What is a hook? It is a thing at the beginning of a book that grabs the readers attention and makes him want to read more. A hook can be dropping the reader right into the action. It can be a quick snippet of dialogue. It can be a description, or an aphorism, or a bizarre statement, or an alliteration, or an introduction of the main character: "Call me Ishmael." If you are a reader, you've seen hundreds of different book openings. Some have been bad. Some have been alright. Some have been so goo...
Jul 20, 2020•10 min
There are two types of writers. We call these two different groups of writers "pantsers" and "plotters" (You may call these something else, but we all fall into one of these two groups). Pansters do little to no planning. They have a general sense of where they are going, and they feel their way through the plot as they write. Plotters plot. In general, this second group does extensive planning. They develop scenes. They develop characters. They develop little intricacies of the plot, and they g...
Jul 17, 2020•9 min
I cannot say this enough: your main character is at the core of your story. The main character is what the reader experiences your story through. With few exceptions, your story is going to be understood through your main characters. Whoever you make that character is going to color every aspect of your story. If this is the case, we should probably take some time to develop our main characters, should be not? In this episode, I go through five different tips that will help you create characters...
Jul 16, 2020•9 min
Nicholas Cage seeks to steal the Declaration of Independence. Indiana Jones is searching for the Holy Grail. Luke Skywalker is trying to become a Jedi. Forrest Gump? I think his goals change throughout the story, but in the movie, he is usually trying to find Jenny. Each of these characters are going after something. Each is moving toward a specific goal, but the entire story is not told simply by knowing what goal these characters are after. We need more information. A story with only a goal is...
Jul 15, 2020•8 min
Writing the first draft of your book is hard. It is especially difficult when it is your first book. I am sure it can be a lot like running a marathon for the first time. Your legs keep moving. You know that you are making progress, but the finish line never feels like it is going to arrive. You are going to be running that marathon for the rest of your life. And doesn't it feel like the exact same thing in writing your first draft? You keep on writing, but you know this book is endless. You kno...
Jul 14, 2020•7 min
If you are reading this, you are probably interested in writing, and if you are interested in writing, you are probably interested in reading. I think this is a safe assumption to make, because every writer I have met has started off as a reader. And, in fact, reading is a prerequisite to writing. You may have someone who can read but cannot write, but you do not have anyone who can write but not read. It just doesn't work that way. Since you are a reader, you have likely run into characters who...
Jul 13, 2020•8 min
Have you ever read a book you can't put down? You know, one of those books that makes you stay up so late in the night that by the time you put it down the sun has already started to rise? I think all of us have read at least one book that was so gripping it made up bite our fingernails and shift to the edge of our seat. What we are experiencing is tension. Every good story uses tension to push the reader closer and closer to the resolution of that book. But what is tension? I know it is a feeli...
Jul 10, 2020•6 min
Character creation is something I enjoy a lot in stories. It isn't my favorite part of writing, but it is in the top ten. One of the reasons I enjoy writing characters is because I do not find it a hard thing to do. The first step of developing characters for me is finding the basic structure of that character. This process used to be more difficult, but I have found a few places to find characters that make the process extremely easy. As with most other aspects of storytelling, the goal of my p...
Jul 09, 2020•8 min
Did you know that characters are really important to your story? You did, huh? Are you aware that there is a way to develop a character starting with only know that this character has a small scar on the tip of his finger? Oh, so you did watch my other episode on that? It is usually the case that when a person writes a story, they go through the process of developing a story, but they give very little thought to who their main character is. They have a sense of who they want their main character...
Jul 08, 2020•9 min
I don't think finding story ideas is difficult. If you went on a journey of asking any author whether it was difficult to find story ideas, you would only need to point to the millions of published books, and that author would have to agree that finding story ideas is easy. We exist in a sea of stories. What an author would say then is that finding unique story ideas is difficult. And I used to agree with this sentiment. I would worry that the story I told would be too similar to another's story...
Jul 07, 2020•8 min
I don't think finding story ideas is difficult. If you went on a journey of asking any author whether it was difficult to find story ideas, you would only need to point to the millions of published books, and that author would have to agree that finding story ideas is easy. We exist in a sea of stories. What an author would say then is that finding unique story ideas is difficult. And I used to agree with this sentiment. I would worry that the story I told would be too similar to another's story...
Jul 06, 2020•9 min
I don't think finding story ideas is difficult. If you went on a journey of asking any author whether it was difficult to find story ideas, you would only need to point to the millions of published books, and that author would have to agree that finding story ideas is easy. We exist in a sea of stories. What an author would say then is that finding unique story ideas is difficult. And I used to agree with this sentiment. I would worry that the story I told would be too similar to another's story...
Jul 03, 2020•12 min
Maybe you are looking at the world around you and all you see is a mass of gray blobs that are hard to differentiate from one another. Life seems boring. Life seems static. Life is heavy on your shoulders, and when you decide you want to write a book, you do not see anything that you can use as inspiration. This is a problem. Since nothing is truly original, we must depend on the things around us for ideas. We must draw ideas from the world, distill it through our psyche, and synthesize it into ...
Jul 02, 2020•11 min
Are you someone who looks enviously at others who are able to come up with ideas without effort. If that is the case, this episode is for you. These epiphanies writers, artists, musicians, etc. . . have do not come from nowhere. They are a specific mental process. It only looks like these people are able to arrive at ideas magically because they have developed a specific way of looking at and thinking about the world. "So, what?" you answer. "How does that help me?" If you are able to understand...
Jul 01, 2020•9 min
Sometimes it seems like media is central to our modern world. It is easy to be entertained every second of the day. I can open up one of the many video or audio streaming services and watch or listen all day long. One thing that is important to remember is that art and creative work are things that exist in the margins. But just because these things are in the margins does not mean they are unimportant. My Website: www.danielpoppie.com HTWG Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/howtowritegood HTWG ...
Mar 18, 2020•46 min
Every artist exists within a context. That context is called culture, and every artistic piece is reflecting and reacting to that culture. In this week's episode, I talk about the importance of why a person should study and understand their culture. I believe it allows the artist to create better art with more depth. My Website: www.danielpoppie.com HTWG Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/howtowritegood HTWG Twitter: https://twitter.com/HTWGPodcast HTWG Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howto...
Mar 11, 2020•42 min
Stories are wrapped up in their main characters. I would argue that the characters are the most important part of stories. When we look at characters, it is important to match the correct character to the story. A middle-aged man would not be a good main character for Harry Potter. Citizen Kane would not work if the main character was lazy. The character is important to what story is told. My Website: www.danielpoppie.com HTWG Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/howtowritegood HTWG Twitter: https...
Mar 04, 2020•50 min
A trend was once more prominent in the music industry. This trend was to write song lyrics that meant nothing. As authors, we should always seek to fill everything we write with meaning. My Website: www.danielpoppie.com HTWG Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/howtowritegood HTWG Twitter: https://twitter.com/HTWGPodcast HTWG Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howtowritegood One Last Toast for Ebenezer Fleet: https://www.spreaker.com/show/one-last-toast-for-ebenezer-fleet Intro and Exit Music Cr...
Feb 26, 2020•47 min
Most writers know what purple prose is. Most try to make their writing contain as little writing as possible. I call this skinny writing. In this week's episode, I talk about the utility of purple prose and skinny writing, when we should use both, and why I think that our writing culture has shifted toward writing "skinny" rather than writing "purple." My Website: www.danielpoppie.com HTWG Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/howtowritegood HTWG Twitter: https://twitter.com/HTWGPodcast HTWG Instag...
Feb 19, 2020•31 min
Begging the Question does not mean that you are asking a specific question. Begging the Question is a logical fallacy that looks at whether someone is making arguments for their basic ideas or is merely making assumptions. When we look at Begging the Question, it can teach us authors to look at our fundamental beliefs and determine whether we actually believe them. My Website: www.danielpoppie.com HTWG Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/howtowritegood HTWG Twitter: https://twitter.com/HTWGPodcas...
Feb 12, 2020•31 min
Literary analysis is something I turned up my nose at a decade ago. My inward groaning would begin every time an English or literature teacher would start to talk about literary analysis. Was the color of the walls in a story important? Was the author trying to convey some important metaphysical truth? I would have wagged my head and disagreed. And I still wag my head and disagree with that avenue of literary analysis, but I do not disagree with the action wholesale. When I was a student, I was ...
Feb 05, 2020•36 min
The meaning behind an artistic work is important. Knowing the meaning and even the process by which a work is created can help deepen the understanding of art. We have gone so far toward the direction of "meaning" that some have thrown out the quality of work. It does not matter how something is done as long as the meaning is deep or correct. In this episode, I begin the conversation about craft. What is it and why is it central to the value of an artistic work? We finish our discussion on craft...
Jan 29, 2020•27 min
The meaning behind an artistic work is important. Knowing the meaning and even the process by which a work is created can help deepen the understanding of art. We have gone so far toward the direction of "meaning" that some have thrown out the quality of work. It does not matter how something is done as long as the meaning is deep or correct. In this episode, I begin the conversation about craft. What is it and why is it central to the value of an artistic work? We continue our discussion on cra...
Jan 22, 2020•36 min
The meaning behind an artistic work is important. Knowing the meaning and even the process by which a work is created can help deepen the understanding of art. We have gone so far toward the direction of "meaning" that some have thrown out the quality of work. It does not matter how something is done as long as the meaning is deep or correct. In this episode, I begin the conversation about craft. What is it and why is it central to the value of an artistic work? My Website: www.danielpoppie.com ...
Jan 15, 2020•40 min
We finish our discussion of why knowing and understanding history is important to your life and writing. My Website: www.danielpoppie.com HTWG Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/howtowritegood HTWG Twitter: https://twitter.com/HTWGPodcast HTWG Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howtowritegood One Last Toast for Ebenezer Fleet: https://www.spreaker.com/show/one-last-toast-for-ebenezer-fleet Intro and Exit Music Credit: Brain-Eating Zombies from Area 51 by Moolen http://ccmixter.org/files/moolen...
Jan 08, 2020•51 min
We continue our discussion of why knowing and understanding history is important to your life and writing. My Website: www.danielpoppie.com HTWG Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/howtowritegood HTWG Twitter: https://twitter.com/HTWGPodcast HTWG Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howtowritegood One Last Toast for Ebenezer Fleet: https://www.spreaker.com/show/one-last-toast-for-ebenezer-fleet Intro and Exit Music Credit: Brain-Eating Zombies from Area 51 by Moolen http://ccmixter.org/files/mool...
Jan 01, 2020•40 min
Some of you love history. Some of you think history is a snooze. Even if you don't like history, I think it is important to know and understand history. Knowing and understanding history can help us make better decisions in our lives, but it can also help us write better. You read that correctly. Knowing and understanding history will help you write better. But it is not in the way you think. My Website: www.danielpoppie.com HTWG Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/howtowritegood HTWG Twitter: ht...
Dec 25, 2019•41 min
One thing to take into consideration when writing is that you do not have one brain; you have two. It is important to take into consideration these two halves of yourself.
Dec 18, 2019•47 min
I am sure most people have run into stories that tread the same ground in a dissatisfying way. When we write, should we repeat the same events and plot points? The answer seems to be no, and in most cases, I would agree with you. But there is a way to include repetition in a way that is satisfying and can make the story better. My Website: www.danielpoppie.com HTWG Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/howtowritegood HTWG Twitter: https://twitter.com/HTWGPodcast HTWG Instagram: https://www.instagra...
Dec 11, 2019•43 min
What is art? This is a question I ask myself monthly. I want to understand what art is so that I can use that knowledge to create art. But I never find myself with a satisfying answer, but I think it centers around two parallel but opposite things. My Website: www.danielpoppie.com HTWG Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/howtowritegood HTWG Twitter: https://twitter.com/HTWGPodcast HTWG Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howtowritegood One Last Toast for Ebenezer Fleet: https://www.spreaker.com/...
Dec 04, 2019•42 min
