Explore every episode of the podcast The Creative Writer's Toolbelt

Hello and welcome to one of my occasional episodes of the Creative Writers Toolbelt, this is episode 181, and I want to ask you a question - Do you know your dead salmon from your downpipe?

If you know what these phrases mean, well done! But whether you do or don't, please do keep listening. In any event, I hope you found that title amusing, and that would be entirely appropriate as the subject of this episode is comedic writing, the subtle art of writing something funny.

And to join me to explore this is my good friend the blogger, speak and author Ruth Leigh. Ruth is the author of the Issy Smugge series, the third installment of which is titled “The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge.” Has just been released as of September 2022. If you’ve ever thought about comedic writing , or you’ve discovered just how difficult it is to do well, then this episode is for you – enjoy!

 

 

This episode is a conversation with Written Word Media's Senior Marketing Manager, Clayton Noblit. In this episode we talk about what basics an author needs to focus on, using our own email lists, Facebook pages, and social media, and web pages, we also talk about how Written Word Media can take away some of the pain that authors at every level of success will feel.

Welcome to episode 171 of the Creative Writers Toolbelt.

My guest today is the author, writing consultant, and presenter Claire Taylor. Claire will be known to many of you as one-half of the team at the Sell More Books Show with her co-presenter, Bryan Cohen.

In this episode we talk about what narrative cohesion is and why it matters, the way in which characters operate on a physical, emotional, and philosophical level, and how to use, (and how not to use) tropes, this was a really fun conversation I enjoyed talking to Claire, I hope you enjoy listening to it, here it is.

This episode first appeared (briefly!) back in 2014 but mysteriously disappeared, making it a missing episode. It's a conversation with the writer Bob Hartman. Bob is a children’s writer and storyteller, he draws inspiration from the Bible and classical sources like Aesop’s fables for his work. In this interview he talks about the essentials of writing for children as well as storytelling and how to approach a publisher.

In this episode we use the development of a scene to illustrate a critical element of the author:reader relationship, that’s the implied deal that you, the author, have with your readers. We are going to look at what that deal is, and how you can make good on the reader's expectations that you are going to be competent and honest. We’ll explore some techniques that you can apply, scene by scene, and to help us we’re going to borrow a practice from the world of the theatre known as ‘blocking’.

The scene is a key building block of a story, so how can we make sure that the scenes in our writing work? In this episode we explore the three key questions that every writer needs to ask about each scene they write:what is the objective of the scene? How does the scene begin and end? And what gives the scene energy and direction?

This episode is a round up of everything we've been talking about concerning the sound of writing over the last few episodes. We look at tone, style, and voice, the importance of clarity, brevity, and precision and then go on to think about the problems and solutions related to sentence structure.

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.

In this episode we are going to look at a number of very different examples of writing that excel in the area of how the writing sounds. They are deliberately different in terms of style, and authorial voice, but each of them can teach us something. And because they are very different the benefits that they bring to their respective stories is very different.

There's a lot of truth in the old adage: "it's not what you say, it's the way that you say it". We all want to tell a great story, but part of that is how we tell our story. Some authors seem to have a captivating and beguiling sound to their work. How do they do it? What are the problems that can occur with the sound of writing, and how can we avoid them? In this episode we look at some of the problems that can make your work sound stuttering or clunky or dull - and then we go on to discuss the key to making your writing sound good: it's all in the editing.

What is excellent writing style? And how can we develop that style without simply mimicking the writers we admire? In this episode we apply some of the ideas presented in episode 73 by looking at the way in which clarity, brevity, and precision can help us to develop our writing style. These, together with knowing who you are writing for, and working with the story, are the keys that unlock the secrets of great writing style.

The UK’s most prestigious Science Fiction literature prize, the Arthur C Clarke award, is 30 this year. In this episode I talk to Award Director Tom Hunter about the history of the award, plans for its future, and the state of contemporary Science Fiction writing. Tom gives us some tips for using social media effectively, and we find out what’s most likely to excite a literary agent.

This episode marks the start of a new series for the Creative Writer's Toolbelt, looking at the sound of our writing. We're going to cover a whole range of confusing, and sometimes overlapping terms; establishing what they mean, and working out how to use them to improve our work. In this introductory episode we are going to look at tone, style, and voice.

Those of you who have read the book that accompanies this podcast will know that, in my opinion, one of the best explanations and representations of the way story works comes from the executive coach, speaker, and author Donna Lichaw.

Donna is not a creative writing professor, nor is she a best-selling fiction author. She comes from the world of tech, she knows about leadership development, product development, user experience, and how companies can create excellent products for their customers, and she knows how story is bound up with all of this.

I’ve been meaning to talk to Donna for years now. I wish we’d had three hours to really unpack this stuff, but we had 40 minutes and so we made the most of that, and so in this episode, Donna talks to us about how classic story structure is still a powerful tool for understanding how humans communicate with each other and have done since the dawn of civilisation; we discuss how this concept applies to the art of showing and telling, and how the most important story for us to work out as writers is our own story, the most important story for each of us is the one in which we are the hero, and if we can understand that story, we can better unlock the power of all the other stories we want to tell.

I had a great time talking to Donna, I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation, here it is.

This episode wraps up our review of the dimension setting of creative writing, and building on the practical examples of episode 70 we take a whistle-stop tour of the six principles of setting, from research to credibility, from genre to sensory description, here are the principles that will help you to create a credible, immersive and compelling setting for your work

This episode is a conversation with Northern Ireland based author Ian McDonald. Ian has been a professional writer for over twenty five years, and in this episode he takes us on from the solid foundational work that we usually focus on in the Creative Writer's Toolbelt to some of the more advanced concepts. Ian has won numerous awards including the Locus, Philip K Dick, Hugo, Theodore Sturgeon and John Campbell Memorial awards, and the BSFA best novel award three times.

Over the past ten episodes of the podcast we've looked at a range of strategies and techniques to make story setting as compelling and attractive as possible for readers. Looking at research and description as well as the relationship between setting and character, and setting and voice. We've explored the creative tension between being "credible" and "immersive" in setting. This episode illustrates these principles with a quick sketch of the settings from three very different stories in very different genres, giving practical applications of the insights.

So you've identified the key information about your settings and characters, and now you have to seed it into your work. If you do it right, you can carry your readers into a rich and immersive world with characters they will want to care about; if you do it wrong you may lose your readers altogether. The stakes are that high, and in this episode we explore the techniques and strategies for avoiding the mistakes and making the best of the information you need to give your readers.

This episode will guide you though the process of taking the raw material of your character research and ideas, and putting them through the prism of the character components to create believable characters together with their backstory.

You might have a lot of research for your story, but how do you apply it effectively to create a rich and compelling setting, not just for the story itself but for the foundational backstory you need to give your work depth and credibility? In this episode we examine the steps you can take to do this, by laying out the framework and the environment of your work, and then bring your research to bear so that you can create individual scenes that are authentic and vibrant, drawing the reader into the story. We'll explore the way in which settings can be broken down into specific scenes throughout the story so that each scene can be transformed by your research.

My guest this week is the author Becky Chambers, author of the critically acclaimed novel 'The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet'. Becky’s novel was shortlisted for the Kitschies in the debut category in 2014, longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2016, and it has just been shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke prize. Becky knows what it is to self-publish and she also knows what it is to be commercially published, since her self-published novel was picked up in 2015 by Hodder and Stoughton. In the interview she shares her experiences and advice on the craft and the publishing process. Many of you will know Becky’s work, but if you don’t just check the search engine of your choice and you’ll see what I mean when I say that Becky is the talk of the town in publishing at the moment.

In episode 64 we looked at what we can do to build and enhance setting in a current project, and in this episode we look at some of the practices and habits we can adopt to help us invest as writers in future projects. We look at how, like the magpie, we need to be on the lookout for the 'shiny things' around us, the unusual the intriguing, the noteworthy. We also look at why it's good to put our research into the writer's equivalent of a compost heap where it can settle and mature into something truly useful for our writing.

Great stories require a lot of research, but there's more to it than just surfing the net for a few interesting details. In this episode we look at how to use our sources wisely and with due courtesy to those who help us. We know there's a lot of great stuff on the internet, but how do we use it wisely? And what about other forms of research, like the reference library? What about talking to people as individuals, and respecting the value they can give our work? And we shouldn't forget the thinking we need to do. What happens to our story when we reason out what might happen, do things still stack up? This episode examines all of these issues, and offer some practical ideas for making the best of the research you do for your work.

This episode is a conversation with bestselling author Peter F Hamilton. In a career spanning nearly thirty years Peter has published seventeen books as well as numerous short stories. He is known for his epic science fiction trilogies including the Void series from his Commonwealth Universe, and the Night's Dawn series from the Confederation Universe. In this conversation Peter talks about the formative literary influences on his life as he was growing up, the preparation he does before writing a million word epic, and why creating the bad guy is such fun. He also talks about the importance of consistency in creating setting, and the enduring power of space and space travel to generate a sense of wonder.

Welcome to episode 169 of the Creative Writer’s Toolbelt. In the next few episodes, I am going to be exploring the fundamentals of story structure. We’re going to look at different perspectives on story and story structure with the help of a number of guests and I am looking forward to hearing what they have to say and sharing those insights with you.

By way of an introduction, in this episode I want to ask a deceptively simple question, and it’s this: what does a really good story look like? And I am going to try to answer this question by first exploring what I mean by the word “story” and then looking at what the content of a good story should be, and what structures we could use to present that story in the best possible way.

In the previous episode we explored the two essential qualities of setting through describing the need for setting to be credible and immersive. In this episode we focus on one of those qualities, the immersive setting, and we explore how to make the setting an immersive and compelling place for readers by taking the time to research and plan the backstory, creating a mood and style for the setting, and by presenting the setting with sparse, specific, and sensory language.

This podcast starts a new series on the subject of setting, and we begin by exploring why there are only two essential qualities needed for a setting to be effective; these are that a setting needs to be credible, and immersive. If you imagine your setting as a chair, it needs to be strong enough to support the reader, and comfortable enough to hold them for the whole story. This episode provides the practical techniques required to deliver both of these requirements.

How should we present characters from a range of different backgrounds in our work? How can we portray these characters with integrity and respect, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation and ability? And how can we navigate this issue with confidence, especially if we come from a group that is perceived to be privileged? Most us will need to present characters in our work who are not like us in some which is socially determined as important. So for example differences in race, and gender, and sexual orientation are currently determined by society as important. Dealing with these differences is the critical cultural issue for writers today, and to help us tackle it, I've invited the writer and journalist Nisi Shawl (www.nisishawl.com), and the writer, composer and musician Daniel José Older (www.danieljoseolder.net), to join me on the Creative Writer's Toolbelt. This conversation is essential listening for anyone who is serious about dealing successfully with the challenge of 'writing the other'.

This episode is a summary of the issues we have covered in the last dozen or so installments of The Creative Writer's Toolbelt, from the critical components of character: developing the character essence, and goal, motivation, and passion - through the secondary components: defining the character arc, defining the interior life of the character, using character interaction to best effect, and defining a complementary set of characteristics and voice.

Point of view (PoV) is critical to your story. The authorial decision you make about PoV will set the tone and voice of your work, and influence the reader's perception of your protagonist. It's a decision that you need to make up front, and once you've made it you need to stick to it. It's essential that you know what the options are, what the benefits and disadvantages of each PoV are, and you understand which option is going to work best with your story.

It's no surprise that many of the principles that we use to develop our lead characters also apply to our supporting cast. The critical objectives with our supporting characters are the same, we need to create characters with a strong, believable essence, and clear goals and motivation, and then we need to deploy them effectively to support both the main characters and the story. We can do this by ensuring these characters have a strong backstory, even if they have just a walk on part, and we can draw on a range of sources including our imagination, caricature, and people we know in real life to build the composite character for our story.

Toolbelt EXTRA is an additional episode outside of the usual fortnightly regular podcasts. In these longer episodes we take a deep dive into the life and work of a guest author or editor. We explore what's happening in the genre they write in, what inspires them, and their tips for aspiring writers. This episode is an in-depth conversation with the author Al Robertson. We cover: planning vs improvisation and how to draw on both ends of that spectrum, the importance of concision and clarity in writing, the place of cyberpunk within the genre, the state of British Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Al's recommendations for books on the craft of creative writing.

I'm responding to a listener question in this episode by looking at the issue of character interaction. How can we use it to best effect, and what are some of the factors to bear in mind? Most interaction will be through the medium of dialogue, but there's so much more we can do with a bit of imagination, to help us achieve our objectives across dimensions like character development, story, and voice. So don't just talk the talk, bring all the senses in to play and capture the reader in your noisy, vibrant, pungent, and intense world!

Wendy H Jones is a self-published crime writer and part of the controversial "Tartan Noire" movement of Scottish Crime Fiction. Wendy has published three novels in her "Killer's" series, featuring her protagonist Detective Inspector Shona McKenzie. Wendy is now building a fan-base around the world and in our conversation she reveals the publication date and title for a fourth installment of her series. In a varied career Wendy has worked in academia and as a nurse. She served in the British Armed forces for over twenty years, first in the Navy and then the British Army. After traveling around the world with her job, Wendy has returned to her native Dundee to pursue a career in writing, and is now in demand as a speaker across the UK. In this episode Wendy talks about her tips for character development, planning and plotting over a series rather than just one book, promotion techniques for the self-publishing, and why social media, as the name suggests, has to be SOCIAL, rather than just marketing.

This episode is all about the protagonist's nemesis, the antagonist. Traditionally seen as 'the bad guy' the antagonist's real function in a story is to contend with, and oppose, the protagonist at every step. In this episode we look at ways in which the antagonist can have their own character arc, with some characters switching into or out of the antagonist's role. We'll also look at the five strategies you can use to create the delicious antagonist, from a painful but convincing backstory to a personal connection with the protagonist, and from a firm belief in their own cause to good behaviour and an excellent dress sense. Welcome to the dark side of your story!

Welcome to Ep 168 of the Creative Writer’s Toolbelt podcast. My guest for this episode is Dave Chesson. Dave is an author, entrepreneur and something of a famous name in the self-publishing scene.

For many years he has been creating free courses and articles as well as applications that help writers to publish and promote their work, applications like publisher rocket and the newly arrived Atticus, which combines editing, sharing, and formatting functionality.

I have been using Dave’s publishing tools for a number of years and I was particularly interested in finding out how Atticus might work and how it can help authors, and while we did talk about this Dave also had some wisdom for the attitude, disciplines, and focus that we need to succeed as writers, here’s our conversation.

In this episode, released on Christmas Day 2015, we take time out from the usual teaching and interviews for a few minutes to reflect on the relentless nature of the writer's life. Maybe the best way to keep up the pace with our writing is to take a break and give something back to that creative part of our brain that we've worked so hard. The festive season is a particularly good time to indulge in some "Superfood" for our minds, and reawaken the wonder and curiosity again.

Nothing holds the reader in your story like a compelling, authentic character, and an essential element of developing a character is developing their character arc. In this episode we explore the essentials of developing the arc for your protagonist and principle characters. I'll explain why the character arc is so important, why it has to develop in harmony with the story arc, and why we need to pay attention to the inner and outer journey of our lead characters.

For the fiftieth episode I'm delighted to present an interview with Nebula and Hugo award winning author Nancy Kress. Nancy is the author of twenty-seven novels, three books on writing, four short story collections, and over a hundred works of short fiction. Her fiction has won six Nebulas (for “Out of All Them Bright Stars,” “Beggars in Spain,” “The Flowers of Aulit Prison,” “Fountain of Age,” “After the Fall, Before the Fall, and During the Fall,” and “Yesterday’s Kin”), two Hugos (for “Beggars in Spain” and “The Erdmann Nexus”), a Sturgeon (for “The Flowers of Aulit Prison”), and a John W. Campbell Memorial Award (for PROBABILITY SPACE). Her work has been translated into Swedish, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Danish, Polish, Croatian, Korean, Lithuanian, Chinese, Romanian, Japanese, Russian, and Klingon, none of which she can read. In 1998, Nancy married fellow SF writer Charles Sheffield, who died in 2002 of brain cancer. In 2011 she married writer Jack Skillingstead. They live in Seattle with Cosette, the world’s most spoiled toy poodle.

Sometimes it's just one or two well placed,well fitting characteristics that make a character. In this episode we are going to look at what kind of characteristics we can give our characters, how to present those characteristics in a convincing and persuasive way, and we'll look at some examples of how writers have used characteristics of all kinds to complement and enhance the essence or core of their characters.

What is the interior life of the character, and what sort of interior life should we be showing in our work? This episode looks at the thoughts and feelings of our characters, and gives practical advice on what sorts of interior life should be shown in a story, and how it should be done. Cut the banal day dreams and focus on the blade in the mind, the thoughts that have a sharp edge to them. Dark or angry, comedic or sexual, there's a truthful and cutting thought lurking in every character that will help to set a scene, drive a plot and develop a character. Don't be afraid to reveal the interior life of your character, just make sure it's grabbing the reader and driving the story when you do it.

Jeanne Cavelos, the Director of the Odyssey Writing Workshop says that the number one piece of advice she gives to writers is this: give your character a goal. It's so easy for us to create pet characters who just sit on the couch, docile and useless in our story. We may love these creations but they slow the narrative, and bore the reader. So how do we get our characters engaged, and working with our story not against it? Simple, we follow Jeanne's advice and give them a goal (or goals), as well as some strong motivation, and a driving passion as part of who they are.

What is the essence of a character? Why is the creation and presentation of that essence the most important challenge for character development in creative writing? In this episode I am starting a series looking at developing characters in fiction, memoir, biography, in fact any kind of story telling. I'll be explaining why I think developing the core, or essence of your character is the most critical task in the character development dimension, we'll look at a couple of examples from great story tellers, and I'll tell you how I think you can present the essence of your characters effectively to your readers.

This episode is an interview with the freelance editor, script doctor, and literary agent Julie Crisp. Julie has over fifteen years’ experience working for three major houses across a broad spectrum of commercial titles within fiction, non-fiction and children’s. Most recently she headed up the UK arm of one of the largest global brands of science fiction and fantasy, Tor. She has worked with bestselling and award-winning authors such as Ann Cleeves, Peter F. Hamilton, China Miéville, Neal Asher, Amanda Hocking, and Naomi Novik. This is another 'must listen' interview for anyone who wants advice from an experienced professional about what catches the editor's eye, what sells, and how to give yourself the best chance of getting your work noticed.

Finishing your story takes as much skill and wisdom as telling it, and there's more to a good finish that clearing up the battle field and writing THE END at the bottom of your manuscript. The final, resolution stage of the six stage story process requires that you tie up the loose ends, resolve your subplots, and show your readers the consequences of the climax stage of the story.

In this episode we look at stage five of the six stage story process - the climax stage. We are going to answer the question "what is the climax?" and also look at how, as writers, we can make the most of this stage of the story. The most important lesson to take away from this episode is that the climax is not about blood and explosions - it's about characters and ideas, it's about the beliefs that characters hold dear, and will live, and die for.

Welcome to episode 167 of the Creative Writer’s Toolbelt podcast. My guest for this episode is the writer, journalist and blogger Bryan Collins. Bryan has written for Forbes, the Huffington Post, and Fast Company. He has published 16 books on creativity, non-fiction, and being a productive writer. Bryan loves stories and is especially interested in how the power of story can be applied to non-fiction.

In this episode, we talk about how telling a story is much more powerful than talking about features when it comes to persuading people to buy a product or a concept, we also talk about how you can build your authority as a writer, and the power of owning your own work and your own space online.

We also talk about some of the tools that we writers can use to improve their productivity and help us present our work to the world.

Bryan and I had a good chat that helped me to think about how and where I can use stories in my work, and what tools and services I can use to help me do this, I hope it’s useful for you, here it is.

In this episode we look at stage four of the six stage story process, the Crisis. There is no better time in your story to showcase the strengths, weaknesses, and motivations of your characters. This is also a moment to use all of your creative writing skills to create a poignant moment, to enrich the setting and mood of your work, to add colour and depth to the context for your story. The crisis is the decisive moment, the calm before the storm, the point where all of the choices have been made and the climax must now be faced. How will your characters react? Will they be heroes or cowards, or maybe a more subtle combination of both? Here is your window of opportunity to show all of these things, use it well!

This episode is an interview with the author and historian, Nick Page. Nick, who describes himself as a 'writer for hire', has been a freelance writer for nearly twenty years, publishing over seventy books including biblical histories. We discuss the disciplines required to write history, including historical fiction, tips for placing the reader firmly in the scene you are writing, and advice for the new writer. Nick has a wealth of experience which he brings to this conversation. I have been looking forward to interviewing Nick for a long time, he is witty, honest, and knowledgeable, and it was a joy to speak with him, I hope you find our conversation entertaining and enlightening.

This is the second of two podcasts focusing on stage three of the six stage story process. What can you achieve during the broad expanse of your story from the inciting incident through to the climax? This episode will show you how to make your story sparkle as you use the 'momentum' stage of the story process to develop complex and intriguing characters, enrich the setting of your story, present your themes to the reader, and beguile them (and the commissioning editor) with a distinctive voice.