The Write Focus

4:04 / Interview / Discovering Characters

The character interview is a vital method to reach into your characters’ voices.

Before launching into a major storyline, writers should interview their primaries: protagonists & antagonists as well as the important secondaries whose decisions will affect the primary characters.

Yet what questions do we ask? We’ve an excellent interview adapted from several sources, starting with M.A. Lee’s years in journalism (before she escaped the real Nosy Parker business and entered the fictional NP one).

We’re Discovering Characters.

Contents

• 0:39 Intro
• 1:20 Start
• 4:58 Questions on Goals (5)
• 6:14 ~ on Secrets and Loss
• 6:44 ~ on Fears and Sacrifice
• 7:15 ~ Last Question
• 7:36 Example
• 11:40 Closing

Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the 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 Characters. We’re bookcasting!

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.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

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.)

4:03 / Templates / Discovering Characters

Templates are the easiest way to build a character from ground up.

The only problem is that most templates barely cover more than appearance and bits & pieces of relationships and angst and secrets.

Don’t fret. We have 10 templates that delve deeper than the surface façade, into the interior spaces where characters live.

We’re Discovering Characters.

Contents

• 0:39 Intro
• 1:20 Start
• 6:52 Templates ~ Basic (3)
• 10:40 ~ Character in Society (3)
• 14:26 ~ Secrets plus (4)
• 16:50 Example
• 21:20 Closing

Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19 https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the 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 Characters. We’re bookcasting!

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.

• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

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.)

4:02 / Introduction & Getting Ideas / Discovering Characters

Where do writers get their ideas? How do we build characters?

Those 2 essential questions start every bit of writing. All else (situation, plot, genre, tropes, length) comes from those questions. Our work as writers is to make the answers that we discover hide on the page, so that readers have only the enjoyment of the story.

Contents

• 0:39 Opening
• 1:21 Introduction to Discovering Characters
• 6:47 Getting Ideas
• 15:27 Closing

Special Links

“How 50 Famous Authors Find Writing Inspiration” / thejohnfox.com

“Where Do You Get Your Ideas” / neilgaiman.com

17 Sept. 2017 / Robin Storey / storey-lines.com

 

Discovering Characters  can be purchased at these links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the 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 Characters. We’re bookcasting!

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.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

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.)

 

4:01 / Freebie Story Start / Fantasy

January 1 falls outside the parameters by offering a freebie. 

This year Edie Roones and M.A. Lee give us “The Poisoner and the Faerie Huntsman”, from the Wild Sherwood series, collected into the anthology Into Wild Sherwood.

Melly and her hound encounter strange black hounds. Then the Huntsman of the Wild Hunt arrives. Has the fallen into greater trouble?

The entire story is available free on Book Funnel: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/c639tkoihp

Also available free is last year’s New Year’s story from Remi Black: “Godriana’s Font” : https://dl.bookfunnel.com/miehw4vs4q

AND the New Year’s story from the year prior, our very first offering :: “The Lion’s Den” from M.A. Lee : https://dl.bookfunnel.com/wc84divkre

Enjoy the freebies!

Contents

• 0:40 Intro
• 2:55 Story Start
• 24:47 Out-go
• 25:15 Exit

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 starting focus for this year is Discovering Characters. The opening episode will be January 4. We’re bookcasting!

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

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

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

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.)

3:50 / SMART Biz Planning / Enter the Writing Business

The year’s final episode, for the rest of December is busy, busy, busy! And that’s in our Biz Plan.

We talk the SMART Business Plan, turning dreams into goals with specific objectives and strategies. How do we do it?

Content

• 00:37 Intro
• 1:50 Tangible Objectives
• 3:27 Outside Help / Online Presence
• 6:22 Professional Improvement / Networking
• 11:02 Strategies / Expected Results
• 17:30 Logistics ~ Plans / Projects / Needs & Wants
• 24:50 Build the Plan / Review to Preview / Failures
• 33:40 Closing

Workbook for this podcast series is available at Emily Dunn / M.A. Lee (buymeacoffee.com)

Link to purchase the ebook of the series: https://www.amazon.com/Enter-Writing-Business-Inspiration-Writers-ebook/dp/B0848CK3C2

Link to purchase the paperback, bundled with 2 other books: Inspiration for Writers https://www.amazon.com/Inspiration-4-Writers-M-Lee-ebook/dp/B084LS1S9V

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 Enter the Writing Business. We’re bookcasting!

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

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

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

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.)

3:49 / eyes on the Writing Biz Plan / Enter the Writing Business

We’re to the last 2 episodes of our focus on the Writing Business. These last two episodes for this season of The Write Focus will concentrate on a business plan for our writing.

Yes, writing is a business. Do it the SMART way.

Content

• 0:39 Intro
• 2:05 What is a Business Plan?
• 2:57 The Writing Business Plan
• 4:09 Expected Audience
• 7:45 Product vs. Project
• 8:25 Vision / Mission / Objectives
• 17:01 SWOT: our A-Team
• 19:40 Awareness of the Marketplace
• 21:51 SMART
• 23:45 Anticipate Problems / Adaptation is Key
• 26:30 New Directions
• 28:58 Write It Down / Expect Surprises
• 32:27 Closing

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 Enter the Writing Business. We’re bookcasting!

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

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

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

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.)

3:48 / Practicalities / Enter the Writing Business

Herewith, the most boring yet essential of all the writing business information: Practicalities

MS Preparation and the Nuts & Bolts of the everyday Writing Life.

Content

• 0:40 Intro / 7 Common Manuscript Elements
• 2:16 Boilerplates
• 3:27 Disclaimers
• 4:30 Front Titles List
• 6:10 Acknowledgements and Reader Notes
• 7:40 Table of Contents
• 8:22 Chapter Headings & Page Breaks
• 10:55 A Book of the Book
• 12:50 Word Processing Basics
• 15:07 Fonts and Special Images
• 18:11 Page Breaks and Text Flow
• 20:34 Oxford Commas?
• 21:06 Spacing?
• 21:40 Print-Outs
• 23:17 Stats and Percentages?
• 26:54 Save the Eyes
• 27:48 Closing

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 Enter the Writing Business. We’re bookcasting!

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

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

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

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.)

3:47 / Soul-Suckers / Enter the Writing Business

Long before the dreamed reality of writing will support us, we have to have those humdrum, mundane jobs that try to kill our writing spirits.

Fair Warning: Along with jobs, people will try to kill our writing spirits.

How do we handle these two-sided slaps to our dreams?

Content

• 00:44 Intro
• 2:03 Jobs that pay the bills
• 5:45 When Day Jobs suck away our creative energies
• 9:50 Soul-Sucking People
• 10:17 Toxic Writers to Avoid
• 13:22 Shysters who Prey on Writers
• 15:23 Remember WIBBOW
• 19:10 Mine the Real World
• 21:00 Soft Skills for Writers
• 22:16 Hard Skills for Writers
• 25:40 Recommended Masters of Writing
• 27:00 Closing

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 Enter the Writing Business. We’re bookcasting!

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

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

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

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.)

3:46 / On Creativity / Enter the Writing Business

Every discussion of the Writing Biz needs a focus on Creativity. What does creativity actually mean? How do we put it into practice? How do story visions change when creativity is applied?

Also ~

Writing can be a hell and a heaven. How do we know when the writing biz is worth it?

Content

• 00:40 Intro
• 2:17 Growth Depends on Challenges
• 3:20 Creativity = Unique Spins on Classics = Freshness
• 6;40 Freshness Requires Thought / Planning
• 7:25 Saggy Pantstering Defined
• 9:48 Daily Writing / Avoiding the Lures  
• 12:50 Zig & Zag with Projects
• 17:12 Ever-Expanding Stories / Blown Deadlines
• 21:43 Writing Hell
• 25:25 The Writer’s 3-Part Mantra
• 27:45 Writing Purgatory / Writing Heaven
• 30:56 Closing

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 Enter the Writing Business. We’re bookcasting!

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

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

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

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.)

3:45 / 3 P’s & Project Progress / Enter the Writing Business

We’ve reached the month-long Fall Writing Challenge. Many are participating in the November global writing challenge. Whether we take on the challenge or not, we can use November to consider our writing life: past, present and future. Before we know it, the New Year will be upon us (because December is jam-packed with distractions and disruptions).

In today’s episode, writers need to analyze the whys and hows of the kind of writer that they think they are—then break that mold. None of us fit into neat little boxes. We can use those boxing-in methods, though, adapting them for our own use. A great danger for a writer is busy-ness without progress. Let’s avoid that pitfall.

Timings / Contents

• 00:41 :: Opening / Going Off-Track
• 1:07 :: 2 P’s that are Writers
• 3:47 :: Enter the Puzzler
• 5:10 :: Drafting Story: Chrono/Linear vs. Global/Scattered
• 7:56 :: Ticky Boxes / Over-Planning is Problematic
• 12:59 :: Routine Shake-up and Abandonment
• 14:07 :: Pre-Set Foundations
• 14:33 :: Climbing out of the Box
• 16:21 :: Word Counts and Progress Meters
• 18:36 :: Don’t Hate Numbers and Lists
• 19:15 :: Accomplishments List
• 20:25 :: Distractions vs. Opportunities
• 23:20 :: Closing

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 Enter the Writing Business. We’re bookcasting!

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

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

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

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.)