Essential Guide to Writing a Novel

Latest Episodes:

Episode 149 - How masterful writers use details. Jan 24, 2025

Show notes

What do George Orwell, Sara Gruen, Jean Shepherd, and John Steinbeck have in common? Many things but foremost among them is their expert use of details that take readers away, that lift us readers out of our chairs and transport us to their places and times. Here are thoughts on their use of details. Also, we should avoid cliches like the plague.

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Episode 148: A magical way to end one scene and begin another. Jan 17, 2025

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Here is a magical way to end a scene and to begin another without worrying about travel and time between scenes. Also: avoiding dangling modifiers. And how Bernard Malamud worked, and Helen Dunmore's rules of writing.

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Episode 147 - Make sure it's important and make it short. Jan 10, 2025

Show notes

What should we do if we must--absolutely must--have an element in our story that might not be fully entertaining and engaging? 1) Make sure it's important and 2) make it short. Here are thoughts about this critical technique. Also, details in our descriptions are important, but which should we use and which should we leave out?

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Episode 146 - How to make our character unforgettable. Jan 03, 2025

Show notes

We writers can use lovely phrases and perceptive observations when describing our character in our story, and yet the reader may still quickly forget the character. Here's how to make a character stick in the reader's mind. Also, are you a born writer? Maybe so. Here's why you might be.

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Episode 145 - Bringing our settings to life. Dec 27, 2024

Show notes

We can show (as opposed to tell) as we create a setting for our story. Showing will make our settings vivid, and will allow the setting description to do double duty: describe the place and suggest a mood. Also, reasons to avoid meetings in our story.

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Episode 144 - One sentence can bring our character to life. Dec 20, 2024

Show notes

We'll build our character as we write along, adding descriptions and actions and dialogue. But there is a way with only one or two sentences to reveal something powerful and memorable about the character--in just a few words--and I'll talk about the technique here. Also, Joyce Carol Oates's rules of writing. And punctuating dialogue, with important techniques about our character's spoken sentences so that our dialogue is a clear window to the story.

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Episode 143 - The three most important sentences when writing a scene. Dec 13, 2024

Show notes

Jack Bickham's three sentences on scene construction are the best I've found regarding how to write a scene. Here are why these sentences are important for us writers. Also: Sarah Ann Waters' terrific ten rules of writing. And avoiding the word "not."

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Episode 142 - A big technique for literary writing. Dec 06, 2024

Show notes

Many listeners are writing literary novels and stories. Here is an important technique regarding construction of a literary story, and it also applies to commercial novels.

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Episode 141 - How to begin and end scenes. Nov 29, 2024

Show notes

The easiest thing for a reader to do is to quit reading our story. Here are ways to begin and end scenes that'll prevent that from happening. Our scenes' beginnings and endings will propel the reader farther into the story.

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Episode 140 - Tips from Stephen King on writing dialogue. Nov 22, 2024

Show notes

Stephen King is a powerful storyteller, of course, and he is also a highly-skilled sentence-by-sentence writer. Here are his tips on writing dialogue, plus thoughts from me about making our characters' dialogue riveting.

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