Podcasts about writing roots

Writers aren’t people exactly. Or, if they’re any good, they’re a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person. - F. Scott Fitzgerald The post S13E9 – All Characters Feel the Same appeared first on Writing Roots.

I used to be afraid about what people might say or think after reading what I had written. I am not afraid anymore, because when I write, I am not trying to prove anything to anyone, I am just expressing myself and my opinions. It’s ok if my opinions are different from those of the reader, each of us can have his own opinions. So writing is like talking, if you are afraid of writing, you may end up being afraid of talking. - Bangambiki Habyarimana The post S13BE – Why We Write Selfishly appeared first on Writing Roots.

Sentences must stir in a book like leaves in a forest, each distinct from each despite their resemblance. - Gustave Flaubert The post S13E8 – All Sentences Start the Same Way appeared first on Writing Roots.

A novel must show how the world truly is, how characters genuinely think, how events actually occur. A novel should somehow reveal the true source of our actions. - Kevin Hood The post S13E7 – When a Story is Fake or Forced appeared first on Writing Roots.

Continuity isn’t actually something that I ever worry about. You use it where you need to, and you don’t use it where you don’t need to. - Neil Gaiman The post S13E6 – When Continuity Breaks appeared first on Writing Roots.

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. - Mark Twain The post S13E5 – Red Flag Words appeared first on Writing Roots.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something - Plato The post S13E4 – Why Didn’t They Think of That? appeared first on Writing Roots.

I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread. - JRR Tolkein The post S13E3 – Worrying About Word Count appeared first on Writing Roots.

This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important. - Gary Provost The post S13E2 – It’s Just Boring! appeared first on Writing Roots.

Dialogue is not just quotation. It is grimaces, pauses, adjustments of blouse buttons, doodles on a napkin, and crossings of legs. - Jerome Stern The post S13E1 – The Solution to Awkward Dialogue appeared first on Writing Roots.

Start with short stories. After all, if you were to take up rock climbing, you wouldn’t start with Mount Everest. So if you’re starting fantasy, don’t start with a nine-book series. - George RR Martin The post S12E9 – Awards and Competitions appeared first on Writing Roots.

A book series is never truly over. The story lives on, even when the final page has been turned. - Richard Denney The post S12E8 – Using Sequels During Marketing appeared first on Writing Roots.

There are only two types of speakers in the world: the nervous, and liars. - Mark Twain The post S12 Bonus – Tips and Tricks for Interviews appeared first on Writing Roots.

Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that.- Anthony Volodkin The post S12E7 – Getting the Most Effective Reviews appeared first on Writing Roots.

Books choose their readers, not the other way around. I believe that booksellers are the matchmakers. - Cecelia Ahern The post S12E6 – Where to Sell Your Books appeared first on Writing Roots.

If your target audience isn't listening, it's not their fault, it's yours. - Seth Godin The post S12E5 – Writing Effective Ads and Teases appeared first on Writing Roots.

It’s a dialogue, not a monologue, and some people don’t understand that. Social media is more like a telephone than a television. - Amy Jo Martin The post S12E4 – Using Social Media to Market appeared first on Writing Roots.

Who I am as a person heavily influences what I write, and I draw from everything I can find–whether it be LDS, Buddhist, Islamic, or Atheist. It’s all jumbled up there in that head of mine, and comes out in different characters who are seeking different things. - Brandon Sanderson The post S9E7 – Cultural Appropriation appeared first on Writing Roots.

There are some crimes people can commit that aren’t punishable by law. This series is dedicated to those involved with writing, whether they be committed by the author or the readers. To be clear, this series isn’t designed to help writers better create crimes (murder, theft, etc.) within their novels. The kinds of crimes we’ll… Read More »S9E6 – Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll The post S9E6 – Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll appeared first on Writing Roots.

I certainly love writing books. I’ve always loved writing short stories and novels because in prose, you get all the control. - Maria Headley The post S9E5 – God Mode appeared first on Writing Roots.

Lesser artists borrow; great artists steal. - Igor Stravinsky The post S9E4 – Plagiarism appeared first on Writing Roots.

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. - George Orwell The post S9E3 – “I Have an Idea For a Book” appeared first on Writing Roots.

In many cases, when a reader puts a story aside because “it got boring”, the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description, and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling. - Stephen King The post S9E2 – Wasting the Reader’s Time appeared first on Writing Roots.

I love books way more than movies. Movies tell you what to think. A good book lets you choose a few thoughts for yourself. - Karen Marie Moning The post S9E1 – “The Movie Was Better” appeared first on Writing Roots.

Writing nonfiction means I tell people's stories for them, not because they're special but because we all are. - Jo Deurbrouck The post S8E9 – The Non-Fiction Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.

It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened. But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something. That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for. - The Lord of the Rings The post S8 Bonus – The Hero’s Journey appeared first on Writing Roots.

Bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do― to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street. - Stephen King The post S8E8 – The Horror Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.

The good end happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means. - Oscar Wilde The post S8E7 – The Comedy Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.

Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. - Nicholas Sparks The post S8E6 – The Romance Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.

Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions. - Agatha Christie The post S8E5 – The Mystery Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.

The way to write a thriller is to ask a question at the beginning, and answer it at the end. - Lee Child The post S8E4 – The Thriller and Suspense Genres appeared first on Writing Roots.

May the odds be ever in your favor. - Suzanne Collins The post S8E3 – The Young Adult Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.

"God created dinosaurs. God destroyed dinosaurs. God created Man. Man destroyed God. Man created dinosaurs." "Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth.” - Michael Crichton The post S8E2 – The Science Fiction Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.

This is going to take a while. I’m a fantasy author. We have trouble with the concept of brevity. - Brandon Sanderson The post S8E1 – The Fantasy Genre appeared first on Writing Roots.

Why do you always write these strong women characters? Because you’re still asking me that question. - Joss Whedon The post S7 Bonus – Women in Fiction appeared first on Writing Roots.

“The three natures of man. Good, evil, and the man struggling between!... The capacity for good and evil is within every person from birth, I think.” - Ted Dekker The post S7E8 – Shoulder Angels appeared first on Writing Roots.

"For any villains we may meet, we haven't any fears; Paramount will protect us, 'cause we're signed for five more years." - Road to Morocco The post S7E7 – Plot Armor appeared first on Writing Roots.

"Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating." - Emma Coats The post S7E6 – Deus Ex Machina appeared first on Writing Roots.

"The MacGuffin is the thing that the spies are after but the audience don't care.” - Alfred Hitchcock The post S7E5 – MacGuffins appeared first on Writing Roots.

Two men fought for the sake of a single woman. Though indeed foolish, it was a tale as old as time. - Dies Irae, Interview with Kaziklu Bey The post S7E4 – Love Triangles appeared first on Writing Roots.

If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there. It's wrong to make promises you don't mean to keep. - Anton Chekhov The post S7E3 – Chekhov’s Gun appeared first on Writing Roots.

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The post S7E2 – Chekhov’s Red Herring and the Shaggy Dog appeared first on Writing Roots.

Perfect people are boring. Perfect people are obnoxious because they're better than us. Perfect people are, above all, too good to be true. - Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman The post S7E1 – The Mary Sue appeared first on Writing Roots.

It was never about a plot twist, ever. It was always about, “tell the story, tell the characters, complicate their lives, make things get worse,” but we never worked backwards from the plot, and it was always a great lesson. - Drew Goddard The post S6E9 – Writing Plot Twists appeared first on Writing Roots.

If two wrongs don’t make a right, try three. - Laurence J. Peter The post S6E8 – The Use of Three appeared first on Writing Roots.

If you look at all of the villains in the course of human history, they’ve all believed, delusionally, in the virtue of their actions. Every villain is a hero in his own mind. - Tom Hiddleston The post S6 Bonus Episode – What Makes a Good Villain appeared first on Writing Roots.

Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke. - Joss Whedon The post S6E7 – Writing Humor appeared first on Writing Roots.

I love the adventure of telling all types of stories and trying to conquer each one - Jon M. Chu The post S6E6 – Writing Stories Which Aren’t Good vs. Evil appeared first on Writing Roots.

I don't know where people got the idea that characters in books are supposed to be likable. Books are not in the business of creating merely likeable characters with whom you can have some simple identification with. Books are in the business of creating great stories that make you're brain go ahhbdgbdmerhbergurhbudgerbudbaaarr. - John Green The post S6E5 – Character Voice and Point of View appeared first on Writing Roots.

Always make the audience suffer as much as possible. - Alfred Hitchcock The post S6E4 – When to Kill a Character appeared first on Writing Roots.