Welcome back to Firsts in Fiction, loyal listeners! Our terrific trio is back in action! For the first time in several weeks, Aaron, Heather and Steve are all on again! And Aaron brought a friend! Andrew Panebianco joins us this week to talk about Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 rules for writing fiction. And while we’ve done…
Welcome back to Firsts in Fiction, loyal listeners! This week marks the much anticipated return of Heather Luby! For those of you who have waited so patiently to see her on video, now is your chance. Check out the YouTube video below. This week, we look at how to read like a writer.
It’s a pretty popular thing for accomplished writers to compile lists of rules* for writing fiction. This week, Steve and I tackle 10 of these rules as suggested by Elmore Leonard. Elmore Leonard cut his teeth writing westerns, but quickly moved on to crime novels. He wrote nearly two dozen novels (many of them best…
This week, Steve and I look at the importance of first lines in fiction. The information is largely taken and adapted from my book, Firsts in Fiction: First Lines. The first line of your novel is especially important for a few reasons. Firstly, you want to make sure you impress an editor. To maximize your…
This week Steve and I look at archetypes, how they can inform our story, and how to use them effectively without falling into stereotypical character and plot structures. To begin, we need to understand what an archetype is. Long story short, we can think of archetypes of as shapes that our characters and stories fill.
On this week’s Firsts in Fiction, Steve and I discuss the physicality, the biology, of our characters, and how that adds to their depth and history. Imagining your character’s physicality means thinking about more than their physical appearance alone. Yes, the color of their eyes and hair is important, but not as important as what…
This week on Firsts in Fiction, Steve and I delve deep into our fanboyisms as we explore the intricacies of character motivation. If you listened last week, you got some good tips on how to create characters, but your journey isn’t complete.
In our third episode of Firsts in Fiction, Steve and I talk about how to construct characters from the ground up. Here’s a few ideas to help you pull your characters from the ether and rivet them together into unforgettable friends (or enemies). Special thanks to Nathan Sawaya for making such ridiculously awesome LEGO artwork….
Our second podcast focuses on how to start your book. While there are several methods, these are the points Steve and I highlighted.