Story Works Round Table

Conversations about stories and the craft of writing with Alida, Kathryn, and Robert.

Story Works Round Table has moved.

 

Please visit www.StoryWorksPodcast.com for current episodes and the archive.

SWRT 139 | The Craft of Writing Book Copy with Bryan Cohen

SWRT 139 | The Craft of Writing Book Copy with Bryan Cohen

Why should author’s know how to craft copy for their book? What are the fundamentals? How do you find the number one conflict in your book? And then how do you make it exciting? What is the structure of a book blurb? And where do most author’s run into problems?

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SWRT 138 | Writing – Life Balance, part 2

How can you reset your creative motivation when it has fallen to the wayside? How can you balance your life to give yourself the most willpower for your creative pursuits? And where do you need to re-evaluate your life and your habits? In the end, it’s all about finding the balance that works for you, your life, and your creative goals!

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SWRT 137 | Writing – Life Balance

SWRT 137 | Writing – Life Balance

How did 2019 go in our writing lives? And what lessons have we learned about how we have balanced, or failed to balance, our writing with our life? How can you shift your perspective from the outputs to the inputs? And how can we achieve that balance where our lives feed our creativity, and our creativity our lives?

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SWRT 135 | Refilling the Creative Well with Alina Sayre

SWRT 135 | Refilling the Creative Well with Alina Sayre

How did finishing a project bring Alina to a realization about herself, and her life outside of her author career? What experiences did she undertake in order to refill her creative well? And how does working on a project outside of what you previously finished help broaden your artistic horizons? We finish with a poem from Alina’s new book, Fire by Night.

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SWRT 134 | The Art of Death, part 2

SWRT 134 | The Art of Death, part 2

How will your personal history affect how you portray death? What about if you have never experienced anything as tragic as your character is experiencing? How can you use the element of surprise to turn a story on a death? And how should you use death in Act two? We talk about the problem of proximity in death, and whether or not death has genre conventions. In the end, we all agree that this is a great book, if you are ready to really sit and think about death!

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SWRT 133 | The Art of Death, part 1

SWRT 133 | The Art of Death, part 1

What was our experience with The Art of Death? What were our biggest takeaways? What makes death meaningful for the story? And what tools should you bring to write a death well? How can we make them authentic? And what is the power of the point of view?

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SWRT 132 | Strong Female Protagonists with Judy K Walker, part 2

SWRT 132 | Strong Female Protagonists with Judy K Walker, part 2

How is writing a female protagonist different from writing any protagonist? Are there genre pressures to what your female protagonist should be like, act like, or look like? How has television affected character driven fiction? And how does that effect the female protagonist? Finally, we give tips on how to address the female protagonist writing for today’s reader, no matter the genre.

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Do you feel like you have company on your writing journey?

 

About the Hosts

Alida Winternheimer is the author of The Skoghall Mystery Series, A Stone’s Throw, and The Story Works Guide to Writing Fiction Series. She further pursues her fervor for all things story as a writing coach and developmental editor. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her Golden Retriever, Seva the Wonder Dog. She camps, bikes, and kayaks in her free time. Unless it’s winter, in which case she drinks chai by the fire. You can find more at www.wordessential.com/about.
Kathryn Arnold writes fantasy and anything else that sparks her creativity from her home in Kingston, Washington. She currently earns her living as an insurance underwriting assistant, where she also creates marketing and web copy. When not writing, she plays (and teaches) piano and keyboard in a band (or two), and is working on starting a ministry team with her husband. You can find Kathryn at www.skyfirewords.com.
Robert Scanlon
Robert Scanlon was born in Australia, but whisked off to England when only a baby. After many years complaining about the weather, he did the sensible thing and moved back to Australia. Despite a career in the music industry, followed by decades teaching public speaking, Robert is an introvert who adores reading. Robert grew up on a diet of sci-fi masters, eventually discovering he had read the library’s entire science fiction section. Now he has to write his own. Robert is the author of Constellation, book one of the Blood Empire space opera series. Find out more at www.RobertScanlon.com
Robert Scanlon
Former co-host, Matt Herron, was a member of SWRT from episode 1 through episode 17.

Matt is the author of The Auriga Project, a scifi thriller, Scrivener Superpowers, a how-to book for writers, and the forthcoming Tales of the Republic, a serialized novel set in a specualtive future. He also founded the Indie Author Society, an organization that offers community and support for indie authors. When he’s not bending words to his will, Matt likes to climb mountains, throw a frisbee for his Boxer mutt, Elsa, and travel to expand his mind. Learn more about him and his books at www.mgherron.com.

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