Writer Unleashed

Overthinking your plot with beats and pinch points? Plot doesn't need to be complex or over-thought to capture your reader.  In fact, when your plot is too complicated, it's likely to confuse and disengage your reader. In this episode, learn how to simplify your plot using 4 core elements. You'll learn: What plot is, and how it differs from structure5 common ways plots go off the railsHow to translate character desire into a tangible goalWhat meaningful conflict is and how to let it escalateThe link between character goals and consequencesEpisode Web PageRate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts.  Love what you're learning from the Writer Unleashed podcast? Pease consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more writers -- just like you -- to write the story that won't let them go.Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. Want to join a community of like-minded writers? Need inspiration and support? Join us in our private Writer Unleashed Community Facebook Group. It's totally free to join.

How do you turn good writing into great writing?With stories that engage, thrill, and surprise your reader.That create drama right on the sentence level.How do you keep readers hooked moment by moment?In this episode, I’m giving 3 little known techniques to turn good writing into great writing.   These are techniques I learned from my graduate writing teachers - techniques you likely haven't heard of...Until now.   This episode will transform the way you write,  and will give your story an edge.   Episode Web PageRate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts.  Love what you're learning from the Writer Unleashed podcast? Pease consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more writers -- just like you -- to write the story that won't let them go.Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. Want to join a community of like-minded writers? Need inspiration and support? Join us in our private Writer Unleashed Community Facebook Group. It's totally free to join.

What do you do when you want to write, but don't think you have anything to say?  Or you do have something to say, but don't know how to say it. In this episode, I'll give you 3 powerful writing exercises to help you find your way into your story.These exercises will help unearth material you can open up and use in your fiction or memoir.Use them to start a story, warm up, or get unstuck. Episode Web PageRate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts.  Love what you're learning from the Writer Unleashed podcast? Pease consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more writers -- just like you -- to write the story that won't let them go.Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. Want to join a community of like-minded writers? Need inspiration and support? Join us in our private Writer Unleashed Community Facebook Group. It's totally free to join.

How do you keep writing when you don’t have the motivation to keep going?  How do you recapture the excitement you had when you first started?In this episode, you'll get my 3 top strategies for getting your writing back on track with renewed motivation. You'll learn:The natural cycle of creativityWhy the struggle is necessaryHow to take a rest from the work without taking a rest from your commitment to your workWhat to do when you're paralyzed by self doubtEpisode Web PageRate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts.  Love what you're learning from the Writer Unleashed podcast? Pease consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more writers -- just like you -- to write the story that won't let them go.Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. Want to join a community of like-minded writers? Need inspiration and support? Join us in our private Writer Unleashed Community Facebook Group. It's totally free to join.

It’s November, also known as National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo can be a great jumpstart to a writing project, or to make progress on an existing project. It can help instill a regular writing routine, along with community and support.  But too often writers will start something in NaNoWriMo and never finish. Because after the initial inspiration fades, they lose momentum and drive. In this episode, I’ll give you some guidelines to get the most out of your work in progress. And if you’re participating in NaNoWriMo, I’ll tell you how to get the most progress in the next 24 days and beyond. Episode Web PageRate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts.  Love what you're learning from the Writer Unleashed podcast? Pease consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more writers -- just like you -- to write the story that won't let them go.Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. Want to join a community of like-minded writers? Need inspiration and support? Join us in our private Writer Unleashed Community Facebook Group. It's totally free to join.

Having a large cast of characters can overwhelm your readers, especially if the characters are introduced all at once, too many characters crowd a scene, their roles are too similar or just not clear. Readers will struggle to keep track of who’s who, and who they should be paying attention to. This can hinder their engagement with your story.So you want to carefully consider the necessity of each character.Not every character needs the same amount of depth and range. But you want to make sure that every character, no matter how minor, contributes to the overall narrative in a meaningful way.In this episode, I’m breaking down three types of characters you’ll likely have in your story: major characters, minor characters, and  functional characters. You'll learn how to give each of these characters a clear story purpose. Episode Web PageRate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts.  Love what you're learning from the Writer Unleashed podcast? Pease consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more writers -- just like you -- to write the story that won't let them go.Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. Want to join a community of like-minded writers? Need inspiration and support? Join us in our private Writer Unleashed Community Facebook Group. It's totally free to join.

How do you write stronger, more structured scenes that excite you and captivate your reader?Each scene is a microcosm of the whole story. It creates an emotional connection to your reader. But when scenes lack structure and focus, readers don't know what to pay attention to. And they're not much  fun for you to write. It's all comes down to framing each scene.  In this episode, learn 5 ways to craft stronger, more structured scenes that guide readers seamlessly through your story. These will make your scenes easier and more fun to write, and exciting to read. Episode Web PageRate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts.  Love what you're learning from the Writer Unleashed podcast? Pease consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more writers -- just like you -- to write the story that won't let them go.Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. Want to join a community of like-minded writers? Need inspiration and support? Join us in our private Writer Unleashed Community Facebook Group. It's totally free to join.

How do you balance character development with the advancement of your plot? How can you develop characters to even execute your plot, unless you first start out with a plot? The answer is, both character and plot are developed in tandem. Every story,  whether it's a thriller, a fantasy,  realistic, literary,  mystery, or science fiction, is in some way about the private inner life of characters.  So there's going to be some central, evolving concern, or problem that your character must deal with.  And the  story is about is the actions, the suffering, the pain, the missteps, and the victories of the characters.In other words, character and plot are bound together. You can't really work on them separately. So in this episode, I'll give you 5 checkpoints to help you develop both character and plot.Episode Show NotesRate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts.  Love what you're learning from the Writer Unleashed podcast? Pease consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more writers -- just like you -- to write the story that won't let them go.Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. Want to join a community of like-minded writers? Need inspiration and support? Join us in our private Writer Unleashed Community Facebook Group. It's totally free to join.

When we write about what happened, we’re tempted to be bound by what actually occurred. But our memories are not recordings that can be verified. Memory is a construct of the imagination. It’s not reliable.Memory is altered by the life we’ve lived since.  By the life your character has lived since. What a character tells from memory is altered by the present. In this episode, you’ll get a guide to writing retrospective narrators. We’ll talk about the two voices to bring to your retrospective story, and 4 questions to help you shape your character’s depth of view. Episode Web PageRate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts.  Love what you're learning from the Writer Unleashed podcast? Pease consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more writers -- just like you -- to write the story that won't let them go.Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. Want to join a community of like-minded writers? Need inspiration and support? Join us in our private Writer Unleashed Community Facebook Group. It's totally free to join.Want to join a community of like-minded writers? Need inspiration and support? Join us in our private Writer Unleashed Community Facebook Group. It's totally free to join.Want to join a community of like-minded writers? Need inspiration and support? Join us in our private Writer Unleashed Community Facebook Group. It's totally free to join.

The interpersonal dynamics between characters are an essential part of character and plot development. Drama involves people who interact with and influence others, and who ultimately change as a  result. In this episode, I’m going to give you 4 ways to think about your characters' relationships so they’re captivating and memorable.You'll also learn how to introduce multiple characters and make minor characters more relevant.Episode Web PageRate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts.  Love what you're learning from the Writer Unleashed podcast? Pease consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more writers -- just like you -- to write the story that won't let them go.Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. Want to join a community of like-minded writers? Need inspiration and support? Join us in our private Writer Unleashed Community Facebook Group. It's totally free to join.Want to join a community of like-minded writers? Need inspiration and support? Join us in our private Writer Unleashed Community Facebook Group. It's totally free to join.