Here’s the powerpoint for my “Writing Short Stories” presentation to the SinC Smoking Guns on Writing Short Stories with Lester Dent’s plot formula. (This is what those attending the meeting would have seen while I rattled about the other information. IDK if the computer crash was a benefit or not.)

Scroll to the bottom to open the pdf document. You have permission to print.

The slide show is very bare bones.

If you would like to hear how I related the plot formula to four popular songs, then here’s a link to the first podcast episode on Writing Short Stories.  It’s a four-part series that aired in May of 2022.

In that series, I did breakdown the  plot formula for short stories in detail.

These narrative songs use Dent’s short story formula, a big surprise when I realized the connection of the plot formula to poetry. The four songs on the podcast, in order, are

• Simon and Garfunkel’s “America”
• Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls”
• Carly Simon’s “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be”
• Peter, Paul and Mary’s “Puff, the Magic Dragon”.

The Write Focus podcast is available on Podbean, Apple, Google Play, Samsung, Spotify, YouTube, and many more podcast distributors.

Writing Short Stories Presentation

This link will take you to all 17 episodes on YouTube for Think like a Pro.

Listen on your favorite Podcast site:

https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/

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

Think like a Pro: New Advent for Writers is copyright 2017, with the revised edition in 2018. Podcast copyright is 2021.

Resources

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/

Visit thewritefocus.blogspot.com for resources, links and a summary of this and other episodes.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

November is the Fall Writing Challenge… and The Write Focus has got every writer’s back.

November is writing only, 50,000 words in one month.

Fall on The Write Focus podcast is a series entitled “Enter the Writing Business” Check it out on the TWF website: Click here to go the current posts.

New Publications!

1st and 2nd are TWO Planners for Serious Writers. Visit the links for views of the interior of both planners.

Writing Nest: A Project Planner for Writers

• Plan those writing goals.
• Nest the projects; hatch as you achieve them.
• Celebrate victories; analyze challenges.
• Soar with Success with the Writing Nest.

Find the Writing Nest here.

Word Trekker: A Writer’s Word Count Planner

• Write more than ever before.
• Plan Projects. Plan Weekly Tasks.
• Track Words. Track Progress.
• Use the Triple Crown of Hiking as Motivation.

Find the Word Trekker here.

3rd is this ebook / paperback AND coming soon, the audiobook.

A Messy Miscellany For Writers 

A Messy Miscellany for Writers crowds in information about craft and process, productivity and tools, writing crimes to avoid, the how-can’s and why-should’s of writing guidance, and much more.

Offered by M.A. Lee and The Write Focus podcast.

https://books2read.com/u/38ezzB

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6Y5GWG2

ppb https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B713BXGS

Blast from the Past ~ a Fall Writing Challenge from The Write Focus.

October is Preptober for November’s National Novel Writing Month, known commonly as NaNoWriMo.

Originally broadcast in 2021, we here at The Write Focus offer a Blast from the Past for those who are participating in the great writing challenge.

Prepare and Write for the International Writing Challenge

For October, we offer episodes on the prep work for writing all through  November.

For November, we offer updates and inspirational posts.

For December, we cover 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! We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. 

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.

Writing Challenge Episodes

October 6 / 2021 / Episode 2:68 ~ Challenges / listen to the Podcast. Start here to follow along.

October 13 / Episode 2:69 / Preptober 1

October 20 / Episode 2:70 / Preptober 2

October 27 / Episode 2:71 / Preptober 3

November 3 / Episode 2:72 / 4 Recommended Books for Writers

November 10 / Episode 2:73 /3 Essential Tools for Writers

November 17 / Episode 2:74 / 3 Films Every Writer Should Study

November 24 / Episode 2:75 / 5 Writing Crimes to Avoid

December 1 / Episode 2:76 / Gifts for Writers

January 5 / Episode 3:2 /Resolve to be a Writer

January 12 / Episode 3:3 / Revision Is a Process

January 19 / Episode 3:4 / Edit and Correct

January 26 / Episode 3:5 / Publish and Promo

 

 

All through July and August. The Write Focus podcast presents BRANDING for a book, a series, and a writer’s business.

To hook readers, savvy writers manipulate cover imagery, titles, and the back cover market copy. With the right keys, presented in this series, writers will learn how to generate a brand for a book and a series. This knowledge will translate to their own writing business.

The series is based on M.A. Lee’s guidebook Discovering Your Author Brand, part of the Discovering series.

• July 5 History and Keys
• July 12 First Impressions Matters with Glance I and Keys One and Two
• July 19 Clever Iconography and Keys Three and Four
• July 26 More on Iconography and Keys Five and Six
• August 2 Clever Titling
• August 9 Market Copy: Taglines and Blurbs
• August 16 Branding, Curious Readers, and a Blurb Script
• August 23 Books Trailers and Video Clips
• August 30 Key Fundamentals for Trailers

Thanks for listening to the Podcast. (Links below)

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Coming soon are worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

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

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

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

Here are the 4 easiest. Make us a favorite, and follow along easy-peasy, once a week, while you fix a quick dinner, drive a short commute, or take a brisk walk.

My favorite podcast is Podbean. Here’s a direct link to the first episode in the series on that service. https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/428-branding-the-key-for-writers-to-reach-readers/?token=0df527c4f966d5a924de4f2dc2d7425a 

YouTube direct link to the Branding Playlist https://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

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”