October 2020 - Writers Ink Nonfiction

October 27, 2020

1 :: 4 What’s Horrifying for Writers?

5 Major Horrors Every Writer Will Face, from Writer’s Block to Crash and Burn.

Find the transcript with resources at this link.

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October 21, 2020

1 :: 3 Write the Novel

For Newbie Writers: How to take ideas and turn them into a story. A brief intro to the best plotting method around.

Find the show notes here: https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2020/09/for-newbie-writers-write-novel.html

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October 14, 2020

1 :: 2 ~ 3 Notta Mistakes for Newbie Writers

Newbie Writers make mistakes when launching their careers. Here are 3 Notta Mistakes that writer M.A. Lee managed to stumble into when she launched in 2015.

Transcript for the episode is located at this link.

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October 7, 2020December 24, 2020

The Write Focus ~ Inaugural Episode

Find the transcript for the first episode at this link. New episodes are posted every Wednesday on The Write Focus.

7 Newbie Writer Mistakes

October 7, 2020

1 :: 1 ~ 7 Newbie Writer Mistakes

What mistakes did pro writers make as newbies? Here are 7 mistakes.

Find the transcript at this link. Also mentioned: Fiction Sales Copy, a course offered by Dean Wesley Smith & WMG Publishing & his nightly blog. WMG Courses on Teachable

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4:05 / Perspective / Basic Terms pt 1 / Discovering Characters January 25, 2023
How do we present the story to our readers? This question is often asked on social media. Should I write in first person? Deep Voice? Limited? All of these are the narration of the story through a character’s eyes and opinions—or more than one characters’ eyes and opinions. This is Perspective, viewpoint, point of view. […]
M.A. Lee
4:04 / Interview / Discovering Characters January 18, 2023
The character interview is a vital method to reach into your characters’ voices. Before launching into a major storyline, writers should interview their primaries: protagonists & antagonists as well as the important secondaries whose decisions will affect the primary characters. Yet what questions do we ask? We’ve an excellent interview adapted from several sources, starting […]
M.A. Lee
4:03 / Templates / Discovering Characters January 11, 2023
Templates are the easiest way to build a character from ground up. The only problem is that most templates barely cover more than appearance and bits & pieces of relationships and angst and secrets. Don’t fret. We have 10 templates that delve deeper than the surface façade, into the interior spaces where characters live. We’re […]
M.A. Lee
4:02 / Introduction & Getting Ideas / Discovering Characters January 4, 2023
Where do writers get their ideas? How do we build characters? Those 2 essential questions start every bit of writing. All else (situation, plot, genre, tropes, length) comes from those questions. Our work as writers is to make the answers that we discover hide on the page, so that readers have only the enjoyment of […]
M.A. Lee
4:01 / Freebie Story Start / Fantasy January 1, 2023
January 1 falls outside the parameters by offering a freebie. This year Edie Roones and M.A. Lee give us “The Poisoner and the Faerie Huntsman”, from the Wild Sherwood series, collected into the anthology Into Wild Sherwood. Melly and her hound encounter strange black hounds. Then the Huntsman of the Wild Hunt arrives. Has the […]
M.A. Lee
3:50 / SMART Biz Planning / Enter the Writing Business December 7, 2022
The year’s final episode, for the rest of December is busy, busy, busy! And that’s in our Biz Plan. We talk the SMART Business Plan, turning dreams into goals with specific objectives and strategies. How do we do it? Content 00:37 Intro 1:50 Tangible Objectives 3:27 Outside Help / Online Presence 6:22 Professional Improvement / […]
M.A. Lee
3:49 / eyes on the Writing Biz Plan / Enter the Writing Business November 30, 2022
We’re to the last 2 episodes of our focus on the Writing Business. These last two episodes for this season of The Write Focus will concentrate on a business plan for our writing. Yes, writing is a business. Do it the SMART way. Content 0:39 Intro 2:05 What is a Business Plan? 2:57 The Writing […]
M.A. Lee
3:48 / Practicalities / Enter the Writing Business November 23, 2022
Herewith, the most boring yet essential of all the writing business information: Practicalities MS Preparation and the Nuts & Bolts of the everyday Writing Life. Content 0:40 Intro / 7 Common Manuscript Elements 2:16 Boilerplates 3:27 Disclaimers 4:30 Front Titles List 6:10 Acknowledgements and Reader Notes 7:40 Table of Contents 8:22 Chapter Headings & Page […]
M.A. Lee
3:47 / Soul-Suckers / Enter the Writing Business November 16, 2022
Long before the dreamed reality of writing will support us, we have to have those humdrum, mundane jobs that try to kill our writing spirits. Fair Warning: Along with jobs, people will try to kill our writing spirits. How do we handle these two-sided slaps to our dreams? Content 00:44 Intro 2:03 Jobs that pay […]
M.A. Lee
3:46 / On Creativity / Enter the Writing Business November 9, 2022
Every discussion of the Writing Biz needs a focus on Creativity. What does creativity actually mean? How do we put it into practice? How do story visions change when creativity is applied? Also ~ Writing can be a hell and a heaven. How do we know when the writing biz is worth it? Content 00:40 […]
M.A. Lee