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.
This week on the Story Works Round Table, Sarah Branson returns to talk about getting to know your characters. We dig into the different roles characters play, depending on their relationship to the protagonist and how well we need to know them in order to write them well. Sarah’s novel, North Country, is available now.
“You have to put yourself in their life and try and figure out what their motivations are.”
At this week’s Story Works Round Table, Alida, Robert, and Carlee discuss using all of your senses in writing. We focus so much on the movie in the mind, that we can lean too heavily on the visual in our scene building. But a well-chosen sensory detail can make a scene memorable, even surprising. Focusing on a sensory detail, especially the least obvious of details will shape your reader’s experience in powerful ways. Tuning in to your own senses while you write can invite insights from your subconscious mind to come forward.
This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida, Robert, and Carlee explore opening scenes and what you should include right away to establish who and what the story is about. Missing the mark with your opening scene could mislead the reader. Make sure you shape your opening to shape the reader’s experience.
This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida and Robert are joined by writer Carlee Tressel to discuss the death…or possible resuscitation…of book projects. Is resting it enough? Why is it so hard to let go? When should you hang on?
On this week’s Story Works Round Table, we disscuss character traits that can make or break your character. Love them, hate them, need them?
This week, Alida and Kathryn welcome Jennifer Bowen, Artistic Director of the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, to the Round Table to discuss the impact writing has on the lives of incarcerated writers. Jennifer tells us about the kinds of students and writing found...
We sit down at the Story Works Round Table to ponder the pros and cons of writing with your climax in mind before you begin. Can you use your ending like a guiding light without spoiling the fun of exploring your first draft?
This week on the Story Works Round Table podcast, Alida, Kathryn, & Robert discuss the ways in which character agency is relevant to the whole of your story and the ways in which how well you handle agency could determine how much readers like your book.
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Why is continuity so important? And what opportunities does it present you as an author? How can continuity be tracked through your manuscript? And what should you track? What things within your manuscript help maintain continuity?
What does it mean to restore balance at the end of your book? Do you always have to wrap everything up with a bow? How do we feel about leaving things open-ended? And how can you restore balance without a happily ever after?