The Write Focus

3:24 / Short Narratives, part 3 / Mixed Miscellany Summer Series

Major plot points in short narratives keep the story moving—whether a short story, a narrative poem, or an anecdote to personalize a blog post.

Explosive excitement, an angsty soul-changing crisis, a boxed-in corner that forces an intellectual revelation—these are perfect for the major story parts or movements, the opening and closing of each 1,500-word scene or a poem’s stanza or an article’s anecdotal paragraph.

What do we write in the middle of those parts? This episode can help.

Timings

• 1:22 Opening with 3 Requirements of a Short Narrative
• 2:05 Realm of Long Narratives vs. Realm of Short Narratives
• 4:11 Focus on the Middle of each Part / Movement
• 4:31 1^st Story Part or Movement (A & B)
• 6:25 Ways to Hide Clues
• 7:59 Carly Simon’s “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be”, 1^st stanza and chorus
• 10:25 2^nd Story Part & Simon’s 2^nd stanza
• 12:28 3^rd Story Part
• 12:52 4^th Story Part
• 13:29 Simon’s 3^rd stanza and final chorus
• 15:12 Closing / Next Week
• 15:46 Inspiration / Somerset Maugham

New LINKS

“That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be” video https://youtu.be/Ux7HgO9QhAc

            Lyrics https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/carlysimon/thatsthewayivealwayshearditshouldbe.html

 

3:23 / Short Narratives, part 2 / Mixed Miscellany Summer Series

Success with short narratives? That’s our current goal. We’ve found Lester Dent’s Plot Formula.

We’re creatives, so we can adapt the formula to fit our genre needs. We know the four parts of the 4 movements. We’re writing fiction / poetry / non-fiction. What’s next?

The details, man. It’s all in the details … of the narrative.

Timings

• 1:05 Opening
• 1:52 Check-in
• 2:55 Lester Dent’s Plot Formula
• 7:21 Coincidence is a No-No
• 8:04 Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls” with the Formula
• 15:08 Riddling: a Tricky method to end any story
• 15:53 Closing / Next Week
• 16:28 Inspiration / Joyce Cary

New Resources

Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls” https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/garthbrooks/thethunderrolls.html

Video of above Garth Brooks - The Thunder Rolls (With Lyrics And Pics) - YouTube

 

3:22 / Short Narratives, part 1 / Mixed Miscellany Summer Series

Having trouble with short narratives? Short stories? Narrative poems? Anecdotes in your blogs and essays/articles?

I had trouble. Free admission. I would launch into a story that I hoped would be 8,000 to 10,000 words only for the word count to top 20,000 or more. I was rather proud of myself when a planned short story ran less than 15,000 words.

My narrative poems ran longer than 5 or 6 stanzas. Think “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” length. For the blog I wrote, my example stories ran more than 15 to 20 sentences.

Too long. What’s that acronym? TL;DR. “Didn’t read.” Oops.

What was I doing wrong? Surely there’s a secret to short narratives? Guess what? There is! In this episode, I’ll share what I found.

Timings

• 1:45 Opening
• 3:28 Paul Simon’s “America”
• 4:17 Avoiding the School-Taught Plot Pyramid
• 5:15 Erle Stanley Gardner
• 6:28 Lester Dent
• 7:10 LDent’s Plot Formula
• 8:32 The Basics
• 12:00 Closing / Next Week
• 13:00 Inspiration / Raymond Carver

Resource Links

Lester Dent’s Plot Formula / printable pdf / https://mgherron.com/2015/01/lester-dents-pulp-paper-master-fiction-plot-formula/

Paul Simon’s “America” https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/paulsimon/america.html

Video of above America - Lyrics - Simon & Garfunkel - YouTube

3:21 / Research / Mixed Miscellany A

MixMisc A / Research / 3:21 / E110

Research: a Ho-Hum topic? Not quite.

Research is necessary in all realms of writing.

Whether discovering the details that given veritas to our fiction, the details that we shouldn’t get wrong in commemorative poems, or just adding specific and elaborating details to our nonfiction, HUMDRUM RESEARCH is totally necessary.

The challenge comes in determining how many research details to use.

• 1:11 Check-In
• 2:50 Opening
• 3:27 Challenges
• 3:49 Fiction and Research
• 4:31 Light Hand
• 5:17 Active Use of Research
• 5:52 Amount of Research to use
• 7:26 Poetry and Research
• 9:11 3 Chief Elements when presenting Occasional Poems
• 9:16 4 Requirements of Song
• 10:06 Public Ceremonies
• 10:35 Writing for Independence Day
• 12:50 Checklist for any poem / 10 To-Do’s
• 13:46 Walt Whitman
• 17:45 R. Waldo Emerson
• 20:40 Nonfiction and Research
• 21:40 Next Week
• 21:54 Inspiration / Ezra Pound

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 A Mixed Miscellany: Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction / Interviews with Writers.

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.)

3:20 /Sequences / Enhancement series

We're going from A to Z this week, as we discuss Sequences, the last of the Enhancement series.

Climbing higher and higher = foothills, ridges, mountains.

Getting worse and worse = aged, ancient, decrepit.

Listen up to discover ways to sequence, progress / regress, ascend / descend, and create clever jumps in meaning.

• 1:10 opening
• 2:45 deliberate ordering: ranking, progressions, expansions 
• 8:08 anticlimax
• 9:25 auxesis
• 12:14 zeugma
• 15:06 parallelism 
• 17:26 isocolon
• 18:50 elliptical constructions
• 22:06 closing / next week
• 22:25 inspiration / Annie Dillard

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 Enhancements.

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.)

3:19 / Opposites part 2 / Enhancements series

“I always lie.” There’s a conundrum for you. If we tell people that we’re lying—are we lying or telling the truth? Yes? No? Difficult to tell, isn’t it?

The opposites in this week’s episode offers 3 types that can quickly entangle us. If you’ve ever been mixed up about paradox, irony, or satire, this episode can help.

LINK to "Counting Stars" OneRepublic - Counting Stars Lyrics | AZLyrics.com

• 1:08 opening
• 2:09 Paradox with explanation and examples
• 5:31 paradox that fills “Counting Stars”
• 10:13 Irony with explanation and examples
• 12:13 Frost and Dickens
• 14:19 3 Forms of Irony
• 16:05 Cosmic Irony
• 17:13 Satire with explanation and examples (including lampoon and farce)
• 19:17 Geoffrey Chaucer and Jane Austen
• 21:52 the American master Mark Twain with modern examples
• 25:03 Next Week
• 25:18 Inspiration / Roy Blount Jr.

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 Enhancements.

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.)

3:18 / Opposites part 1 / Enhancement series

Opposites / Dichotomies are the foundation for all ideas. The positive / negative synergy develops concepts for finance and commerce, business and manufacturing, science and tech, fiction and nonfiction, art static and art dramatic.

The world also has its triads and quarternaries ~ past / present / future and earth / air / water / fire.

We have many more dichotomies than triads and quarternaries and even symbiotic dualities (yin / yang). When the opposition is presented “for effect”, then we have an Enhancement.

• 1:00 Opening = opposites / dichotomies / juxtaposition
• 2:12 Antithesis = explanation and examples
• 4:46 Robert Southey’s “Winter”
• 6:10 Oxymoron = explanation and examples
• 6:42 In Romeo and Juliet
• 8:13 in Hamlet
• 9:06 “Lesson of the Moth” by Don Marquis
• 13:57 Starting in Mid-May
• 14:12 Next Week
• 14:40 Inspiration / Somerset Maugham

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 Enhancements.

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.)

 

3:17 / Repetition pt. 2 / Enhancements series

Repetition. We focused on simple repetition in the previous episode, from the riding, riding, riding of “The Highwayman” up to the old inn door to the clever use of incremental repetition, with “I’ve looked at cloud … and love … and life” in Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”, and to alliteration of “streaming rain, blinding sleet, stoned by hail, freezes the frost and fall the snow” from an Old English poem.

This time we look at the intricate types of repetition, to and fro, fast and slow, front and back, complicated but powerful. It’s Repetition, part 2.

• 0:58 Opening
• 1:07 Antistrophe
• 3:18 Epanalepsis
• 4:30 Amplification
• 5:23 Anadisplosis
• 6:46 Polysyndeton
• 7:53 Asyndeton
• 9:51 Anaphora
• 13:35 Epistrophe
• 17:20 Nest Week
• 17:30 Inspiration / John Hersey

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 Enhancements.

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.)

3:16 / Repetition pt. 1 / Enhancements series

“Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.”

Why are we quoting the famous Macbeth speech by Shakespeare? It has two separate types of repetition. The 1^st type is simple repetition with two instances. The 2^nd type is a repetition of opening sounds.

In this episode we’re also going to talk about a third clever type of repetition.

Three types of repetition. Did you know repeating words is a proliferate writing technique? Like Guppies, words clone each other. Join our presentation of three simple ways to capture reader interest and curiosity.

• 1:32 Opening
• 2:56 Repetition has impact
• 3:12 repetition examples
• 4:03 George Gordon, Lord Byron: “We’ll Go no more A-Roving”
• 5:18 Incremental Repetition
• 5:32 Examples, including the “Lord Randall” ballad and William Stafford’s “Fifteen”
• 9:05 Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”
• 14:01 polysyndeton and anaphora
• 15:23 Alliteration
• 16:38 French Rhyme vs. English Rhyme
• 17:28 Old English poems
• 18:40 alliteration examples
• 20:45 Wilfred Owens’ “From my Diary, July 1914”
• 22:00 Next Week
• 22:10 Inspiration / R. Waldo Emerson

Special Links

Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now Lyrics | AZLyrics.com

Judy Collins sings BSN with Arthur Fiedler's Boston Pops as accompaniment

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 Enhancements.

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.)

3:15 / Inversions / Enhancements J

“Always in motion is the future.”

Do you recognize that quotation? You may be able to because the words are out of natural order.

It’s Yoda!

No, we’re not going to talk about Yoda and the Star Wars franchise or laser swords.

Our focus for this episode is Words Out of Natural Order. That happens more often than we writers realize.

Inversion, switching up the natural order of words, is more than Yoda and a Zen-like character device that became a gimmick.

It’s recognizable, though, isn’t it?

How can we use Inversion to create our own writing—without becoming a gimmick? This episode of The Write Focus can help.

• 1:18 Inversion: Simple Device or Gimmick?
• 1:53 William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus”
• 3:32 Subject Out of Position / 4 Subject Inversions
• 9:22 Yoda Charm / Subtle Inversion (a/k/a Anastrophe)
• 10:28 Emily Dickinson / Henley, again
• 16:08 Closing / Next Week
• 16:16 Inspiration / C. Day Lewis

For CHIASTIC STRUCTURE, which is too involved to hear (You have to SEE it), visit this link and look for the Chiastic Structure of the Iliad books.

• Homer and the heroic tradition. (1958 edition) | Open Library

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 Enhancements.

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.)