Month: May 2022

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Write Focus ~ Summer Podcast Series ~ A Mixed Miscellany

The series begins May 18.

We have various short topics to discuss. Compiling them into our Summer Series seems a smart idea. (Of course, what looks good on paper sometimes doesn’t translate to reality!)

Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction / Interviews with Writers 

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros as well as veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Looking for Links? All the way down!

Episodes links will not be active until the date of the episode passes!

MAY

May 18  Research / 3:21 / Episode 110

Research: a Ho-Hum topic? Not quite.

Research is necessary in all realms of writing.

Whether discovering the details that given veritas to our fiction, the details that we shouldn’t get wrong in commemorative poems, or just adding specific and elaborating details to our nonfiction, HUMDRUM RESEARCH is totally necessary.

The challenge comes in determining how many research details to use.

  • 1:11 Check-In
  • 2:50 Opening
  • 3:27 Challenges
  • 3:49 Fiction and Research
    • 4:31 Light Hand
    • 5:17 Active Use of Research
    • 5:52 Amount of Research to use
  • 7:26 Poetry and Research
    • 9:11 3 Chief Elements when presenting Occasional Poems
    • 9:16 4 Requirements of Song
    • 10:06 Public Ceremonies
    • 10:35 Writing for Independence Day
    • 12:50 Checklist for any poem / 10 To-Do’s
    • 13:46 Walt Whitman
    • 17:45 R. Waldo Emerson
  • 20:40 Nonfiction and Research
  • 21:40 Next Week
  • 21:54 Inspiration / Ezra Pound

May 25 Short Narratives, part 1

Having trouble with short narratives? Short stories? Narrative poems? Anecdotes in your blogs and essays/articles?

I had trouble. Free admission. I would launch into a story that I hoped would be 8,000 to 10,000 words only for the word count to top 20,000 or more. I was rather proud of myself when a planned short story ran less than 15,000 words.

My narrative poems ran longer than 5 or 6 stanzas. Think “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” length. For the blog I wrote, my example stories ran more than 15 to 20 sentences.

Too long. What’s that acronym? TL;DR. “Didn’t read.” Oops.

What was I doing wrong? Surely there’s a secret to short narratives? Guess what? There is! In this episode, I’ll share what I found.

Timings

  • 1:45 Opening
  • 3:28 Paul Simon’s “America”
  • 4:17 Avoiding the School-Taught Plot Pyramid
  • 5:15 Erle Stanley Gardner
  • 6:28 Lester Dent
  • 7:10 LDent’s Plot Formula
  • 8:32 The Basics
  • 12:00 Closing / Next Week
  • 13:00 Inspiration / Raymond Carver

JUNE

June 1 Short Narratives, part 2

Success with short narratives? That’s our current goal. We’ve found Lester Dent’s Plot Formula.

We’re creatives, so we can adapt the formula to fit our genre needs. We know the four parts of the 4 movements. We’re writing fiction / poetry / non-fiction. What’s next?

The details, man. It’s all in the details … of the narrative.

Timings

  • 1:05 Opening
  • 1:52 Check-in
  • 2:55 Lester Dent’s Plot Formula
  • 7:21 Coincidence is a No-No
  • 8:04 Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls” with the Formula
  • 15:08 Riddling: a Tricky method to end any story
  • 15:53 Closing / Next Week
  • 16:28 Inspiration / Joyce Cary

June 8

June 15

June 22

June 29

JULY

AUGUST

Resource Links

Lester Dent’s Plot Formula / printable pdf / https://mgherron.com/2015/01/lester-dents-pulp-paper-master-fiction-plot-formula/

Paul Simon’s “America” https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/paulsimon/america.html

Video of above  America – Lyrics – Simon & Garfunkel – YouTube

Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls” https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/garthbrooks/thethunderrolls.html

Video of above “The Thunder Rolls”