21.45: Mirror, Mirror on the Plot
People respond really well to symmetry in stories. This can range from having an object from the beginning reappear at the end to having the entire plot mirrored. But why does symmetry work so well, a...
8 Nov 26min
21.44: Why Are You Stopping? You’re Almost There!
Very often, writers get to the two-third or three-quarter mark of work and get stuck, sometimes abandoning it to move on to something shinier. Why does this happen? Well, it’'s a place at which we mov...
1 Nov 24min
21.43: The Not-Final Word on Endings
Today we're focusing on the mechanics of writing endings: what needs to be resolved, what can be left dangling, and how to give your reader a sense of what has changed. We talk about symmetry between ...
25 Okt 28min
21.42: Deconstructing the Heroine’s Journey
Psychotherapist Maureen Murdock invented the Heroine's Journey in response to Joseph Campbell's monomyth Hero's Journey. He reportedly said, "Women don’t need to make the journey, they are the place t...
18 Okt 23min
21.41: Barrier Breaking- Physical Fatigue
What do you do when "take a break" isn't the answer? We’ve all ahd that feeling, "I’m just too tired to concentrate." This can be because you're worn out from work, or due to chronic fatigue or pain. ...
11 Okt 24min
21.40: The DREAM of a Structured Character Arc
What if a character arc had a structure you could actually map? This week, our hosts break down the DREAM arc: denial, resistance, exploration, acceptance, and manifestation. We look at how characters...
4 Okt 20min
21.39: Write What You Feel
Your life is probably weirder—and more useful to your writing—than you think. This week, our hosts explore how to turn lived experience into fiction, from borrowing sensory details and emotional react...
27 Sep 26min
21.38: Rules, Tools, and History’s Fools
“Tools, not rules” gets flipped on its head this week. Our hosts revisit the Turkey City Lexicon, a snarky collection of writing “rules” that circulated widely among speculative fiction writers in 198...
20 Sep 23min
