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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.
Episodes
Wednesday Oct 25, 2023
Wednesday Oct 25, 2023
In our previous two episodes, we looked at 4 plot structures that are inadequate ~ Basic Beats and Freytag’s Pyramid, both of which are reductions of Aristotle’s Plot Requirements and Shakespeare’s Dramatic Structure. None of those have enough to help writers with their own stories.
In this episode, we’re close, so close, with the Complex Plot Structure … but it’s still not the greatest.
We end with a strong hint of the Best and tell you the reason it’s the best … and always will be.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Opening
- 1:41 Complex Plot Structure
- 9:55 Plot Structure for Writers
- 15:5 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time: 17:00
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 for the Ebook of Discovering Your Plot
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 for DiscPlot https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
In this episode, The Write Focus examines the plot structure taught to everyone. It’s basic. It’s common. It’s great for students. That’s all it is. Not good for writers. Nope. We only bring it up because everyone starts here. It actually is a reduction of Shakespeare’s dramatic structure.
Yeah, that old dude. Another old dude. Let’s move beyond, and get started.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Opening
- 1:07 Freytag’s Pyramid
- 6:45 Shakespeare’s Dramatic Structure
- 18:48 Last Words and Closing
Total Running Time: 20:29
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
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
As long as writers have been trying to tell successful stories, we’ve been sharing that information with other writers ~ for years, centuries, millenia!
These classifications have entered “the mainstream”, for some are taught in seminars and in courses as if these are the way to write stories. These are NOT the way to write stories; they are ways to examine the art of story-telling using common terms.
One of the famous methods for structuring a plot is the so-called Basic Beats, also known as the 3-Act or 4-Act Structure. As with anything, flaws exist.
We can overcome those flaws when we add in lessons from a source thousands of years old: Aristotle. Our stories are deeper, richer, and much more satisfying.
Don’t worry that the info is too difficult or arcane. We’ve broken down for all writers in understandable terms.
Basic Beats, Meet Aristotle!
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Opening Words
- 1:09 Plot Necessity
- 4:25 Basic Beats
- 7:28 Aristotle’s Plot Requirements
- 14:36 Last Words / Closing
Total Run Time: 16:18
LINKS
Old Geeky Greeks by M.A. Lee
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082T3YVMK
Worldwide https://books2read.com/u/mgGWNR
Links for the Ebook of Discovering Your Plot
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 for DiscPlot 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.)
Wednesday Oct 04, 2023
Wednesday Oct 04, 2023
Any presentation of a story’s plot can be straightforward, with scenes / sequels moving in progression from beginning to end, “as events occur”.
Few plots are simply straightforward.
In this episode, we examine foreshadowing and flashback, a non-linear plot structure, the frame story, and the allegory.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Opening Words
- 1:07 Foreshadowing & Flashback
- 3:38 Non-Linear Plot Structure
- 6:37 Frame Stories
- 8:32 Allegories
- 13:07 Last Words and Closing
Total Run Time: 14:52
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.)
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
Every plot has a beginning / middle / end. Tensions and suspense drive each of these sections.
Plotting prose? Poetry? That choice doesn’t matter in narrative. Telling a story is the focus, and all stories are formed through a series of scenes and sequels, which bridge between scenes.
Two things control the main plot and each subplot. These are the heart and the brain that will drive every scene and its sequel. The heart is the theme which is the key to unlock the brain, our conflict that controls the plot.
These are the four plotting essentials. Theme. Conflict. Scene. Sequel.
Timing
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:40 Opening Words
- 01:31 Theme
- 06:32 Conflict
- 12:36 Scene & Sequel
- 20:00 Last Words and Closing
Link to Dwight Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer https://www.amazon.com/Techniques-Selling-Writer-Dwight-Swain/dp/0806111917/
Link to Think like a Pro: 7 Lessons for Writers by the host M.A. Lee https://books2read.com/u/4AxWAd or
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DYJDY5S/
Links to the Ebook Discovering Your Plot
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.)
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
Tropes are those genre category-specific details, characters, and events that readers relish and anticipate: a magic sword, the hard-nosed detective who drinks on the job, and the corpse found and lost in a cozy mystery. Some tropes—such as the Golden Child—transcend a single genre and can be found in all major genres.
Genre tropes can build a plot, but tropes are not plot. They are tools. Not every screwdriver in your tool box is used every time you need to screw in a screw. If you do use every tropes to build a plot, well, as a writer, you are S.C.R.E.W.E.D.
I won’t list genre tropes in this episode. Those are easy to find. I will explain the reason we writers are screwed when we depend on tropes for our plot and characters.
Yet we can use tropes ... just don't let them use you!
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Opening Words
- 01:54 Genre Tropes
- 03:31 Folk Ballad Tropes
- 06:08 Commedia dell’ Arte Tropes
- 08:05 Epic Hero Tropes
- 12:13 Writing Fast with Stock Spinners / Story Wheels
- 15:24 Pulp Writers and Preventing Trope Repetition
- 17:48 Last Words
- 18:31 Closing
Total Run Time: 19:31
LINKS
Karen Woodward: “NaNoWriMo, Erle Stanley Gardner, Perry Mason, and Plot Wheels” – https://blog.karenwoodward.org/2013/10/nanowrimo-erle-stanley-gardner-perry-mason-plot-wheels.html
Lester Dent’s Plot Formula, as a pdf, is at multiple places on the Internet.
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
Wednesday Sep 13, 2023
Wednesday Sep 13, 2023
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
Wednesday Sep 06, 2023
Wednesday Sep 06, 2023
What do writers want to know about plot? What do writers need to know about plot?
The Write Focus takes a comprehensive view of plot in the series Discovering Your Plot. Genre expectations, major story structures, pacing / tension / suspense ~ we cover it all.
Today, we look at writers’ wants and needs for plot as well as story basics and story length.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Opening Words
- 01:23 Introduction
- 04:33 What is Story?
- 08:40 Story Length
- 14:08 Projecting MS Length
- 18:00 Closing
Total Run Time 19:01
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. Just up 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.)
Wednesday Aug 30, 2023
Wednesday Aug 30, 2023
Our last episode on Branding continues a focus on book trailers. For sample trailers, view the Show Notes for the August 23 episode at the website.
It’s the Key Fundamentals of the Script for Trailers and Clips along with the skeletal framework that can expand or contract as needed.
Beginning in September to the end of this season, The Write Focus launches the next series. Plot is the structure that develops characters in conflict. We’ll discuss different kinds of structures before examining in detail the best structure I know, highly adaptable, well-paced, with opportunities for dynamic character development and growth. It’s Discovering Your Plot.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Intro
- 01:30 Key Fundamental #1
- 02:55 #2 with an adapting script
- 05:22 #3 and #4
- 08:06 #5 with the trailer’s shape
- 09:42 #6 and #7
- 11:52 Caveat
- 13:00 Last Words & Closing
Total Run Time 14:25
LINKS
KEY FUNDAMENTALS FOR VIDEO TRAILERS available at Buy Me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr/e/150474
A Video Trailer showing Branding in Action: https://youtu.be/uthI5gEWic8
Purchase the ebook at these inks:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YL8GBM1
https://books2read.com/u/bPyKQ7
Purchase a paperback 8 x 10 with Characters / Plot / Branding / Sentence Craft here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
As always, 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 next focus is PLOT: What Writers Want to Know and Need to Know.
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 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.)
Wednesday Aug 23, 2023
Wednesday Aug 23, 2023
We’re talking Branding, and we’re almost through with this series.
Promotion is a key element of the writing business, for indies as well as traditional authors. All writers need to learn the basics of self-promotion.
That doesn’t mean promoting our selves. It does mean discovering and pursuing the best ways to promote our writing, the books or blogs that are our product.
1st Key Question: What amount are we willing to spend? For new writers, with few products (less than 5 or 7 stories), spending for ads doesn’t pay off. The ROI / Return on Investment isn’t strong enough. We should concentrate on building our catalog. 20 books or more is the common discoverability measure.
For writers with those 20 books, or 15 or more, spending for ads can begin to have a higher and more reasonable ROI.
2nd Key Question: Where do we place our ad expenditure? Social media, obviously.
But that’s a crowded game. So~
3rd Key Question: What kind of ad do we place? Ah, this is the interesting question.
Simple posts, without any cost, can work as a starting point.
When people browse right past ads, what can we do that will catch their attention? I’m not talking reviews; that is long past the attention-getter for the browsing reader. We’re at that first nanosecond, when the cover hooks the reader.
Ad people—pro marketers—say we need to see something 7 times before we consider buying. We need additional looks—something beyond a static image when we must complete with a crowded social media.
These last two episodes in our Branding series focus on one way to reach beyond a static image. This way may not appeal to many, but it satisfies a great need inside me. I’ve made it a hallmark of the M.A. Lee brand.
It’s the book trailer. Let’s explore.
TIMINGS
- 00:00 Welcome
- 00:39 Intro
- 03:05 Trailer and Clips
- 04:15 2 Cardinal Sins
- 08:40 3 Cardinal Virtues
- 12:41 Locating Music
- 13:50 Last Word & Closing
Total Run Time: 15:18
LINKS
- Melissa Marr’s trailer for Wicked Lovely https://youtu.be/-orEn_zdKSM
- K.M. Weiland’s Dreamlander trailer www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOLD_rTDTBU
- M.A. Lee’s historical mystery Digging Into Death https://youtu.be/zX1BPx6VUnU
- M.A. Lee’s Regency mystery The Key to Secrets https://youtu.be/1Sj7NfvxzXg
- Edie Roones and M.A. Lee’s trailer for Outlaws of Wild Sherwood https://youtu.be/aCftiZFqq1E
- A Video Trailer showing Branding in Action: https://youtu.be/uthI5gEWic8
Purchase the ebook at these inks:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YL8GBM1
https://books2read.com/u/bPyKQ7
Purchase a paperback 8 x 10 with Characters / Plot / Branding / Sentence Craft here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
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 Branding: the Way Writers will Reach the Readers.
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 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.)