Listen Now

In this episode we learn to write well with WriteWell, learn about writing “triangles”, and then the murders began.

In this episode we look at famous writers’ most used words, cover how to record and edit audio, and write fast with Sprinter.

In this episode we’re joined by Lou Youhasz and put Eric in the hot seat  as we critique the beginning of his novel The Prince of Pigeon Hill.

In this episode we care for Stephen King (or at least his books), try to find good poetry, and look at using the Typora minimal markdown editor.

In this episode we talk about our goals for 2017, rogue librarians, and note-taking app Bear.

In this episode we wrap up NaNoWriMo, check out a descriptive word generator, and take a look at Airstory.

In this episode we kick off NaNoWriMo, look at writing a novel with Evernote, and making a passive income with self-publishing.

In this episode we talk about a multi-million dollar Amazon scam, how to read more books, and using Omnibook Pro.

In this episode we cover character archetypes, hunting for books, Medium vs. custom site for publishing your work, and organizing your novel with Bibisco.

In this episode we discuss tiny goals, movie story structure, where to start your story and put Penflip up against Draftin.

In this episode we cover the “three buckets” approach to productive writing, a fantasy map generator, and the challenges of writing a female protagonist.

In this episode we take a look at redefining your characters after you publish your story, how to find and avoid plagiarism, and creating interactive stories with TextureWriter.

This episode we take a look at inciting incidents, getting 100 rejections a year and using Sweek. Works in Progress [00:26] Eric is busy as a bee. He’s made a mistake and went to print out the full content of Prince of Pigeon Hill and printed it out in a huge font with large margins. It’s looking like a copy of War and Peace. He’s past 40,000 words of the other first draft. He continues to write his Revue newsletter. Eric is having fun writing it. John was doing well, but not so much anymore. He’s working on The Rend, his post-apocalyptic story. He has been writing using Chris Fox’s methods. But he’s been out east for his son’s lacrosse tournaments and that has killed his desire to write after a hot day in the sun. Writing pen on paper has helped some. Mike’s still playing with the Ricky Cage screenplay. He’s learning a lot about the screenplay format, but it’s led to editing while writing. Mike has also printed a bunch of material that he’s building into his content calendar book. Reading Spotlight [09:41] Mike is reading Angelic Music: The Story of Benjamin Franklin’s Glass Armonica by Corey Mead, about the first musical instrument invented by an American, the Glass Armonica. John is reading Destroyer by Chris Fox, the first book in the Fox’s Void Wraith trilogy. What’s Happening Online [12:56] Reality is a Bubble Reality is a bubble is an article about Philip K Dick, the fictionalizing philosopher. Dick died before his works became popular movies and he became an icon in the science fiction realm. Notebooks in the iPhone Era Why the Humble Notebook is Flourishing in the iPhone Era explores the craze of bullet journaling and the use of paper notebooks. You can learn more about Bullet Journaling on the official website. Young Frankenstein book Mel Brooks is writing an Abby Normally fun-sounding Young Frankenstein book. 100 Rejections Why you should aim for 100 rejections a year. Kim Liao suggests that writers aim for 100 rejections a year. Instead of attempting to set a goal based on acceptances, which you cannot control, you can control how many submissions you send out. Dictionary Stories Dictionary Stories are very short stories composed entirely of example sentences from various dictionaries. Tech Focus – Sweek [18:56] Sweek is an Android-only app for short stories and serialized writing. It is a very simple app with bold, italic and hyperlinks for stories. Thing is a regular email of fiction and writing from people. Craft Talk – Inciting Incidents [24:56] We talk about inciting incidents a little bit more. Many advise that the inciting incident happen as close to the beginning of the novel as possible. The inciting incident is something that happens to the protagonist that drives the story. In Blade Runner, Deckard is brought into his former boss’s office, and he is given a job regardless of whether or not he wants it. That external force is the inciting incident.

In this episode we submit to our AI overlords, take a stand at our desks, and look at tying scenes together in the three-act structure.

In this episode we learn why your book cover should be yellow, talk about world building, and play a few rounds of Write on Par.

In this episode we look at Bill Gates and Tim Berners-Lee take on literature, focus our writing using the scenes and sequels technique and look at sharing and discovering stories with Tablo.

In this episode we talk about the real costs of self-publishing, making and keeping promises and keeping busy with Writingstreak.

In this episode we look at an Amazon pay-per-page scam, procrastinate about procrastinating, watch yet another Hugo hijacking and and share some of our favorite pickup… I mean opening lines.

In this episode we get rational about fiction, talk about the importance of structure, externalize the internal and look at using Novlr. (more…)

In this episode we talk about ground-breaking science fiction novels, ramping up the conflict in our stories, and sharing stories family stories with StoryWorth. (more…)