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 • 208 episodes
Essential Guide to Writing a Novel
Latest Episodes
Episode 208 - How to paint pictures with words.
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 example...
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29:50
Episode 207 - When the hero lies to the reader.
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 and inst...
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26:49
Episode 206 - How to get lots of plot ideas.
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 from Ja...
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30:33