Essential Guide to Writing a Novel – Details, episodes & analysis
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Essential Guide to Writing a Novel
James Thayer
Frequency: 1 episode/7d. Total Eps: 174
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See allScore global : 32%
Publication history
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Episode 128 - Should we be afraid our plot has been done before?
vendredi 30 août 2024 • Duration 25:23
What if we get the sense that our story is a trope, that the plot is a cliche, that it's been done before? Here are thoughts on cliched stories. Also, Christopher Vogler's twelve steps for plotting our story.
Episode 127 - Go big or go home plotting.
vendredi 23 août 2024 • Duration 28:07
Classic novelists knew the strong technique regarding plotting and it's a terrific lesson for us: go big or go home. And what if we want to ignore a proven technique? And: thoughts on a character's stream of consciousness thinking. Also, how to avoid overthinking our writing project.
Episode 118 - Naming characters and the framing device.
vendredi 21 juin 2024 • Duration 27:30
Naming our story's characters is fun but there is a big technique involved, which we talk about in this episode. Also; the iceberg theory of writing, and the story framing device. Plus, examples of showing rather than telling about characters' moods.
Episode 28 - The enchanter quality, and weather and rudeness.
vendredi 2 septembre 2022 • Duration 26:56
Vladimir Nabokov said a writer should have the enchanter quality. Here are examples from H.P. Lovecraft. And how does Nora Roberts work? Also, showing rather than telling about the weather and personality. And some John Lennon.
Episode 27 - The importance of genres and formulas. And thoughts about titles.
vendredi 26 août 2022 • Duration 24:30
Formulas became formulas because they work. Our genre will offer guidelines (formulas) for our plots. And: titles are fun to think about but it's sometimes hard to invent a good one. Here are some thoughts about coming up with a good title.
Episode 26 - Navel gazing and how to avoid it. And more on showing
vendredi 19 août 2022 • Duration 26:19
Interior monologue and how to avoid it. And more techniques regarding the critical skill of showing rather than telling. And visits to John Steinbeck and Willa Cather.
Episode 25: The magic of writing. Cause and effect. And thinking.
vendredi 12 août 2022 • Duration 25:19
We writers may never know to whom our words will have a profound meaning. Plus, the importance of cause and effect. And the perils of interior monologue.
Episode 24 - Showing others our work. And strong sentence-by-sentence writing techniques.
vendredi 5 août 2022 • Duration 23:47
Should we show friends and family our manuscripts as we compose them? Good reasons for and against exist. The key to vivid writing: be specific, definite, and concrete. Plus, famous romantic lines, avoiding useless analogies, and a technique for vivid writing: using verbs rather than verb objects.
Episode 23: Editing our own manuscript
vendredi 29 juillet 2022 • Duration 26:40
What should we look for when editing our own manuscript? How do famous authors do it? What should we look for as we edit? This episode discusses the editing process, the good and bad of it.
Episode 22: A summary of earlier episodes, and techniques for musical writing.
vendredi 22 juillet 2022 • Duration 28:13
Topics of earlier episodes are boiled down to sixteen points, and we'll talk about them briefly. Also, here are some things we can do to make our sentence-by-sentence writing more pleasing to readers' eyes and ears.
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