#Write Now Workshop Podcast

[mariannedonley]

Kitty Bucholtz, March Featured Author

March featured author Kitty Bucholtz has combined her undergraduate degree in business, her years of experience in accounting and finance, and her graduate degree in creative writing to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher turned coach.

March featured author Kitty Bucholtz is a writer, podcaster, and a book coach. She has combined her undergraduate degree in business, her years of experience in accounting and finance, and her graduate degree in creative writing to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher turned coach. She writes romantic comedy and superhero urban fantasy, often with an inspirational element woven in. She…

View On WordPress

#Featured author #Kitty Bucholtz #romantic comedy #Superheros #Write Now Workshop Podcast

[nanowrimo]

5 Techniques to Help You Write Your Novel

Every writing project is unique, and the methods that help you draft one novel may not work for another. If you’re getting started on a brand new project this Camp, NaNo Guest Vee James has some suggestions for different techniques to help you explore your story. It took a few NaNos before I realized I was developing different techniques each time I sat down to the challenge. I think we all do this naturally, but it helps to step back and observe the process. If you’re strictly a pantster, you’ve been working on the story ideas in your head. If you’re a planner, you’ve set to paper the story concepts, characters, and an outline of what you are about to produce on paper. Some people take a hybrid approach to NaNo. Granted, the basics remain the same: butt in chair, accomplish the hourly/daily goal, and allow yourself to tell your story.

I discovered that each unique novel presented particular challenges, and I had to adapt my style and writing techniques in order to explore the story and keep the production happening. Some of these came from writing instructors and wonderful podcasters. Some came from “how to write” seminars and workshops. Others grew out of a feverish search for “more words.”

Here are five techniques I’ve found that helped me advance writing projects:

1. Research

It was a surprise to me to discover the concept of researching for fiction. I initially thought, “Just make something up.” But there are so many ways to broaden your approach. Plumb your memory, take a course in something related to the story, talk to an expert, and ask lots of questions. You could even become like the character in order to feel what they feel. If you’re writing a western, go ride a horse.

2. Write Scenes Out of Order

If you have a premise, you’ve already got scenes in your mind. Don’t wait until you get to chapter 18. Write that scene now. You can always revise it when you catch up to that point and it gives you something to develop toward. To expand on this technique, when you’ve written the scene, ask yourself, “What happened just before this?” or “What does this scene lead to?”

3. Put disparate characters together and have them have a conversation

Often, we write secondary characters who take a more subdued role in the plot. But what would happen if your protagonist’s best friend had a conversation with the main antagonist? Or if the antagonist’s agent of destruction came upon the protagonist’s love interest? In my experience, these conversations frequently produce more depth in your secondary characters and almost always it’s something you weren’t expecting.

4. Play with Genre Tropes

What have you chosen to write? Urban fiction? SciFi? Fantasy? You already know what your reader expects you to write, and what the plot ahead holds for them. How can you twist it? Sometimes the simplest thing you mentioned in chapter one can be the linchpin of a great plot twist.

5. Study Film

It’s no accident that some of the most astounding stories have been told through film. Quite simply, movie companies invest heavily in every aspect of their production and hire some of the best writers around. Yes, it’s a visual medium and has some advantages over prose. But the main lesson with movies is in the structure of the stories they tell. Here’s a good example: when I was writing a fairytale novel, I wanted to stay true to the classic story structure. One afternoon I was watching the comedy, Galaxy Quest, taking careful notes on the structure. I realized the story structure mapped very closely to what I was doing in the fairytale. It was comforting to see this, and it also gave me some ideas on how to approach the ending.

Most importantly: NaNoWriMo is a thrilling if exhaustive experience, and I urge you to immerse yourself in it completely. Write with utter abandon, delve deep for concepts that will give you the next 2000 words, and try new things like you’re a Mad Scientist in a hurry. We all know that what you end up with is a messy creation. But you will find you have given yourself a great gift.

Vee James is a cross-genre author who loves to write comedies, fairytales, and YA supernatural. He participated in NaNoWriMo for ten years in a row, writing over a half-million words, and it led to nine NaNo novels plus two more non-NaNos. Out of this work, he’s published four novels, with a fifth nearing completion. If interested, visit his site at www.veejames.com and leave a message. He loves to talk to writers of all kinds. Vee's photo by A. Roger Hammons Photo by Daniel Álvasd on Unsplash

#nanowrimo #camp nanowrimo #writing tips #nanowrimo experience #writer's life #by nano guest #vee james

[archivecon]

Panelist Registration Forms Now Live!

It’s time! Panel registration for ArchiveCon’s third event is now open - we’re looking for all sorts of red string theories, workshops, games, discussion panels, fandom history, etc - everything and anything Archives and Protocol!

Do you have a burning desire to share your theories? A need to dig into detailed character analyses? Got too deep into research for your fic, and now just have to tell everyone about Jonah-era occultism? This is where it’s at! We welcome a wide variety of panel topics including, but not limited to:​

The Magnus Archives/Protocol/RQ Network-themed topics, like deep dives into characters and meta

A focus on podcast-making, like sound editing, writing, or voice-acting, whether it be about TMA/TMP, another podcast, or a general overview

Fandom history

Queerness in fandom

Creative fannish endeavors, like zines, fic-binding, fanfic, fanart, etc

Ship manifestos

And more!

Please go to our site here for more info, and register your panel here! You may also want to check out last year’s schedule, to get an overview of what others have done. Panel registration will be open from now until May 12th, with acceptance emails sent out by May 26th.

[Reminder that ArchiveCon is a free, fan-run, totally online convention dedicated to The Magnus Archives and The Magnus Protocol! You must be registered and over 18 years of age to attend and participate].

#tma #the magnus archives #the magnus protocol #tmp #tmagp #archivecon #don't mind me #just putting this post back into the ecosystem!

[foresight-studio]

Hi, I'm Ben! And I'm happy to be here.

I'm a neuroscientist by training and also by trade (though these days I care mostly about stem-cell epigenetics). When I'm not doing science, I'm probably thinking about stories, the ways we tell them, and how the act of storytelling structures our lives in ways both obvious and imperceptible.

You're probably here because I make games. I've been writing/designing/illustrating/laying out games and supplements for a little over a year now! Here's a few of them, in no particular order:

DO/OMED. Explore the disintegrating landscape outside of a utopian domed city, and discover the nature of the secretive Namesake Project. Inspired by Annihilation plus a pinch of Jewish tradition, written and designed by me, based on RP Deshaies Breathless system.

The Cross Stitch. In this self-contained folk horror adventure, you'll explore a missing town, meet its unusual denizens, and uncover the dark mystery at its heart. Written, illustrated, and designed by me, for MÖRK BORG (but adaptable to the system of your choice). It's also my only project currently available in print.

Hillbrook Glen: Manifest your Dreams. Attend an exclusive, luxurious wellness workshop in the Adirondack Mountains, and bring your dreams to life. No, literally, your dreams are alive. And they're hungry. Written and designed by me, as the first of a 4-part series currently in progress.

Public Access. In this game of nostalgia and analog horror from Jason Cordova & The Gauntlet, you'll investigate strange mysteries surrounding TV Odyssey, a notorious TV station from the '80s and '90s that disappeared without a trace. I contributed a very tiny bit of writing to this, but mostly I did the layout and graphic design.

Decomposer. Take on the role of a worm, a fungal spore, a seed, or some other tiny creature, and decompose the remains of a dead god into a new world. Written and designed by me. (And it's free!)

I also have a few upcoming projects to look forward to:

Hillbrook Glen: Follow your Bliss. Explore a shifting meditation garden and face the branching paths your life could have taken in this post-it crawl adventure. Just be careful not to lose yourself. Coming September 2023 (I hope).

The Silt Verses RPG. In this TTRPG adaptation of the popular horror/weird-fiction podcast The Silt Verses, you'll traverse the Peninsula, hunting down stray deities while exploring your own complicated relationship with unsanctioned faiths. It's written by Gabriel Robinson & Jason Cordova, and I'm doing graphic design & layout. Coming soon.

Triangle Agency. As an employee of the Triangle Agency, it's your job to make sure the world doesn't collapse into chaos. You'll go on missions to apprehend dangerous anomalies while wielding anomalous powers of your own, battling bureaucratic nightmares along the way. TA was a runaway success on Kickstarter earlier this year, and I'm writing a mission for The Vault collection and laying out the book(s)!

Ex Nihilo Ad Nihilum. People vanish every day in the City of Y. But this one - this one is different. Or so your contact claims. Search for a missing scientist and uncover a potentially world-ending conspiracy in this surreal noir horror adventure for CY_BORG. Coming in the fall.

While you wait for those projects, you can keep up with what I'm working on via my newsletter or the Foresight Studio discord server.

So, hello tumblr! I hope something I make resonates with you.

#ttrpg #indie ttrpg #introduction #hi hello #game design #graphic design

[threebooksoneplot]

Three Books One Plot FAQ

Who are you?

Hosts Shannon and G are both relapsed 2000s twihards from the DC-Maryland-Virginia area of the US who found their way back to Twilight fandom just in time for the Renaissance™. They met through fandom in 2019 and have been friends ever since!

Shannon (@flowerslut) lives and works in LA. When she’s not obsessively writing 250k-word fanfictions, you can find her at Emo Nite LA or making her own music under the name Maybe. Her personal blog is @uncancellable. You can also follow her on Goodreads/Storygraph!

G (@volturialice) lives in Colorado and works remotely, which leaves plenty of time for her to take long walks in the mountains and look for loose bears in the neighborhood. She is a graduate of the Fanauthor Workshop and spends a shocking amount of time at the library. You can follow her on Goodreads/Storygraph here!

What is Three Books One Plot?

3B1P (2022 - present) is a podcast created to compare and contrast Twilight and its two published rewrites: Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined (genderflipped Twilight) and Midnight Sun (Twilight from Edward’s point of view.) One part literary analysis, several parts jokes, and the rest utter shenanigans, it’s a bimonthly read-along in which hosts G and Shannon take turns reading and recounting chapters of Life and Death/Midnight Sun, and a rotating guest of the week reads and recounts Twilight. For more information on the podcast's genesis and the history of the three books, give Episode 0 a listen!

Where can I listen?

You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts.

Are you planning to do episodes on New Moon/air a season 2?

Yes! Season 2 begins 9/13/23 (Happy 36th birthday to Bella Swan.)

How will you keep your “three books” gimmick going into Season 2 and beyond?

We’re not telling. You’ll have to listen and find out 😏

When do you post new episodes?

We post new episodes every other Monday! Season 1 of 3B1P aired from June 2022 through May 2023, while Season 2 (New Moon) will air from September 2023 through June 2024 (reverting back to Monday releases after a Wednesday, September 13th premiere.)

Why do you have an episode 0/8.5/11.5? And why is your season 1 finale episode longer than Return of the King (2003, dir. Peter Jackson)?

Listen, we never claimed to be perfect.

What are the "show notes" and where can I find them?

After each episode, we compile any references we or our guests made into a post full of links, images, videos, articles, etc. Find them on our tumblr here!

How can I support the podcast?

You can slide us a few bucks over on the 3B1P Ko-fi. Anything we raise that goes over the cost of breaking even will be donated to the Quileute tribe’s Move to Higher Ground project! If you’d rather not shell out, we’d also love getting ratings/reviews on your listening platform of choice. Or you can recommend us to your goofiest friends!

Where can I find you on social media?

We post (and reblog) the most stuff here on our tumblr, but we also have an Instagram, TikTok, and previously had a (now-defunct) Twitter. You can also contact us with inquiries or long-form comments and letters at [email protected] 🤩

How can I interact with the podcast?

We love responding to tumblr asks, emails, and other comments! Sometimes we even read out comments during an episodes. We also post weekly polls and short-answer questions both here and on Spotify (only accessible from the mobile app.) We even occasionally host contests and challenges! You can also join our spinoff project Bella’s Book Club, a virtual book club open to anyone, which meets on discord once a month in order to discuss “Bella Swan’s” (Stephenie Meyer’s) favorite books as listed in Midnight Sun chapter 11 (and sometimes watch movies!) More info on Bella's Book Club can be found on its dedicated tumblr (here) Goodreads (here) and Storygraph (here!)

#faq #twilight podcast #twilight #midnight sun #life and death #show notes

[hyba]

You know, I've been thinking about horror a lot. Writing horror. It's a little strange, because I'm a writer of dark things, sure, but it's usually more suspense and dark fantasy, at best. Horror is a relatively new obsession for me.

So, why am I now working on horror so much? So much so that I'm actually putting together a horror-writing monthly challenge for next month, and designing a horror-writing workshop, and recording horror stories for my podcast, and submitting to horror lit magazines...???

And it clicked for me. Last night I watched the news and felt utter and crushing disappointment at the result of a decision I'd been waiting for all day. I listened to heartbreaking stories and watched people beg for compassion, only to turn and see others try to justify their lack of humanity. On social media, I hurriedly scroll past posts that are way too graphic for my heart to take - real people dealing with real horrors - because I know that otherwise I'll be crying miserably for the rest of the night at the injustice of the world we live in. I try to plan for my future, but I'm blinded by the fear of the future that might be, that becomes more of a reality with every passing day. And today I applied to a job I should be extremely excited for, but I couldn't help but wonder if it was worth it at all, because the world has become a thousand times scarier than I ever thought it could be, and the monsters have shaken the ground beneath, and all I can see are towering waves, and all I can think is, Those waves are going to crash one day, and they'll wipe everything out.

And I know it's coming anyway, and that I should be brave, and that I should believe in the good of the people around me, but I'm scared.

So, what else am I supposed to be writing, if not horror? What else could make sense of the visceral, growing dread clawing at the back of my mind? What else is there, now?

#horror #writing #writers #writeblr #hyba #tw anxiety

[its-atlass]

Hullo darling! Since you paid such a lovely visit to my ask box yesterday, I thought I would return the favour! 💛 What are you working on these days? Do you have many projects planned for this year? What are you most excited to be working on? ☺️ Tell me all the things, please!

Hi dear!

Thank you so much for your ask, I really appreciate it :)

Unfortunately I have been up to my neck with my university courses as of late, and as a result haven't been able to really get any writing done outside of it. I have, however, been slowly chipping away at crocheting a really cute Smaug plushy and a cardigan inspired by Noah Kahan's Stick Season album. I'd say those are what's keeping me sane right now 😅.

As for plans for this year, I'm really hoping to get the second act of Make It Out written and out to the masses, workshop my abandoned Halloween WIP, and HOPEFULLY start planning out another fic idea that's been eating me alive. I may also start to dabble in other fandom fic work, as I've gotten especially fond of the BBC Merlin show as well as obsessing over a new sequel series (The Magnus Protocol) to my favourite horror podcast (The Magnus Archives). Now, that isn't to say I'll be leaving the Hobbit fandom, but simply I'll be expanding my creative abilities :)

The one thing I'm most excited to be working on... Hmm, now that's a tough question. I'm (almost) always happy to be trucking away at MIO, but I think starting on something new will be exciting as well! I've already started the research for this au and I think it's gonna be really fun to try and navigate.

Thank you so much for your lovely questions and I hope you have a lovely weekend ahead of you 💜💜

#ask atlass #conkers-thecosy #i love your new username btw #super cute! #fanfiction #fanfic #writing #tolkien #the hobbit #bbc merlin #the magnus protocol #tmagp #the magnus archives #tma

[v0idspeak]

TMP Stream Notes

Alright, so I was the non-designated notetaker for the Statement Remains server, and so I have Notes for you all. Enjoy. (this is everything that has been unlocked during the stream. Update: 350k stretch goal reached! Narrative musical album unlocked

TMP Update: Thanks to us reaching like all the stretch goals, the show will feature -24 Rusty Quill Network guest writers -Full 90 episodes (3 seasons of 30 episodes) -6 of the episodes will be double-length (44ish minutes instead of 22ish) -ambiance tracks for all of the seasons of the show -Expanded listen-along fancasts (15 per season currently) -Epilogues (1 per season, 10min) -6 spin-off Podcasts -12 TTRPG episodes -3 "what-if" episodes (canon divergence) -3 Fluff episodes (1 per season) -Complete retrospective on The Magnus Archives with some "special people" -Making-Of Documentary (secrets, footage from conception (NOW!) to release, footage of Jonny having tea denied to him) -NARRATIVE MUSICAL ALBUM (sorry I'm v excited about this one) - Concept Album!

Non-monetary/early goals -The Forest Livestream -2h long writing workshop with Alex!

Next goal: 400k: Purchase at a discount a full professional grade supercardioid Magnus-branded microphone

Livestream additional content (Serious edition) -Potential 1mil GHunt show???? Maybe??!?!?? -Lowri (TMA producer) may be in TMP, possibly as a voice actor. -List of guest writers: (not in order) Tonia Ransom (Afflicted, Nightlight), Dylan Griggs (Woe Begone / Diary of Aliza Schultz), KC Wayland (Were Alive), David Devereax (Tin Can Audio Presents), Jon Ware and Muna Hussen (Silt Verses), Cole Weavers (The Town Whispers / Tiny Terrors) Jeremy Enfinger & Nathan Lundsford (The Storage Papers), Harlan Guthrie (Malevolent and part of Dice Shame), Alex C. Telander (Ostium), Jamie Petronis (The Cellar Letters), David Carlson (The Hyacinth Disaster), Chris McClure (The Milkman of St. Gaffs), Lex Noteboom (The Deca Tapes), Shaun Pellington (Wake of Corrosion), Steve Shells (Old Gods of Appalachia), Walker Kornfeld, Steven and Marl Anzalone (The Sleep/Wake cycle, Maeltopia) -Spinoff content written by Sasha Sienna -Jonny will record the full Jurgen Leitner rant and anyone who asks for it in the 30s message tier will get a random bit of it

(Meme edition) -Alex thinks ghosts are real and he wants to punch one -There's a phantom fire in Alex's house -Amogus! -Jonny is very proficient in Goncharov lore -Scrotocol Protocol Activated -We're wrong. Always. -The Helen Distortion and the Unscrungling of the Helen -You can be both blorbo and skrunkly

#tmagp #tma #magnuspod #magpod #tma stream #rusty quill #notes #today has been a day #working AND taking notes AND listening to the stream was a weird mood #but enjoy #I will now find a comfortable hole to lie down in #Buried Avatar style #voidspeak post

[s-ccaam-era-crepe]

ooo can I hear about the bap crew?

OF COURSE <333 i loveeee talking about the bap crew thank youuuu

okay so first off general warnings for the podcasts and all my posts about it for the most part <3 there are mentions of cults, death/murder, religion (and the like) and i think thats it mostly? (as a general) but sometimes it can be a lot, take care of yourself yall <33 and the rest is under the cut there is a lot <3

with that out of the way i guess if you didn't know already lol !! they are my podcast ocs !!! i'm in the works of creating a horror <3 podcast that takes place in an amusement park with 5 main characters and a god <3

so this post here explains a lot about the main characters personalities and stuff and the tags #brickwoods and #bap on my tumblr have some other posts related to the crew <3 recently i've been doing some extra stuff for fleshing out their families who will eventually be showing up in podcast and i can do a quick over view of them here tho <3

oh and not necessarily crew related but the length of podcast <333 imma ramble about that for a sec <3 so season 1 is going to be all amusement park stuff and the last episode of that season will be a major plot point/death (sorta setting the darker/more dramatic scene for s2) s2 is also amusement park shenanigans however now that the stakes have been raised the rest of the cast is pretty scared now yk. but they have still their motivations for wanting to get out and so <3

s3 is going to be after our final girl rebecca escapes the park and tries to a) sorta solve why that happened in the first place (why them. who is the god etc etc) and b) try to give closure to the others families so yeah. plus some other plots things yk <3

and then s4 will most likely be rebecca trying to stop/take down the cult because she doesn't want something like this to happen again and the ending is in workshop <33 (aka i can't decide between like. a couple possible endings i have planned but main plot won't change despite which one i eventually choose :))

okay so back to the crew lol <33 since that other post explains a lot of basic stuff about them feel free to ask specific questions about them now that you have info about them <3 but for now family time !!!

(specific warnings for this area some bad parents mentioned)

so david <3 ae is an only child with 2 moms, they are very sweet and amazing and extremely Extremely heartbroken when david never comes home after the park and stuff. they definitely had like plans for college visits and they had a car ready for when david was going to get aer license. the two of them are going to be pretty sad to write for in s3 i think but also i love them as characters (i was posting about them like last week lol they are very cute and fun when they arent sad </3)

hmm sophia's family <3 so her dad was born into the cult when it was a bit less strict (he was 'home-schooled' by the cult but also was allowed out bc his family is a main influential family) and her mom married in. they aren't the nicest parents by a long shot, and they only respect sophia because she became the leader. sophia does have a sibling however she doesn't know about them bc their parents kept them separate in order not to 'taint' sophia's godly touch

rebecca's family doesn't have too much going on, it is also an only child and her parents have been active in her life, not as great/caring as davids parents yet not uncaring either. rebecca really just lived with them her whole life and doesn't totally feel like it connected with its parents in any important way tbh

sunni ! so sunni grew up with only his mom and his sister and after the incident with carter (wait did i tell yall that was her name yet. thats the mutual best friends name in case i Didnt say that already <3) sunni's sister Mary ended up moving out with a friend and not keeping in touch with sunni or their mom again. she also changed her last name as soon as she legally could. but yeah so sunni doesn't have a very close relationship with his mom either and he has no relationship with his sister anymore which upests him a lot but he also keeps this close to him

and blair <3 so blair has 2 brothers (twins age 10 (i think)) named ben and bruno (named by My twin siblings so) and their parents are pretty bad. blair is very protective of their younger brothers and has been trying for a while to save up enough to move all of them out but hasn't quite yet. they fight really hard in the park to try and get out because they do not want to leave their brothers with out someone else to help and be there with them.

and i think thats it for a basic run over of all their families and the characters in general a bit <3 :)) feel free to ask any questions based on this post, the last post or like. literally anything <33 they are my passion project and i love BAP sooo very much <3

#camera asks #whittingsonder #thank you SO much for the ask whit !! #also this took forever to type out i apologize </3 #anyways woo !! i love them lots <3 #also there are Probably spelling/grammar errors im so sorry lol </3 #brickwoods #bap asks #bap

[avelera]

One time my writing workshop that I recommend to everyone (they have online courses and a free podcast!) had sci-fi author David Brin as a guest lecturer and he gave some advice to new writers that has been living in my head rent-free ever since.

He said, first time writers should consider having their first novel be a murder mystery.

The reason being as follows:

Mysteries require a great deal of structure to work properly.

They also teach one a great deal about how to build a plot, especially around characters who want something (like: to solve the mystery or to not get caught)

How to have conflict and tension that grows out of each scene,

How we're introduced to characters, and finally,

How everything must build to a satisfying conclusion in which attentive readers are just a little bit ahead and casual readers discover the solution and see all the clues laid out in a satisfying manner in retrospect.

And it's a great genre for bringing in a friend to see whether or not you achieved the goal of laying out the clues properly, because it is in fact impossible to do on your own (this is true of most things in writing, but it's a bit more subtle when trying to tell if other stuff like romance has landed properly).

Putting a cut here to go over some popular examples and how writers can learn from them to improve their stories.

And the more I thought about this advice, the more I realized just how many of the most popular genre works of recent years had a mystery (whether or not it's a murder they're solving) as the way to drag the audience into the story, at least at the beginning, even if the plot then evolves into something else midway, because mystery is also an excellent way to dump exposition because it's all about finding out the truth.

The Winter Soldier film, in addition to being a Bourne-style action thriller set in the Marvel universe, has a strong plot through-line of "Who "killed" Nick Fury? Who is the Winter Soldier?" which gets us through a good chunk of the film that would otherwise be a slog of exposition and it works so well.

The first three Harry Potter books are actually very well structured mysteries. I've argued for ages that Book 4 onward is where Rowling lost the mystery plot structure to the series' detriment, the plots ballooned, and the whole thing got quite sloppy (this in addition to her reprehensible views, to be clear, I've been a critic of her structure in stories for quite some time short version: she's very bad at it when not grafting onto a school year).

The first Game of Thrones book and S1 revolved around Ned Stark as our primary protagonist seeking out the answer to the mystery of Who Killed The Hand of the King and Why - revealing the deeper mystery of Joffrey's lineage and setting up the events that eventually led to his execution. AND, by the way, that's PART of why Ned's execution was so shocking and effective: GRRM borrowed from the murder mystery genre to build a portion of his plot around, and then disrupted it by killing the investigator which as the POV character generally speaking very rarely happens in mysteries, which made it an even bigger and more effective shock for readers when Ned, who seemed to have plot armor on many levels, dies thus reinforcing the theme of "You win or you die" and the brutal chaos of the GoT world.

What I think makes all 3 of these very popular examples so effective is the blend of genre. Murder mysteries are tantalizing but they do sometimes fail to answer the "So what?" of one person dying in a small town. But combine the murder mystery structure, which demands so much of its writer and is so effective at dragging the reader along through the hardest part of introducing them to your world, with a genre that is better at answering the "So what?" like epic fantasy or action thriller, and now you've got a very effective combination for entertaining an audience.

#maggie rambles #writing #mentions of #game of thrones #winter soldier #not gonna mention the JKR book series I'm not going anywhere NEAR that fandom tyvm #JKR HP critical

[bettsfic]

craft essay a day #11

took a couple days off because i got a plot bunny for a fic that turned into a short story that turned into a novella that turned into a novel but might still be a novella depending on whether i want the main character to commit a murder or if i just want everyone to have a good time.

"The Sword of Damocles: On Suspense, Shower Murders, and Shooting People on the Beach" by Anthony Doerr, The Writer's Notebook II: Craft Essays from Tin House

beginner | intermediate | advanced | masterclass 

filed under: plot & conflict, structure, pacing, process

summary & my thoughts

in 2017 i was at tin house and i went to Anthony Doerr's lecture on simile. i use the word "lecture" loosely; it was closer to a performance. the guy's got great energy. i was so inspired by his lecture that i skipped the next one and returned to my room to start writing a new story, one that would go on to get published, win an award, and become my writing sample for the next four years, including my PhD application. i think that story was so successful in part because i wrote it only as a way to practice what Doerr had taught me about the work of similes. in fact in put so many similes into this story that when i workshopped it later, my professor wrote a little note in the margin that said, "not everything has to be like something else."

i wrote the thing to practice similes, and i ended up taking all the similes out. so it goes.

later, i attended Doerr's reading. having an audio processing issue, i'm really not a fan of readings. i would be able to listen if i could just look down at my phone, but that's rude so i end up only really getting disparate sounds and the occasional fleeting mental image. so i sit there in the back, bored and wishing i could process sound without requiring a second sensory stimulus.

with Doerr, a miracle happened: somehow, there was something about his sentences and paragraphing that made me able to understand what he was saying. for a brief, shining moment i understood the cultural obsession with podcasts. he was reading an excerpt from a short story, and i was hooked. and then it ended on a cliffhanger. so, being in the back, i left right before the end of the event and bought his book, hoping that when i asked him to sign it, he would tell me where i could find the story.

i was first in line. i gave him the book to sign and asked about the story. he said sorry, it wasn't published and probably wouldn't be. devastating. as he was signing my book, he looked at my badge which had my name and listed my genre as creative nonfiction. he asked what project i was working on. i was somewhat taken aback by this (because his line was now a mile long and also why would he care?), and told him the truth: "i'm writing a memoir on fanfiction."

over the years, i've been pretty open with just about everyone regarding how cool i think fanfic is and that i write it. it's not something i'm ashamed of and i'm generally not afraid of being judged, because it's an awesome and wonderful thing that exists in the world, and anyone who thinks otherwise has no idea what they're talking about and probably isn't someone i care to know. i've talked to dozens of authors, editors, and agents about fanfic and for the most part receive mild and polite curiosity as they attempt to align what i'm telling them with what they know of publishing. ultimately i'm sure they dismiss it, but for a beautiful couple minutes, i introduce them to something new.

(not a single person i've ever spoken with has known anything about fanfic. to us it seems so huge, but in literary circles, some people haven't even heard the word fanfiction.)

Anthony Doerr's eyes went wide. he gasped. he glanced around as if having a grand epiphany and said, "everything is fanfiction, isn't it? everything is inspired by something else."

"yes!" i said excitedly, appreciating that he and i are both excessively, possibly offputtingly, enthusiastic people. he signed my book, For Beth! A fellow writer. Your fan, Tony.

unfortunately his line was getting even longer (that's what happens when your book wins a Pulitzer i guess) and we had to cut our conversation short. a week later when i got home, i cracked open his book (all the light we cannot see) at, i don't know, 8pm maybe, and didn't go to bed until 5am when i finally finished it.

which is all to say, what Anthony Doerr says about writing, i listen to.

his essays are a lot like Mary Ruefle's in that he kind of talks about and around a general topic, and as such, this essay is a bit hard to summarize. in the vein of Wayne Booth he also leans heavily on dissecting block quote examples, and so this is a very long essay.

he begins with a disclaimer: "i'm an absolutely terrible writer of suspense. i use up most of my sentences describing trees or snow or light." i actually lol'd at this because i use his short story "The Hunter's Wife" in my lesson plan on developing imagery, and specifically refer to his detailed descriptions of trees, snow, and light.

he introduces the idea of "suspended suspense," or the moment of the story at its apex and relishing in the length of time it hovers there.

"I'm more interested in measured, proportionally handled suspense; the kind of suspense that makes you simultaneously want to skip forward a few paragraphs and to find out what will happen and dwell for as long as possible inside the slow blister of rising action."

he goes on to pull my favorite move of any craft essay: elaborating on the etymology of the term he's discussing, in this case "suspense," which comes from the latin "pendere" which means "to hang."

he talks about the idea of a plot being the thing in a story that is always ticking down to zero, and then compares storytelling and the concept of an obstacle to sports games and the reason people watch them.

"One way to look at games, tournaments, and seasons is that they are essentially highly formalized structures designed to produce obstacles. Why? Because obstacles are delay, and delay produces compelling narration."

Doerr believes that the draw of suspense is the ability to create a kind of anxiety outside of reality where one can feel emotions within the safe bubble of narrative structure. the story, after all, must always end, but life continues on.

he elaborates on two ideas in relation to suspension: interruption and diminishing returns. he cites a study which declares that humans crave interruptions in anything lasting. taking a break at work, for example, or an intermission at a play.

"Maybe interruptions—slowing down scenes just at their most pleasurable—are a way of making the sensations of vicarious anxiety and longing feel acute to us for as long as possible."

of the law of diminishing returns, he says that humans "crave newness" and that part of the allure of a break is to make new something pleasurable and familiar. for example, savoring chocolate by eating it slowly.

"...a huge percentage of writing your most climactic, emotional scenes is about learning to go very slowly. One has to learn to trawl the attention through the texture of the dream."

while all of this is great in theory, it doesn't really address the practicality of writing the damn thing. my favorite rule of thumb is "when the action is hot, write cool," an adage from Debra Gwartney that is certainly prescriptive but something i always keep in mind regardless. action hot, write cool is more or less what Doerr is saying. he's saying, slow down and take your time, while Gwartney is saying, the way to do that is to create narrative distance. my go-to example is the climax of the personal essay "The Fourth State of Matter" by JoAnn Beard, in which we become so distant from JoAnn's point of view we reach into the point of view of someone else.

climaxes are my least favorite thing to write. once i reach them, i skip all the way to the end of the story and write backwards, until the only thing left to write is the climax. i can't say whether or not this is effective advice, because i simply can't do it any other way. if there's a better way, i don't know it.

but i do have something you can try when you finally have to buckle down and get it done:

climaxes are generally the most emotional and visual part of a story. it's where the internal conflict meets up with the external conflict, and therefore you're dealing with both interior narration and sensation, and external movement of bodies in space. you should not expect yourself to handle all of these things at once. you only have one brain, and these sorts of scenes take two brains, maybe even three (how can you expect yourself to be inside your character's perspective while also standing outside of it to direct the action?), and so sometimes you have to layer them.

for your first pass on the climax: work on blocking only. all you're doing is rendering bodies in space. who are the characters in this scene, where are they in relation to each other, and what are they saying. how do they get from A to B interpersonally and/or physically? let's say your characters are finally having their first kiss. you have two bodies that have to go from not touching each other to touching each other. you potentially have some discussion between them. don't worry about dragging it out at this point per Doerr's recommendation. just get mouth A against mouth B. this is more or less only a light pencil sketch of the scene.

second pass: you've focused on the movement, now you go in and add the static details involving the sensation of the kiss and any other external detail your character is attending to, like an airplane flying overhead. most writers like to elaborate on what a person tastes like, which personally i think is weird and unnecessary because i as a reader don't really need to know what someone had for lunch, but whatever. you do you.

third pass: interiority only. my favorite way to pace out a climax is to allow your narrator access to time. allow them to think into the past, into something we don't know yet, or have them realize something, or whatever. let them think. you're controlling the mind of your narrator; use that to your advantage.

if you need to, make a pattern of it: blocking sentence, external sentence, internal sentence. movement, feeling, thought. of course, you're going to revise the shit out of this whole scene later hopefully and so you'll be able to move things around and rewrite as necessary. but in terms of just getting the whole thing onto the page, i find this layering technique pretty useful.

craft essay a day tag | cross-posted on AO3 | ask me something

#cead #plot #conflict #structure #process #pacing

[mariannedonley]

Kitty Bucholtz, March Featured Author

March featured author Kitty Bucholtz has combined her undergraduate degree in business, her years of experience in accounting and finance, and her graduate degree in creative writing to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher turned coach.

March featured author Kitty Bucholtz is a writer, podcaster, and a book coach. She has combined her undergraduate degree in business, her years of experience in accounting and finance, and her graduate degree in creative writing to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher turned coach. She writes romantic comedy and superhero urban fantasy, often with an inspirational element woven in. She…

View On WordPress

#Featured author #Kitty Bucholtz #romantic comedy #Superheros #Write Now Workshop Podcast

[whentherewerebicycles]

woke up at 6 and took the dogs out in the pitch black night as usual but then was so tired I fell back asleep… then I woke up again at 7:35 and it was LIGHT outside 😭😭😭 it isn’t even gray and overcast the sun is fully out and it’s light before 8am wahhhhh spring is coming!!! also I need to remember what a difference an extra hour and change of sleep makes… I felt dead at 6am but now feel totally refreshed. so even if I can only nap for a short stretch in the newborn days it’ll still be worth doing. mmm gosh seeing the sun has given me a new lease on life I feel so cheerful and optimistic lol (that might also be because it’s FRIDAY and it’s about to be a LONG WEEKEND). let’s see let’s see… nice easy friday as most of our team took the day off and I got most of my tasks done earlier in the week.

8-11 wrap up small tasks & emails (could also go for a short walk at some point)

11-12 shower/get ready and finish timeline for grant proposals

12-12:30 drive to campus

12:30-1:15 finalize slides

1:15-2:15 facilitate workshop

head home and go for a very long walk!!

make that amazing nyt corn pasta

gonna take it very easy tonight I think—it would be fun to write in a low-stakes playful way! I could also try a short prenatal yoga video. I need to do a thorough houseclean soon but I think I’ll tackle that tomorrow while listening to podcasts.

[archivecon]

Panelist Registration Forms Now Live!

It’s time! Panel registration for ArchiveCon’s third event is now open - we’re looking for all sorts of red string theories, workshops, games, discussion panels, fandom history, etc - everything and anything Archives and Protocol!

Do you have a burning desire to share your theories? A need to dig into detailed character analyses? Got too deep into research for your fic, and now just have to tell everyone about Jonah-era occultism? This is where it’s at! We welcome a wide variety of panel topics including, but not limited to:​

The Magnus Archives/Protocol/RQ Network-themed topics, like deep dives into characters and meta

A focus on podcast-making, like sound editing, writing, or voice-acting, whether it be about TMA/TMP, another podcast, or a general overview

Fandom history

Queerness in fandom

Creative fannish endeavors, like zines, fic-binding, fanfic, fanart, etc

Ship manifestos

And more!

Please go to our site here for more info, and register your panel here! You may also want to check out last year’s schedule, to get an overview of what others have done. Panel registration will be open from now until May 12th, with acceptance emails sent out by May 26th. [Reminder that ArchiveCon is a free, fan-run, totally online convention dedicated to The Magnus Archives and The Magnus Protocol. You must be registered and over 18 years of age to attend and participate].

#tma #the magnus archives #tmp #the magnus protocol #tmagp #magnuspod

[allthingslinguistic]

A Decade of All Things Linguistic

When I started All Things Linguistic ten years ago, it felt a way of finally joining the linguistics blogosphere conversation that I'd been reading for the previous ten years or so. I didn't expect that it would lead to me meeting and sometimes even collaborating with so many interesting people along the way, not to mention developing a whole career out of lingcomm. 

I'm now better known for many of these non-blog projects, especially Because Internet and Lingthusiasm, but for me, this blog is always where it began. So, here's a few highlights from the past decade:

Linguistics-y series

I did a lot of these more in-depth linguistics-y series and posts in the early years of the blog, before I started writing for other places as well. To browse a longer list of them, see my favourites page.

I relistened to the entire BBC radio comedy series Cabin Pressure and found amusing linguistics content in every single episode

So you asked the internet how to draw syntax trees. Here's why you're confused.

Linguist humour (currently at 44 pages!)

Language on the interwebz (35 pages!)

Lists of resources

A very long list of pop linguistics books and lingfic

Linguistics and language podcasts

A very long list of linguistics youtube channels

Linguistic approaches to language learning

How to teach yourself linguistics online for free

Protolinguist - ways to do linguistics in high school

Meta series

Linguistics jobs

Grad school, undergrad, and intro linguistics advice

Weird Internet Careers

LingComm - workshop, conference and grants

Writing series elsewhere

The Toast

Wired

Slate

Mental Floss

Full list of short-form writing elsewhere

Other projects elsewhere

Because Internet, a book I wrote about internet language

Lingthusiasm, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics which I cohost

Crash Course Linguistics, for which I was one of the writers

I've collaborated on many Language Files videos with Tom Scott

lingwiki, a series of edit-a-thons to improve linguistics-related content on Wikipedia

I've done many public speeches and media interviews. So many.

#linguistics #blogiversary #roundup #highlights #top posts #lists #linkposts

[threebooksoneplot]

Question for G :)) how was your fanauthor workshop experience? I don't know if I should apply it sounds interesting but at the same time almost no reviews or whatsoever. Thank you!

well I ended up doing it a second time, so I'd say it was pretty damn good! I think the reason there are "no reviews" is mostly due to tumblr's format not really lending itself to that? @fanauthorworkshop isn't marketing itself as a product so much as a pedagogical (educational) extension of the existing fandom gift economy—an exchange where you both learn stuff and share/teach stuff!

this answer is mildly off-podcast-topic and it's gonna get super long and wordy, so it's under a cut lol you're welcome

my Fanauthor Workshop experience

personally, I found the FAW perfect for me. I was at the point in my fic writing where I was getting some lovely comments and glowing praise, but also wishing the world in general took fanfiction more seriously, as a craft to be practiced and discussed, something with both intrinsic and literary merit. @bettsfic's first episode as a guest on Fansplaining really resonated with me and kind of spoke to that desire (it's a must-listen for anyone on the fence about applying to the FAW!!)

but I had never studied creative writing at a university level, and barely knew what a crit letter was. I found the FAW was the perfect way to learn that sort of thing in a low-stress environment! I didn't struggle with feelings of burdensome obligation the way I had with schoolwork; rather I was excited to read everyone else's writing and see what it had to teach me. I also loved having an appropriate venue to air all my writing opinions, lol. I found I was so motivated that I managed to attend every FAW session even though it conflicted with family vacations two years in a row. I wrote crit letters from the lobby of a restaurant in a national park because it was the only place with wifi. I even Zoomed into one session from a random public library in Durango, where I managed to alarm everyone else in the irl vicinity with my enthusiastic discussion of fictional cannibalism (shoutout to the story we workshopped that day, it SLAPPED.)

personally, I approached the FAW with the very specific goal of Having Fun first and letting the writing stuff come second (ie, not putting too much pressure on myself when it came to choosing and polishing my own workshop pieces, and not worrying too much about how they were received.) I still ended up getting some AMAZING critiques and responses to my two (very different) pieces—I was deeply impressed by everyone's insights, how much they were able to pick up on, and how willing they were to meet me at my level. the other pieces we workshopped ranged all over the place in technical ability, from "giohvnsksbnf this writing is so good I'm gonna fucking eat glass" to "this person is clearly just starting out as a writer, but even if their prose has some technical mistakes, their story has Good Bones and their critiques and discussion observations have been spot on."

my big secondary goal was to Make Friends and there I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. I now have SO many cool FAW mutuals, a few of which I have hung out with IRL and the rest of which I totally WOULD hang out with IRL if given the opportunity. they're all uniquely creative and clever people who I probably wouldn't have met otherwise, so that's kind of the biggest Win for me. it's so cool knowing I have all these people I could DM out of the blue and be like "hey, would you mind looking over this short story/beta-ing this fic chapter?" and end up with some great insights. there's also an FAW Discord where anyone can kind of bring fandom- and writing-related questions to the floor, as well as share recs and self-promote projects (or in my case, recruit podcast guests who I know have been pre-screened for both their chill lack of pearl-clutching and their basic fiction-analyzing skills, lol.)

I would recommend the Fanauthor Workshop if:

you're a self-taught writer who's done most of your learning in the fanfiction space and you're curious about how writing is actually taught in academic settings

alternatively, you're a writer from an academic background who chafes at some of the more restrictive rules in traditional workshops/you're tired of the irl Guy in Your MFA -types who refuse to or can't engage with your work on its level

you're ok with doing some "homework" (writing two crit letters per week) on the honor system

you're down to read original work in a wide variety of genres/read fic from fandoms you're not in (maybe even fandoms/pairings/characters you don't personally like)

you like what you read in @oficmag

you wish fanfiction was taken more seriously as a craft

your favorite trad-published writers all seem to be workshop alumni (eg: I swear half of my favorite writers are Clarion grads)

you have work you'd like to publish and/or submit someday but you're not sure if it's ready/not sure where to start

you follow writing advice blogs or send them asks

you wish people would leave "concrit" (constructive criticism) on your fics

you wish people would leave concrit on your fics but you're worried they might be too mean or not "get" your work

you wish people would analyze your work and give critique without letting their personal value judgments get in the way (and you're ready to do the same in turn)

you worry your work is too niche, kinky, queer, romance-focused, or "weird" for a traditional workshop (note: but it doesn't have to be any of these things. people also workshopped gen and the equivalent of coffee shop AUs!)

you'd like to hear perspectives that don't come from cishet dudes

you enjoy Class Participation and discussions (or maybe you're no longer a student and miss that kind of thing!)

you think @bettsfic seems like a good teacher (spoiler: she REALLY is)

you like the idea of a creative writing class with no grades or possibility of "failure"

you'd like to meet people you probably wouldn't meet in any other setting, and make some cool friends from other fandoms

if even a couple of these bullet points sound like you, you'd probably get a lot out of the FAW!! I hope the next session of FAW-ers have a blast. I'll be lurkin the Discord rooting for y'all

#asks #fanauthor workshop #anonymous