Friday, June 27th, 2008
Your resource is Author’s Den.
In this episode I talk about how to withhold information to cause turnabouts in a story, when this works, and when this fails.
Your prompt is to try this in a scene of your own.
Friday, June 20th, 2008
Your resource is author’s den.
This episode I talk about a wonderful example of world building I saw this week and how societies don’t stand in isolation in reality as they sometimes do in fantasy. I look at what drives them to be similar and what drives them to be different.
Your prompt is to take a look at a foreign society you’ve never studied before. I’m choosing ancient China.
Friday, June 6th, 2008
Your resource this time is Absolute Write.
In this episode I talk about dumping information in a manuscript in chunks.
Your prompt is to write a scene where you convey a character’s age, marital status, and occupation without directly referring to any of those. Carol might come home to find Paul has made her favorite dinner. She throws her scrubs in the laundry and freshens up before coming into the kitchen. You get the idea.
Friday, May 30th, 2008
Your resource this time is backspace.
This week I talk about story structure and appealing to the senses other than sight and sound.
Your prompt is to take a story that you like, novel or short story, and determine how the structure makes the story work.
Friday, May 16th, 2008
In this episode I discuss how secondary characters need goals of their own and how some stories lead us along.
Your resource this time is The Writer’s Corner.
Your prompt is a first line: Michael was a lot like coffee, alluring and bitter.
Friday, May 9th, 2008
Your resource this time is duotrope.
In this episode I talk about the challenges in beginning a story and what a good beginning needs.
Your prompt is a situation. A character must choose between the two things that matter most to her.
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Your resource this time is sfscope.com. SfScope provides news relevant to the speculative fiction field. You’ll find anthology announcements, publisher information, market news, and assorted information.
A market to note is Lyrical Press.
In this episode I talk about why people write. The good reasons and the bad ones.
Your prompt this time is a situation. A sixteen year old finds his family at last.
Friday, April 25th, 2008
Your resource this time is Broad Universe.
On this, rather short because of my voice, episode I talk about mashing up personalities around you to come up with composite characters.
Your prompt is to try it yourself with the people you know
Friday, April 18th, 2008
Your resource this time is an online article on how to control information to keep your readings right ahead of you.
In this episode I talk about the causes and cures for writer’s block.
Your prompt this time is the first line. “I didn’t find out all the details until after I’d died.”
