Category: Pro Writer

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Plot ~ All Writers Need to Know

From September to December, The Write Focus podcast will focus on Plot.

Everything to do with Plot.

Freytag’s Pyramid and the Beats.

Plot Points and Pinch Points and the Complex Plot Structure.

Three-Act … or Four-Act Structure.

Shakespeare’s Structure.

And the best Structure of All, the most adaptable to every writer’s needs, able to be stripped down to the basics or built into cycles for epic length.

We cover it all, every Wednesday as the year cools into autumn and winter.

Information comes from our host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Discovering Your Plot, with assistance from Edie Roones and Remi Black.

What do writers want from plot?

What do writers need from plot?

As wordsmiths, we writers know that want and need are two different words.

  • The want is a circumstance that we writers can control. We want plot specifics to help us craft story and exceed reader expectations.
  • The need is a circumstance of obligations from reader expectations of story. While readers may want the comfort of the genre elements (the tropes), they also wish to have their interest and curiosity piqued.

Can we writers deliver on the expectations and the surprises in order to please our readers?

That’s the involved question that our series based on Discovering Your Plot hopes to answer.

Join us.

How to Find Us

 

Listen on your favorite podcast site: from Apple to YouTube, Spotify and Podbean (my favs), Google Play, Amazon Music / Audible, Samsung and Player FM, Podcaster, the rivals iHeart and Tune-in, and too many to list.

Here are links to the easiest podcast services. Find our green logo and follow.

My favorite podcast is Podbean. https://eden5695.podbean.com/

YouTube direct link to the last playlist on Branding: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7L4OtDk2Bde7LDwQ2l7K8NE 

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=ffeb71ed17c3409d

Amazon/Audible https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/062ecc60-d61c-432a-ad99-8234c1044ef1

ListenNotes https://lnns.co/y_Jg5rpaMNo

Google https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL2VkZW41Njk1L2ZlZWQueG1s

Tune-in https://tunein.com/podcasts/p1608565/

The Write Focus presents information on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

For up-to-date links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

 

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Wish I’d Known ~ About Podcasting and Writing

Wish I'd Known image created by Emily Dunn
stock photo from MS

We don’t often take the time to look back, to do a retrospection, a look at What I’d Wish I’d Known before ever starting. We track our accomplishments. Then we diligently write down the small steps that take us to our short-term goals and on to our long-term ones.

If we’re good little bunnies, we check our Master Plan once a year. We should rewrite it every third or fifth or seventh year. I can’t imagine a 10-year Master Plan. After my first five-year plan, I had to drop back from five to three because my plans change so much. I get new information. I clarify my goals I shove things forward that I wasn’t able to accomplish when I first envisioned them through rosy-colored glasses.

Even so—when we do stop and look back, we should consider all we’ve gained, all we’ve learned, and share that with others. Advice along the lines of “Wish I’d Known”.

We have a two-episode Retrospective, first on Podcasting, especially since many people are exploring podcasting as a new endeavor, on May 15. Then on May 22, the Retrospective focuses on Writing.

Decisions. Regrets. We cover them all.

Link to the audio of the May 15 episode: https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/520-wish-id-known-a-podcasting-retrospective/?token=002359eb986dd8adc7af0ec72855c8d2

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Writing Challenge Rewind ~ All through June

On The Write Focus, we’re posting a daily podcast from Write a Book in a Month, by Remi Black.

Daily check-ins include the project stage progressing word count as well as speculations on writing in general and the writing business in particular.

Click this link to visit TheWriteFocus blog.

 

Criteria for the Challenge ::

1] Daily Word Count

2] Length to Goal

3] Reason for the Goal

 

Each episode runs less than 10 minutes. Listen briefly every day or hoard up several episodes for when you fix a quick dinner, drive a short commute, or take a brisk walk.

Lessons for writing happen along the way!

Each episode will conclude with the two quotations from professional writers (Hemingway! Heinlein! Atwood! More!!!) that opened and closed the day’s writing sessions.

Episodes ::

  • 1 :: No Fooling
  • 2 :: Change of Plans
  • 3 :: Stick with the Plan
  • 4 :: Nix Distractions
  • 5 :: Watch for Warnings
  • 6 :: Life Rolls
  • 7 :: Win-Lose-Wind
  • 8 :: Critical vs. Creative
  • 9 :: Eat the Frog First
  • 10 :: The Tax Man Cometh
  • 11 :: Cocoons
  • 12 :: Six Words Short
  • 13 :: Wonders Never Cease
  • 14 :: One Project, Two Project
  • 15 :: Promotions
  • 16 :: Covers
  • 17 :: Frittery Jittery
  • 18 :: Flipping Out
  • 19 :: Input / Output
  • 20 :: Looking Ahead
  • 21 :: Short Post
  • 22 :: Biz Monday
  • 23 :: Master Book
  • 24 :: Expect the Unexpected
  • 25 :: Carpe Diem as Writers
  • 26 :: Nose to the Grindstone
  • 27 :: Writers’ Groups
  • 28 :: First Celebration
  • 29 :: Writers Conferences
  • 30 :: An End that’s Not an End and Lessons List
  • July 5th :: Aprés-Draft Update

Listen on the following sites. 

Bookmark your favorite to come back daily.

Podbean: The Write Focus (podbean.com)

Apple podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=0GFku2PbShWXiDhRp7JaDQ

YouTube Channel Writers Ink Books – YouTube

Join us!

Resources as of April 20

Amazon links are given because it’s easy, and for no other reason.

Purchase Write a Book in a Month at Amazon here.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0848MWXGD

Also mentioned in the first 10 episodes (March 31 to April 5) ~

Patty Jansen’s Self Publishing Unboxed Amazon.com: Self-publishing Unboxed (The Three–year, No-bestseller Plan For Making a Sustainable Living From Your Fiction Book 1) eBook: Jansen, Patty: Kindle Store

Purchase Think/Pro at Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Think-like-Pro-Advent-Writers/dp/1983248266/

The Think/Pro planner for writers can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/Think-Pro-Planner-M-Lee/dp/1983248673/

Dwight V. Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer https://www.amazon.com/Techniques-Selling-Writer-Dwight-Swain/dp/0806111917/  

Anne Morrow Lindbergh Gifts from the Sea https://www.amazon.com/Gift-50th-Anniversary-Anne-Morrow-Lindbergh/dp/0679732411/

Marie Kondo The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up https://www.amazon.com/Life-Changing-Magic-Tidying-Decluttering-Organizing/dp/B00RC3ZGN4/

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Think / Pro Planner — sample pages

Think-Pro-interior-imageDownload

Infographics Snippet of the Chapter Focus

These files are named New Advent. Think/Pro originally developed as a series of blogs encouraging writers to “re-set” their goals & strategies. The blogs posted through the Advent season. The Think like a Pro guidebook greatly revised and expanded on the original material in the New Advent blog series. These infographics provide the bones of those original posts–although no infographics were created for lessons 6 and 7.

newAdvent-Ch-1-DeadlineDownload
New-Advent-ch-2-Work-Every-DayDownload
New-Advent-3-part-1-Plot-ItDownload
NewAdvent-Ch-4-AristotleDownload
NewAdvent-Ch-5-Refusal-finalDownload
NewAdvent-ch-5-B-refusal-finalDownload
Think-Pro-ch-5-C-inertia-finalDownload
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Discovering Your Novel ~ All Charts

These are PDFs of MS Word Charts. If you would like an expandable chart, please request winkbooks@aol.com to send you a specific chart.

Click on the link for the section of charts that you would like to view or download.

DiscNovel Foundations Charts pdfDownload
DiscNovel Visioning Charts pdfDownload
DiscNovel Analysis Charts pdfDownload
Big Push the 1st Chart pdfDownload
ASP Chart pdf not adjustableDownload
Big Push the 2nd Chart pdfDownload
DiscNovel Harvest Chart pdfDownload
DiscNovel Finishing Chart pdfDownload
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Discovering Your Novel ~ Sample Charts

Discovering Your Novel, everything you need to know to write your first novel or to rescue those story ideas that never turned into completed manuscript. Designed to write your novel in a year and set up in a weekly format, with Charts! 

From the Foundations section
Foundations Section part 2 of several
from the Visioning Section
Sneak Peak
Available on Amazon