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Author: M.A. Lee
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Successful writing requires The Write Focus. Hosted by M.A. Lee with occasional forays from Remi Black and Edie Roones, we focus on productivity / tools / craft / process for fiction and nonfiction, entertainment and academic writing.
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A funny thing happened on the way through entertainment this past weekend. I read Mary Stewart’s The Stormy Petrel. That’s not the funny thing.
Mary Stewart is my all-time favorite author. Wonderful character development, intriguing plots, lovely lyrical writing. She’s a guaranteed satisfying entertainment. My favorite novel of hers is My Brother Michael with The Moonspinners as a close second. (If you’ve seen the film, you haven’t met Stewart’s story.)
I read The Stormy Petrel years ago. The story didn’t stick then: IDK the reason. I usually reach for something else when I want a delicious read. This past weekend was different.
And now we’re to the funny thing, for the protagonist Rose is a writer. Stewart included several revealing passages about the writer’s life including—get this—writer’s block.
Let’s examine what Stewart has to say.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
02:25 Spark the Start
05:12 Revive the Memory of Story
07:40 Deep into Flow
10:20 Finish that Bit; Don’t just Stop
11:17 Unfolding Inspiration
13:40 Many Projects
18:00 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time:: 20:07
SOURCE
Stewart, Mary. The Stormy Petrel. New York: Ballantine Books, 1991. https://www.amazon.com/Stormy-Petrel-Mary-Stewart-ebook/dp/B00GVFUEGS
Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/04/defeat-writers-block-m-stewart-on.html
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
When we’re browsing for information to help our own particular problems, we reach for the weighty titles, the ones that analyze to the nth degree and provide six or seven or thirteen examples. That kind of information scan would miss Judy Delton’s surprisingly valuable little guidebook The 29 Most Common Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.
My own bookshelf, physical and electronic, is scant on information about Writer’s Block. That doesn’t mean I haven’t suffered from it, the way many writers have.
Most of my earlier years when I plunged into Writer’s Block, I denied that I had it. It was the great “unmentioned unmentionable” such as Erle Stanley Gardner must have faced. … I, too, have looked for processes to spin out a plot or delve into characters. I haven’t gone as far as to create a 15-page outline or 7 Plot Wheels. Nor have I looked for a variety of information on Writer’s Block and how to overcome it.
I’ve simply prayed for the opportunities when my writing flows out so easily and hoped, after a stoppage, that I can return to that flowing. I have learned that writing every day prevents Writer’s Block.
If we don’t admit to Writer’s Block, can we overcome it? Most of us think we can, simply by ignoring it, keeping it unmentioned and unacknowledged … at least, that’s what we think.
The real, actual, only thing that we can do to Defeat Writer’s Block is act upon our Will to Write.
I’m not certain that Judy Delton’s little guidebook can be found. It’s not from a major publisher although Writer’s Digest Books is certainly well-known. An internet search turns up cached pages offering the book at used book dealers like Thrift Books and ebay, but the first two that I clicked only catalogued the book; it wasn’t in stock.
Anyway, on to part 2 of “Avoid These Mistakes” when attempting to find the impetus to Defeat Writer’s Block.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
03:05 Delton’s 5th Mistake to Avoid
07:25 Her 21st Mistake to Avoid
11:07 Bridge thru Guidebook / More Advice than on Writer’s Block
17:05 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time :: 19:23
LINKS
Delton, Judy. The 29 Most Common Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. Writer’s Digest Books, 1985.
Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/04/defeat-writers-block-avoid-these.html
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
Writers read. In reading we are voracious consumers of anything that catches our eye.
We may also be hoarders, little dragons perched on a Keep-Forever Book Stack, surrounded by a myriad of smaller To-Be-Read stacks: This Stack First, This Stack Second, This Later, Helpful Stuff, I Wanna But Not Now, Maybe Later, I Dunno, and more. When we climb down from our hoard, we may stop and investigate those TBR stacks and do a little re-organizing.
And thus I found an unexpected gem which has a lot to say about Defeating Writer’s Block. The book is Judy Delton’s The 29 Most Common Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
04:28 Avoid Mistake #1
11:40 Avoid Mistake #2
18:25 Wilhelm’s Law of Ideas
21:00 Avoid Mistake #3
24:46 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time :: 26:52
LINKS
Delton, Judy. The 29 Most Common Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. Writer’s Digest Books, 1985.
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
Here we are with More Techniques from Erle Stanley Gardner. We’re tackling Gardner’s solutions for Writer’s Block.
Look to the Show Notes for information about the nonfiction book that is the source for this information.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
01:11 Unmentioned Unmentionable
01:54 Notes & Rules on Work
07:30 Plotting Machines
12:20 Gardner, THE Plotting Machine
15:16 Flying Buttresses against Writer’s Block
17:10 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time :: 19:17
LINKS
Secrets of the World’s Best-Selling Writer: the Storytelling Techniques of Erle Stanley Gardner. Francis L. and Roberta B. Fugate. Graymalki Media, 1975.
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
66,000 words per week
140 titles published ~ novels and short stories.
Of that number, 100 of them sold over one million copies EACH.
Translated into dozens of languages
Used pen names because he was so prolific he had to disguise his output from editors
Who is this great Defeater of Writer’s Block? Let’s try one more clue.
271 TV episodes produced with his trademark character Perry Mason.
Have you guessed the writer? Erle Stanley Gardner.
To write 66,000 words each week and to publish 140 titles, Gardner had to have methods and techniques to Defeat Writer’s Block.
In his early days, before he became best-selling, Gardner had to learn story-telling techniques, all the craft skills of character, plot, conflict, and resolution (endings). He discovered practical methods and adapted them, and those served him well over his long career as a professional writer.
Let’s analyze the ones we can adapt to super-charge our own Write Focus.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
03:08 Writing Life Work Habits
04:38 Gardner’s 1st Technique
07:48 His 2nd Technique
09:05 His 3rd Technique (& the most important)
10:30 Two Touchstones for Stories
13:40 These Touchstones Defeat Writer’s Block
15:03 Five Guides for any Story
20:05 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time :: 22:48
LINKS
Secrets of the World’s Best-Selling Writer: the Storytelling Techniques of Erle Stanley Gardner. Francis L. and Roberta B. Fugate. Graymalki Media, 1975.
Lester Dent’s Plot Formula (1st episode) Audio https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/322-short-narratives-part-1-mixed-miscellany-summer-series/?token=787f587776d16329864e1540c7138c9e
Video on YouTube https://youtu.be/jA6xHr44XMw
Lester Dent’s Plot Formula / printable pdf / https://mgherron.com/2015/01/lester-dents-pulp-paper-master-fiction-plot-formula/
Plot 7 (1st episode) Audio https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/504-plot-7-part-a-discovering-plot/
Archetypal Story Pattern / Greatest Plot Structure in the World (1st episode) Audio https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/stages-1-2-greatest-plot-structure-discplot-447/?token=1f886de066cbc760395ba4fc6edb7519
Link to Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/03/defeat-writers-block-how-one-pro-won.html
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
We’re back with more advice from Pro Writers on Defeating Writer’s Block.
Let’s launch straight into business.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
00:48 Barbara Kingsolver
03:00 William Stafford (poet)
03:51 Scott McCormick
09:16 Philip Pullman
12:06 Charlaine Harris
14:34 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time:: 16:40
Links
None. Quotations came from a variety of internet sites.
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
Defeating Writer’s Block is easy to say, not so easy to do. We writers have to discover the problem we’re having with those pesky little words.
1st, we have to find them—and they do like to hide.
2nd, we have to write them down—whether in a notebook or straight to the keyboard. That’s a whole problem on its own. We can’t count the Block as a simple disruption, a wholesale explosion of our writing time.
It’s the Desire and the Initiative to write that’s the problem.
In our diagnostic quiz, at the end of the Introduction segment, the weakness of our desire, the weakness of our initiative are driving factors that keep us out of our chair.
Type 1 of Writer’s Block is Writer’s Refusal, and I consider it the easiest of the Blocks to diagnose, admit, and defeat.
Type 2 is a harder Block to defeat. What is the Type 2 Block? Writer’s Procrastination.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
01:48 Writer’s Procrastination
07:05 Fear #1
09:35 Fear #2
11:47 Trolls
14:06 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 16:14
Links to Think like a Pro, original source with other info added:
https://www.amazon.com/Think-like-Pro-Advent-Writers/dp/
Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/4AxWAd
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
Hey! Our claim is that Writer’s Block doesn’t exist? And you say, “I don’t believe it. I’m blocked. I’m suffering with Writer’s Block.”
Believe it or not, the truth is that Writer’s Block does NOT exist. Not. No way. Nope. We can write, but something keeps us from writing what we very well need to write.
At the end of our last episode, the introduction to this series on Defeating Writer’s Block, we classified 3 types. Knowing the type that’s affecting us, that’s part of the solution to any Writer’s Block . . . for we can make claims, we can repeat a mantra–but something’s blocking us.
The other part of the solution to Writer’s Block is our WILL–even if we don’t want to write, we MUST. We NEED to. We gotta!
The only problem with saying “MUST and NEED and GOTTA” is that I’m afflicted with bloody-mindedness. As soon as someone commands must / need / have to / gotta–my bloody-mindedness kicks in. “Oh yeah? I think NOT.”
That’s where WILL comes in—and that’s our focus this week. Overcoming Type I of Writer’s Block, classified as Writer’s Refusal.
[Did I shout enough?]
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
01:53 Writer’s Refusal
03:25 Overcome with Escape
05:45 Escape Exercise to Try
11:25 Overcome the Over-Schedule
17:15 When Numbers Help Words
22:45 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 22:51
Links to Think like a Pro, original source with other info added:
https://www.amazon.com/Think-like-Pro-Advent-Writers/dp/
Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/4AxWAd
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
Can you name a phrase that every writer fears? Try “Writer’s Block”.
We writers all have a deep-seated fear when we hear those two words side by side. Writer’s Block—those should be forbidden to speak together.
We have quite a number of pro writers who claim there’s no such things as Writer’s Block, and I’m one of them—but I will admit that I find myself refusing to write or avoiding my desk or just stuck on a story. Distractions and disruptions occur, and before we know it, weeks—not days, weeks—have passed. With few words written, our writing plans are blown. Guilt descends—and the clouds of guilt and disappointment and dismay and more disrupters descend and . . . gosh, we don’t even want to think about it.
That’s the purpose of this series: we want to Defeat that Writer’s Block.
To do that, we have to look more closely at Writer’s Block than we want to. In this February month of love, let’s look at what prevents us from pursuing our love of writing.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Intro
01:46 Writer’s Block Doesn’t Exist
08:30 The Truth about Writer’s Block
13:55 Diagnostic Quiz
16:00 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 17:00
Links
Links to Think like a Pro, original source with other info added:
https://www.amazon.com/Think-like-Pro-Advent-Writers/dp/
Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/4AxWAd
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
In the last episode, we began our look at a process method I call Plot 7. This week we finish the Plot 7 and our series on Discovering Plot. Coming up for February are four episodes on Overcoming Writer’s Block.
The Plot 7 is wonderful for sparking ideas for a new novel or novella. It’s too deep for a short story.
In the Plot 7 are the 7 most important scenes for the novel. We covered the Beginning, the Very End, and the Roughest Moment / the Ordeal. This episode covers the last 4 … and these are the hardest four.
By the time writers finish these 7 scenes, we have a great start on the story.
The between-scenes and sequels will remain for us to write—but we’ll know our direction and the whole process of drafting the novel will flow easily.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
03:25 Plot 4
04:54 Plot 5
07:57 Plot 6
10:33 Plot 7
12:35 Bringing It Together
14:50 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 16:32
Link to Lester Dent’s Plot Formula for Short Stories
Episode 1 / Short Narratives / Mixed Miscellany https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/322-short-narratives-part-1-mixed-miscellany-summer-series/
Links to Think like a Pro, source for the Plot 7, other info added:
https://www.amazon.com/Think-like-Pro-Advent-Writers/dp/
Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/4AxWAd
Links to the Ebook Discovering Plot
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Link to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
We’re winding up the Discovering Plot series with the Plot 7, a quick way to launch into story and to reach that story’s heart … and discover if it will fly—or crash like my feeble attempts at paper airplanes.
Plot 7 comes from the writer’s guidebook Think like a Pro, by M.A. Lee, designed to turn a hobby writer into a pro writer with the necessary mindset changes.
We’ll break the Plot 7 into 2 episodes.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
01:17 Plot 7 Raison d’Etre
04:18 Plot 1
05:40 Plot 2
06:50 Plot 3
11:58 Last Words / Closing
TOTAL RUN TIME = 13:42
Links to Think like a Pro
https://www.amazon.com/Think-like-Pro-Advent-Writers/dp/
Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/4AxWAd
Links to the Ebook Discovering Plot
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Link to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
Welcome to our 200th episode of The Write Focus.
Yippee! We made it farther than I ever anticipated, 200 episodes and into Season 5, and we still have more episodes ahead. AND it’s all thanks to our listeners, who motivate us to keep offering more and more.
Over our 200 episodes, we’ve covered craft with plot and characters, process with sentence craft, productivity with challenges, and tools for writers.
This episode is an update to an old post, a Blast from the Past, with new insights to make it up-to-date. For those of us raised on western story-telling and conflict and characters, this method will seem an about-face. It works best for shorter tales—stories and novellas rather than novels and epics. As we analyze it, you’ll see the reason I say that.
The next two weeks will have another look back at a plotting method from the early days of The Write Focus. The Plot 7 is not a plot structure. Instead, it’s a method for writers to develop quickly the skeleton of a novel or novella. Let’s call it a Process. After a season on craft, it’s time we looked at process. Oh, and it’s a strong way to supercharge your productivity after a season of disruptions and distractions, totally suitable after the holiday season.
So, without more rattling on, let’s look at our Blast from the Past, Kishotenketsu.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
02:33 Kishotenketsu
06:15 Example 1 from Sanyo Rai
09:15 Example 2 from Nils Odlund
12:50 Analysis
16:30 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time :: 18:15
LINKS
Sanyo Rai story = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish%C5%8Dtenketsu
Nils Odlund story = https://mythicscribes.com/plot/kishotenketsu/
Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Link to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
It’s the last official episode for Discovering Plot and the final 2 stages of the greatest plot structure for writers, the Archetypal Story Pattern.
While many of us have our favorite plot structure, all the ones that I’ve analyzed and taught cannot match the adaptability and flexibility of the ASP. Hopefully, with the variety of discussed plots, many writers will see the value of the ASP.
In this episode, we have Stages 11 and 12.
Stage 11 is the Resurrection of the Evil (and of our Protagonist). This is the culminating battle between the protagonist and the antagonist, and we writers have four tasks in this stage to give our readers a satisfactory ending. For readers, endings lead to the next story—which is our writing goal. Yes, even in romantic comedies or literary fiction, we have battles. We’re writers; think metaphorically!
Stage 12 is called Return with the Elixir. This is our triumphant protagonists drinking with the gods to celebrate victory.
We’ll have three more episodes before we call this Discovering Plot series complete, done and dusted. For now, it’s on with the episode.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:39 Introduction
02:05 Stage 11: Dual Enemies of Evil and Self
02:58 Three Examples with Three Lessons
09:55 Four Points of the Resurrection
16:35 Stage 12: Drinking with the Gods
17:20 The Return / The Elixir
21:52 Final Points
22:50 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time: 24:31
LINKS to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Link to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
Welcome to the 5th season of The Write Focus, the podcast for writers of all types, newbies and veterans and everyone in-between. Our FOCUS is productivity, process, craft, and tools.
We are justifiably proud of achieving this 5th season. We started in 2020, that dreadful year, so good things do come from bad ones. Apart from our yearly hiatus in the hectic Decembers, we haven’t missed a weekly episode. This week, we officially open this season with Episode 198. How is that for meeting deadlines? OOO, OOO, OOO
We start our 5th season with the first of the last episodes on the greatest plot structure in the world, taken from our host M.A. Lee’s craft guide Discovering Plot.
In this episode, we delve into Stages 9 and 10 of the 12-Stage Archetypal Story Pattern, Greatest Plot Structure in the World.
Stage 9 is the protagonist’s Reward for surviving the trials and the dark ordeal. Our main characters still have a difficult journey ahead, yet Stage 9 gives a respite.
Then we descend to Stage 10, the Road Back, seemingly straightforward but still tricksy, still twisty, still dangerous.
This wave-like up-and-down pattern of events all through the Archetypal Story Pattern creates pacing and tension. The writers offers rewards to keep the readers from tumbling off the journey. The troubles continue to offer angst and suspense for reader engagement.
Don’t make the mistake of cheap thrills and unthinking, uncaring sacrifices now that you’ve brought the reader this far. Love has an emotional reward. Danger and death have consequences. Justice cannot be totally blind. Not for the reader. AND Not for us, the satisfied writer who wants to keep writing, not burn out and burn up our love of story-telling.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:39 Introduction
03:03 Stage 9 / Joy after Darkness
07:44 Ordeal vs. Reward
09:20 The Difficult Reward
11:53 Stage 10 / Driving to Destiny
13:04 Driving with the Old Desired Dear
19:28 How to Find the Right Road Back
25:20 Last Words / Closing
TOTAL TIME = 27:00
Examples from Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter series), Jane Austen’s Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice, 13th Warrior by Michael Crichton, The Crown, Castaway film with Tom Hanks, and Tolkein’s Return of the King.
LINKS
Invocation of Blood, from 13th Warrior :: https://youtu.be/qQekqWha7fg
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Link to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
Genre expectations are reader expectations of the plot they will encounter. With all the books on the electronic and physical shelves, a classification system more than Fiction and NonFiction is necessary.
Here comes Genre to save the day, like the famed Mighty Mouse.
We have 10 major genres of fiction and countless subgenres within each category—and then we have stories that fuse genres or bend the genre boundaries.
As long as we writers interest, amuse, or instruct our readers, that’s all that matters.
Timings
00:00 Welcome
00:39 Opening Words
01:23 Genre Expectations
4:02 Major Genres of Literature
09:33 All Genres and the 1st 4
12:18 The Last 6 of the 10
17:05 Closing
Total Run Time 18:06
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.
For more links and resources, see below or 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.)
LINKS
Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
“Amber Dreams”, chapter 5
Sailing with Mystery is available as an audiobook from M.A. Lee and Writers Ink Books. Visit M.A. Lee (maleebooks.blogspot.com) for more information.
Stage 8 is the second of the two most important stages of the Archetypal Story Pattern, the greatest plot structure in the world. Many would say that it is the most important stage.
We’ve reached the Ordeal, the Dark Moment, the greatest trial for our protagonist, the point closest to Death—the near loss of a love, a goal or dream almost destroyed, a job or status at an explosive moment that could prove fatal if one more horrid mistake occurs.
While the Ordeal is not the ultimate battle, it is all-important, for our protagonist and our antagonist.
Before we delve into Stage 8 a word on the rest of December. With all the hectic holiday events, The Write Focus takes December off and will resume on the first Wednesday of the New Year. Our Discovering Plot series has two more episodes to explore the last 4 stages. We’ll start the New Year and Season 5 with those.
It’s hard to believe this little podcast is entering its 5th season. Thanks to all of our listeners who keep us going!
Do stop by after Christmas for a little audio Christmas gift from our host M.A. Lee.
Now, let’s face the Ordeal.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:30 Introduction
02:12 Stage 8
04:09 Persuasion as an example
07:10 13th Warrior as an example
09:09 Antagonists
11:27 Deathly Hallows as an example
13:07 Key Juxtapositions
15:05 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time = 16:47
Examples from Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Michael Crichton’s 13th Warrior, and JK Rowling’s Deathly Hallows
Direct Link to the Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2023/12/stage-8-greatest-plot-structure.html
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
For many writers, Openings and Closings aren’t the problem with story. We all have problems with the Messy Middle—or the Saggy Middle—or that long slog between fantastic Opening and stupendous Ending.
It’s the Middle that causes the most groans.
In the Archetypal Story Pattern, the Greatest Plot Structure in the world—that troublesome Middle is Stages 4 to 8. It’s not Stage 4 that creates the problems. It’s not Stage 8 or Stage 7.
Nope, what causes the most angst for writers is our focus in this episode—Stages 5 and 6.
Follow along for clues that will change your approach to Stages 5 and 6 and hopefully keep them from turning into the Messy Middle Mire that causes angst for so many writers.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
01:47 Stage 5
03:30 Thresholds
04:47 Four New Things in the Story
07:05 Analysis through Example
09:16 Crossing the First Threshold
10:43 Stage 6
12:50 Purpose-Filled Examinations
15:50 Thresholds are Tests (and are Try/Fail Sequences)
16:47 How Many Tests?
19:50 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time:: 21:33
Examples from Patricia Briggs’ The Hob’s Bargain, Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
This week’s episode continues our deeper and richer analysis of the stages of the Greatest Plot Structure in the World for Writers: the Archetypal Story Pattern.
Stage 3 is the Refusal of the Call, which is just as necessary as the destruction that occurs in Stage 2, Call to Adventure.
Stage 4 presents one of the most intriguing and labyrinthine characters in the story realm: the Mentor.
Got those loins girded? We’re delving ever deeper into ASP.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:39 Introduction
01:13 Stage 3 / Only Fools Rush In
03:44 Don’t Neglect the Evil
04:07 Jobs Not Yet Done
05:05 Five Psychological Stages to Maturity
08:02 Analysis of ROC through Example
11:20 Stage 4 / Wiser Eyes
16:47 When Mentors Become More
19:22 Initiation and Transformation
21:12 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time: 22:53
Examples from Dorothy Johnson’s short story “A Man Called Horse”, the film Taken, the Star Wars canon, the Harry Potter series, and Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
LINKS BELOW
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters series.
Available Now: 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.)
LINKS
Link to “A Man Called Horse” by Dorothy Johnson (various pdfs are available online. This is a link to the story online.) A Man Called Horse ______ Dorothy M. Johnson – My Favorite Westerns
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
In this episode, we begin our in-depth analysis of the individual stages of the Archetypal Story Pattern, the greatest plot structure for writers.
Highly adaptable and flexible, the Archetypal Story Pattern, or ASP, allows the creative muse to fly. Our focus is the first two stages: Stage 1 / Ordinary World and Stage 2 / Call to Adventure.
With a deeper and richer analysis of each stage, writers will hopefully gain insights that were never before contemplated.
TIMINGS
00:00 Welcome
00:39 Introduction
01:22 Stage 1 Opening
02:28 Start with Duality
05:07 Build with the Latin 7
09:21 Stage 2 Opening
10:35 First Consideration
12:26 Second Consideration
15:59 Three More Takes
18:43 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time :: 20:25
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 and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.
Our current focus is Discovering Your Plot, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook of the same name.
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. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: 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.)
Links to the Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
Links to a paperback 8 x 10 bundle for plot / characters / branding / sentence craft, called Discovering Your Writing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Trailer https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk