering Characters series. In the last episode, we presented how characters can be developed to reveal their growth or decline or their alterations.
In this episode, we present the dark side of characters: the Transgressions.
Only a couple of episodes remain in this series then we’re off on a Summer Challenge. For now, on with the episode.
Timings
- 0:39 Intro for Transgressions
- 1:10 Aristotle’s Tragic Hero (5 elements)
- 6:25 Examples: Macbeth, The Bookshop, Ophelia
- 12:30 Sevens
- 15:37 Writer / Protagonist / Antagonist
- 19:33 Closing
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
From the beginning of this Discovering Characters series, we’ve built our primaries from the ground up with templates and interviews We’ve looked at our individual primaries, the protagonists and antagonists, as well as our secondary characters and their relationships with our primaries.
The best characters are not static but change, whether they grow or decline. That’s today’s focus: Progressions.
Timings
- 0:39 Intro
- 1:14 Sliding Scales
- 1:39 Progressions
- 1:47 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (with a bit on PTSD)
- 8:58 Examples: 2 by Jane Austen & 1 by Jack London
- 12:07 Closing
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
We’ve reached the last major section of Discovering Characters, which is Décor or Special Touches for Characters and the Sliding Scales.
We begin with Lessons from Myths, primarily Greek mythology, that huge melting pot of myths.
Here in modern times we can barely see the distinctions in cultures that compose the myths. Time has blurred those distinctions for us, and now we look back and think one culture when it is many. The myth of Medea alone offers the collision of four different cultures.
This episode takes an extended look at something I developed after years of teaching mythology. It combines the traits of the Epic Hero with archetypes into what I called the Greek Heroic Pattern. We’ll look at the best example of the GHP from classical antiquity then offer 7 others that more from ancient times to our modern ones.
The addition of the Greek Heroic Pattern and 7 protagonists through time will have this episode running longer than usual (TOTAL RUN TIME = 34:39)
TIMINGS
- 0:39 Introduction
- 1:52 Special Touches for Characters / Lessons from Myths
- 4:47 Sacrifices that Protagonists have to make
- 6:10 Deities & Fighting against Deities
- 7:53 Heroes of Greek Myth
- 11:05 Intro to the Greek Heroic Pattern ~ 9 areas
- 15:13 Perseus in the GHP (Hollywood ruins a good protagonist)
- 19:52 7 Protagonists = Orpheus, Psyche, Arthur, “Invictus” persona, Darcy, Aragorn, and Iron Man
- 32:50 Closing
Direct Link to the Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2023/03/character-lessons-from-myths.html
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Yoda. Q. Nanny McPhee. Spock. Gandalf. JARVIS. Dumbledore. Mary Poppins. Merlins.
All mentors.
A mentor is a wise elder who teaches, provide gifts, motivates and plants seeds. They are wise, mysterious, a little deranged, and incredibly awe-inspiring. They can be much-loved … or dark and dangerous. They can provides gifts willingly … or present challenges difficult to overcome.
Mentors can act for or against the protagonist, wish him/her well or curse to oblivion, and know the answer yet give wrong directions. Whatever their goal and motivations, mentors have four functions in story even as they improve our plots OR DESTROY THEM.
TIMINGS
- 0:39 Intro
- 3:25 Beginnings
- 6:30 4 Functions of the Mentor
- 9:51 Good & Bad
- 13:42 Mentors and Plots
- 15:00 Closing
Total Run Time = 16:39
Direct Link to the Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2023/03/mentors-discovering-characters.html
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Conflict moves stories.
The protagonist faces the conflict, battling with it and dealing with it. Whether our focus is Jane Austen or Charles Dickens, George R.R. Martin or Dean Koontz, the swiftest action-adventure or the highest literary fiction, the protagonist battles a conflict-creator.
The antagonist creates the deepest and longest conflict, yet other characters can also be conflict-creators, even if that character is not evil. These characters offer tests for our primary character.
One such character is the Love Interest. That’s a curious addition to an episode on Enemies. I’ll explain at the end of the episode.
For now, we have the Tests that come from Active Enemies of the Protagonist.
TIMINGS
- 0:39 Intro
- 1:41 Opening
- 3:28 1st Test
- 6:43 2nd Test, in 2 forms
- 9:35 3rd Test
- 11:40 4th Test, with 2 choices
- 15:43 Love Interest
- 18:32 Closing
Total Run Time = 20:11
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
- https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
- View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
While Teams actively engage with the primary characters and the story’s conflict, many other characters will populate stories.
Whether in a short story, a simple anecdote in nonfiction, or in novels and epics, these other characters flesh out the skeleton of our writing. Allies, Foils, Love Interests, Blocking Figures, and more all participate in the conflict, driving it forward or directing the protagonist or antagonist.
In this episode, we present five of the key types of Allies and More.
CONTENTS
- 0:39 Intro
- 1:22 Allies, Enemies, and More
- 4:16 Allies for the Protagonist
- 5:07 Ally
- 7:04 Foil
- 10:06 Neither Ally nor Enemy
- 10:53 Herald
- 12:31 Blocking Figure
- 14:10 Idol
- 16:11 Trickster
- 17:30 Closing
Total Run Time = 19:08
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
For writers, teams offer greater opportunities than a single protagonist or antagonist.
We are not limited to character’s perspective throughout the writing. We can have two who alternate or a group of characters whose diverse perspectives open a wider opportunity for conflict and tension.
Writers can have a lot of fun with teams. We can build a book or a series around a team. We can follow a single protagonist and the team through a series OR have a single protagonist with a changing team OR have alternate team members serve as the protagonist.
Teams give options … and every writers love options.
CONTENTS
- 0:38 Intro to Team Roles
- 2:36 Basics of Teams (*My apologies for my poor attempt at 4 Chinese art terms.)
- 6:46 4 Team Members ~ Alpha / Beta / Gamma / Delta
- 9:09 Team Members in Conflict
- 12:04 Conflict Reactions of Team Members
- 16:10 3 Leadership Styles
- 18:03 10 Team Roles ~ the Skeleton
- 20:55 Peck vs. Pack
- 21:57 Peck
- 24:13 Self-Selection of a Group
- 25:10 Pack
- 26:36 Closing
LINKS
Flow by Cyrus Molavi https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Classic-Achieve-Happiness-Introduction/dp/0712657592
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus.
We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Continuing Last Episode’s Focus on the Couple Bond / Relationships
Relationships of Choice are built in three stages. The bond between a couple is not driven solely by instinct or chemical pheromones. It is not mere attraction of the eyes. The links of the bond are formed by more than common association.
An enduring Relationship of Choice requires three parts, occurring in stages. It’s a Tripod, and each leg, built one after the other, becomes dependent on the other.
Contents
- 0:40 :: Introduction
- 1:20 :: The Tripod / What Creates Enduring Love?
- 2:52 :: Stage 1
- 5:30 :: 4 Steps to Attraction
- 8:24 :: Stage 2
- 11:25 :: Opposites Do Attract
- 12:28 :: Stage 3
- 14:23 :: Traps that Destroy Devotion
- 15:59 :: To Love Deeply and Well
- 17:10 :: Closing
LINKS
Women who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes https://www.amazon.com/Women-Who-Run-Wolves-Archetype/dp/0345409876
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Marriage by Contract rather than Choice. Matchmakers. Divorce.
Contracted Relationships, the legal contract of the Marriage Ceremony, and the Dissolution of the Marriage Contract is the focus of this episode as we venture into the Relationship section of Discovering Characters.
Couples and the bonds that change individuals into couples are the focus of the first two episodes. Then we look at Team Roles, Allies, and more.
For now, Couples in a Contract (and the wife as chattel ... grrr).
Content
- 0:39 :: Introduction
- 1:07 :: Opening / The Couples Bond
- 2:27 :: Contract vs. Choice / Matchmakers
- 5:20 :: Relationships of Choice > Uncommon
- 5:30 :: Marriage = Property Transfer / A Legal Contract
- 8:45 :: Breaking Relationships
- 12:00 :: Closing
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
In our look at Jungian archetypes for primary characters, we have four that are the most unexpected of all.
These four can become surprising protagonists. As antagonists, they seem pathetic--until we realize that we deal with these conflict-creators every day of our lives.
It’s the 4 Last but not Least Primaries.
Contents
- 0:39 Intro
- 1:12 Opening
- 1:54 Everyman / Victim
- 3:27 Lover / Stalker / Siren / Seducer
- 6:13 Innocent / Willfully Blind
- 7:47 Trickster / Fool
- 12:19 Closing
Total Run Time = 14:03
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
When we study character analyses, we’re often left with the sense that these discussed protagonists and antagonists are masculine rather than feminine. In this episode, we’ll look at women in the leadership position, positive forms as well as negative. Women can burn brightly, illuminating all around them, or can burn themselves up when they fall prey to the worst inside themselves.
We’re looking at women as primary characters, from ancient days to the present. You may wish to reference our previous episode on $ Types of Leaders: Alpha / Beta / Gamma / Delta.
(You may consider these four leadership episodes and think “no update for trans or nonbinary?” Well, whether a character is trans or non-binary, that character will still fall into one of these dichotomous truths from primitive days to now.)
Contents
- 0:39 Intro
- 1:25 Bright Lights
- 2:47 Ancient Days
- 4:30 Queen Alpha / B*tch
- 5:30 Counselor Beta / Courtier
- 6:07 Non-Conformist Gamma / Little Miss Independent
- 7:01 Visionary Delta / Missionary
- 8:02 A Woman’s Conflict
- 9:41 Genetic Wiring in Men and Women
- 13:13 Closing
See previous episodes or the blog for Resource Links.
Direct Link to the Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2023/02/4-bright-lights-or-hot-messes-disc.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Our last episode examined the 4 Classic Hero Leaders who can become protagonists with developed personalities and flaws. Skew them sideways, and they become antagonists.
The same will happen with the 4 Unheroic Heroes that are the focus of this episode: Warrior, Creator, Magician, and Sage … or looking at them as antagonists, Tool, Dreamer, Machiavellian, and Robot.
Contents
- 0:39 Intro
- 1:18 Unheroic Heroes
- 2:46 Warrior / Tool
- 6:06 Creator / Dreamer
- 8:35 Magician / Machiavellian
- 11:28 Sage / Robot
- 14:10 Closing
Direct Link to the Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2023/02/4-unheroic-heroes-disc-characters.html
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Celebration! We’ve achieved 150 episodes since we began podcasting in 2020.
We check-in with new and upcoming releases. Then we launch into this week’s episode.
4 Types of Leaders
Whether protagonist or antagonist, our central character is a leader. The question is What Kind of Leader?
We have the 4 expected types, 4 unheroic heroes, 4 strong women or their polar opposites, and 4 we don’t consider leaders even though they are.
That’s 16 types of leaders. Which one did you want now?
Over the next four weeks, we’ll examine them in detail, starting with the 4 Expected Leaders: Alpha / Beta / Gamma / Delta. We’ll loo at the positive and negative forms.
Contents
- 0:39 Intro
- 4:05 Four Types of Leaders
- 4:48 Alpha-Ruler / Alpha Dog-Tyrant
- 7:45 Beta Seeker / Sycophant
- 10:39 Gamma Destroyer (Rebel) / Nihilist
- 13:28 Delta Protector / Caregiver (Wuss)
- 17:10 Closing
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Enter the Writing Business https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0848CK3C2 Look for the audiobook on your favorite audiobook retailer. EWBiz is available at over 40 audio retailers.
Inspiration for Writers bundle (Just Start Writing by M.A. Lee, Write a Book in a Month by Remi Black, and Enter the Writing Business by Edie Roones) paperback https://www.amazon.com/dp/1734015985
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Boxing Characters helps the writer explore the many sides of their characters … so those characters come alive on the page and don’t change personalities in the center of the story.
After all, the greatest of all writing crimes is to betray the reader by having characters change on them. Plot holes and unsurprising twists can be forgiven when our readers love our characters. Few readers will forgive characters who change their goals and behaviors in the story.
Then how do we create a strong foundation for our characters? We build those foundational blocks by working through various boxes: simple, ticky boxes that create solid walls of personality.
Contents
- 0:39 Intro
- 1:30 Simple Boxes: the Humours and the Enneagram
- 6:03 16 Boxes / the Myers-Briggs
- 8:19 Dichotomous Categories
- 12:45 12 Original Archetypes / Carl Jung
- 18:59 Positive and Negative Duality
- 20:16 Closing
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
What happens when a story idea strikes? If we don’t start with the central character, then very quickly our minds will focus on that single character. Our minds will swirl around a scenario and the character who controls our perspective of that scenario.
Any character can serve as that central focus. We writers decide who will be the focus based on which character is best suited to confront the conflict.
Our characters spin around an interactive conflict with a push-pull synergy. Two characters, opposing each other, will create a story. These two—the solution-finder and the conflict-creator—cannot work alone. We need both to drive the novel.
Who are these two characters? Let’s find out.
Contents
- 0:39 Intro
- 2:42 Protagonist / Hero
- 7:53 The 3 C’s: Choice, Coercion, Compulsion
- 10:31 Antagonist / Villain
- 15:30 4 Shades of Evil
- 17:17 Closing
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
What details do we writers need to manipulate for the readers to see and understand our characters?
This unfolding view, presented in scattered snippets throughout our stories, is Characterization.
Herewith, 6 ways plus 2 pairs to develop your characters (did I just call gin rummy?) as well as a bit on Non-Primary Characters.
Contents
- 0:39 Intro
- 1:13 Characterization
- 2:00 6 types of Characterization
- 8:00 Placeholder vs. True Character
- 9:52 Constant vs. Change
- 12:53 Decisions about Characterization
- 13:19 Non-Primaries
- 18:50 Closing
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
How do we present the story to our readers? This question is often asked on social media.
Should I write in first person? Deep Voice? Limited?
All of these are the narration of the story through a character’s eyes and opinions—or more than one characters’ eyes and opinions. This is Perspective, viewpoint, point of view. Our choice of viewpoint matters. How do we make that choice? This episode will help you with that basic decision.
Contents
- 0:39 Introduction
- 1:15 Start
- 3:52 Perspective
- 7:30 Story-Telling Pronouns
- 9:40 4 Successful Points of View
- 13:12 Worrisome Points of View
- 18:18 Decisions about Points of View
- 18:56 Closing
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
The character interview is a vital method to reach into your characters’ voices.
Before launching into a major storyline, writers should interview their primaries: protagonists & antagonists as well as the important secondaries whose decisions will affect the primary characters.
Yet what questions do we ask? We’ve an excellent interview adapted from several sources, starting with M.A. Lee’s years in journalism (before she escaped the real Nosy Parker business and entered the fictional NP one).
We’re Discovering Characters.
Contents
- 0:39 Intro
- 1:20 Start
- 4:58 Questions on Goals (5)
- 6:14 ~ on Secrets and Loss
- 6:44 ~ on Fears and Sacrifice
- 7:15 ~ Last Question
- 7:36 Example
- 11:40 Closing
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Templates are the easiest way to build a character from ground up.
The only problem is that most templates barely cover more than appearance and bits & pieces of relationships and angst and secrets.
Don’t fret. We have 10 templates that delve deeper than the surface façade, into the interior spaces where characters live.
We’re Discovering Characters.
Contents
- 0:39 Intro
- 1:20 Start
- 6:52 Templates ~ Basic (3)
- 10:40 ~ Character in Society (3)
- 14:26 ~ Secrets plus (4)
- 16:50 Example
- 21:20 Closing
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19 https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Where do writers get their ideas? How do we build characters?
Those 2 essential questions start every bit of writing. All else (situation, plot, genre, tropes, length) comes from those questions. Our work as writers is to make the answers that we discover hide on the page, so that readers have only the enjoyment of the story.
Contents
- 0:39 Opening
- 1:21 Introduction to Discovering Characters
- 6:47 Getting Ideas
- 15:27 Closing
Special Links
“How 50 Famous Authors Find Writing Inspiration” / thejohnfox.com
“Where Do You Get Your Ideas” / neilgaiman.com
17 Sept. 2017 / Robin Storey / storey-lines.com
Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
- You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
- Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
January 1 falls outside the parameters by offering a freebie.
This year Edie Roones and M.A. Lee give us “The Poisoner and the Faerie Huntsman”, from the Wild Sherwood series, collected into the anthology Into Wild Sherwood.
Melly and her hound encounter strange black hounds. Then the Huntsman of the Wild Hunt arrives. Has the fallen into greater trouble?
The entire story is available free on Book Funnel: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/c639tkoihp
Also available free is last year’s New Year’s story from Remi Black: “Godriana’s Font” : https://dl.bookfunnel.com/miehw4vs4q
AND the New Year’s story from the year prior, our very first offering :: “The Lion’s Den” from M.A. Lee : https://dl.bookfunnel.com/wc84divkre
Enjoy the freebies!
Contents
- 0:40 Intro
- 2:55 Story Start
- 24:47 Out-go
- 25:15 Exit
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our starting focus for this year is Discovering Characters. The opening episode will be January 4. We’re bookcasting!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
The year’s final episode, for the rest of December is busy, busy, busy! And that’s in our Biz Plan.
We talk the SMART Business Plan, turning dreams into goals with specific objectives and strategies. How do we do it?
Content
- 00:37 Intro
- 1:50 Tangible Objectives
- 3:27 Outside Help / Online Presence
- 6:22 Professional Improvement / Networking
- 11:02 Strategies / Expected Results
- 17:30 Logistics ~ Plans / Projects / Needs & Wants
- 24:50 Build the Plan / Review to Preview / Failures
- 33:40 Closing
Link to purchase the ebook of the series: https://www.amazon.com/Enter-Writing-Business-Inspiration-Writers-ebook/dp/B0848CK3C2
Link to purchase the paperback, bundled with 2 other books: Inspiration for Writers https://www.amazon.com/Inspiration-4-Writers-M-Lee-ebook/dp/B084LS1S9V
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enter the Writing Business. We’re bookcasting!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We’re to the last 2 episodes of our focus on the Writing Business. These last two episodes for this season of The Write Focus will concentrate on a business plan for our writing.
Yes, writing is a business. Do it the SMART way.
Content
- 0:39 Intro
- 2:05 What is a Business Plan?
- 2:57 The Writing Business Plan
- 4:09 Expected Audience
- 7:45 Product vs. Project
- 8:25 Vision / Mission / Objectives
- 17:01 SWOT: our A-Team
- 19:40 Awareness of the Marketplace
- 21:51 SMART
- 23:45 Anticipate Problems / Adaptation is Key
- 26:30 New Directions
- 28:58 Write It Down / Expect Surprises
- 32:27 Closing
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enter the Writing Business. We’re bookcasting!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Herewith, the most boring yet essential of all the writing business information: Practicalities
MS Preparation and the Nuts & Bolts of the everyday Writing Life.
Content
- 0:40 Intro / 7 Common Manuscript Elements
- 2:16 Boilerplates
- 3:27 Disclaimers
- 4:30 Front Titles List
- 6:10 Acknowledgements and Reader Notes
- 7:40 Table of Contents
- 8:22 Chapter Headings & Page Breaks
- 10:55 A Book of the Book
- 12:50 Word Processing Basics
- 15:07 Fonts and Special Images
- 18:11 Page Breaks and Text Flow
- 20:34 Oxford Commas?
- 21:06 Spacing?
- 21:40 Print-Outs
- 23:17 Stats and Percentages?
- 26:54 Save the Eyes
- 27:48 Closing
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enter the Writing Business. We’re bookcasting!
For more links &resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Long before the dreamed reality of writing will support us, we have to have those humdrum, mundane jobs that try to kill our writing spirits.
Fair Warning: Along with jobs, people will try to kill our writing spirits.
How do we handle these two-sided slaps to our dreams?
Content
- 00:44 Intro
- 2:03 Jobs that pay the bills
- 5:45 When Day Jobs suck away our creative energies
- 9:50 Soul-Sucking People
- 10:17 Toxic Writers to Avoid
- 13:22 Shysters who Prey on Writers
- 15:23 Remember WIBBOW
- 19:10 Mine the Real World
- 21:00 Soft Skills for Writers
- 22:16 Hard Skills for Writers
- 25:40 Recommended Masters of Writing
- 27:00 Closing
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enter the Writing Business. We’re bookcasting!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Every discussion of the Writing Biz needs a focus on Creativity. What does creativity actually mean? How do we put it into practice? How do story visions change when creativity is applied?
Also ~
Writing can be a hell and a heaven. How do we know when the writing biz is worth it?
Content
- 00:40 Intro
- 2:17 Growth Depends on Challenges
- 3:20 Creativity = Unique Spins on Classics = Freshness
- 6;40 Freshness Requires Thought / Planning
- 7:25 Saggy Pantstering Defined
- 9:48 Daily Writing / Avoiding the Lures
- 12:50 Zig & Zag with Projects
- 17:12 Ever-Expanding Stories / Blown Deadlines
- 21:43 Writing Hell
- 25:25 The Writer’s 3-Part Mantra
- 27:45 Writing Purgatory / Writing Heaven
- 30:56 Closing
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enter the Writing Business. We’re bookcasting!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We’ve reached the month-long Fall Writing Challenge. Many are participating in the November global writing challenge. Whether we take on the challenge or not, we can use November to consider our writing life: past, present and future. Before we know it, the New Year will be upon us (because December is jam-packed with distractions and disruptions).
In today’s episode, writers need to analyze the whys and hows of the kind of writer that they think they are—then break that mold. None of us fit into neat little boxes. We can use those boxing-in methods, though, adapting them for our own use. A great danger for a writer is busy-ness without progress. Let’s avoid that pitfall.
Timings / Contents
- 00:41 :: Opening / Going Off-Track
- 1:07 :: 2 P’s that are Writers
- 3:47 :: Enter the Puzzler
- 5:10 :: Drafting Story: Chrono/Linear vs. Global/Scattered
- 7:56 :: Ticky Boxes / Over-Planning is Problematic
- 12:59 :: Routine Shake-up and Abandonment
- 14:07 :: Pre-Set Foundations
- 14:33 :: Climbing out of the Box
- 16:21 :: Word Counts and Progress Meters
- 18:36 :: Don’t Hate Numbers and Lists
- 19:15 :: Accomplishments List
- 20:25 :: Distractions vs. Opportunities
- 23:20 :: Closing
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enter the Writing Business. We’re bookcasting!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Here in PrepToBer and on into the Fall Writing Challenge, The Write Focus guides us toward the ultimate goal: the Writing Life!
Edie Roones gives great focus with Enter the Writing Business. We’re bookcasting all the way to December.
In this episode, we looked at “Laser-Eyed Writing”, what we need to create stories continuously.
Timings / Content
- 0:36 Laser-Eyed Writing ~ money-wise / relationship-wise / job -wise / TIME is free
- 10:00 Invasion of the Story-Killers ~ different brains for writing / privacy and writing / needs of the writing space
- 16:22 Fertile Spaces for Story Seeds ~ devoted story space / room for writing / the space reflects you
- 22:17 Closing
Resources
https://www.amazon.com/Enter-Writing-Business-Inspiration-Writers-ebook/dp/B0848CK3C2
Visit for more info: https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enter the Writing Business. We’re bookcasting!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Here in PrepToBer and on into the Fall Writing Challenge, The Write Focus guides us toward the ultimate goal: the Writing Life!
Edie Roones gives great focus with Enter the Writing Business. We peruse these concepts:
- Dream into a Belief and then a Reality
- A Laser-Eyed Focus on Writing
- Planner vs. Plotter
- Creativity
- Soul-Sucking Jobs
- Practicalities
- Eyes on the Writing Biz
- SMART Biz Planning
We’re bookcasting for these last two weeks of October, all through November, and into December.
This episode focuses on the Writing Dream, Belief in your own Writing Self, and Turning the Dream into a Reality.
Timings
- 00:35 Introduction to Enter the Writing Business
- 3:41 / 1 :: Writers Dream of Writing
- 9:45 / 2 :: Know Your Lifelong Dream
- 12:42 / 3 :: Pursuit of the Dream
- 17:38 / 5 :: Thunder, Lightning, Changes, Oh my!
- 25:20 / Closing
Resource Enter the Writing Business
https://www.amazon.com/Enter-Writing-Business-Inspiration-Writers-ebook/dp/B0848CK3C2
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enter the Writing Business.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Writer, Interrupted Yet Resumed!
Lynn Cahoon ventured away from writing because of life disruptions only to return years later. Starting with essays then short stories, she eventually wrote her first novels … and woke up to her name on the NY Times best-seller list for ebooks. Currently juggling five series along with a major move, Lynn shares her writing journey and guidance.
Her newest release, only a few weeks ago, is A Vacation to Die For, #14 in the Tourist Trap series, available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, and Kobo.
(It's the last interview of 2022!)
TIMINGS
- 00:30 Welcome
- 00:44 Lynn’s journey, from essays to short stories to novels and to best-seller status
- 4:10 the current five series: Tourist Trap series has 15 books / Cat Latimer series / Farm to Fork series / Kitchen Witch series / Survivors Book Club series
- 6:56 series set in California, Arizona, Colorado, and Idaho
- 8:00 Life rolls disrupt writing.
- 9:43 Developing new series~ driving opens up creativity, falling in love with locales
- 15:00 More personal circumstances that inform writing in unexpected aways
- 16:45 Lynn’s writing process for ideas ~ “Writers are magpies.”
- 18:00 Using structure to set events, the entry of the dead body, developing relationships before the murder
- 21:40 Niches help.
- 26:00 Maintaining productivity ~ using word counts
- 28:00 Bob Mayer: writer and productivity adviser, “The Warrior Writer”
- 30:00 Overcoming writing trials, hitting the genre markers
- 32:00 Genre-hopping and its problems, finding a niche
- 35:00 Best tool for writing
- 38:08 Best advice for the New Writers
- 39:30 Closing
LINKS
Her website -http://lynncahoon.com/
Amazon author page -http://www.amazon.com/Lynn-Cahoon/e/B0082PWOAO/
Sign up for her newsletter for exclusive giveaway access as well as all things #LynnCahoon www.lynncahoon.com
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
JUGGLING JOBS and COZY MYSTERIES
Through the years, Heather Weidner has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She writes the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, The Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries, and The Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries.
Her short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, and Murder by the Glass. She is a member of Sisters in Crime – Central Virginia, Sisters in Crime – Chessie, Guppies, International Thriller Writers, and James River Writers.
Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers. She earned her BA in English from Virginia Wesleyan University and her MA in American literature from the University of Richmond.
Timings
- 0:15 Opening ~ Heather Weidner’s series
- 0:48 Her publishing journey
- 3:40 1st writing ventures
- 5:38 Her writing process, daily word counts
- 7:20 Newbie mistakes and overcoming them
- 8:44 From idea to end
- 10:25 the Team around the protagonist
- 14:25 Moving to the Beta readers; finding the beginning (and the ending)
- 16:00 Revision; adding humor; off to the editor
- 19:00 Daily writing session (no blank page)
- 21:35 Discovering a niche (glamping) in the cozy mystery genre
- 23:45 Motivation and commitment
- 28:20 Marketing
- 29:12 Best writing tool
- 30:19 Re-charging creativity
- 32:25 Her books; advice to new writers
- 34:13 Closing
Links
- Website and Blog: http://www.heatherweidner.com
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeatherWeidner1
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeatherWeidnerAuthor
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heather_mystery_writer/
- Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8121854.Heather_Weidner
- Amazon Authors: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HOYR0MQ
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/HeatherBWeidner/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-weidner-0064b233?trk=hp-identity-name
- BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/heather-weidner-d6430278-c5c9-4b10-b911-340828fc7003
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@heather_weidner_author
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyBjyB0zz-M1DaM-rU1bXGA?view_as=subscriber
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
25+ books and counting, Marilyn Levinson is still penning mysteries. With a series recently completing and a new series to start, she is eager to explore new ideas, settings, and situations.
Timings
- 00:15 Opening with Marilyn’s writing journey
- 1:23 the Haunted Library series under her Alison Brook pen name. Newest release Dewey Decimated
- 3:45 Completing the story arc for that series and the beginnings of that series
- 7:00 Setting and Situation for the Haunted Library series
- 9:58 a Series should have novels that feel like a stand-alone so readers can enter at any time.
- 10:25 the Growth of repeating characters in the Haunted Library (avoiding stagnant characters)
- 11:54 Developing the next series, main characters, setting, research, working on the puzzle of the mystery
- 19:45 Adding a cat or a dog to the series, Smoky Joe the library cat of the Haunted Library series
- 22:15 the Title conundrum
- 23:47 Working from Idea to Novel, bringing in the murder
- 25:00 Plotter vs. Pantster, trusting your mind to work it out
- 27:35 After the Draft
- 30:30 Maintaining Productivity, motivation with friends Kaye George and Peg London
- 35:20 Do writers have a natural inclination to write short stories or novels?
- 36:50 Closing
Links
Marilyn’s website:http://www.marilynlevinson.com
Amazon page: https://amzn.to/3mAhjYO
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marilyn.levinson.10?ref=ts&fref=ts
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Terri Karsten is writing what she wants. Multiple genres, children’s books to historical mysteries for adults, whatever piques her interest … and she is loving what she’s doing.
And isn’t that the important thing?
Timings
- 0:03 Opening
- 0:46 Finn McCool, a legend of Ireland for Middle Grades
- 2:10 Eclectic in writing and reading, writing in multiple genres
- 4:28 Hybrid publishing: indie for books, traditional for shorter works; the journey along the way
- 7:00 Marketing and agents, self-publishing and an award
- 12:39 Cover designs
- 14:01 Hiring an illustrator for picture books; exploring on Deviant Art for covers
- 16:30 Planning the cover designs for a series: for a Philadelphia tavern in the 1760s and for the world-spanning legends for older kids
- 18:42 Productivity for writing and projects and schedules
- 22:16 Living the writing dream; sparking creativity
- 24:30 Tools for writing (one of them isn’t grammar!); “We are human and not perfect.”
- 29:46 Hard part about writing
- 30:35 Not writing to market
- 32:36 Writing fantasy; mystery in fantasy (her Roscoe Gordon stories)
- 35:25 Terri’s advice for newbies and veterans seeking to improve
- 38:45 Closing
LINKS
Terri’s website http://www.terrikarsten.com/
Her blog: https://bricabrac164.wordpress.com/
Her publishing company website https://wagonbridge-publishing.square.site/
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.
Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
J.V. Caggiano talks writing, her book At Witt’s End, having a “serial killer wall” to plan her books, and overcoming her launch at the start of the pandemic, in this week’s episode of The Write Focus.
Timings
- 0:10 Intro
- 2:00 J.V.’s book At Witt’s End, using emotional connections and items to link to the next books
- 4:35 Her route to indie publishing
- 6:25 Using a copy editor, problems and solutions
- 8:07 Cover designer and development of her novel’s title (series branding with covers)
- 10:02 Starting the story process, character dictating setting, and her “serial killer wall”
- 15:25 Her writing journey and her writing schedule
- 19:41 Creativity help: pen and paper
- 24:16 When the first draft is over
- 26:30 Critique groups
- 30:45 Her trusty notebook
- 33:00 Maintaining motivation
- 35:20 Closing
LINKS
J.V. Caggiano’s website https://jvcaggiano.com/
Her author page https://www.amazon.com/J-V-Caggiano/e/B085M6DRHQ/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084ZR2KXH/
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
For debut author Derek Wheeless, writing is a fun journey of discovery. He’s planted into a niche with his YA noir novel We Planned a Murder, Sam Spade-style, the angsty detective re-invented as a teenager.
Timings
- 1:25 Story structure entering life
- 2:15 Derek’s novel, a YA noir; growing as a writer as the novel grws
- 5:20 Verbosity vs. tight writing: the reason picture books are difficult to write
- 6:50 Using a developmental editor
- 9:18 His current work-in-progress follows the mystery style of Nick and Nora Charles; balancing two protagonists
- 11:50 Outlining; plotter vs. pantster vs. puzzler
- 13:53 Novel construction
- 15:41 Hard part of writing
- 18:30 Finding guidance with a developmental editor; finding the right editor
- 23:27 A writing mistake
- 25:38 Developing reader magnets
- 26:50 Maintaining productivity
- 30:00 Designing a cover and branding a series
- 32:04 Writing books simultaneously
- 34:20 Avoiding contemporary slang and references
- 36:05 Casts of characters, the old Dell map backs, and lists of clues
- 39:50 Writing: the journey of discovery
- 42:25 Closing
LINKS
www.DerekDWheeless.com
The direct link to the book in 3 formats on Amazon is https://www.amazon.com/We-Planned-Murder-Murder-Suspects-ebook/dp/B09W8M13SJ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1649875459&sr=8-2
We Planned a Murder was reviewed in a recent issue of Publisher’s Weekly. Here’s the link: https://www.digitalpw.com/digitalpw/20220704/MobilePagedReplica.action?pm=2&folio=74#pg76
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
A paranormal “fixer” and her spirit guide named Raul along with a former spy with a secret cypher at a bookshop: these are just three of the intriguing characters from separate series by Ileana Muñoz Renfroe. Ileana began writing during pandemic lockdown; she doesn’t let her newbie status slow her down.
Timings
- 0:40 Ileana’s cozies and children’s books, esp. Rosa the Cuban psychic and Raul in A Fashionable Bait
- 4:02 Writing multiple story lines simultaneously, heading for a rapid release
- 6:00 Puzzling Pantster with an outline that is tossed
- 6:40 Plotter software: scenes, characters, timelines / Scrivener for actual writing
- 7:41 Ileana’s publishing journey and the Cozy Mystery Village on Facebook
- 9:11 Long-hand writing vs. writing on computer; the flexibility of Scrivener
- 12:17 Her writing planner and a little writing Bible
- 13:30 Idea to End as a Pantstering Puzzler, using real settings to generate ideas
- 17:50 Reaching a work’s end, teasing to the next book
- 22:15 After the first draft
- 23:25 Avoiding negativity
- 24:50 Hybrid on cover designs: some contracted, some indie
- 27:00 Exclusive to Amazon; choosing the indie route over traditionally published.
- 30:00 Maintaining productivity, re-charging by reading
- 34:07 Advice to newbies
- 35:50 Website, upcoming books, Cozy Mystery Village on FB
At the end, host M.A. Lee burbled over a question, which she remembered as soon as the interview ended: Are any books be translated into Spanish? Ileana replied via email, “Not yet,” which means translations will come!
LINKS
Her website imrenfroe
Amazon Author page https://www.amazon.com/Ileana-Munoz-Renfroe/e/B08P2C4DYY/
Accolades - Press — imrenfroe
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Serendipity is the best word to describe Jane Sloven’s writing.
Timings
- 0:08 Jane’s journey into writing; her focus on problem-solving, relationships, female protagonists, psychotherapists, trauma, and managed care
- 6:00 Real life informing the writing
- 7:00 Blurb for Termination of Benefits
- 8:50 Jane’s original writing process. (complete pantstering)
- 11:00 Her forward path: mentors (“All writing is revision”), critique groups, courses and workshops
- 16:00 Compassionate Journey: Honoring Our Mothers’ Stories, essays with other writers
- 17:44 Publishing with the attendant queries, summaries, and synopses; honesty with agents; editing; and small presses
- 25:52 Working on the sequel Fragment of Doubt and a prequel
- 29:22 Changing her writing procedure, bingeing on writing
- 31:30 Revising to add twists and braiding in other plot threads
- 33:20 Writing should be pleasurable
- 35:45 up to the wire on finding critique groups
- 38:56 Closing
Bio
Jane Sloven started her career doing law reform work, working with juvenile offenders in a program that diverted them from court to counseling, tutoring, and job training. Then she went to law school and worked with a small feminist firm in Boston before moving to Maine to take a position developing services for victims of juvenile crime in a restitution program. After working in a traditional law practice, she switched careers to social work, focusing on counseling. She says, “I let go of law and never looked back—other than to do training in mediation and do some volunteer mediation. I had a private psychotherapy practice for about 25 years.”
She wrote her first mystery, Termination of Benefits, (published in 2018) to subversively teach about trauma and recovery. Jane also wanted to explore how people come to terms with clairvoyance, which is one of her protagonist’s struggles. She placed her novel in the Portland, Maine, area.
Termination of Benefits was a Foreward Reviews Indies Finalist for Suspense and Thrillers, a 2019 Next Generation Indie Award Finalist for suspense, and the Grand Prize Winner of the Maine Romance Writers 2019 People’s Choice Strut Your Stuff Award.
LINKS
www.janesloven.com
https://maineauthorspublishing.com
https://maineauthorspublishing.com/termination-of-benefits/
More from Jane
An interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83nFFo-onXo
Compassionate Journey: Honoring Our Mothers’ Stories:
https://www.mainepublic.org/show/maine-calling/2019-05-10/mothers-stories-women-authors-on-their-book-honoring-the-role-of-mothers
https://www.mainewomenmagazine.com/parental-control/
https://www.compassionatejourneyhonoringourmothersstories.com/about.html
http://www.internationalbookawards.com/aboutus/2019awardannouncement.html
Poetry
https://www.riverpoetsjournal.com/The_Signature_Poem_Issue_-_2016.pdf
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Technology is Sarah E. Burr’s friend. It provided the sub-niche for her cozy mystery series, helped her locate an agent, and offers several side endeavors.
TIMINGS
- 0:43 Sarah E. Burr and her books and series. #FollowMe for Murder is out now.
- 4:58 the hybrid world: both indie and traditionally published
- 7:52 70 rejections before an agent; the wonder of the Twitter writing community
- 11:37 Creating a niche in tech info based on life experiences
- 16:15 Writing process: ideas at the beginning and during
- 19:38 Drafting and revision and a working document as a master book
- 25:14 Indie publishing and Kindle Create
- 29:20 Maintaining productivity
- 36:30 Best tool for writers
Sarah E. Burr is the award-winning author of the Glenmyre Whim Mysteries, Trending Topic Mysteries, and Court of Mystery series. She currently serves as the social media guru for the New York chapter of Sisters in Crime and is the creative mind behind BookstaBundles, a content creation service for authors. Sarah is the co-host of The Bookish Hour, a streaming YouTube series featuring live author interviews and book discussions. When she's not spinning up stories, Sarah is singing Broadway tunes, reading everything from mystery to manga, and enjoying walks with her dog, Eevee.
Links:
- Website:saraheburr.com
- Newsletter:https://bit.ly/saraheburrsignup
-
FollowMe for Murder:https://bit.ly/followmeformurder
- You Can’t Candle the Truth:https://bit.ly/glenmyrewhimmysteriesbook1
- Court of Mystery series:https://bit.ly/courtofmystery
- The Bookish Hour: The Bookish Hour -- Episode 1: Judy L. Murray - YouTube
- BookstaBundle, Social Media Content Creative Service https://www.saraheburr.com/bookstabundles
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
History and setting offer rich ideas for Anne Louise Bannon. When characters begin speaking to her, she knows that she has a winning series.
TIMINGS
- 0:04 Opening, Anne Louise Bannon and the turbulent LA County history, the setting of one series
- 2:00 Newest release: Death of an Heiress (see buy links below)
- 3:15 Anne’s interest in LA County’s history
- 7:12 Inspired by a history lecture
- 10:05 Cabot Cove syndrome; stumbling into a rich setting; characters who begin speaking
- 15:15 Anne’s publishing journey, finding the protagonist’s voice
- 20:35 Her writing process
- 23:03 Best tool for writing?
- 26:44 Hard vs. Easy: promotions and visual elements vs. dialogue and character voice
- 31:18 Switching from series to series
- 32:31 Maintaining productivity
- 34:20 the Chicken story
- 37:07 Closing
Record date June 17, Friday; release date for her newest novel June 18, Saturday
Anne Louise Bannon is an author and journalist who wrote her first novel at age 15. Her journalistic work has appeared in Ladies' Home Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Wines and Vines, and in newspapers across the country. She was a TV critic for over 10 years, founded the YourFamilyViewer blog, and created the OddBallGrape.com wine education blog with her husband, Michael Holland. She is the co-author of Howdunit: Book of Poisons, with Serita Stevens, as well as author of the Freddie and Kathy mystery series, set in the 1920s; the Operation Quickline series; and the Old Los Angeles series, set in the 1870s. Her most recent title is book four in the Old Los Angeles series, Death of an Heiress. She and her husband live in Southern California with an assortment of critters.
Website: https://annelouisebannon.com
Buy links:
- https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/death-of-an-heiress
- https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=9AtvEAAAQBAJ
- https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/death-of-an-heiress-anne-louise-bannon/1141254895?ean=9781948616218
- https://books.apple.com/us/book/death-of-an-heiress/id1619307081?itsct=books_box_link&itscg=30200&ls=1
- https://www.amazon.com/Death-Heiress-Anne-Louise-Bannon/dp/1948616211/
- https://www.vromansbookstore.com/book/9781948616218
- https://bookshop.org/a/14104/9781948616218
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Show your support with a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
A fantastical thread through every mystery with serendipitous finds from daily life inspires the best-selling author Melissa Bourbon. Also writing as Winnie Archer, she has several series, including the Book Magic series, Magical Dressmaking series, and the Bread Shop series.
Paying it forward, Melissa also has the Writer Spark Academy, with a blog and resources on a website and several courses on Teachable, the best place for self-paced and recursive learning online.
Her advice and inspiration is “Write the best book you want to read.”
Timings
- 0:03 Opening, with intros to her three main series
- 8:10 Starting a novel, with the focus on her Bibliomancy series
- 9:35 (Branding) the magical thread in all of her series
- 10:30 Melissa’s publishing journey
- 15:45 Idea to Publication: Melissa’s writing process
- 19:15 A Hybrid of pantster and plotter
- 19:48 Maintaining Productivity
- 20:30 the Writer Spark Academy
- 21:45 Melissa’s daily schedule
- 22:40 more on the Writer Spark Academy: website and Teachable courses
- 25:50 WSA example: Field Guide to Writing a Cozy Mystery
- 27:24 importance of recursive learning and Teachable’s model
- 29:00 workbooks for the WSA courses
- 32:38 Craft Chats on YouTube
- 33:50 Best Tool for Writing; writing out of order
- 36:30 Motivation to keep writing through the hard parts
- 39:54 Switching among different series
- 41:20 Brain FM for focusing and study music on Spotify
- 43:40 Closing
LINKS
https://melissabourbon.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/MelissaBourbonWinnieArcherBooks/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/bookishly_cozy
Book Warriors book group on FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookWarriors
FOR WRITERSPARK ACADEMY
Courses: https://writersparkwritingacademy.teachable.com/
Website: https://writersparkacademy.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheWriterSpark
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/writer_spark/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnKN2ZVZwjoAOeHlBO-cRIw
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Buy a coffee to show your support at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
From mainstream mysteries to weird and wacky and on to true crime with paranormal, Pamela Ebel doesn’t hesitate.
Direct from Pamela:
Groups for Crime Fiction Writers
- Short Mystery Fiction Society https://shortmystery.blogspot.com/ A wide network of members with years of experience and success in writing crime fiction short stories and novels
- Mystery Writers of America: They publish monthly newsletters with articles on writing and marketing Markets https://publishedtodeath.blogspot.com/2022/04/12-journals-with-no-fixed-deadlines.htmlhttps://publishedtodeath.blogspot.com/2022/05/77-calls-for-submissions-in-june-2022.html
Writing Tools
- I do not use any of the numerous writing programs and formats on the market. I start all of my works on a legal pad. When I get to a point where I know the rest of the story will go, I move to the computer and use a basic Word program.
- I am a ‘pantser’ and let the story tell me where it wants to go. However, once the first draft is done, I do go back and look carefully for the elements of a plot and whether my characters are getting us where we need to go. I have Beta readers (several of whom also clean up spelling and grammatical issues for me.).
Maintaining Productivity
- By education and profession (BA, MA in Rhetoric and Public Address and 48 years of teaching communications courses at the university level and with a Law Degree and a solo practice, then 15 years as associate dean at a law school) both writing skills and my organizational skills were set long ago. I use an old-fashioned desk calendar with the month, weeks and days to keep track of my obligations.
- I use the same suspense system I used in law practice to keep track of deadlines for works in progress – 60 day notice of impending deadline; 30 day notice; 15 day notice; 5 day notice and prescription date.
- I also lead a critique group of four writers (covering a variety of genres and styles) that meets at my home every other week. I receive their stories ahead of time, write and return my written critiques to them, and then they have each other’s works that they critique at the gathering.
- I also teach a course on “Writing and Marketing Short Stories” Both of these activities keep me involved with others who have my passion for writing and that keeps me writing also.
Publishing Decisions
Whether to seek a traditional publisher for your work; a hybrid publisher or self-publishing is a personal decision that should be made based on
- the amount of time you are willing to expend seeking a brick and mortar publisher (usually requiring an agent),
- 2) how much time you wish to tie up your work with a traditional publishing time line,
- 3) how much money your are willing to come out of pocket to get your work published,
- and 4) how much of your own money and time you can afford to market your work.
My bottom line is that whatever decision one makes in the journey to having your novel, novella, anthology or short stories or poetry see the light of day for the reading public is personal and valid for the author.
Do not let ‘the in crowd’ tell you what you ‘HAVE TO DO’ to be successful. Have a serious talk with yourself and your family and then do what satisfies you.
Timings
- 00:52 Opening for Pamela Ebel, into her fifth career: writing
- 2:00 Avoiding the word genre
- 4:18 Flash Fiction
- 6:16 Offering fiction for free on her website
- 7:40 Finding Turners ~ a series with retired circus animals
- 9:20 Writing a short story a week
- 10:45 Submission process advice
- 16:00 Finding markets
- 18:40 Best Help for Writing
- 20:45 How to find her work
- 21:50 Writing vs. social media; her story “Dead Men don’t Text” is upcoming on her Facebook page (link below)
- 23:30 Investing in your own writing
- 25:00 Novel vs. Short Fiction
- 27:25 When disasters affect the writing
- 29:35 Finding a short story in a novel
- 31:11 Avoiding boredom with the writing
- 33:30 Best Writing Tool
- 37:13 Never wait for validation from others
- 39:20 Closing
MORE LINKS
https://www.facebook.com/pamela.ebel.75
https://business.facebook.com/Pamela-Ebels-Mysterious-Tales-from-the-Cross-Roads-of-America-110015857359579/
https://www.shotgunhoney.com/authors/pamela-ebel/
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Buy a coffee to show your support at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Genghis Khan. Medieval surgeries. The Bone Guard.
These intriguing story lines are the invention of Elaine Isaak, writing as E.C. Ambrose. In this excellent interview, Elaine shares her writing processes and several surprising methods in this episode of The Write Focus.
Timings
- 1:30 Opening
- 2:15 Focus on The Mongol’s Coffin
- 3:20 The allure of the High Middle Ages
- 4:10 Cross-cultural exchange and innovation
- 6:46 Medieval surgery, her first series, and the vision of a series protagonist Elisha Barber: “My god, I’ve killed them all.”
- 8:50 Publication Journey
- 9:34 Relinquishing control, traditional publishing, indie publishing
- 11:40 writing contest games
- 12:40 Elaine’s writing process
- 14:40 Outlining
- 15:55 Story Spine
- 16:34 Draft is done. What next?
- 19:12 Challenge of writing different series
- 24:41 Best writing tool
- 26:10 Research while writing
- 28:37 Maintaining Productivity
- 30:00 Family matters.
- 32:00 Best writing craft to practice
- 34:35 Benefit of local writing chapters.
www.ECAmbrose.com
E.C. Ambrose | Penguin Random House
Amazon.com: E.C. Ambrose: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Buy me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Elle Andrews Patt shares more of her writing life. The age-old question of plotter vs. pantster, the synopsis and her route to a hybrid writing life, writing with sensitivity and awareness, the synopsis and productivity, as well as Clickmagick, her best tool for marketing, and much more. We end with her multi-part writing advice. Join us.
Content
- 1:00 Plotter vs. Pantster
- 1:40 When books do not fit a marketing niche and the hybrid writer life
- 4:35 Writing with Sensitivity and Awareness
- 5:40 Plotting and the synopsis
- 10:20 ClickMagick for tracking links; importance for marketing and ROI (return on investment)
- 13:30 Productivity and deadlines
- 16:40 Changing process / practice adapts the process
- 17:45 Elle’s Best Advice (multi-part)
MORE LINKS from Elle
Synopsis: https://publishingcrawl.com/p/how-to-write-a-1-page-synopsis?s=r
Clickmagick: https://www.clickmagick.com/login/
Mark Dawson Ads for Authors: https://learn.selfpublishingformula.com/p/adsforauthors
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Buy me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Elle Andrews Patt offers her perspective on writing, from the start of her publishing journey to writing series and spin-offs, all in this episode of The Write Focus.
Next week, she will share her views on plotter vs. pantster, the synopsis, Clickmagick and much much more. Join us.
Content
- 1:11 Opening
- 2:02 Elle Andrews Patt’s published writings
- 4:00 Her writing / publishing journey
- 5:00 Practice using Fan Fiction
- 7:50 Short Story vs. Novel
- 11:00 Stand-alones vs. Series (writing a series, cliffhangers: the ugly, the bad, and the good
- 15:35 Interconnected characters and spin-offs
LINKS
elleandrewspatt.com
How To Grow A Novel: https://www.amazon.com/How-Grow-Novel-Mistakes-Overcome/dp/0312267495/
Reading Like A Writer: https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Like-Writer-Guide-People/dp/0060777052
Characters and Viewpoint: https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Fiction-Writing-Characters-Viewpoint/dp/0898799279
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Buy me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
This week we return to the wonderful Kaye George and her writing guidance.
She spills the beans on her writing journey, her process to start a mystery, her methods and tools, and productivity along with two keys that unlock success. She also provides our inspiration!
Enjoy part 2 of multi-published Kaye George, this week on the Write Focus.
TIMINGS
- 1:05 how to find her books; also, out-of-print books
- 2:40 updating her out-of-print books
- 3:45 how Kaye started writing
- 4:55 Kaye’s process to start a mystery
- 7:15 Five points to help plan clues, red herrings, suspects, etc.
- 8:35 What “National Best-Selling” means
- 10:00 the shrinking book markets and other worries
- 11:35 Helps to stay motivated and persistent
- 13:53 Kaye’s writing journey
- 14:50 Advice to New Writers and our Inspiration!
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction / Interviews with Writers.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Buy me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Multi-published Kaye George is our 1st interview!
We had a grand conversation about how she develops her series, world building, writing short stories vs. writing novels, and work-for-hire, plus a lot more. And this is only the start of our interview.
Next week we’ll talk details about her writing process, productivity, and more and more.
Here it is, part 1 of our conversation with National Best-Selling writer of mysteries with a twist, Kaye George.
TIMINGS
- 1:14 Kaye George talks her books
- 4:19 World-building with her People of the New Land series
- 5:22 Imogene books set in Wichita Falls, TX
- 6:18 creative sparks for stories: Imogene and Neanderthal series
- 8:12 Imogene as a “heart”series and the reasons behind its development
- 11:04 Cat cozies: the Fat Cat series, work-for-hire and how to structure such a series. (See also 17:00)
- 12:38 Candy and cats: the vintage sweets series; what happens to authors and their books when publishers combine
- 14:29 over 50 short stories, many in anthologies (see also 16:40)
- 15:07 not self-published
- 15:52 writing short stories vs. writing novels; organizing methods for novels; spreadsheets
- 17:14 developing a brand
- 17:47 Short stories allow experimentation
- 18:11 work-for-hire logistics
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction / Interviews with Writers.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Buy me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Building Blocks for Short Narratives
Do we ever start writing blind to story? Not blind as in sightless, but blind in having no idea where we are going with a story? I say no. Many writers agree with me. Even if we have only the faintest glimmer of an idea, we have something to guide us.
The best short narratives engage and surprise us. Lester Dent knows how to keep each story separate rather than a dull repetition. He decides main points before he begins; these are his building blocks. We should, too. This episode can help.
Timings
- 1: 20 Opening
- 2:09 Formulas with Pantsters, Plotters, and Puzzlers
- 5:08 Dent’s Building Blocks for all Stories
- 9:15 Dent’s Checklists for Each Story Part
- 11:19 Story-Song “Puff, the Magic Dragon”
- 14:38 Closing / Next Week
- 14:57 Inspiration / Sinclair Lewis
LINKS to "Puff"
https://youtu.be/Vg2RcXC8KSk
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/peterpaulandmary/puffthemagicdragon.html
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction / Interviews with Writers.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Major plot points in short narratives keep the story moving—whether a short story, a narrative poem, or an anecdote to personalize a blog post.
Explosive excitement, an angsty soul-changing crisis, a boxed-in corner that forces an intellectual revelation—these are perfect for the major story parts or movements, the opening and closing of each 1,500-word scene or a poem’s stanza or an article’s anecdotal paragraph.
What do we write in the middle of those parts? This episode can help.
Timings
- 1:22 Opening with 3 Requirements of a Short Narrative
- 2:05 Realm of Long Narratives vs. Realm of Short Narratives
- 4:11 Focus on the Middle of each Part / Movement
- 4:31 1st Story Part or Movement (A & B)
- 6:25 Ways to Hide Clues
- 7:59 Carly Simon’s “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be”, 1st stanza and chorus
- 10:25 2nd Story Part & Simon’s 2nd stanza
- 12:28 3rd Story Part
- 12:52 4th Story Part
- 13:29 Simon’s 3rd stanza and final chorus
- 15:12 Closing / Next Week
- 15:46 Inspiration / Somerset Maugham
New LINKS
“That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be” video https://youtu.be/Ux7HgO9QhAc
Lyrics https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/carlysimon/thatsthewayivealwayshearditshouldbe.html
Success with short narratives? That’s our current goal. We’ve found Lester Dent’s Plot Formula.
We’re creatives, so we can adapt the formula to fit our genre needs. We know the four parts of the 4 movements. We’re writing fiction / poetry / non-fiction. What’s next?
The details, man. It’s all in the details … of the narrative.
Timings
- 1:05 Opening
- 1:52 Check-in
- 2:55 Lester Dent’s Plot Formula
- 7:21 Coincidence is a No-No
- 8:04 Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls” with the Formula
- 15:08 Riddling: a Tricky method to end any story
- 15:53 Closing / Next Week
- 16:28 Inspiration / Joyce Cary
New Resources
Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls” https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/garthbrooks/thethunderrolls.html
Video of above Garth Brooks - The Thunder Rolls (With Lyrics And Pics) - YouTube
Having trouble with short narratives? Short stories? Narrative poems? Anecdotes in your blogs and essays/articles?
I had trouble. Free admission. I would launch into a story that I hoped would be 8,000 to 10,000 words only for the word count to top 20,000 or more. I was rather proud of myself when a planned short story ran less than 15,000 words.
My narrative poems ran longer than 5 or 6 stanzas. Think “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” length. For the blog I wrote, my example stories ran more than 15 to 20 sentences.
Too long. What’s that acronym? TL;DR. “Didn’t read.” Oops.
What was I doing wrong? Surely there’s a secret to short narratives? Guess what? There is! In this episode, I’ll share what I found.
Timings
- 1:45 Opening
- 3:28 Paul Simon’s “America”
- 4:17 Avoiding the School-Taught Plot Pyramid
- 5:15 Erle Stanley Gardner
- 6:28 Lester Dent
- 7:10 LDent’s Plot Formula
- 8:32 The Basics
- 12:00 Closing / Next Week
- 13:00 Inspiration / Raymond Carver
Resource Links
Lester Dent’s Plot Formula / printable pdf / https://mgherron.com/2015/01/lester-dents-pulp-paper-master-fiction-plot-formula/
Paul Simon’s “America” https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/paulsimon/america.html
Video of above America - Lyrics - Simon & Garfunkel - YouTube
MixMisc A / Research / 3:21 / E110 Research: a Ho-Hum topic? Not quite.
Research is necessary in all realms of writing.
Whether discovering the details that given veritas to our fiction, the details that we shouldn’t get wrong in commemorative poems, or just adding specific and elaborating details to our nonfiction, HUMDRUM RESEARCH is totally necessary.
The challenge comes in determining how many research details to use.
- 1:11 Check-In
- 2:50 Opening
- 3:27 Challenges
- 3:49 Fiction and Research
- 4:31 Light Hand
- 5:17 Active Use of Research
- 5:52 Amount of Research to use
- 7:26 Poetry and Research
- 9:11 3 Chief Elements when presenting Occasional Poems
- 9:16 4 Requirements of Song
- 10:06 Public Ceremonies
- 10:35 Writing for Independence Day
- 12:50 Checklist for any poem / 10 To-Do’s
- 13:46 Walt Whitman
- 17:45 R. Waldo Emerson
- 20:40 Nonfiction and Research
- 21:40 Next Week
- 21:54 Inspiration / Ezra Pound
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction / Interviews with Writers.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
We're going from A to Z this week, as we discuss Sequences, the last of the Enhancement series.
Climbing higher and higher = foothills, ridges, mountains.
Getting worse and worse = aged, ancient, decrepit.
Listen up to discover ways to sequence, progress / regress, ascend / descend, and create clever jumps in meaning.
- 1:10 opening
- 2:45 deliberate ordering: ranking, progressions, expansions
- 8:08 anticlimax
- 9:25 auxesis
- 12:14 zeugma
- 15:06 parallelism
- 17:26 isocolon
- 18:50 elliptical constructions
- 22:06 closing / next week
- 22:25 inspiration / Annie Dillard
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enhancements.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
“I always lie.” There’s a conundrum for you. If we tell people that we’re lying—are we lying or telling the truth? Yes? No? Difficult to tell, isn’t it?
The opposites in this week’s episode offers 3 types that can quickly entangle us. If you’ve ever been mixed up about paradox, irony, or satire, this episode can help.
LINK to "Counting Stars" OneRepublic - Counting Stars Lyrics | AZLyrics.com
- 1:08 opening
- 2:09 Paradox with explanation and examples
- 5:31 paradox that fills “Counting Stars”
- 10:13 Irony with explanation and examples
- 12:13 Frost and Dickens
- 14:19 3 Forms of Irony
- 16:05 Cosmic Irony
- 17:13 Satire with explanation and examples (including lampoon and farce)
- 19:17 Geoffrey Chaucer and Jane Austen
- 21:52 the American master Mark Twain with modern examples
- 25:03 Next Week
- 25:18 Inspiration / Roy Blount Jr.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enhancements.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Opposites / Dichotomies are the foundation for all ideas. The positive / negative synergy develops concepts for finance and commerce, business and manufacturing, science and tech, fiction and nonfiction, art static and art dramatic.
The world also has its triads and quarternaries ~ past / present / future and earth / air / water / fire.
We have many more dichotomies than triads and quarternaries and even symbiotic dualities (yin / yang). When the opposition is presented “for effect”, then we have an Enhancement.
- 1:00 Opening = opposites / dichotomies / juxtaposition
- 2:12 Antithesis = explanation and examples
- 4:46 Robert Southey’s “Winter”
- 6:10 Oxymoron = explanation and examples
- 6:42 In Romeo and Juliet
- 8:13 in Hamlet
- 9:06 “Lesson of the Moth” by Don Marquis
- 13:57 Starting in Mid-May
- 14:12 Next Week
- 14:40 Inspiration / Somerset Maugham
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enhancements.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Repetition. We focused on simple repetition in the previous episode, from the riding, riding, riding of “The Highwayman” up to the old inn door to the clever use of incremental repetition, with “I’ve looked at cloud … and love … and life” in Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”, and to alliteration of “streaming rain, blinding sleet, stoned by hail, freezes the frost and fall the snow” from an Old English poem.
This time we look at the intricate types of repetition, to and fro, fast and slow, front and back, complicated but powerful. It’s Repetition, part 2.
- 0:58 Opening
- 1:07 Antistrophe
- 3:18 Epanalepsis
- 4:30 Amplification
- 5:23 Anadisplosis
- 6:46 Polysyndeton
- 7:53 Asyndeton
- 9:51 Anaphora
- 13:35 Epistrophe
- 17:20 Nest Week
- 17:30 Inspiration / John Hersey
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enhancements.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
“Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.”
Why are we quoting the famous Macbeth speech by Shakespeare? It has two separate types of repetition. The 1st type is simple repetition with two instances. The 2nd type is a repetition of opening sounds.
In this episode we’re also going to talk about a third clever type of repetition.
Three types of repetition. Did you know repeating words is a proliferate writing technique? Like Guppies, words clone each other. Join our presentation of three simple ways to capture reader interest and curiosity.
- 1:32 Opening
- 2:56 Repetition has impact
- 3:12 repetition examples
- 4:03 George Gordon, Lord Byron: “We’ll Go no more A-Roving”
- 5:18 Incremental Repetition
- 5:32 Examples, including the “Lord Randall” ballad and William Stafford’s “Fifteen”
- 9:05 Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”
- 14:01 polysyndeton and anaphora
- 15:23 Alliteration
- 16:38 French Rhyme vs. English Rhyme
- 17:28 Old English poems
- 18:40 alliteration examples
- 20:45 Wilfred Owens’ “From my Diary, July 1914”
- 22:00 Next Week
- 22:10 Inspiration / R. Waldo Emerson
Special Links
Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now Lyrics | AZLyrics.com
Judy Collins sings BSN with Arthur Fiedler's Boston Pops as accompaniment
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enhancements.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
“Always in motion is the future.”
Do you recognize that quotation? You may be able to because the words are out of natural order.
It’s Yoda!
No, we’re not going to talk about Yoda and the Star Wars franchise or laser swords.
Our focus for this episode is Words Out of Natural Order. That happens more often than we writers realize.
Inversion, switching up the natural order of words, is more than Yoda and a Zen-like character device that became a gimmick.
It’s recognizable, though, isn’t it?
How can we use Inversion to create our own writing—without becoming a gimmick? This episode of The Write Focus can help.
- 1:18 Inversion: Simple Device or Gimmick?
- 1:53 William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus”
- 3:32 Subject Out of Position / 4 Subject Inversions
- 9:22 Yoda Charm / Subtle Inversion (a/k/a Anastrophe)
- 10:28 Emily Dickinson / Henley, again
- 16:08 Closing / Next Week
- 16:16 Inspiration / C. Day Lewis
For CHIASTIC STRUCTURE, which is too involved to hear (You have to SEE it), visit this link and look for the Chiastic Structure of the Iliad books.
- Homer and the heroic tradition. (1958 edition) | Open Library
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enhancements.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Mystical wanderer. Dark desert highway. A ragged prince who turns into a toad. The beast of fame that cannot be killed.
Recognize these images? Yep, it’s Carole King’s “Tapestry”, a riddling allegory that questions more than it answers, and “Hotel California” by the Eagers, another allegory of Fame and the goddess Fortuna.
“Hotel California” has a classical music connection to Carl Orff’s “O, Fortuna.” Now that’s a surprise.
These chart-topping songs are the focus for Allegories, part 2. Come along as we explore the songs and their allegories and discover how to craft an allegory in our own writing.
- Carole King’s “Tapestry”
- Carl Orff’s “O, Fortuna”
- The Eagles’ “Hotel California”
- Next Week
- Inspiration / James Baldwin
Special Links
Carole King performing "Tapestry" with images Carole King ~ Tapestry - Bing video
Carole King - Tapestry Lyrics | AZLyrics.com
Eagles - Hotel California Lyrics | AZLyrics.com
Eagles live performance of "Hotel California" The Eagles - Hotel California Live 1976.. - Bing video
Lyrics to O Fortuna | Latin and English (had2know.org)
Andre Rieu conducting a performance of "O Fortuna" André Rieu - O Fortuna (Carmina Burana - Carl Orff) - Bing video
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enhancements.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Mystical wanderer. Dark desert highway. A ragged prince who turns into a toad. The beast of fame that cannot be killed.
Recognize these images? Yep, it’s Carole King’s “Tapestry”, a riddling allegory that questions more than it answers, and “Hotel California” by the Eagers, another allegory of Fame and the goddess Fortuna.
“Hotel California” has a classical music connection to Carl Orff’s “O, Fortuna.” Now that’s a surprise.
These chart-topping songs are the focus for Allegories, part 2. Come along as we explore the songs and their allegories and discover how to craft an allegory in our own writing.
- 1:23 Check-In
- 2:10 Carole King’s “Tapestry”
- 10:04 Carl Orff’s “O, Fortuna”
- 11:00 The Eagles’ “Hotel California”
- 18:23 Next Week
- 18:52 Inspiration / James Baldwin
Special Links
Carole King performing "Tapestry" with images Carole King ~ Tapestry - Bing video
Carole King - Tapestry Lyrics | AZLyrics.com
Eagles - Hotel California Lyrics | AZLyrics.com
Eagles live performance of "Hotel California" The Eagles - Hotel California Live 1976.. - Bing video
Lyrics to O Fortuna | Latin and English (had2know.org)
Andre Rieu conducting a performance of "O Fortuna" André Rieu - O Fortuna (Carmina Burana - Carl Orff) - Bing video
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enhancements.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Ever heard a story, and just know, know that something extra is also part of the story? Not hidden bits and pieces but a whole narrative?
A top story is running along, but another story runs underneath the surface, occasionally poking up the periscope for a look around before re-submerging so it can run silent, run deep? (Yep, that’s an allusion to the famous submarine movie.)
That submerged story, it’s an allegory, and the allegory occurs more often than we would imagine.
How do we craft our allegories? This episode can help.
- 1:18 Allegory
- 3:01 Parables as Allegories
- 6:23 George Orwell’s Animal Farm
- 7:21 Jack London’s Call of the Wild
- 10:04 Next Week
- 10:31 Inspiration / Francois Mauriac
For the five steps, please visit my YouTube channel. The five steps will be in this episode, about 3 minutes in.
YouTube direct link to the Enhancements playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Iyaw3xDbgPAQrc1p8CG_Z7
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enhancements.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Last episode I had a major oopsie. Almost finished recording three tools (imagery / archetype / allusion) for our Enhancement Writer’s Toolbox, and I realized the recording had approached 40 minutes. Quelle surprise!
Now I stumble over words and pause and take long breaths, but I know—know—that I wouldn’t have enough errors to lose 20 minutes. I can accept reaching 25 minutes. We’ve had a ½ hour episode, part 1 of Symbols (the numbers). But multiple ½ hour and more episodes? No. NO. That defeats The Write Focus’s stated length: time for a quick commute, brisk walk, or fast meal-prep.
The plan to cover imagery, archetype, and allusion in one episode was because all three contain a wealth of information in one word or phrase (a Herculean task).
Therefore, rather than run 40 minutes, I broke that planned episode into two.
- Imagery last week
- Archetype and Allusion this week
- Finishing the Interpretive Realm with Allegory next week
Timings
- 1:45 Archetype
- 4:26 Shapes and Colors and Situations
- 5:38 Allusions
- 9:00 In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
- 11:40 Classical Mythology common allusions
- 12:09 Old and New Testament common allusions
- 12:52 Bordon Deal’s “Antaeus”
- 15:46 Next Week
- 16:08Inspiration / Natalia Ginzberg
Emily Dickinson ~ both versions of “I Never Saw a Moor” https://allpoetry.com/I-Never-Saw-a-Moor
e.e. cummings ~ “i carry your heart” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/49493/i-carry-your-heart-with-mei-carry-it-in
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enhancements.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
It’s the 100th episode. Time to Celebrate.
And
Besides symbolic colors and numbers, how else can we add single words and short phrases to enhance our writing? We’re delving into simple touches that we can add to stories and poems and novels AND nonfiction essays and blogs to enrich the text for our readers.
Key words here are simple touches. These carry a tremendous wealth of information.
By having several tools in our writers’ toolbox, we can layer our enhancements in with a light touch. With our previously discussed metaphors and other figures of speech, we dab in a color symbol or three, a number here and there. But we’ve barely explored the writer’s toolbox.
In this episode of The Write Focus, we offer another method to touch a highlight to our writing.
- 1:30 Celebration
- 2:30 Imagery
- 3:00 Chiaroscuro in The Scarlet Letter
- 4:35 Omar Khayyim’s Rubaiyat, translated by Edward Fitzgerald
- 8:45 Emily Dickinson
- 10:39 Tone / Mood / Atmosphere
- 11:30 e.e. cummings’ “i carry your heart”
- 15:43 Next Week
- 16:00 Inspiration / William Shakespeare
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enhancements.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Last week was a half-hour episode on Symbolic Numbers. This week we’re all about symbolic colors, and we have our regular length: long enough to fix a quick dinner, drive a short commute, or take a brisk walk.
We explain the 3 primaries red, blue, yellow; the neutrals black, white, grey; the metals silver and gold; and the vivid purple, green, and orange. Can’t leave out brown, the color of old sacrifice.
Join us for ways to enhance your writing by changing a single word.
It’s the Enhancement series, on The Write Focus.
- 1:14 Symbolic Colors (and Times)
- 3:19 Only 3 Colors in One Culture
- 4:27 Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”
- 6:32 red / blue /white
- 7:07 green / purple
- 7:51 black / white / grey
- 8:56 silver and gold
- 9:46 orange and brown
- 10:34 NC Wyeth’s painting of Arthur Receiving Excalibur
- 12:12 F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
- 12:44 Irene Hunt’s Across Five Aprils
- 16:42 Symbolic Colors and Times questions
- 17:31 Next Week
- 17:51 Inspiration / Alfred Kazin
Special Links
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost | Poetry Foundation
NC Wyeth 450px-Boyskingarthur-wyeth-excalibur-lady-of-the-lake.jpg (450×574) (summitlighthouse.org)
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enhancements.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
What’s an easy and ingenuous way to elevate our writing to the next level?
This way works down into the words we place on the page. In character descriptions. Setting development. Plot dynamics. It’s like a secret language that most readers don’t know about even as their subconscious recognizes that secret language. In many respects, this is global, recognized everywhere. If no one spots it—which is always good—this secret gives us writers a satisfactory glow every time we touch it onto the page.
What is this easy and ingenuous way to elevate our writing? Symbols.
- 1:16 Symbols: Realm of the Interpretive
- 4:13 5 Clues to Interpretation
- 4:48 symbols in Toni Cade Bambera’s “Blues Ain’t No Mockinbird”
- 5:39 bird symbols in James Hurst’s “The Scarlet Ibis”
- 7:19 symbols and allusions unlock additional knowledge
- 8:46 :: 1, 2, & 3
- 10:38 :: 4, 5, & 6
- 16:53 :: 7, 8, & 9
- 21:52 :: 10 & 11
- 24:09 :: 12 & 13
- 26:27 Using Symbolic Numbers
- 28:08 Next Week
- 28:20 Inspiration / Honoré de Balzac
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enhancements.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Similes: easy enough. Metaphors: also easy. Direct Metaphor: just like a simile. Implied Metaphor: now we’re getting complex. Hyperbole: easy again. Great for insults.
How about metonymy and Synecdoche?
“Wait, I know these,” you say. “Let me remember. I haven’t heard them since high school. Metonymy’s when a part of something represents the whole. Oh, that’s synecdoche. I don’t remember metonymy.
Don’t stress. This episode of The Write Focus will help.
- 04:10 Comparison Equations
- 07:42 Simile
- 11:35 Metaphor
- 14:05 Simile vs. Metaphor
- 16:15 Metonymy
- 17:25 Synecdoche
- 19:52 Hyperbole
- 22:49 Next Week
- 23:09 Inspiration
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enhancements, necessary word craft building to improve our writing at the word and sentence level.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Similes: easy enough. Metaphors: also easy. Direct Metaphor: just like a simile. Implied Metaphor: now we’re getting complex. Hyperbole: easy again. Great for insults.
How about metonymy and Synecdoche?
“Wait, I know these,” you say. “Let me remember. I haven’t heard them since high school. Metonymy’s when a part of something represents the whole. Oh, that’s synecdoche. I don’t remember metonymy.
Don’t stress. This episode of The Write Focus will help.
- 04:10 Comparison Equations
- 07:42 Simile
- 11:35 Metaphor
- 14:05 Simile vs. Metaphor
- 16:15 Metonymy
- 17:25 Synecdoche
- 19:52 Hyperbole
- 22:49 Next Week
- 23:09 Inspiration
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus! We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Enhancements.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Apostrophes ~ no, not the mark of punctuation. It's the literary term. Know what it is?
How about paradox? Sure on that?
Chiasmus: my favorite, people enjoy when they see it, but do you know the term when you want to practice it? Can I stump you with these?
Polysyndeton. Epistrophe.
These are all Enhancements that can help your writing sing on the page. That's an implied metaphor, BTW.
Enhancements from anastrophes to zeugmas ~ the series starts with this episode.
- 02:25 Who needs word tricks?
- 05:18 Basic language information
- 07:00 The only rule to remember
- 08:25 Taste
- 10:20 Periodic vs. Cumulative (more of a grammar lesson than helpful to writers)
- 13:40 Denotation vs. Connotation
- 16:40 Practice Connotation
- 16:53 Next Week
- 17:13 Inspiration / Charles Lamb
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. Our focus is productivity, process, craft, and tools. The New Year starts with the challenge to be a writer. We ended 2021 with a manuscript, written during the fall writing challenge. Now we turn that manuscript into a document we can publish.
That’s our focus here: writing and the knowledge to solve any writing-related issues. We’re for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
This week on The Write Focus:
We have the MS finished. We’ve revised. Our first readers cry and gush over our story. They think it’s great. We’ve received the cover from the professional designer, and it’s glorious: it captures the reader’s imagination and the story and the genre.
We are ready to publish.
It’s a simple matter of clicking a few buttons, right?
Not quite.
We have business details to gather. We have to format the MS. Then we can publish and plan our promotions.
- 1:20 Coming Next: Enhancements
- 2:25 Introduction
- 2:35 Business Details ~ Blurb (long info) / Tax ID / ISBN / Copyright
- 9:52 Formatting ~ headings / table of contents / front matter / back matter
- 11:50 Publishing on KDP and D2D ~ Metadata / Content / Previewer / Pricing
- 13:37 Promotions ~ Media presence / types of posts / Ads and ROI / Launch
- 16:30 Think Outside the Box.
- 17:32 Next Week
- 17:45 Inspiration / Isabelle Allende
Resources
Fiction Sales Copy by Dean Wesley Smith
Free Amazon Book Description Tool from Kindlepreneur
Internal Revenue Service / Tax Identification Number
Bowker / ISBN
Copyright / US Copyright Office
Amazon Key Word Descriptors :: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201298500
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus.
We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. The New Year starts with the challenge to be a writer. We ended 2021 with a manuscript, written during the fall writing challenge. Now we turn that manuscript into a document we can publish.
That’s our focus here: writing and the knowledge to solve any writing-related issues. We’re for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Edit and Correct are harsh-sounding words that can strike fear in writers. They think, “I know nothing about grammar. I can’t edit. Let me hire someone.” And I retort, “Yes, but not yet.”
What do I mean by “not yet”? Why am I implying that we can do most of the editing and correction ourselves? Because we can. Be Brave and Try.
- 1:00 Never Fear Proofreading
- 2:25 You are in Control
- 3:35 Proofreaders & Line Editors
- 5:20 Objective Distance / 1st Editing Round = Full Speed Ahead.
- 6:12 2nd Editing Round = Segment the MS
- 6:45 3rd Editing Round = Reverse Engines
- 7:15 4th Editing Round = Full Steam Ahead w/ Many Eyes & Real-Life Awkward Example from a Seminar (Names not given, a few details changed to protect the innocent, main details untouched)
- 11:17 Can’t Afford a Proofreader?
- 13:39 Next Week
- 14:00 Inspiration / Elinor Fuchs
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!
We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. The New Year starts with the challenge to be a writer. We ended 2021 with a manuscript, written during the fall writing challenge. Now we turn that manuscript into a document we can publish.
That’s our focus here: writing and the knowledge to solve any writing-related issues. We’re for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Revision can be a beast. Conquer it by using The Write Focus process.
- Revision ~ the Next Project Goal 1:28
- Is the Manuscript Complete? 2:14
- The Goal of Revision 3:57
- Objective Distance 4:55
- 1st Step 7:15
- 2nd Step 8:12
- 3rd Step 10:17
- 4th Step 13:31
- Examples of Strong Voice 17:00
- Coming Next 17:44
- Inspiration for the Week / Bernard Malamud 18:40
This episode runs for 20 minutes.
Welcome to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. The New Year starts with the challenge to be a write. We ended 2021 with a manuscript, written during the fall writing challenge. Now we turn that manuscript into a document we can publish.
That’s our focus here: writing and the knowledge to solve any writing-related issues. We’re for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
This week's episode of The Write Focus starts the year with intention.
- Set Priorities 1:25
- The Writing Life 2:15
- Writing Resolutions 2:40
- Writing Goals ~ 6 Stages of Writing 3:38
- Writing Biz Goals 7:00
- Promo Goals 8:45
- Project Schedule onto the Calendar 10:00
- SMART Goals 11:10
- Next Up 13:10
- Inspiration / Pearl Buck 13:28
This episode runs close to 15 minutes (14:51).
Welcome to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. The New Year starts with the challenge to be a write. We ended 2021 with a manuscript, written during the fall writing challenge. Now we turn that manuscript into a document we can publish.
That’s our focus here: writing and the knowledge to solve any writing-related issues. We’re for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
January 1 falls outside the parameters by offering a freebie.
We have as a special freebie the Introduction to "Godriana's Font" by Remi Black, part of the Fae Mark'd World series.
Dark Fae care nothing for human wants and desires.
Sharp-clawed monsters view humans as prey.
How can the mentor Lilias build noblesse oblige in an insouciant Fae?
Click here for the episode. Story Start @ 1:35
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)
Welcome to the Gifts for Writers episode of The Write Focus.
What are the best gifts for writers? Mont Blanc pens? No, too personal. Bookcases? No, impossible to wrap. Cute and quaint desk supplies? No, too practical. An inspirational plaque? No, too consumerism. Maybe a pedometer to make them health-conscious? No, stop nagging.
The Focus offers the three best categories of gifts for writers; it’s up to you the gift-giver to determine the specific gift.
These may be impossible to wrap and shove under the Christmas tree, but the writer will thank you for months on end.
- 01:18 = We start with the November Novel Writing Challenge check-in.
- 05:12 = Gratitude Giveaway
- 06:05 = Picking Gifts for Writers
- 08:35 = A Gift that Touches the Heart
- 10:11 = A Gift that Inspires the Soul
- 11:00 = A Gift that Motivates the Brain
- 12:43 = Next Week & Inspiration
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps.)
Welcome to The Write Focus, a weekly podcast for writers, whether newbies, veterans, or 'tweenies.
Wrapping up our Miscellany for the November Writing Challenge, our focus this week is 5 Writing Crimes to Avoid.
1st, we check in on the November Writing Challenge.
2nd, we celebrate our 75th episode for 2021. That 75 episodes by the last of November comes from our weekly podcast as well as the daily April Podcast Challenge. Look for another podcast challenge in 2022, maybe in April or maybe the Dog Days of August Podcast Challenge.
3rd, we have a Gratitude Giveaway. Listen to the podcast for the rules and guidelines.
5 Writing Crimes to Avoid
- Signaling :: 4:54
- Window Dressing :: 6:39
- Boring Details :: 8:40
- Lack of Continuity :: 10:21
- Head-Hopping :: 12:03
Next Week & Inspiration :: 15:43
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus.
Our focus is productivity, process, craft, and tools. October is Preptober for November’s National Novel Writing Month, known commonly as NaNoWriMo. December will focus on Gifts for Writers.
Launching into 2022, we'll briefly talk about planning then focus on the steps needed to turn November’s rough draft into a publishable work.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps.)
What's a quick way for writers to study the elements of story? No, it's not reading and discussing novels. It's studying film! Yes, movies!
First in this episode, we check-in with the November Writing Challenge.
Topics in this episode include A] why do we study through films, B] what are the elements of story to study, and C] how do we know which films to study.
Films to choose ~ any that are popular, either in book or film for, but hopefully in both forms ~
-
We recommend Jane Austen's Persuasion, with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds, better at presenting interior character stresses and desires.
-
The dance
- characters we love to hate
- the motif of travel
Our second recommendation is Last of the Mohicans*, with Daniel Day Lewis.
- conflict with Magua, with his goals, motivations, and desires revealed scene by scene
- the foil to Nathaniel
- Redemption of a character
Our third recommendation is 13th Warrior*, a flawed film that still manages to teach lessons for writers.
- the importance of a logical progression of events
- the story arc of Stranger in a Strange Land
- mentors
- theme of Deception
Finally, we give the nuts and bolts of how to study films.
From now to December 5, write winkbooks@aol.com. The first five listeners to respond will receive a free planner: the Think/Pro planner for writers. It helps with daily word count and project planning. We need your name and mailing address. We won't collect any of your information. The planner is our gift to you, part of our anniversary celebration, Thanksgiving celebration, and Christmas gifting!
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps.)
What are the 3 essential tools for writers? No, it's not sticky notes ~ although I couldn't live without them. It's not writing software ~ although many people swear by their favorite software and hardware. The 3 Essential Tools are not the usual suspects. They are, however, like Mighty Mouse because they come to "save the day" and our writing business.
This week's episode begins with a check-in for November's writing challenge. Then it's on to our essential tools.
The 1st is boring and requires you make a new habit as well as no longer consider IT geeks as gods. The key is to remember that our writing projects are Intellectual Property.
The 2nd tool requires Promethean thinking one day of every week ... and sticking to it. We work SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
3rd focuses our whole writing business and keeps it front and center. Multi-taskers find this tool essential to keep everything moving toward success ... and to help us pick up the pieces when our writing walls come crashing down.
As always, thanks for listening to The Write Focus.
Show notes and a resource list can be found at www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us with questions, comments, and speculations at winkbooks@aol.com.
When you find worth in a podcast episode, please share with your writing friends or write a review. We don't have the ads budget that the big peeps do; we are small beans here.
Have a great writing day!
In this episode: we check in with the November Writing Challenge.
2nd, our main focus: 4 Books Recommended for Every Writer's Reference Shelf
We present the book's purpose and the reasons we recommend it, and how it will change your writing life.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus.
For comments, questions, and speculations, write to us at winkbooks@aol.com
Resources and links may be found at www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps.)
It’s the final week for PrepToBer, prepwork and motivation for the National Novel Writing Month, November. Our fall writing challenge.
Prepwork includes Secondary and Tertiary Characters.
Secondaries: The link takes you to the July 28 episode of our summer series on writing craft. https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/258-envisioning-d-discovering-your-novel/?token=380864294b09b5a7ec1144e0b3763e77
For the third-level characters, use this link for August 4: https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/259-envisioning-e-discovering-your-novel/?token=703cd03aab5ae3941a6ae9ed8b906d15
Motivation from M.A. Lee is the final part (2) of “13 Steps for Dancing to be a Writer.”
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. October is Preptober for November’s National Novel Writing Month, known commonly as NaNoWriMo. December will include the steps needed to turn November’s rough draft into a publishable work.
That’s our focus here: inspirations to keep you writing and knowledge to solve your writing issues along with guidance through the publishing process. We’re for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years ago.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps.)
This week’s episode continues PrepToBer, the prep work for the National Novel Writing Month in November for the greatest worldwide writing challenge, 50,000 words in 30 days.
October contains the intense prep work because November is writing only.
We have the prep for this week with links to the appropriate episodes from our summer series on the writing craft.
Envisioning B https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/256-envisioning-b-discovering-your-novel/?token=232cf6da3539468700b1568a76bc3602
Envisioning C https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/257-envisioning-c-discovering-your-novel/?token=3cc70d54b1165afed6c89220c8190144
Writing Motivation, to keep you plugging through this month of hard creativity, is part 1 of M.A. Lee’s “13 Steps for Dancing to be a Writer".
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus.
Welcome to the Fall Writing Challenge from The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. October is Preptober for November’s National Novel Writing Month, known commonly as NaNoWriMo. December will include the steps needed to turn November’s rough draft into a publishable work.
That’s our focus here: inspirations to keep you writing and knowledge to solve your writing issues along with guidance through the publishing process. We’re for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years ago.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps.)
It’s PrepToBer, preparation throughout October for the National Novel Writing Month in November, the biggest writing challenge in the world.
Don’t be left out when all your writing friends are sprinting and tracking words.
October handles all the PrepWork because November is writing only, 1667 words per day to reach the goal of 50,000 drafted words.
What do we do in this week as preparation?
- We need to develop our situation, our primary characters and their conflicts.
- We also need to set the guiding theme that will become our teaser.
- Finally, we need to develop the 7 Major Scenes that every novel needs.
Our work this week will alter a bit—and sometimes greatly as we actually draft the novel. Reference the links below to previous TWF episodes that delve more deeply into this work. The episodes are part of our summer series on craft, Discovering Your Novel.
The majority of this episode offers writing inspiration from Remi Black, entitled “Into the Labyrinth”. It plays with the metaphor of a string unrolled by Theseus when he confronted the minotaur. We writers, of course, are Theseus, the minotaur is our writing projects to conquer, and the strings are our methods to tackle our project.
Welcome to the Fall Writing Challenge from The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. October is Preptober for November’s National Novel Writing Month, known commonly as NaNoWriMo. December will include the steps needed to turn November’s rough draft into a publishable work.
That’s our focus here: inspirations to keep you writing and knowledge to solve your writing issues along with guidance through the publishing process. We’re for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years ago.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps.)
Accept Challenges, and one of the best-known and widely-utilized writing challenge is November’s National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.
The goal of any challenge is to stretch yourself beyond where you currently are.
Here at The Write Focus, we’ve created our own writing challenges. Back in April of this year, we had a daily podcast challenge, presenting information that formed part of our daily writing challenge in April of 2019 (before the plague!).
Also last year, we started this podcast. Gearing up for the podcast and discovering how to do it had challenges that match to those that writers also confront. Here’s a break-down of the main areas for this week’s episode:
- The constant supply of content ~ the writer’s bane of steady working
- Knowing your market ~ know the genre and the audience
- Know the parts of the challenge ~ For the podcast, each episode has five separate segments. Each segment matches to a type of writing we have to do when we rough out a manuscript, draft it, then present it for consumption by an audience.
- Find the distribution system that works for your brain and your aesthetic and your marketing plan.
- Knowing the right equipment and tools makes the job simpler.
Accept your own challenges. Overcome your fears. Prep for NaNoWriMo, and go into that challenge with all your passion.
Welcome to the Fall Writing Challenge from The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. October is Preptober for November’s National Novel Writing Month, known commonly as NaNoWriMo. December will include the steps needed to turn November’s rough draft into a publishable work.
That’s our focus here: inspirations to keep you writing and knowledge to solve your writing issues along with guidance through the publishing process. We’re for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years ago.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!
Show notes and resources may be found at thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps.)
We've reached the summer series' concluding episode with Publish-Plus. It's the four disparate jobs that take our finished novel into the marketplace: Presence, Promotions, Publish, and Party!
And celebrations are always important!
Next week, we have new content about challenges and what we've learned after a year of Podcasting.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus.
Resources and links associated with the summer series of Discovering Your Novel as well as the previous series: Write a Book in a Month and Think like a Pro (Writer) can be located at thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com for speculations, questions, and comments.
If you find worth in this podcast, please share with writing friends or write a review. We don't have the ad budgets of the big peeps; we're only small beans here.
As always, write on.
We're on to the Harvest Stage.
What is Harvesting a Novel?
Revision, Enhancements, Editing
Harvesting a manuscript takes more than a single week’s worth of work. What is our focus for the three areas above?
- What areas does revision cover?
- How do we enhance our draft? (Motifs and Literary Devices to explore)
- Editing Rounds (several ways) with Corrections more than once
Our Summer Series is Discovering Your Novel. We focus on the craft and process of writing. Foundations, visioning, analysis, and revision & publishing stages, all to bring your novel into the world.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps.)
The Double D’s are this week's Write Focus. Double D’s are Designers and Deadlines (No, that’s not calenders or writing goals.)
Cover designers are essential when writers don’t also have degrees in graphic design. The first of this week’s episode covers what to expect with a professional designer.
Numbers rule publishing. Yes, words are essential, but the words are based on numbers, even for those in self-publishing.
We offer the standard word-count lengths for types of manuscripts (novels, short stories, etc.).
Then we list the standard word-count lengths for genres, the adult trade and children’s fiction markets.
We end with a reminder of the dual power of diligence for 1) daily writing set through 2) understanding manuscript lengths.
Our Summer Series is Discovering Your Novel. We focus on the craft and process of writing. Foundations, visioning, analysis, and revision & publishing stages, all to bring your novel into the world.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps.)
In this episode of The Write Focus, it's the Space and Time Continuum for Writers
Space :: your writing space and essential tools
- Efficiency methods for writing
- Tools to save your eyes
- Methods to save your health
- Avoid distracters / Encourage concentration
Time :: your writing schedule
- Setting a writing calendar that you can maintain
- Commitments and obligations (including overcoming guilt)
- Jobs pay the bills
- What to avoid when Bum in Chair
Our Summer Series is Discovering Your Novel. We focus on the craft and process of writing. Foundations, visioning, analysis, and revision & publishing stages, all to bring your novel into the world.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with other writers or write a review.
In this episode: Defining your Writing Business ~ Decisions now need to consider five years from now.
We have 2 key decisions that will affect your author brand.
Then 4 jobs must be completed this week, before publishing comes rapidly upon us.
Don’t skimp on these decisions :: These are crucial to your readers, to other writers, and to your view of your writing self.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!
For links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writer friends and/or write a review.
Write on!
In this episode ... Who are you as a writer? Method / Discipline / Story Sequence
How do you handle the challenging disruptions? They do happen. We can’t control the disruptions; only our actions and reactions.
Plan life to live life / Plan writing to live writing.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writer friends or write a review for others looking for guidance.
As always, accept challenges and grow!
Time to check the entire manuscript through pacing with the best plot method around. It’s matching the Archetypal Story Pattern – ASP – to all scenes and their sequels.
Scenes match? Great. Scenes missing? Time to write the missing, melding in with all our other scenes. Scenes almost work? Tinker until they match.
When we finish this week, we’ll need more objective distance before we launch into the Harvest stage. That works—because we have more analysis to do.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus.
Links and resources are at thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com
Share this podcast with writer friends or write a review.
Our summer series is winding up, with Analysis, Harvest, and Publish-Plus. Don't jump in before it's time! ;)
Now comes the hardest part of the novel to write. We have scenes with angst, scenes with conflict, scenes that deliver the great story we want to tell.
What's the hardest part of the novel to write? And is it the hardest?
2nd question first: it's the hardest because we must maintain interest for the reader as we work with both creative muse and critical editor.
1st question: the Bridges between scenes. That''s right, we're completing our manuscript draft with Scenes and Sequels.
Also, we consider viewpoint selection and how to build a great opening for the novel. The first sentence & scene sells the book (while the last scene sells the next book.)
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus.
For any show notes, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com or write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in our podcast, please share with friends or write a review.
Minions of Evil -- 10. Count 'em.
Love Interest.
Tricksters.
Walk-Ons and Cameos.
In this episode, we focus on the Tertiary Characters for the novel that you want to write and that you want people to read and love.
Thanks for listening.
For resources, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com or write to us at winkbooks@aol.com
If you find value in this podcast, share with friends or leave a review.
Summer Series / Discovering Your Novel ... continues!
This episode focuses on the secondary characters who people our novels -- and often capture reader's interests.
We're looking at allies (BFFs and team members), foils, and blocking figures.
Our novel is building into the book we want to read.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus.
Resources and show notes may be found at www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com
If you find value in this podcast, please share with friends or write a review.
This week on The Write Focus: World Building 101.
No matter the genre, World Building is necessary. We create characters; we also need to create the world those characters live in ~ whether it's fantasy or science fiction, modern mystery or thriller, contemporary romance, or Jane Austen horror.
- Reasons
- How-To World Build
- Basic Considerations
- Society / Social Structures
- Nature / Topography
- Transportation
- And a bit on Magic Systems
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus! We focus on the craft and process of writing. Foundations, visioning, analysis, and revision & publishing stages, all to bring your novel into the world.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please let us know, either with a contact or a review.
We are Seeing the World of our Work in Progress in these two weeks of the summer series Discovering Your Novel.
In this episode, we see the Basics of World Building:
- Fictional vs. Real Locations
- Setting = Time + Place + Culture (that last one is often omitted)
- Stomping Grounds
- Backstories for Locations
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus! We focus on the craft and process of writing. Foundations, visioning, analysis, and revision & publishing stages, all to bring your novel into the world.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please let us know, either with a contact or a review.
All through June, our Focus has been the foundations to our novels. We've been working on the individual building blocks: character and conflict development, the Plot 7 over 2 weeks, and the essential basic documents that help us with this novel and future novels. Now comes July. Time to Envision the whole story we want to tell. We need true clarity in our crystal ball. What do we envision?
7/7 ~ Envision the Plot >> the whole story, not the 7 main scenes. Plot Category with elements; exercises for writing improvement
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please let us know, either with a contact or a review.
Surprise! Our writing this week is not creative but totally essential.
For the last two weeks we have had hard, difficult, painful, angst-ridden scenes. Let’s take a creative break to get some writing business out of the way.
For some people, knowing these elements lurk ahead slows the writing and even stops it. Others dash past and forget something essential. Still others just need a creative break (that’s me).
What am I nattering on about?
- Research on the MS format for paperback and ebook. They’re not the same documents.
- Easy ways to use our writing software
- Front & Back Matter ~ for now and in the future
- The Masterbook
We're building the Foundations to our manuscript, so nothing stops us when we finish but finishing.
Show Notes and Resources for the Summer Series can be found at www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
When you find value in our podcast, reward us with a top rating or a review. We’re a single ant in the swarming colony of podcasters, and we don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps.
Thanks for listening!
Enjoy the Sunshine!
Heaven. Hell. Tribulations—3 of them! No, it’s not a Bible story. It’s what we need to create next as we roughly shape our novel.
The highest high, the lowest low as well as 3 major trials for our protagonist—a defeat, a twist, a betrayal.
We’re building our novel’s Foundations with week D of Discovering Your Novel, our summer series for The Write Focus.
Show Notes and Resources for the Summer Series can be found at www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
When you find value in our podcast, reward us with a top rating or a review. We’re a single ant in the swarming colony of podcasters, and we don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps.
Thanks for listening!
Enjoy the Sunshine!
Summer Series on Writing Craft ::
Problem. Desire. Paradise. Hell. And a dark Abyss. What are these? Our first main scenes as we come to know the story we want to write ... and remember, we read as we write.
We're in week 3, Stage C of the Foundations of our novel. Our focus is the first scenes of the Plot 7, out of order yet so important to our minds.
- Beginning with its opening problem
- Destruction of the Dearly Desired Goal
- The glorious end that's the reward for our characters' surviving all the angst
- Stressors for the Stress Point, physical & emotional & intellectual
- The Nadir, the deepest and darkest point for our protagonist
We also have the 3 Rules for Writing, 3 Math Equations for Writers, and the skeletal notes for the work to come.
We're Discovering Our Novels all this summer.
For more show notes and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Thanks for listening!
If you find value in this podcast, please write a review and share the word. We're small beans here; we don't have the advertising budget of the big peeps. ;)
Picked your story? Picked your protagonist? And your antagonist? Picked your tagline or theme? It's time to write more as we are Discovering Your Novel.
This week's episode focuses on the Story Sketch, the basic outline or first vision of the story you want to write ~ and will be the first reader of!
We're firming up the details for our protagonists, antagonists, settings, and backgrounds ... all while we avoid Info Dump.
Then we cast our line into the future of our story by sketching the direction for our story to go. No, not west, but through the arc of the story.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus' summer series on Writing Craft with Discovering Your Novel.
Show notes and links can be found at www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Next week, we start writing the novel. Well, we've been writing all along, but we're putting all our ideas into a roughly-shaped draft.
We've started the Summer Series on the craft of Writing. In this episode, we have a week's worth of work to build the first row of the Foundation for Discovering Your Novel.
It's PICK week: pick your story / pick your genre / pick your protagonist / pick your antagonist / pick your tagline (or theme).
Everything else will build on these decisions. Be sure to pick what YOU want to write, not what others have tried to convince you to write. Remember, YOU'RE in control of YOUR writing. (Yes, I shouted. How many times have people said "but they say I should" instead of "I want to write this, even if it's not what they say I should write".)
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!
Content copyright is 2021, Writers Ink Books.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please let us know, either with a contact or a review.
All summer our focus is the craft and process of writing. M.A. Lee shares the various stages of Discovering Your Novel. We look at the Foundations, Visioning, Analysis, and Revision & Publishing stages that bring a novel into the world.
In this episode we have the often-asked question of "What makes writing successful?"
Our answer is the 5 Keys of Successful Writing.
Insert these five keys into your writing, and success with Discovering Your Novel will occur.
For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please let us know, either with a contact or a review.
In this episode:: an excerpt from To Curse the Wyre, published March of 2021.
CuWyre grew out of the ideas developed in the April Writing Challenge of 2019 -- which led to this year's daily podcast challenge in April -- and all that was in reaction to my desperate need to write a fantasy as well as develop more titles for this pen name back when I was deep into finishing a series of Regency mysteries.
During the Writing Challenge, To Wield the Wind was born, based on an escapist idea from a title that gave me so much trouble the summer before (for another pen name). I sketched out the bones of a story then set it aside when the other manuscript finally took off.
The ideas that developed during that writing challenge continued to evolve, resulting in To Charm the Wind and To Curse the Wyre,published this year in late January and early March ... and bundled together in early April as Spells of Air.
Now we have a continued celebration of the writing challenge: the audio files for the 1st chapters of each of those novellas. This week we have To Curse the Wyre, the concluding novella of the trilogy.
All three are available individually or as a bundled set called Spells of Air.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!
For links for these books, visit www.remiblack.blogspot.com.
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please let us know, either with a contact or a review.
In this episode:: an excerpt from To Charm the Wind, published January of 2021.
ChWind grew out of the ideas developed in the April Writing Challenge of 2019 -- which led to this year's daily podcast challenge in April -- and all that was in reaction to my desperate need to write a fantasy as well as develop more titles for this pen name back when I was deep into finishing a series of Regency mysteries.
During the Writing Challenge, To Wield the Wind was born, based on an escapist idea from a title that gave me so much trouble the summer before (for another pen name). I sketched out the bones of a story then set it aside when the other manuscript finally took off.
The ideas that developed during that writing challenge continued to evolve, resulting in To Charm the Wind and To Curse the Wyre,published this year in late January and early March ... and bundled together in early April as Spells of Air.
Now we have a continued celebration of the writing challenge: the audio files for the 1st chapters of each of those novellas. This week we have To Charm the Wind.
Next week we have an excerpt from the concluding novella of the trilogy.
All three are available individually or as a bundled set called Spells of Air.
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!
For links for these books, visit www.remiblack.blogspot.com.
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please let us know, either with a contact or a review.
This episode of The Write Focus presents an excerpt of the result of April's Writing Challenge, the first chapter of To Wield the Wind, a fantasy novella by Remi Black.
Sprites and gobbers, rock trolls and an ice huldra, a sorceress and shape-shifting wyre, all troubles for Orielle, a wizard on a mission into the Wilding.
The next two Wednesdays in May will present the sequels that evolved from To Wield the Wind.Without the writing challenge, no trilogy would exist.
In addition, we have a check-in for the current work in progress, as well as in starting a new WIP.
Thanks for listening!
For links and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please let us know, either with a contact or a review.
Final check-in :: How did the Writing Challenge Go?
Topics for this Episode
Proof-Plus * What Is it? * What Do we Do in Proof-Plus? (3 Steps)
Blurb / Market Copy * 3 Rules for Tight Writing * 4 paragraphs * Hit the Length.
Plans for Promotions * After Publishing / After the Trilogy * Passive vs. Active Promotions * Updating Websites and Social Media Pages * Start the Next Work
What’s Next? * May ~ opening chapters in the trilogy that developed from the writing Challenge
- All Summer ~ Time to explore writing Craft
Thanks for listening to The Write Focus.
For resources and more information, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Last official day of the Writing Challenge –
Rough finished … Draft continuing … Publishing ahead.
Have a Writing Wonderland Mantra. Here’s mine: Dream It. Believe It. Do It.
- Decide your Dream.
- Believe in your Dream.
- Do your Dream. (That sounds weird.)
55 lessons throughout the month.
Thanks for listening!
For resources and links, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
For writing guidebooks from Writers Ink, visit writersinknonfiction.com. Process and productivity and craft is the focus with guidebooks for characters, plot, and more.
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com
Know the difference between a writers’ group and a writers’ conference AND know the difference between a writers’ conference and a readers’ conference.
Investigate beforehand—don’t just take someone’s word—to justify the cost ::
- topics for the programs
- how many programs
- pro writers attending
If those 3 match your writing goals, go conferencing.
Thanks for listening!
For resources and links, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
For writing guidebooks from Writers Ink, visit writersinknonfiction.com. Process and productivity and craft is the focus with guidebooks for characters, plot, and more.
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com
The ROUGH is done!
The Draft is ahead, already at 45% of projected manuscript.
Tentative publishing plans.
Don’t forget the mini-vacation coming up.
Thanks for listening!
For resources and links, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
For writing guidebooks from Writers Ink, visit writersinknonfiction.com. Process and productivity and craft is the focus with guidebooks for characters, plot, and more.
Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com
Writers’ Groups can be a Pandora’s gift box.
- Problems vs. Benefits
- Critiques vs. Criticisms
- Local vs. Regional
Finding a Fit for me … and for you.
Thanks for listening!
For resources and links, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com
Whether doing a Writing Challenge or working for Daily Writing, what does "Nose to the Grindstone" mean?
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Persistence of the Inchworm
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Planning the Next Book and the Next Projects
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Definition of a writing “hack” doesn't mean those writers are hacks. Do it because you love it, not because you want the gilded lucre or the fame.
Reward comes because you love it, you have joy doing it ... There's no better reason to write.
Thank you for listening to this episode.
For links and resources, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Every opportunity is a Carpe Diem for Writers.
Carpe Diem means "Seize the Day." That’s how writers have to operate. Stay ahead of the daily “game”, not behind.
Thank you for listening to this episode.
For links and resources, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
This episode is all about Disruptions, not Distractions.
Distractions are what writers do to themselves. They have internal causes.
Disruptions are external. We have little control over their happening. We can only control our reactions.
- Count what you can.
- Ponder problems whenever possible
- Keep smiling
- Hit it first tomorrow
- Don’t stop writing just because you hit a goal post.
Thank you for listening to this episode.
For links and resources, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
We're celebrating! This episode is our 50th!
In this episode on process and productivity and tools, we look at the Masterbook. The Masterbook is one of the greatest tools that a writer can have ... and many of us often neglect it to our detriment.
- What is a Masterbook?
- What are the consequences when we neglect the Masterbook? We have consequences both good & bad.
- What does it contain?
Thank you for listening to this episode.
For links and resources, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.
How's the Writing Challenge going? Well, today was Biz Monday. Did I write?
3 things on the to-do list.
Protecting intellectual property
Registering copyright and stocking ISBNs.
For resources and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
Write to winkbooks@aol.com when you have questions, comments, and speculations.
If you find this podcast has value, please share freely.
What's up with the Writing Challenge for Write a Book in a Month?
Mark Twain's 2 Secrets for writing long, complex projects
Jeffrey Deaver's Defeating Idea Block (He doesn't believe in Writer's Block either.)
For resources and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
Write to winkbooks@aol.com when you have questions, comments, and speculations.
If you find this podcast has value, please share freely.
What's happening with the Writing Challenge? With 10 more days in the month of April, where am I with Write a Book in a Month?
Counting Writing Days in relation to scenes still needed
Maintaining required commitments and figuring out how to schedule around them.
Determining the minimum do-able to turn the rough shape into the draft
Planning steps after the draft
For resources and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
Write to winkbooks@aol.com when you have questions, comments, and speculations.
If you find this podcast has value, please share freely.
Our focus on the Writing Challenge today?
Reaching the Weekly Goal
Formula for both writing and life success
Being in the present
For resources and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
Write to winkbooks@aol.com when you have questions, comments, and speculations.
If you find this podcast has value, please share freely.
It's a Writing Challenge. Success requires awareness
- What to do / How to do / when planned commitments interfere with daily writing
- Minor problems / Major problems / the Greatest problem
For resources and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
Write to winkbooks@aol.com when you have questions, comments, and speculations.
If you find this podcast has value, please share freely.
What's up for the Writing Challenge today?
Difficulties with reaching the daily word count
Keep moving / keep trying / get there.
For resources and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
Write to winkbooks@aol.com when you have questions, comments, and speculations.
If you find this podcast has value, please share freely.
Writing Challenge!
Book covers are the 1st magnet for readers.
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Don't skimp on them. Try to pick unused images for cover models and settings.
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Pick a professional cover designer based on the aesthetic for your book.
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Some cover designers are shysters. If it sounds too good to be true, avoid and research (or buy my swampland! You'll love the neighbors. {alligators!}).
For resources and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
We're over halfway through April! Are you achieving your goals?
If you find value in this podcast, please share freely. Thank you.
Writing Challenge!
Promotions are an essential part of the writing business.
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Schedule them so a post occurs every week.
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Don't schedule too many of them.
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Scatter the posts across different platforms.
Here's a link to one of my favorite trailers for M.A. Lee's The Key to Secrets, https://youtu.be/1Sj7NfvxzXg
For more resources and other info, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share freely.
Writing Challenge!
When creativity is a struggle, try these:
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Bring out the critical editor for a day or two.
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Bracket a different creative project with critical editor days on both sides -- to prevent Project Confusion in your creative brain.
For resources and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com
If you find value in this podcast, please share freely. Thank you.
Writing Challenge!
The writing brain -- split into conscious and unconscious / critical and creative -- uses any opportunity.
Go for that opportunity, and watch words fly.
For resources and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
If you find value in this podcast, please share freely.
Writing Challenge !
Six Words Short. Does that matter? Have I lost the goal?
Listen to the episode to discover the answer.
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Focus on the daily goal, not an arbitrary number.
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After reaching Project 1's goal, keep working, even if it's just to turn to Project 2 or 3.
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Trigger the unconscious to keep working on Project 1 while your conscious focus is on commitments, disruptions, and distractions.
For resources and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
If you find value in this episode, please feel free to share.
It's a Writing Challenge, one episode daily for the 30 days of April.
This episode is Cocoons.
The Keys to Successful Daily Writing
- jot list
- word count
- conscious and unconscious idea consideration
Plus how to trigger the unconscious so it works for you
For resources and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
If you find value in this episode, please share with others. Thank you.
It's a Writing Challenge, every day in April.
On this episode ~ Tax preparation.
Deductions
Schedule C
In-come vs. Out-go
Inventory
Major Life Events and CPAs. For any questions, always seek a professional.
Tax Preparation
For resources and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com
It's a Writing Challenge, every day in April.
On this episode ~
Have-To's vs. Want-To's
When Ideas steep, the creative muse stores up energy to fly.
For resources and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com
It's a Writing Challenge, every day in April.
On this episode ~
How every book can require different approaches / 3 approaches briefly explained
Craft nonfiction to escape from the fiction problems
For resources and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com
It's a Writing Challenge, all through April.
On this episode ~
Anticipate disruptions and distractions to enable writing daily.
Some disruptions are necessary. Avoid the ones that aren't.
Develop new habits when the Life Rolls occur.
Get ready for changes -- the writing of each book is vastly different from all the other ones.
For resources and more, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com
It's a Writing Challenge all through April.
In this episode ~
Leaving a stressful job and moving 100 miles is no guarantee we'll change our writing habits. Downsizing and other distractions will occur.
Math is actually helpful. The formula is Words to Days. (80,000 total divided by 60 days = 1,333 words each of those 60 days OR 1,500 words for 30 days = 45,000 words.)
For resources and more information, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com
Topics is this episode~
Transition to Indie Publishing
Failures Drive Success
- Vague goals
- 4 days a week
- Misunderstanding specifics
- Thinking I know the steps to be a pro writer
Find resources and more information at thewritefocus.blogspot.com
How to Start and Stop writing sessions
How to manage distractions, commitments, and obligations
Inspiration from Robert Heinlein and Robert Sawyer
Writing can be an escape ... until it's a trap.
Worrying about creative burn-out ... and ways to avoid.
Inspiration from Ray Bradbury and Margaret Atwood.
Evolution of a Writing Project
Patty Jansen's Self-Publishing Unboxed
Creativity and Business ~ odd companions
Inspiration from Anne Enright and E.B. White
The reason for the writing challenge.
Project, Project, Project.
Business Plan basics.
Inspiration from Toni Morrison and Louis L'Amour.
We have three rules for our Writing Wonderland.
What makes our writing wonderland possible?
Always remember: writing is a solitary business.
All through April we have a writing challenge. We're posting daily episodes, less than 10 minutes, with our challenge to Write a Book in a Month.
Daily we'll have a check-in with our project stage, daily and progressing word count, and speculations on writing and the writing business. Process posts, you know! We'll also give the inspirational quotations that started and ended each writing session.
And lessons in each session!
For today, after Into Wonderland, it's the introduction to Write a Book in a Month by Remi Black.
The last lesson to convert to a professional writer's mindset? Resolved.
From writing resolutions to adjusting them, juggling projects and finding a mantra, and winding up with 3 Actions every writer needs.
The last one is the hardest of all, yet it is the only one that guarantees long-term success.
Show notes and resources links are at thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
What kinds of expenses can you deduct as a writer on your tax filing? We cast off the foolish wishes and go for logic. Writing requires thinking of it as a small business ... because we're selling products from our intellectual property.
Hopefully, this episode will rattle some ideas that you hadn't considered.
Visit https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/ for a full transcript as well as resources.
Awaken your subconscious to improve creativity!
That’s today on The Write Focus. It’s chapter 6: One Slice of Advice from Think like a Pro: New Advent for Writers by M.A. Lee
Between Revision and the Final Edit, give a project a brief sleep to awaken the dreaming creativity.
- Between Revision and the Final Edit, give a Project a brief sleep.
- This will reawaken the creative muse for this particular project.
- After the Sleep, Visit any new Ideas about the Project and Discover how to Work them in.
Additional Topics
- Why to Awaken Creativity
- How to Awaken Creativity
- What to Do while Projects Sleep
- 10 Creative Sparks
- Repairs / ReStocking / Re-Considering (3 to Track)
- Ending the Season of Sleep
For links and resources, head over to thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
Reach us at winkbooks@aol.com
How do we fight a monster that doesn’t exist? Writer’s Block doesn’t exist—at least, that’s our claim. Bring it up at your next writing meeting, though, and you’ll spark off a huge argument.
We’ve discovered that what we “call” Writer’s Block is actually Writer’s Refusal—which has simple solutions—and Writer’s Procrastination—with harder solutions to implement. Now we hit the true work-stoppage monster of Writer’s Inertia.
The Write Focus offers 4 Healthy Habits to stave off depressing doldrums and do-nothing lethargy. (Clinical depression is not doldrums and lethargy—seek help!)
Physical problems, however, don’t account for all of Inertia. That includes the slime of stagnation. How do we overcome this?
For resources and links, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com
What’s the greatest monster that writers face in every writing session? Writer’s Block. Yet Writer’s Block doesn’t exist.
Our work stoppages manifest in three ways. This episode looks at Writer’s Procrastination ~ which is caused by two Fears.
Discover how to overcome those fears.
Take a quiz to determine which type of work stoppage that you have.
And remember, Writer’s Block doesn’t exist. It’s actually something else.
For resources and links, go to thewritefocus.blogspot.com
Writer's Block doesn't exist. That's heresy in the writing world, for everyone who doesn't think like a professional writer.
Professional writers can't afford to have writer's block. They discovered ways to analyze the problems and have come up with multiple solutions.
We have three forms of Writer's Block that we discuss in Think like a Pro: One Simple Injunction ~ Writer's Block doesn't Exist.
This episode looks at Writer's Refusal, a stoppage of our work but one that is not only easy to diagnose but also easy to solve.
Show notes and resources at https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2021/02/writers-refusal-writers-block-doesnt.html
2,400 years. That's how long ago Aristotle lived. How can someone that old have something to tell writers living NOW?
Well, Aristotle rocked the foundation for plot and characters.
Without him, we'd be starting from scratch ... and he still knows more than most writers and writing instructors about the 5 essentials for a character-illuminated plot and the 6 essential character types to have in any story.
For resources and links, head to thewritefocus.blogspot.com. Write to us with questions, comments, speculations, and more at winkbooks@aol.com.
Write on!
What can a man over 2400 years old tell us about story? More than most people think ~ especially since every new is merely a re-thinking about what he worked up over 2,000 years ago.
For a character-driven plot structure and essential characters, Aristotle has the rocks for our foundation to story. This episode looks at the 5 essentials for plot. The next episode looks at the essentials for character.
For show notes and resource links, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
Plotter? Pantster? Puzzler? Muse Muffin? Which writing process method is best?
You ask, "Do I have to pick just one?"
That's the RIGHT answer! In this episode, we find out why.
Visit The Write Focus at thewritefocus.blogspot.com for resources and links.
https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2021/01/plot-it-4-process-methods-for-writers.html
Thank you for listening.
We finish 6 plotting methods today with the 4-Act Structure, Kishotenketsu, and the Archetypal Story Structure. On the previous episode we discussed Freytag's Pyramid, Shakespeare's 5-Act Structure, and Complex Plot.
Information is taken from M.A. Lee's Think like a Pro.This is the 4th part (D) of chapter 3, "One Guiding Decision: Plot It."
7 Resources and links can be found at thewritefocus.blogspot.com
Here's the direct link: https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2021/01/plot-it-2nd-3-plotting-methods.html
Of all the plots that writers write (!), their structural methods are only 6 in number. This episode we have the pros and cons of 3 Plot Methods.
In the next episode, we'll cover the other methods.
Links and resources are at thewritefocus.blogspot.com or contact us at winkbooks@aol.com.
Write on.
It's a reboot of the 7 types of plot, with the simple key to developing your story and additional example stories. We also propose an exercise for the 7 plot types that will build story-crafting skills.
Find links and resources at thewritefocus.blogspot.com
or write winkbooks@aol.com for questions, comments, and speculations.
Write on.
Get a free novella, set in the London of the early 1920s.
Jack Portman had never forgotten Filly Malvaise, but they were worlds apart. Then she walked into his local pub and into the clutches of a loan shark. Can he help her escape?
Contact us at winkbooks@aol.com to request the free novella and join our newsletter. We won't spam you or sell your email address.
Jack and Filly were originally characters in M.A. Lee's Christmas with Death. This little mystery picks them up years later and throws them in the middle of blackmail.
You can also visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
We have ONE GUIDING DECISION for our writing, and that's related to Plot. However, the preliminary Plot Decision is to determine which of the 7 types of plot we're writing. Everything else comes from that ... even if we're writing avant gardeliterary fiction. The decision we makes builds the foundation. Pt. 1 of ch.3 of Think like a Pro.
For resource links and a summary of this and other episodes, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com.
On to ch2 of Think like a Pro and onto the importance of increments and consistence, in the power of daily writing: Nulla Dies Sine Linea.
For resource links and episode notes, visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com .
3 Sets of 7 for writing the novel success ... and setting your deadlines.
7 Important Characters
7 Necessary Scenes for Plot
7 Work Steps for any Writing Project
Visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com for links to resources and a summary of this and other episodes.
How do we cope with writing deadlines? First, we admit that every job has deadlines. Everyone faces a deadline, even though it may not be called a deadline: trial start, season start, gallery showing, and more. We have 3 Tricks to Setting a Deadline along with the 10 Top Factors when starting any writing project.
Visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com for resources, links and a summary of this and other episodes.
Converting from hobby writer to pro writer requires a changed mindset--which can be hard to achieve. Often, what we want does not become what we do until a crossroad appears on the horizon.
Visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com to find links, resources, and a summary of this and other episodes of The Write Focus.
How do we find names for our characters? What techniques can we use to discover the best titles for our books and our series?
We're running a little long this time as we try to crowd everything in to part 3 of the Naming series.
Find any resources and links as well as a transcript at this link:
https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2020/11/whats-in-name-part-3.html
Creatives apply 3 guiding tips when choosing a pen name, for pen names control our author brand.
Find resources and links along with the episode transcript at this link:
https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2020/11/whats-in-name-part-2.html
What's in a Name? Does it matter how you pick a name--for your writing business, your writing self, your characters, your books and your series? Well, duh. Yes, it matters. While a rose by any other word would smell as sweet, Tybalt cared that Romeo was a Montague at a Capulet party. Names DO Matter.
Check the transcript here.
https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2020/11/whats-in-name-part-1.html
The final 3 steps on the indie writing journey. Editing? Proofing? Publishing? And all the parts of those steps.
Link here: https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2020/11/edit-proof-publish-final-stages-to-get.html
5 Major Horrors Every Writer Will Face, from Writer's Block to Crash and Burn.
Find the transcript with resources at this link.
For Newbie Writers: How to take ideas and turn them into a story. A brief intro to the best plotting method around.
Find the show notes here: https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2020/09/for-newbie-writers-write-novel.html
Newbie Writers make mistakes when launching their careers. Here are 3 Notta Mistakes that writer M.A. Lee managed to stumble into when she launched in 2015.
Transcript for the episode is located at this link.
What mistakes did pro writers make as newbies? Here are 7 mistakes.
Find the transcript at this link. Also mentioned: Fiction Sales Copy, a course offered by Dean Wesley Smith & WMG Publishing & his nightly blog. WMG Courses on Teachable
Meet Max, the second protagonist in The Hazard with Hearts, offered as a launch day promotion.
Two wives haunt the castle. Will she be the third to die?
After the deaths of two wives, Maxwell Herrick, the 9th Earl of Sheldrake is now called Bluebeard.
Were his wives murdered? Will his first wife discover the truth? Or will she be the third to die?
Narrated by the Author
Release date: September 16, 2020
The first chapter of The Hazard with Hearts, offered as a launch day promotion.
Two wives haunt the castle. Will she be the third to die?
After the deaths of two wives, the Earl of Sheldrake is now called Bluebeard.
Were his wives murdered? Will his first wife discover the truth? Or will she be the third to die?
Narrated by the Author M.A. Lee
Release date: September 16, 2020