Rewind ~ the Fall 2021 Writing Challenge

Welcome to the Fall Writing Challenge from The Write Focus.

We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. October is Preptober for November’s National Novel Writing Month, known commonly as NaNoWriMo. December will include the steps needed to turn November’s rough draft into a publishable work.

That’s our focus here: inspirations to keep you writing and knowledge to solve your writing issues along with guidance through the publishing process. We’re for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years ago.

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

Links become live on the day of the podcast broadcast.

October 6 ~ Challenges / click for more info.

October 13

October 20

October 27

November

November

November

November

December

December

December

December

December

 

 

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”

Prep for Publication

Over at The Write Focus, we’re running a brief series on how to Prep your Manuscript for Publication.

After the Fall Writing Challenge, Revision, Edits and Corrections, and Publish & Promo are the last three steps.

Visit The Write Focus website to view everything we’re doing.

Hand Typing Retro Typewriter Machine Work Writer

By the Way, we’ve expanded distribution of the Podcast. In addition to Podbean, YouTube, Apple, and Spotify, you can listen to us on the following sites:

Amazon Prime

iHeart

Tune-In

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Podcasting is fun!

Deezer

Stitcher

Pandora

Google Podcast

PocketCast

The Write Focus Summer Series now Concluded!

September celebrates the end of the Summer Series for Discovering Your Novel.

Current episodes are always availabe on the home page for this site.

You can link to the concluding episode here :: https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/267-publish-plus-discovering-your-novel/?token=14f7b66789916cb9ab3db0dae0e63e1c

October begins all new content: challenges then a mini-series for Preptober with inspiration!

1 : 8 What’s In a Name /Characters & Titles / part 3

How do we find names for our characters? What techniques can we use to discover the best titles for our books and our series?

We’re running a little long this time as we try to crowd everything in to part 3 of the Naming series.

Find any resources and links as well as a transcript at this link:

https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2020/11/whats-in-name-part-3.html