Writer's Block

35: In this episode, we discuss James Scott Bell's "LOCK" story structure from his book "Plot & Structure." L: Focus on making an interesting Lead character. O: Find an interesting Objective for your character/story. C: Make sure there is good Conflict. K: give your audience a knockout ending.

Want to come up with a new story idea? Check out James Scott Bell's book, "Plot and Structure." We discuss a few things to do when you're out of ideas: 1. Ask yourself, "What if?" 2. get inspiration from music, 3. start with a character, 4. do a rewrite, and 5. flip a genre.

This is for everyone who's working on writing female characters! (So yeah, that better be everyone). Sorry for the delay, please subscribe to see when new episodes come out, because apparently we're super unreliable...

WE'RE BACK! In this episode, Becky shares previous versions of the first chapter of her book and explains what and why she revised to improve her first chapter. New episodes coming your way once a month! Let's get ready for Nanowrimo! Spotify users: please take a second to answer our question and leave us a comment for any questions you may have. Or email us at: write2writersblock@gmail.com.

*Republished.* In this episode, we share the rest of the beats of Blake Snyder's beat sheet from the Christmas Carol. We go into more depth about the beats after "break into two." So, this includes the second two acts of the three-act structure: 7. B Story, 8. Fun and Games, 9. Midpoint, 10. Bad Guys Close In, 11. All is Lost, 12. Dark Night of the Soul, 13. Break Into Three, 14. Finale, 15. Final Image. Anything you want to learn about? Anything you need advice on? Email us: write2writersblock@gmail.com.

*Republished.* In this episode, we explain A Christmas Carol using the Blake Snyder's Save the Cat Beat Sheet. In part 1 we cover: 1. Opening Image, 2. Theme Stated, 3. Set-up, 4. Catalyst, 5. Debate, and 6. Break into Two. (We will explain the following beats in next week's episode). Do you use the Save the Cat? Let us know!: write2writersblock@gmail.com. Here's the beat sheet from the Save the Cat website: https://savethecat.com/beat-sheets/a-christmas-carol-novel-beat-sheet

Republished. I'm this episode, I briefly explain the fifteen beats of Black Snyder's "Save the Cat" writing theory. 1. Opening Image. 2. Theme Stated, 3. Set-up, 4. Catalyst, 5. Debate, 6. Break Into Two, 7. B Story, 8. Fun and Games, 9. Midpoint, 10. Bad Guys Close In, 11. All is Lost, 12. Dark Night of the Soul, 13. Break Into Three, 14. Finale, 15. Final Image. Email us: write2writersblock@gmail.com.

We discuss whether or not starting on the journey to write a book is worth it. Questions? Email us at write2writersblock@gmail.com #writing #writerscommunity #writersblock #writersblockpodcast #writingpodcast #writinghowto #iswritingworthit

Ever heard the expression "shoot your darlings?" In this episode, we let you know how we decide to "shoot our darlings" or cut those scenes, lines, and characters that just aren't helping move your plot forward.

How to work on your line editing skills. Revise, revise! Book recommendation: The Warwagon Saga by Kelpy Bogs on Amazon.com!

What do you do when you need to get a new idea on the page? Would you like feedback or to submit questions to us? Email us at write2writersblock@gmail.com. Book recommendation: Shannon Hale's Friends series

Our last parting words of advice and wisdom for the season. 

We explain some of the genres you might not be familiar with when querying, including: commercial fiction, low vs high fantasy, magical realism, literary fiction, general fiction, speculative fiction, and sci-fi sub-genres. This is our second to the last episode of the season!

How to write a query letter and where to find agents. Query letter examples: https://nybookeditors.com/2015/12/how-to-write-a-darn-good-query-letter/ Websites to find agents: 1. Aaronline.org is now: https://aalitagents.org/agent-categories/, 2. querytracker.com, 3. manuscriptwishlist.com. Unfortunately, Writer's Market website is no longer running the online version of their website, but you can still purchase the printed Writer's Market book.

How to use your writing time effectively and know when you need to STOP rewriting.

My writing group does a sample critique session with the first chapter of my book.

How to find and start a writing group.

What do you do when your dialogue feels stiff and unrealistic?

In this episode, we talk about romances we enjoy and why.

What makes a great villain?

In this episode, we discuss how writing great friend and family relationships can add depth to your characters.

How do you discover your character? In this episode, we discuss how you can discover who your characters are.

Becky shares more details of how she came up with her naming language. *Please remember: be very careful when taking inspiration from other languages. Make your fantasy language and words unique or if you are coding--make sure you get sensitivity readers to make sure you are not misrepresenting a language.* 

In this episode Becky shares where you can begin if you are looking to write a conlanguage or planning to start a naming language for your fantasy story. Questions? Email us at write2writersblock@gmail.com

Have a hard time coming up with names for your characters and cities? Here we give recommendations we've used for coming up with names (mainly in our fantasy stories) by doing things like combining words and languages. How do you come up with names? write2writersblock@gmail.com Other Resources: Name meaning and variant generator: http://www.thinkbabynames.com/ Name generator: https://www.behindthename.com/random/ Fantasy name generator: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/

In this episode we review the 3 act structure and share how The Secret Garden, The Hunger Games (book one), and The Hobbit fit into the structure. What have you learned about the 3 act structure? What do you think you can use from this theory to improve your writing? Have any questions or comments or would you like us to review some of your work? Email us at write2writersblock@gmail.com! 

In this episode, I explain the basic points of the three-act structure. Act 1: the setup. This act includes the inciting incident and finishes with plot point 1. Act 2: the confrontation. This is two-quarters of the story. Act 2 includes the midpoint (a turning point in the story where things have often gone terribly wrong *or there is a false victory) and it ends with plot point 2. Act 3 is where we reach the climax, the protagonist answers the dramatic question raised in act one, and we get the story's conclusion. Other resources: https://blog.reedsy.com/guide/story-structure/three-act-structure/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-act_structure

Nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month!! In this episode, we briefly introduce Nanowrimo and give a couple of recommendations to help you write every day this month to complete your 50,000-word novel. Want to participate in Nanowrimo and find local "write-ins"? Visit: nanowrimo.org to log in your writing goals for the month of November and complete your book!

Do you figure out your character arc beforehand or do you discovery write them? Have you ever tried setting up a character with an opposing character arc? In this episode, we continue discussing character arcs and story themes in our personal stories. Want feedback on your logline or pitch? Email us! write2writersblock@gmail.com

With your logline, you know what the story's about. But WHY did you write this story? What truth does your protagonist discover on their journey? It's time to figure out your story's theme and your protagonist's character arc! Outline your character's Goal, the Lie (or Misbelief) they believe, and the Truth they discover in the climax of your story. Other Resources: How to Write Your Story's Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSX-DROZuzY Goal, Lie, Truth: 1. https://blog.reedsy.com/character-arc/ 2. https://kindlepreneur.com/write-a-character-arc/ Desire, Fear, Misbelief: 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij39HSbLCXo Enneagram personalities: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions 

There are two kinds of writing that you may have heard about: discovery writing (i.e. pantsing) and outlining. Most writers do a combination of both. In this episode, we share our techniques in either outlining or discovery writing.

In Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat" he recommends writing your logline and pitch even before you start writing your screenplay (or novel). In this episode, we share what makes a good pitch and share and critique a few examples of our own story pitches. A great logline and elevator pitch should present the premise of the story and a hook. According to Blake Snyder a great logline should have these four elements: Irony.  A Compelling Mental Picture. An Audience.  A Killer Title.

In this episode we help Becky brainstorm a title for her completed novel. Need help figuring out your book's title? Try brainstorming with friends and open your thesaurus. Have anything you'd like us to discuss? Email us at write2writersblock@gmail.com!

In this episode we share how we get motivated to write and give tips for overcoming writer's block.

Got writer's block even before you start? This episode is about how to find story ideas. All the stories we talk about in this episode are unpublished novels that we wrote. Don't worry, we'll all get out of the slush pile eventually! ;)

Here's a brief introduction to our recurring podcasters! Rebekah Holladay writes Fantasy and Magical Realism for Young Adults and Children. Stirling Miller writes Science Fiction and Fantasy as well as Nonfiction books about the publishing industry. Becky is an Adult Fantasy and Contemporary Fiction writer as well as a professional copy writer. Kathryn Whipple writes Fantasy for Young Adults and Murder Mystery for crossword-addicts. Brianna Horne writes Fantasy for Young Adults with elements of the supernatural.