In this episode I'm excited to announce the launch of the Creative Writer's Toolbelt Handbook, a project to gather the very best advice and insight from all of the podcasts into book form. Development of the book is being crowdfunded through Indiegogo, please check out 'The Creative Writer's Toolbelt Handbook' at indiegogo.com. The main part of the podcast is a wonderful conversation I had with the authors Becky Chambers and Nisi Shawl. We talk about physicality and writing, the difference between a romance scene and a sex scene, the nature of joy and compassion in their work, and then each of them reads a passage from their respective new novels. ...
This episode is a conversation with story grid developmental editor Lori Puma. In our conversation we talk about why stories matter, and what we as writers should do about that. We discuss the way in which Story Grid, and a developmental editor can actually help authors, and we reflect on the way in which personal tragedy can inform both our lives and our stories. You can find out more about the Story Grid process here: www.storygrid.com and about non-violent communication here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX4N0VryiC4 And you can find out more about Lori at her website: www.loripuma.com ...
This episode is the second part of a conversation I had with Dr Sandra O'Donnell, founding partner of RO Literary. Sandra is a book coach and literary agent, and author of "Your first fifteen pages" an agent's guide to writing a novel that editors will publish and readers will buy. In this episode, we look at how the 'why' of your novel has to hook the reader, how character and place work with the inciting incident and Sandra gives us her advice on mastering 3rd person Point of View in the ensemble story. We also discuss three of the most useful tools a writer can use: Airtable, Grammarly, and Story Grid. ...