The Every Day Novelist

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Question 1122 How does the Homestead Affect Writing? Jul 17, 2024

Show notes

Joe asks:
How has living on a homestead affected your writing life? If you had to do it over again, what would you do differently?

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Question 1121: Sacred ideas and Adapting from Screenplays Jul 11, 2024

Show notes

Brad asks: Do you ever collaborate or bounce ideas with other authors? And any advice on writing a screenplay first, then adapting the story into a novel?

Down From Ten
And Then She Was Gone

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Question 1120: What is a play? Jul 11, 2024

Show notes

Caine asks: What is a play? Not the mechanics of how documents are formatted or anything like that, but what Plays are, what they aren’t, and why people would write one.

www.storybundle.com/steampunk

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Questions 1119: Filling Up the Corners Jul 09, 2024

Show notes

Roland asks:
I want to write short stories to give my readers an extra taste of my characters and side characters, but my mind goes blank trying to come up with a story. I imagine scenes and situations all the time, but they don’t feel very standalone. I also have lots of ideas for long things like novels or novellas, but when it comes to shorts, I come up short, too.

Q-in-Law by Peter David
A View from the Gallery Babylon 5 episode
The Eugenics Wars by Greg Cox
The Kobayashi Maru by Julia Ecklar
Lone Ranger
Have Gun will Travel
The Destroyer by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir
John Carter Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan of the Apes Edgar Rice Burroughs
Conan The Barbarian Robert E Howard
Hadrian’s Flight
The Antithesis Progression Archives
The A-Team
Magnum PI
All in the Family
The Jeffersons
Andy Griffith
Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina
Tales from Jabba’s Palace
The Han Solo Adventures
The Lando Calrissian Adventures
Lost Days, Last Nights
The Open Source Woman
www.storybundle.com/steampunk

The post Questions 1119: Filling Up the Corners appeared first on The Every Day Novelist.

Question 1118: Preventing Author Avatars Jul 08, 2024

Show notes

Herb asks:

A while back on Twitter you said you give every protagonist a feature you hate and even antagonist one you admire to prevent creating characters who are just your avatar in the story.

What is your process for inserting them transparently and selecting the traits? What are some examples from your work?

Hadrian’s Flight
Insensitivity Readers
Revenge of the Sith
Suave Rob’s Amazing Ass-Saving Association
Raiders of the Lost Ark
www.storybundle.com/steampunk

The post Question 1118: Preventing Author Avatars appeared first on The Every Day Novelist.

Question 1117: Why Have Sequels Gone Out of Fashion? Jun 21, 2024

Show notes

Roland asks
I love Star Wars, but in the most narrow way. Episodes IV-VI and a few other things are pretty cool. But, I want new stories, not dozens of prequel movies and series. Why are they afraid to go forward vs living in the Star Wars past?

It’s not just Star Wars, either. I see the same thing with Game of Thrones and many popular book series. Why are they so obsessed with filling in the past and giving fans all those empty Easter eggs?

Star Wars original trilogy
Godfather 2
A Subversive Masterpiece: Alien 3 article
Alien/Aliens/Alien 3
Alien Vs. Predator
Fire and Blood (Game of Thrones prequel)
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune

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Question 1116: Is it a Prequel, or Just Book One? Jun 20, 2024

Show notes

Roland asks:

A lot of authors say they’re writing a prequel (as a lead magnet) when they haven’t published, or even finished, Book 1 yet. I know what they mean, but if they release ‘the prequel’ first, then isn’t that just Book 1 and not actually a prequel?

The Hobbit
The Three Theban Plays: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone
Romeo and Juliet

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Question 1115: Why Are People Writing Prequels? Jun 19, 2024

Show notes

Roland asks:

Indie authors are obsessed with prequels to their Book Ones but I don’t get it. I almost never want to know MORE about what happened before Book 1.

Why have prequels become such a thing these days?

Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Star Trek V
Job (the Bible)
Clash of the Titans (1981)
The Story of King Josiah
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings
Dune
The Complete HP Lovecraft
The Homeric Hymns
Star Trek The Original Series
The Nitpicker’s Guide For Classic Trekkers by Phil Farrand

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Feedback: The Bradbury Challenge Jun 18, 2024

Show notes

Listener Ian has a progress report on doing the Bradbury Challenge for NanoWriMo

The post Feedback: The Bradbury Challenge appeared first on The Every Day Novelist.

Questions 1114: Developing a Young Character Jun 14, 2024

Show notes

Jim asks:
Previously I mentioned I had a character who was 10 years old in a first book in a series. I had used him as a reader proxy, who gets into a little trouble but isn’t really a protagonist. How do I take a character who is now 15, grow him beyond proxy and make him interesting enough to turn pages, but not so interesting that he’s trying to drive an adult book with adult-sized life-or-death stakes?

Hadrian’s Flight
Between Planets
The Secrets of the Heinlein Juvenile

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