Essential Guide to Writing a Novel
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.
Podcasting since 2022 • 186 episodes
Essential Guide to Writing a Novel
Latest Episodes
Episode 186 - Showing--not telling--what a character is thinking.
Thoughts are interior, in our minds. But there are ways to show--to give evidence--that reveal to the reader what our character is thinking. Also, here is an important ingredient that many writers forget when describing a character....
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26:41
Episode 185 - The keys to musical writing.
The three most important words in our fiction are, "Story, story, story." But we can also shoot for lovely, musical language that makes each sentence and paragraph a pleasure to read. Here are thoughts on how to add music to our sen...
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24:15
Episode 184 - Skipping the dull stuff in our plot.
In his famous ten rules of writing, Elmore Leonard says that we shouldn't write things readers tend to skip. What are those things? How can we avoid writing them? Also, should our story have theme and, if so, how can we ...
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26:30
Episode 183 - A key to making our sentences forceful.
What do Ernest Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy, and Elmore Leonard have in common? Powerful stories, yes. But also lean and forceful sentences. Here's how they do it. Also: in our plotting,what's an acceptable coincidence an...
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27:35
Episode 182 - Things to think about as we write the end of our story.
After months and month if writing, we'll near the end of our story. Our novel is almost finished. Here are things we should consider as we wrap up our story. Also, for many of us editing our own story isn't as fun as writing.&...
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23:48