What Makes a Hero
Whether every protagonist is a Hero is open to debate (and debate it we do in this episode) but on it we can agree that the vast majority of...
Bird by Bird
Workshop: Mapping Kim’s Novel to the Hero’s Journey
Writing Workshop with Kim & ReneeThe Writer’s Journey Subscribe to our Newsletter The Hero’s Journey Study Guide The Writing Workshop Exercise Map your Novel according to Vogler’s The Hero...
Mapping the Hero’s Journey
We’ve officially started our new book, Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey. And boy is there a lot in the first two chapters! First (or first after Kim’s rant) is an...
The Writer’s Journey. Let’s Do This.
We’re on the last chapter of Judith Barrington’s book, Writing the Memoir, “Practical Advice on Critique Groups,” plus the dos and don’ts of giving and getting feedback. It’s practical...
Remembering the Day When…
Your memoir is about you (obviously) but it’s not just about you. In this episode we cover Judith Barrington’s chapter on how (and why) to bring events from the...
Workshop: Naming Names in your Memoir
Writing Workshop with Kim & ReneeWriting th Memoir Subscribe to our Newsletter The Writing Workshop Exercise Map your Novel according to Vogler’s The Hero Journey. For this week’s workshop...
Let’s Not Get Sued (for Writing a Memoir)
Judith Barrington’s Writing the MemoirChapter 8, 9, & Appendix Subscribe to our Newsletter Writing (and publishing) a memoir can be nerve wracking. What if the people you’re writing about...
Getting Wild with Scene and Sequels
After 70 pages of Jack Bickham’s Scene and Structure we feel we’ve got a pretty good handle on how...
Speeding Up and Slowing Down your Novel
Chapter 8 – Scene & Structure Subscribe to our Newsletter How do you take a ponderous story into a...
Sequels: the Glue that Holds Scenes Together
When you’re bored with action-packed scenes and want to dive deep into the mind of your protagonist, maybe you...
Tactical Disasters, Meaningful Change, and More Scene Rules. Oh, My!
After last episode’s deep dive into scene structure, we thought we’d ask a few published novelists and professional editors...
Making a Scene
If stories are made up of scenes, what are scenes made up of? According to Jack Bickham in his...
The Cart Goes After the Horse – Getting Cause and Effect Right in your Story
This episode is all about cause and effect, what it is, why it is critical in fiction despite being...
Starting Your Book Off Right
In this podcast we give our first impressions of our new book, Jack Bickham's Scene and Structure, and, being the...
Auf Wiedersehen, Bradbury, and on to Scene & Structure
In this episode we bid a fond farewell to Bradbury with one last conversation about his book, Zen in...
Work! Relax! Don’t Think! No problem
In this episode we dive into the final chapter of Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing, titled:...
So You Want to be a Screenwriter
In todays episode, Bradbury tells us how loathing Ireland pushed him to becoming a playwright/screenwriter, why these absurdest plays...
Five People a Writer Needs in their Career
No one succeeds all by themselves, and that includes Ray Bradbury. In his book Zen in the Art of...
Writing Marathons and Playing with Memories
According to Bradbury’s retelling, it took him nine days, a library typewriter, and a pocketful of dimes to crank...
How to Feed and Care for your Muse
Oh Muse, well-spring of creativity, why are you so unreliable? How can we entice you? In this episode, we...
Writing with Gusto
Ray Bradbury shares his secrets for how he wrote so many unforgettable short stories in the first two chapters...
Goodbye Gardner, Hello Bradbury
Thinking of reading The Art of Fiction, "Young Writer?" Listen to this podcast first. Despite dying in a motorcycle...
Workshop: Renee Creates a Monster-Hero
Last episode we explored the concept of the hero archetype as presented in Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey. But analysis is one thing; we wanted to see if we...