The Write Focus

6:04 / Writers on Writing / Sarah Smith talks Tech Tools

Coming in this episode is a wealth of technology resources which only someone with a tech background can provide. Sarah Smith presents a powerpoint packed with resources.

From assists in idea generation and organization, to plot and structure, formatting manuscripts and crafting covers, book descriptions, and audiobook development (so necessary in today’s marketplace), Sarah explains the riches available.

We end with Sarah’s offer to consult with 25 writers through Zoom interviews about all things related to audiobooks.

Check the Show Notes and the website for her powerpoint and special offer.

 

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome / Introduction

02:22 Four Requirements of Tech

11:10 Powerpoint Tools begins / Planning and Plotting

18:30 Unusual Helps: Beeftext and Reverso

21:20 Editing / Formatting / Covers / Publishing

29:00 Audiobooks / AI Narration

35:14 Consultation Offer / https://app.simplymeet.me/soundwrights

37:33 Closing

Total Run Time = 38:33

 

#writing #writingtools #plotting #coverdesign #booknarration #AI

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/01/604-writers-on-writing-sarah-smith.html

Special Offer https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/p/sarah-smiths-special-offer.html

Powerpoint Access to Tools as an mp4 https://youtu.be/S1qe1AFg1EM

 

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 Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy

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.)

6:03 / John Connor Talks Writing & Publishing

Two fountain pens and specific paper to encourage creativity. Computer systems like Linux as best tools. In a wide-ranging interview with everything from fonts to covers, John Connor with the UK press Murderous Ink shares it all.

A connectivity glitch smack in the middle of the interview didn’t derail Connor. We continued on, with manuscript format and the concerns of publishers about document file types. The interview could easily have lasted all afternoon, but alas, Zoom called for an end.

John ‘Jay’ Andrew Connor has been writing and publishing under a menagerie of names and genres since the late 1970s—sometimes even professionally. He’s worked at a variety of jobs, in various locations, and has also published small press, and semi-pro magazines in the past. Sadly, even though he is now on full time medication, he’s at it again.

Memindip and the Persian Poet is the second in the Memindip Quartet—The Death and Life of an Unwilling Investigator series, set in an ‘alternative’ North African city, in 1969. The first of the four, Memindip Solves a Problem, appears in Crimeucopia — We’ll Be Right Back — After This!

www.murderousinkpress.co.uk

 

TIMINGS

• 00:00 Welcome and Introduction
• 5:40 “Write what you want to write.”
• 11:50 Tech and Critical Failures
• 15:30 Word Processing / MS Format & into Fonts
• 25:00 International Connection Glitching !*#@(%&)
• 27:00 Finding Software that Works
• 36:00 Print “Reads” Differently in Audio Form
• 39:00 Closing

Total Run Time = 39:30

 

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/01/603-john-connor-on-writing-publishing.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 Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy

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.)

6:02 / Writers = Scott Ellis Talks the Narration Biz

In this episode we have All Things Narration ~ clearly, concisely, professionally ~ explained by the award-winning narrator / producer Scott Ellis of Scott Ellis Reads.

From the various unseen and unheard jobs of the narrator before beginning, through major job of recording sessions and re-recording and the pick-ups after, to making the many files easily available for the writer’s use, the role of a great narrator is to help the writer’s story become more accessible to a wider audience.

And Scott Ellis knows all of these jobs.

He’s narrated over 100 audiobooks and coached several authors through the production or narration of their first audiobook. Being a retired teacher, Scott is all about performing and teaching. Scott Ellis Reads, his audiobook production company, started in 2019 and has a team of over 20 people that work in narrating, editing, marketing, and managing the business.

Awards

Audiobook Producer of Magda, Standing - IBPA 2024 Gold Medal Winner Young Adult Fiction Audiobook of the Year

Narrator of Puck and Minnie: All That Is - named 2021 Young Adult Fiction Audiobook of the Year by Audiobook Reviewer.

LINKS

Visit his website:www.scottellisreads.com

Visit his Classroom www.serclassroom.com

 

TIMINGS

• 00:00 Welcome
• 00:40 Introduction / Narration as a Business
• 03:15 Technology and Narration
• 07:55 How a Narrator Works
• 11:50 Launching into a Narration
• 16:57 Funny Story about Accents
• 20:05 Taking a Chance on the Narration Biz
• 26:00 A Team of Narrators
• 33:55 No-No's
• 36:33 Closing

TOTAL RUN TIME = 37:29

#narrationforwriters #narrationbusiness #pickinganarrator #voicesforbooks

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/01/602-writers-scott-ellis-talks-narration.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 Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. The previous series was Fall into Poetry, at this link ~ https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg&si=Te8Jo1vLeu3rVkS4

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.)

6:01 / Writers on Writing / Marie Still

Welcome to Writers on Writing, interviews with active writers to inspire us all for our great start to 2025.

In this week’s episode, our focus is Marie Still, an award-winning thriller and horror author. She’s a marketer turned writer in the coronacoaster year. She took the giant step upon the urging of a friend.

Marie Still torments her characters from Tampa Bay. She also writes women's fiction under Kristen Seeley. Her novels include My Darlings (currently in development as a television series with Amazon MGM Studios), Bad Things Happened in This Room, We're All Lying (named by Buzzfeed as one of the most anticipated mystery/thrillers of 2023), and Beverly Bonnefinche is Dead (a Silver Falchion Award finalist).

Off the page, Marie can be found attempting to corral her five mostly friendly cats for a cuddle, surviving the affection from her very cuddly 150 lb Rottweiler, or keeping up with her four children. She's also known to surprise her incredibly supportive husband with a new cat, to which he doesn't complain (too much).

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:41 Introduction / Marie’s technology use

06:18 How Marie Writes

10:00 Roller Coaster Writing

13:00 Deciding to be a Writer

17:33 Marketing a Book vs. a Product

23:13 My Darlings’ Release / Hurricane Interference

27:08 Closing

LINKS

MarieStill.com

Instagram: instagram.com/mariestillwrites

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mariestillwrites

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 Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. The previous series was Fall into Poetry, at this link ~ https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg&si=Te8Jo1vLeu3rVkS4

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.)

6:00 / Writers on Writing / Introduction from host M.A. Lee

Start 2025 with information about tech tools, productivity, and process as well as a few snippets on craft, all from active writers ... and narrators and publishers. Zoom interviews give us this opportunity.

Write on!

5:49 / Fall into Poetry / Journey with TSEliot

Our poem for the Christmas holidays has two lessons for all writers. It comes from T.S. Eliot.

My introduction to TSE came in college, either a survey course in modern poetry or as part of a literature survey. Professor C. Hines Edwards, dry and erudite, was one of two that I admired for his knowledge of poetry classical and structure-less.

He introduced TSE’s “The Wasteland” to us, a long poem known for its allusions. The literary device allusions has its place in writing. In a few brief words, it opens doors to additional meaning … much as Christina Rossetti’s “From Sunrise to Starshine” did, with our realization that she’s a sleeping beauty, briefly awakened, now in her thorn-guarded tower.

The allusion is the first of our two lessons, but it leads into the second, a contradictory lesson and our final one for this series.

In January, The Write Focus starts a new series called Writers on Writing, active writers who share their knowledge of tech tools, productivity, and process, with a few snippets on the craft.

Here’s Eliot’s poem, perfect for the holiday season.

 

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 Introduction

01:17 Allusions / Easter Eggs

03:11 First Lesson

04:40 Symbolic Motifs

05:17 Re-Connecting with TSE

07:45 Second Lesson: Two-Sided

10:13 “The Journey of the Magi”

16:40 Closing

Total Run Time = 17:38

 

#TSEliot #JourneyoftheMagi #Wasteland #HollowMen #allusion #discoverability #symbolicmotifs #motif #writingadvice

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

LINKS

TSEliot bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot

“The Wasteland” https://genius.it/www.bartleby.com/201/1.html

“The Hollow Men” https://poets.org/poem/hollow-men

“Journey of the Magi” https://allpoetry.com/The-Journey-Of-The-Magi

 

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/12/549-fall-into-poetry-journey-with-ts.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 Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg   

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.)

 

5:48 / Celebrate Thanksgiving

The Write Focus wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving week ~ full of rich holiday food, joyous time with people we love, awkward encounters with other people, and a money blast on Black Friday—which usually extends to Cyber Monday.

This episode doesn’t fit with our Fall into Poetry series ~ although it does gift you with poems stuffed with thanks—and not so stuffed. No analysis or advice to writers, just poetry.

It’s a Cornucopeia of Poems to share for Thanksgiving.

TIMINGS

00:00 Introduction

00:40 “There’s Nothing like the Sun”

2:00 “November Night”, a cinquain

2:23 “I went to thank her”

3:10 Two called “November”

4:30 “Winter”

Total Run Time = 5:37

5:47 / Fall into Poetry / Prepare for 6 Lessons

We’re a week to Thanksgiving here in the USofA, and we have not one or two but three poems of gratitude to examine, giving us 6 lessons of Advice for All Writers. These three poems have quirky ways of matching to the holiday, thanks-giving and gratitude.

The gratitude doesn’t take the gushing that usually fills most writings about thankfulness. The individual poets present their heartfelt emotion in a realistic manner. They’ve lived real lives and experienced pain and heartbreak, and they share this reality in the hopes that we can gain from their experiences.

Reality rather than gushy platitudes? I’m in for that, every time.

Like writing strong, rational characters with strong counterparts, allies and antagonists rather than weak straw-men which doesn’t prove anything about strength and intelligence and logic.

Oops, preaching again. Herewith, our six lessons and three poems for this episode.

TIMINGS

• 00:00 Welcome
• 00:40 Introduction / Lessons 1 & 2
• 03:40 Lessons 3 & 4
• 06:22 Cowper “Gratitude”
• 08:45 Sandburg “Our Prayer of Thanks”
• 13:20 Lesson 5
• 14:45 Nesbit “Gratitude”
• 16:15 Lesson 6
• 17:25 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 19:31

#audiencereaction #eclecticaudience #discoverability #williamcowper #gratitude #carlsandburg #edithnesbit

 

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

LINKS

William Cowper bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cowper

Cowper’s poem https://allpoetry.com/Gratitude-And-Love-To-God

Carl Sandburg bio https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/american-literature-biographies/carl-sandburg

Sandburg’s poem http://carl-sandburg.com/our_prayer_of_thanks.htm

Edith Nesbit bio https://www.britannica.com/biography/E-Nesbit

Nesbit’s poem https://www.poetry.com/poem/8831/gratitude

 

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/11/fall-into-poetry-prepare-for-6-lessons.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 Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg   

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.)

5:46 / Fall into Poetry / Writing Dark and Bright

When we live our life in the present, being in the moment, we can develop a love-hate relationship with people and things we encounter daily.

We don’t “love to hate” these; we love them at some times while at other times we hate them. We may happily encounter and deal with them, then on a day not too far away, we groan and say, “Not today, please, not today.”

That contradiction, that contrariness, is engrained in our human nature. We aren’t changing our minds. Five days from now, love will re-emerge. When someone reminds us “You said you hated thus-and-so,” we retort “When did I ever?”, conveniently forgotten.

As writers, we work to keep the predominant mood of a work. We don’t wish to confuse a reader. In longer works, we can gradually shirt the mood, dark to bright, Shorter works are better with one mood.

We have strong tools to create mood and manipulate our audience with that mood. Our words are influencers upon the world.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 Introduction / Mood / Lesson 1

2:53 Tools to Influence Mood / Lessons 2 and 3

5:35 Frost and Clare

6:19 Frost’s “My November Guest” / Lesson 4

9:57 Clare’s “November”

13:00 Writer as Influencer

14:00 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 16:07

 

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

Bio of Frost https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost

Bio of Clare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Clare

“My November Guest” https://poets.org/poem/my-november-guest

“November” https://pickmeuppoetry.org/november-by-john-clare/

 

#johnclare #robertfrost #novemberpoems #mood #connotation #imagery #tone #atmosphere #poetaslegislator

 

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/11/fall-into-poetry-writing-dark-and-bright.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 Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg   

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.)

5:45 / Fall into Poetry / Writing Public vs. Private

“Share your innermost life,” marketing gurus advise writers, “with your readers, your newsletter folks, with everyone. Make it all public Make it pop-ular.”

That’s a certain way to burn out most of your audience, who just want the knowledge you have or just want to be entertained.

“Open the window. Let them see into part of your life.” That’s reasonable and rational marketing advice.

A window doesn’t give access to every room of your home, and it certainly doesn’t give access to what you’ve stored in closets or tucked deep in drawers or hidden in old boxes in the attic.

We writers have a constant push-pull dynamic of revealing ourselves. Heartfelt emotion is one of the four requirements of song, applicable to all writing. It speaks to us, touches us soul-deep, and leaves us weeping because we have a similar wound.

In this segment we have two poems by a man who wrote for public consumption but also purged his private anguish in a poem meant only to be published posthumously.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 Introduction / Public vs. Private

2:20 Deceit with Reader / Heartfelt Emotion

4:23 Longfellow / Long Rant

7:05 HWL Public vs. Private Poems

8:53 Lessons 1, 2, and 3

9:50 “The Harvest Moon”

11:00 Lessons 4 and 5

12:30 “Mezzo Cammin”

14:45 Lesson 6

15:50 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 17:58

 

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

 

#henrywadsworthlongfellow #marketingadviceforwriters #harvestmoonpoem #mezzocamminsonnet #sonnet

LINKS

Bio on Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow

“Harvest Moon” https://poets.org/poem/harvest-moon

“Mezzo Cammin” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50629/mezzo-cammin

 

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/11/fall-into-poetry-writing-public-vs.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 Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg   

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.)