Creative, Actually Podcast

Brandi Badgett, Fictionary’s star Editor and Instructor guides you through the most important aspects of storycraft to help you write your best book. Today’s topic is all about What The Reader Knows: Brandi shares ways to control what your reader knows (and when) to boost tension, clarity, and trust. You’ll learn about using dramatic irony and reader genre expectations, how to plant foreshadowing...

Brandi Badgett, Fictionary’s star Editor and Instructor guides you through the most important aspects of storycraft to help you write your best book. Today’s topic is all about Conflict: Brandi shares the difference between conflict and obstacles, the seven classic types of conflict, and how to tie conflict to your character’s goals, growth, and story’s theme. You’ll also learn how to balance inte...

Brandi Badgett, Fictionary’s star Editor and Instructor guides you through the most important aspects of storycraft to help you write your best book. Today’s topic is all about Character Emotion: Brandi explains how to write character emotion so readers can feel what your characters feel. You’ll learn how to avoid flat, melodramatic scenes, replace repetitive gestures and clichés with fresh, chara...

Brandi Badgett, Fictionary’s star Editor and Instructor guides you through the most important aspects of storycraft to help you write your best book. Today’s topic is all about POV: Brandi explains common POV mistakes like head hopping and inconsistent POV strategy, how to stay inside a character’s lived experience, and when unreliable narrators work without feeling like cheating. She also shares...

Brandi Badgett, Fictionary’s star Editor and Instructor guides you through the most important aspects of storycraft to help you write your best book. Today’s topic is all about show vs tell: Discover how you can balance the tools of showing vs. telling to write immersive fiction that keeps a reader engaged. Brandi also shares how there are specific times when it’s best for your story to use tellin...

Brandi Badgett, Fictionary’s star Editor and Instructor guides you through the most important aspects of storycraft to help you write your best book. Today’s topic is all about non-linear timelines: Brandi defines non-linear timelines as a single timeline visited out of order (not alternate realities), and clarifies how writers can use dual timelines, flashbacks, flash-forwards, and fragmented str...

Brandi Badgett, Fictionary’s star Editor and Instructor guides you through the most important aspects of storycraft to help you write your best book. Today’s topic is all about backstory: what is backstory and why it’s important and what three things you need to know about how to use backstory the best way possible. Brandi shares solutions on how to use backstory to write an engaging book while av...

Brandi Badgett, Fictionary’s star Editor and Instructor guides you through the most important aspects of storycraft to help you write your best book. Today’s topic is all about theme: what is theme and why it matters, how to figure out what the theme of your book is, and how to craft it into every part of your story without being preachy. I’m excited to share this series with you. Packed with lots...

In today’s conversation, Elizabeth sits down with her good friend Ruana, co-owner of Dunie, a multidisciplinary design studio in Almaty, Kazakhstan to talk about how having a special needs child has affected her life and her creativity as a writer. Ruana’s young son Idris suffers from a very, very rare genetic disorder that severely impacts his life and future. During the course of the long, frigh...

In today’s episode, Elizabeth at Creative, Actually chats with sweet romance author, Fictionary Story Coach Editor, and instructor Linda O’Donnell who shares why all successful romance novels have a “wound” for their protagonist to overcome. She shares examples of how writers can progress their character’s wound across the romance beats from the meet cute to breakup and their epiphany. We also get...

Writer, editor, and Fictionary-certified Story Coach Editor Alexandria Yandt joins Elizabeth on Creative, Actually to discuss how she balances writing books and teaching outlining courses while homeschooling six kids. Alexandria started to write fiction during COVID for escapism and anxiety relief, and shares how she evolved from discovery writing to creating story with structure via Fictionary. S...

On today’s episode, creativity coach and strengths-focused editor Julia Gandrud joins Elizabeth to discuss how the Enneagram can help writers get to know themselves better and help them write complex characters perfect for different genres. She describes each type’s motivations and fears and how stress and growth patterns can deepen character creation across genres. About Julia Gandrud: Julia Gand...

Brandi Badgett shares her transformation on Creative, Actually from a passionate reader into a successful editor and author. She discusses her early love for books, writing endeavors, and how after raising five small children, the Resident Evil community rekindled her writing aspirations. Brandi elaborates on her creative process, the importance of story structure, and using tools like Pro Writing...

Perfumer, sociologist, author, and editor Angie Andriot sits down with Elizabeth Carter on the second episode of Creative, Actually. Angie’s an Indiana-based perfumer, the cozy mystery author of Fragrance of Forgotten Truth, and a Fictionary instructor/editor. As a PhD holding sociologist, she shares interesting takes on character-building that may help you understand your characters better. She a...

In the first conversation of Creative, Actually, Elizabeth Carter chats with retired ER nurse and author Jo Taylor about discovering her love of writing while completing an English degree to make a career pivot, and how decades in healthcare shaped her understanding of human nature. They discuss her award-winning 1970s-set novel Margaret of Thibodaux , her Substack Characteristically Speaking, and...