Story Works Round Table

conversations about craft

for writers and readers curious about writers

SWRT 317 | Authors Talk Writing Memoir

SWRT 317 | Authors Talk Writing Memoir

Join us at the Story Works Round Table for an insightful conversation about Memoir with special guests Candace MacPhie author of Finding Color, Randi-Lee Bowslaugh author of Good-bye too Soon, Dr. Roger Leslie author of Light Come Out of the Closet, and Michael Hingson author of Live Like A Guide Dog. From taking a piece of your own life and crafting it into a story, to the challenges of examining your life in such a vulnerable way, discover how to craft a compelling story from your own experiences.

SWRT 316 | Series & Sequels with Alethea Lyons

SWRT 316 | Series & Sequels with Alethea Lyons

Join us at the Story Works Round Table as we sit down with Alethea Lyons, author of the supernatural dark fantasy Seer of York series, published by Brigids Gate Press. She writes various forms of SFF, with a particular love for science-fantasy, dark fantasy, dystopias, and folklore. We talk about the particular challenges facing writers of series and sequels.

SWRT 226 | Introducing Characters

SWRT 226 | Introducing Characters

This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida and Robert talk about introducing characters to your readers on the page. After you’ve invested in your characters’ development, make sure you don’t skimp on the process of making introductions. There is a craft to making a solid first impression on your reader. One that doesn’t overwhelm with a dump of traits but spirals the details of a person, physical and intangible, in a meaningful way into the character’s first scene.

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SWRT 225 | Fear

SWRT 225 | Fear

Alida and Robert sit down at the Story Works Round Table to talk fear this week. How do we get our readers to feel fear from just the written word? What craft tools can we employ? It’s one thing with a wide-angle narrative lens, but what about a close third POV? We...

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SWRT 224 | Antagonistic Forces

SWRT 224 | Antagonistic Forces

This week, Alida, Robert, and Kathryn talk about villains you can't vanquish: How do you handle a villain that can't wear a hat, black or otherwise? When your story calls for a force instead of a figure, what does that mean for your plot? For your character? What do...

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SWRT 223 | Dystopian Fiction in Dystopian Times

SWRT 223 | Dystopian Fiction in Dystopian Times

This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida, Robert, & Kathryn talk about writing dystopian fiction when the world we’re living in seems dystopian. What does a dystopian story have to offer readers who already feel left out or beat down? Maybe…a lot.

Register for Memory Emotion Body and save your seat in this new writing workshop. We’re going to delve into the writer’s first tools…oneself! Get all the details and sign up at www.storyworksfiction.com

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SWRT 222 | Storycraft through Time

SWRT 222 | Storycraft through Time

This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida, Kathryn, & Robert talk about the changes we’ve noticed in storycraft when reading books of past eras. How has storytelling changed with the times and what elements of craft should we hang onto?

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SWRT 221 | Writing BIG Scenes

SWRT 221 | Writing BIG Scenes

This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida, Kathryn, & Robert talk about those big, really BIG, scenes. When your story demands an epic battle or riot or disaster, how can you create the right blend of massive action & personal emotion? What are the pitfalls of multiple points of view in epic scenes? And lots more today at the Round Table. Pull up a chair & join us!
Register for this Sunday’s Writing Backstory into Your Now-story & other workshops at www.storyworksfiction.com.

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SWRT 220 | Writer as Student of Human Nature

SWRT 220 | Writer as Student of Human Nature

Writers are naturally students of human nature. How can we develop our characters if we aren’t naturally curious about people? We three writers find ourselves putting our friends, family, neighbors, even strangers under our version of the microscope. What do we–and our stories–gain as observers of human nature? Where does our authenticity come from as writers? Is there a method to our madness? 

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SWRT 219 | Nitty Gritty: Grammar & More

SWRT 219 | Nitty Gritty: Grammar & More

Do creative writers truly need to sweat grammar, punctuation, & more? The answer may be obvious, but not why, how, & what to do about it. Today, Alida, Kathryn, & Robert dive into the nitty gritty of exceptional writing and carry it through to a “full stop.”

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SWRT 218 | Better Description through Revision

SWRT 218 | Better Description through Revision

This week at the Story Works Round Table, we cover one of Kathryn’s current pain points: when description doesn’t happen while drafting and how to get it done in revision. The role of description is much richer in your story than you may think.

Previously aired as episode #125.

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