Homestead on the Corner

In this episode, Wray discusses what is perhaps the most important part of any story -- the final crisis before the act 2 climax. Learn how to bring your characters to their lowest point using their inherent flaws and set the stage for an emotionally satisfying and cathartic conclusion. For more info about the show, check out homesteadonthecorner.com Help support the show at patreon.com/homesteadc...

In this episode, Wray talks about what to do when you hit the halfway point in your story: how to use this moment to increase the effect of your crisis and climax, improve pacing in the second act, and give your plot a greater sense of structure. For more info about the show, check out homesteadonthecorner.com Help support the show at www.patreon.com/homesteadcorner Learn more about your ad choice...

In this episode, Wray talks plot reversals and revelations, how to twist your story without losing your reader, and ways to effectively set up big story payoffs in your own writing. For more info about the show, check out homesteadonthecorner.com Help support the show at www.patreon.com/homesteadcorner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Wray talks about how to develop your supporting cast, create compelling subplots, and find the organic structure of your narrative. Learn how to humanize the bit parts of your stories and why it's so important to treat characters like real people when writing. Homestead on the Corner will return on Wednesday, June 1st with more lesson episodes. In the meantime, check out our new f...

In this episode, Wray talks about the distinction between villains and antagonists, how to humanize them in the story, and ways to create memorable, necessary opponents for your protagonist. For more info about the show, check out homesteadonthecorner.com Help support the show at www.patreon.com/homesteadcorner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Wray discussed how to use the tools of effective world building to create the extraordinary world of the second act. Learn how to utilize your story's premise to inform your design, raise the stakes, and create a memorable world your reader will want to return to again and again. For more info about the show, check out homesteadonthecorner.com Help support the show at www.patreon....

In the first episode of our Act 2 series, Wray talks about how to use allies and enemies in the extraordinary world to move your protagonist towards the change they need to undergo. Learn how to balance friends and foes in the world of adventure to create compelling threat, increase conflict, and show stakes for the story. For more info about the show, check out homesteadonthecorner.com Help suppo...

In the final episode in our act 1 series, Wray discusses the break into act two: how to send your characters into the unknown and prepare the reader for their journey of change. See how the classical act structure is based in the psychological realities of risk and adaptation, and how to make the first step in the journey compelling and believing. For more info about the show, check out homesteado...

In this episode, Wray discusses techniques and ideas for developing characters within the first act of your story. Learn how to create empathy for your protagonist, demonstrate the problems with their ordinary world, and introduce readers to fundamental flaws through character's reactions to the inciting incident. For more info about the show, check out homesteadonthecorner.com Help support the sh...

www.homesteadonthecorner.com/sheridantapes A quick teaser for our new weekly fiction podcast! The Sheridan Tapes begins April 24, 2020. In 2018, famed horror writer Anna Sheridan disappeared, leaving behind only a box of mysterious cassette tapes. Detective Sam Bailey is tasked with piecing together what happened to Anna Sheridan from the seemingly impossible encounters she recorded, but as the sc...

In this episode, Wray talks Inciting Incidents: what they are, how they work, and ways to use them to generate strong narrative momentum. Learn how to put story in motion and pull in your audience with strong disruptions of the protagonist's world that force them to evolve and grow. For more info about the show, check out www.homesteadonthecorner.com Help support the show at www.patreon.com/homest...

In this episode, Wray discusses ways to use the opening of your narrative to pull readers into your story with effective hooks, questions, and setups that will strengthen and enhance your plot, characters, and structure. Learn how and when to use cold opens, prologues, and in media res openings, pull the audience in, and use foreshadowing effectively in your first act. For more info about the show...

In the season finale of Homestead on the Corner, Wray offers advice and encouragement on how to keep writing in difficult times, ways to make creative writing a habit, and strategies to stick with and finish long-form projects. For more info about the show, check out www.homesteadonthecorner.com Help support the show at www.patreon.com/homesteadcorner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph...

Support the show: patreon.com/homesteadcorner A few quick announcements as one chapter of this podcast comes to an end and another begins. Featuring music by Lauren Baker. For more info about the show, visit www.homesteadonthecorner.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Wray talks about how finding and strengthening the central thematic premise of your story can help direct creative choices, strengthen and clarify your plotline, and create a stronger effect on your readers. For more info about the show, check out www.homesteadonthecorner.com Help support the show at www.patreon.com/homesteadcorner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone...

CONTENT WARNING: Depiction of a disaster, discussions of suicide, gun violence, and some strong language. After she is saved from a devastating earthquake by the superhero Silverman, reporter Lera Lynn begins work on an investigative report focusing on him. As they begin their final interview, however, it quickly becomes clear that one of them is hiding a deadly secret. This story features Allison...

In this episode, Wray discusses the meaning created by your Story World, how to organically create it out of your central idea, and different techniques to make it more compelling to your reader. For more info about the show, check out www.homesteadonthecorner.com Help support the show at www.patreon.com/homesteadcorner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the end of the Golden Age of Piracy, ex-pirate turned pirate-hunter Eli Barrett is found adrift at sea, raving that the infamous Anne Bonny is still alive. As he tells the captain his story, a bizarre tale of sea battles, shipwrecks, and the lost city of gold unfolds... and yet Anne Bonny is dead. Or is she? This story features Sam Taylor as Andrew, Maurice Cooper as Captain Barnet, Jesse Steel...

In this episode, Wray discusses sources of inspiration, the imaginative work at the heart of all writing, healthy creative habits, and how to put your subconscious mind to work in the realm of storytelling. Learn how to listen when ideas come, capture them, and develop them into great stories. For more info about the show, check out www.homesteadonthecorner.com Help support the show at www.patreon...

CONTENT WARNING: Strong language and thematic elements. Twenty years after an apocalyptic storm left the world in ruins, a mysterious scientist wanders into the small settlement of Holy Cross, Alaska. There he finds a reluctant ally in a brilliant young tavern-girl, but finds that friendship tested when the truth about who he is — and what he's done — comes out. This story features Bohdi Silva as...

In this episode, learn how to break down plot structure into its parts to understand how it works, and how to rebuild it more effectively. Using beat, scene, act, and sequence structure to effectively pace the events in your story, your plot will become more efficient and engaging. For more info about the show, check out www.homesteadonthecorner.com Help support the show at www.patreon.com/homeste...

Learn to use the four fundamental forces of plot to design strong, compelling stories that will entertain and engage your reader. Discover strategies for how to ride the line between story science and intuition effectively and tell your stories well. For more info about the show, check out www.homesteadonthecorner.com Help support the show at www.patreon.com/homesteadcorner Learn more about your a...

At the end of a revolution they helped to lead, the crew of the ISC Elementis is ordered to execute one of their crewmates: an immortal alien traveler known as the Castaway. But when they find themselves under attack by the Castaway's oldest enemy, the captain must put aside duty and fight alongside her friend once more. This story features Marcy Murray as the Castaway, Susan Dalian as Chikere Ast...

Learn how to design compelling plots for your stories based on the relationship between character wants and needs, utilizing character development to give your narrative momentum and structure. For more info about the show, check out www.homesteadonthecorner.com Help support the show at www.patreon.com/homesteadcorner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CONTENT WARNING: Strong language, violence, and disturbing elements. A blind gunslinger, fleeing his violent past, finds solace in the small town of Santa Lucia... but when a gang of outlaws appears in town, he must defend the place and the people he's come to call home the only way he knows how. This story features Jesse Steele as Jacob, Maurice Cooper as Sam, Jeff Frome as Cyrus, Michael Dostrow...