Making a Scene
If stories are made up of scenes, what are scenes made up of? According to Jack Bickham in his book, Scene & Structure, scenes start with a character’s stated goal and rumble through an evolving conflict until they reach … a disaster. In this episode, we examine each of these...
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 largely absent in real life, and how it works line by line as stimulus and response. In chapter 3 of his book Scene & Structure, Jack Bickham has some hard...
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 enthusiast students that we are, we begin by identifying his central thesis. Then it's onto Chapter 2, where we answer some novice novelist questions and discuss Bickham's approach to a...
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 the Art of Writing. We discuss what’s in the book, what it meant for us personally, and how readers can get the most out of this writing craft book. Lastly,...
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: Zen in the Art of Writing. So what is Zen, anyway? With the help of the internet, we come up with some context. Then it’s on to Bradbury’s three critical...
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 are no good, and the secret to successfully turning his short stories into film. Full disclosure, Renee and Kim pretty much disagree with these two chapters in Zen in the Art...
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, he credits several individual who were critical to his literary success.
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 if they use scene goals in their writing/editing. Then, for our podcast proper, we move beyond the scene basics into more advance concerns, like does that disaster you carefully crafted...