Hosted by James Thayer · 🇺🇸 US · EN-US · 223 episodes
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Hosted by James Thayer, the podcast is a practical, step-by-step manual on how to craft a novel. It presents a set of tools for large issues such as story development and scene construction (Kirkus Reviews said Thayer's novels are "superbly crafted') and it also examines techniques that will make your sentence-by-sentence writing shine. The New York Times Book Review has said Thayer's "writing is smooth and clear. it wastes no words, and it has a rhythm only confident stylists achieve.
James Thayer hosts Essential Guide to Writing a Novel, a education show with 223 episodes published.
Some of us may describe our characters using only the sense of sight: what the reader sees when imagining the character. But we can also use sound, smell, taste, and texture to make our characters more memorable. Here ar
I talk about ways we can make our settings--the time and place of our story--irresistible to readers. They'll want to live there. Plus: we can use our global search function to almost instantly make our sentences more fo
Here are pocket-sized techniques that can result in strong sentences; small--even tiny--things we can add to our prose writing arsenal. Also, Elizabeth George on her use of two outlines: the step outline and the running
For readers, fiction offers escape from their real lives. How can we make our writing intense, and so lift our scenes above real life? Details are a key, and here are ideas on the use of odd and memorable details to make
The phrase "cut to the chase" originated in the film industry. When shooting and editing a movie, if things are getting dull cut to a chase scene. Cut to the chase applies to our novels and short stories, too. Here are w
Here is a checklist of things we likely should think about as we begin our first chapter: some elements to have in the beginning pages of our story and some things to avoid. Also: the strong technique of using contrast i
What is a singular attribute that separates Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway, and Edgar Alan Poe? Their literary voices. Here are thoughts on our own voices: if and how we should try to develop them. Also: the strong tool o
Writing is like learning the violin. We can get better. Here are reasons we should practice, and suggestions how to do so. And what sparked Edgar Alan Poe's imagination? Also: how much of our story should be scenes rathe
What's the problem with having a lot of characters in a scene? Aren't lots of people needed to make street scenes and party scenes and sports scenes and battle scenes credible? I'll talk about the problem of too many cha
How can we know if our scene pushes the story forward. Does our scene contribute to the story? The ratchet can test our scene. I talk about the ratchet and show how Cormac McCarthy and F. Scott Fitzgerald used it. Plus,
If we emulate famous authors, won't we get better at writing? Here are how some highly-skilled, best-selling authors write and live. Plus: the three dumbest pieces of advice for writers. And: George Orwell's rules of wri
How can we get readers to admire and respect our hero, maybe even to fall in love with him? Our hero can save the cat. Here is how the screenwriters' save the cat technique can apply to our novels. Also, best seller Lawr
Keeping a tight point of view is critical for our story. Here's how we can stay inside the mind of our main character yet learn what others in the scene are thinking. Plus, how John Grisham works. And: how we can reveal
Sometimes writing can be a grind. Here are things that are fun while writing that'll give us energy and keep us at our desks and allow us to pour joy into our words. Also: we should avoid vanilla, meaningless word packag
Folks new to fiction may think because there are a million stories and dozens of genres, plots can be presented in any way imaginable. But successful plots have time-tested patterns, and these are discussed here. Plus, M
How and why should we avoid our character traveling? And how does Orson Scott Card not make blunders in his novels? Here is his tool for having a mistake-free novel. Also: here is why our scenes--almost all scenes--shoul
Writing is magic. We type on a keyboard, and then the words we type create powerful images in readers' minds. Here is a discussion of our main tool for creating vivid images: detail. Which details, how to use them, and e
Sometimes an unreliable narrator can be great fun to create, and great fun to read about. Here are techniques for developing a protagonist the reader learns not to trust. Also, how can we avoid dull interior monologue an
Novelist John D. McDonald said he had more plot ideas than time to write them. That's not the case for most of us writers. We usually are in chronic need of more plot, more story. Here are techniques for inventing plot f
Sometimes we are full of ambition to write. Yet we don't. We put off our writing, then put it off again. Why do we do that? And what can be done to get us in front of the keyboard? Here are thoughts on what we can do to
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Essential Guide to Writing a Novel is hosted by James Thayer. The show is categorised under education (fiction) and has published 223 episodes.
Essential Guide to Writing a Novel has published 223 episodes.
Essential Guide to Writing a Novel regularly covers education, fiction, how to. It sits in the education category, with a fiction focus.
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