Story Works Round Table | Conversations About Craft

This week, we discuss killing your characters, how, why, and to what end? When is it essential and when is it gratuitous? How can it shift the story and the protagonist? How might we want it to affect the reader? And how can we pull off that desired effect? When is the best time to kill a character? Show notes & more at www. StoryWorksPodcast.com Visit WordEssential.com and book a discovery ca...

This week, Alida is off in the Black Hills, so we pull an episode from the video-only archives, bringing Matt Herron back to the Round Table. We discuss pacing, what it really is and how it functions in your story.  How do you decide the best pace for your story? And how do you achieve that pace? What kind of effect can pacing have for your readers? And why is pacing so different between book...

In this episode, we follow up the Evoking Emotions episode with a discussion of how to get your character’s emotions on the page. How many ways can we convey emotions in writing? What are the options for showing feeling in words? How do we get beyond the obvious facial expressions? And why is this so important to fiction?  Show notes & more at www. StoryWorksPodcast.com. Visit WordEssenti...

This week, Alida, Robert, & Kathryn discuss what makes a strong ending, challenges with hitting the right end note for your story, when an ending becomes spoon feeding the reader, & how to resolve your story threads.  Show notes & more at www. StoryWorksPodcast.com Visit WordEssential.com and book a discovery call today!

In this week’s can’t miss episode, we delve deep into making your readers feel along with your characters. As writers, it’s our job to pull our readers strings…but how? Show notes at www. StoryWorksPodcast.com Visit WordEssential.com and book a discovery call today!

This week, Alida, Kathryn, and Robert answer a listener's question about how to get good descriptions of your characters on the page. It's not as simple as writing there stood Joe. He was 6' tall with brown hair. In fact, please don't write that. Besides dos and don'ts, we each select a description to read and discuss what makes it work.  And there's a writing exercise you can do at your favo...

This week we get crafty again, talking about theme. What is it? How does it work with plot? Should you develop theme before, during, or after plot? And more...then we end with a writing prompt.   Show notes and more at www. StoryWorksPodcast.com. Visit WordEssential.com and book a discovery call today!

This week, we pull one from the archives. This episode was formerly known as video-only episode 2.  Alida, Kathryn, and Matt discuss the benefits and pitfalls of writing groups? What kind of criticism is good criticism? And how can I be a better critic? How do I know if a writing group is a good fit for me? Should I join or run away? Show notes and more at www.storyworkspodcast.com Visit Word...

This week, we bring Matt Herron back to the Round Table to discuss what we writers can do with our short stories. We define the collections, the novel-in-story, and serialization, discussing pros and cons of each. This week we stray into marketing territory, because when it comes to deciding what to do with your stories, how you brand them matters.  Show notes and more at www. StoryWorksPodca...

This week, Alida, Kathryn, and Robert discuss short stories and how they’re different from the novel. We cover topics like the shortness of short stories, ambiguous endings, the importance of theme, stories versus lead magnets, writing short to build craft skills, and more! www. StoryWorksPodcast.com Visit WordEssential.com and book a discovery call today!

This week, Alida, Kathryn, and Robert answer a listener's question and address how to better write scenes heavy with dialogue. We talk about keeping things interesting using tools other than dialogue, the apprentice-master model of scenes that instruct both character and reader, what we can learn from the movie montage, incorporating action into dialogue, and the risk of losing readers during pass...

This week, we welcome Kathryn back to her seat at the Round Table, and thanks again to Matt Herron and Emma Darwin for keeping the seat warm! We're talking character motivation. It's crucial to every element of your story and you'll do yourself a favor by having a handle on it in the prewriting stages. We talk about the protagonist, the reader, and you, the writer. Also, how motivation relates to...

Alida and Emma Darwin continue the conversation on “show, don’t tell” this week. We get right into psychic distance and more. Way more.  Show notes and a special offer this week at www. StoryWorksPodcast.com Visit WordEssential.com and book a discovery call today!

This week, Alida and Emma Darwin discuss the old adage "Show, don't tell." We deep into what that saying really means, discussing the point of view lens, distance, and common mistakes writers make as a result of misunderstanding show, don't tell. Show notes and more at www. StoryWorksPodcast.com. Visit WordEssential.com and book a discovery call today!

This week, Alida & Robert are joined by award-winning author and writing teacher Emma Darwin. We discuss narrative drive, the forward movement essential to any story. We go deep into narrative craft, exploring the difference between a story set adrift and one with a current that pulls the reader forward. This is a don't miss episode! Show notes and more at www. StoryWorksPodcast.com. Visit Wor...

This week, Robert and I welcome Emma Darwin to the round table for an extensive discussion about writing historical fiction, but as with every genre special, this isn't just for writers of historical works. Emma has an amazing knowledge of storycraft and we go deep this week. Kathryn's going to busy with the show notes! Show notes and more at www. StoryWorksPodcast.com Save 20% on the Structure of...

This week, Alida, Robert, & Matt discuss tales of first encounters, from the pilgrim to the UFO. These are ethnocentric stories addressing a primal human fear, asking friend or foe, and sometimes leading to understanding and cultural immersion instead of war. Show notes & more at www. StoryWorksPodcast.com Save 20% on the Structure of Story course at www. StoryWorksFiction.com. Coupon: ROU...

This week, Alida, Robert, and guest host Matt Herron discuss hard and soft systems of magic, science, and other forms of world-building logic necessary to fiction.  Show notes and more at www. StoryWorksPodcast.com Visit WordEssential.com and book a discovery call today!

It’s our birthday! SWRT is one! This week, Robert and Alida welcome MG Herron to the round table to discuss the benefits of keeping a community of writers. We discuss the ways we’ve found community, how we’ve benefited from them, the differences between online and live communities, and how we’ve changed as writers thanks to the writers we know and love. Visit WordEssential.com and book a discovery...

This week, Alida and Robert continue their conversation about the writing process, creativity, first drafts, where ideas come from, and how revision really works. The inspiration for our conversation is George Saunders' essay "What Writers Really Do When They Write." Get the essay at  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/04/what-writers-really-do-when-they-write   Visit WordEssenti...

This week, Alida and Robert discuss a craft essay by George Saunders, titled "What Writers Really Do When They Write." It's all about the writing process, and we get a lot of value out of this essay. We highly recommend it to anyone writing a story.  Get the essay at The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/04/what-writers-really-do-when-they-write Visit WordEssential.com...

This week, Alida, Kathryn, and Robert discuss using real people and events in your fiction. What are the pitfalls of writing fact into fiction? What extra responsibilities do you have to history, your story, and your reader when you write reality-based fiction?   Show notes and more at www. StoryWorksPodcast.com Visit WordEssential.com and book a discovery call today!

This week, we pull an episode from the video archives. Alida, Kathryn, and Matt discuss what makes a great opening. Do you need to begin in media res? What is in media res, anyway? How about opening with a scenario? How much depth of character is needed in an opening? How do you get it on the page and hook a reader? Previously published as video-only episode 6. Show notes and more at www. StoryWor...

In this week’s Story Works Round Table, Alida, Kathryn, and Robert discuss the need for both action and non-action in story arcs, how to balance action with non-action, and what goes wrong when the balance is off. Show notes and more at www. StoryWorksPodcast.com Visit WordEssential.com and book a discovery call today!

Alida, Kathryn, and Robert discuss the rules of writing we all know but often don't fully understand, how they trip us up and actually become limiting factors in our writing. If you've every been told "show, don't tell," "adverbs are bad," or any number of other writing rules, you have to listen to this conversation at the Round Table. The good, the bad, and the ugly writing that happens when we t...