In a world as overwhelming as ours is, what does self-care look like? What is “escape,” and how does it compare? How do you balance self-care with remaining connected and productive? Episode recommendation: Visit Tara Brach’s website at www.tarabrach.com for some excellent guided meditations. Her meditations are also available on the Insight Timer app.
Attentive listeners may have noticed that we disappeared for three months. What happened? What do we do, as writers, when life gets in the way and we finally decide/have time to return? How do we reintegrate into our own lives? How do we catch up on everything ? Episode recommendation: Try John’s sticky note method, wherein you make a small list of which things you’d like to get done on a given day, and try to figure out how to align your chosen tasks/goals with 20-25 minute blocks of time, givi...
The idea of “breaking in” has changed completely since the rise of digital publishing. In the “old world,” authors built a reputation with short fiction in monthly publications, after which point they’d have a better chance of getting agented representation and full-length book deals from publishers. The world’s different now. How are we planning to break in? Is there merit to the old ways? Have things really changed all that much?
Each of us defines success differently, and our definitions aren’t set in stone. How do we maintain our momentum while adjusting our direction mid-flight?
After a very long (unplanned) absence, Write Right is back! Keep an eye out for the next two episodes, which will be available on Friday, June 29. After that, we’ll be back to our regular weekly programming. Thanks for sticking with us. There are many avenues to building a writing career. Fortunately, a few of them are represented in this podcast. There are as many ways to make it as a writer as there are writers in the world, but there are a few paths to a writing career that are more thoroughl...
New month, new theme! For March, we’ll be talking about processes, goals, the daily grind, and how we define success. We call it The Long March. Our guest for the month is Andrew Wood. You can find Andrew on twitter @andrewtheauthor , on Patreon , and on facebook . Pick up his debut novel, Storm of Fury, on Amazon . The daily writing adventure (something we discuss so often on this podcast,) is a challenge. It is a process. Let’s discuss our writing habits, our rolling plains, our Khazad-Dums, o...
Are romance and erotica the gold mine they are believed to be? Should writers try to build a career in romance or erotica under a pen name? It might be harder than you think.
Content warning: this episode includes coarse language and discussions about sexual assault in literature. Continuing the conversation from episode 3.6, we explore sex in non-romance fiction. Sex scenes should not be any different, fundamentally, from any other scene in a book. They can be staged like a fight, conversation, transaction-—any scene that involves character emotion and growth. The scene should have value as well as enticing action. Do social taboos affect the way we write and read s...
Content warning: this episode includes coarse language, (terrible) descriptions of sexual acts, and discussions about sexual assault in literature. Sex and physical intimacy in literature is a slippery slope. Inclusion of those elements for shock value alone is counterproductive and generally seen as gratuitous. What we discover through our conversation is that the inclusion of sex in stories must have value to the characters and plot. We also issue a warning: stop using sexual assault as a char...
This month, Write Right will dive into discussions about romance and erotica. That being the case, we are going to flag the episodes for February as explicit. If these topics aren’t your cup of tea, join back up with us in March when we change themes. Are the romance genres a smooth spectrum, or are there clear lines between romance, erotic (or steamy) romance, and erotica? Are there well-established rules for the form? Mariëlle Smith joins us for our exploration of the steamier side of popular ...
Starting a new story can be an intoxicating thing. It’s my greatest strength as a writer, and that’s why I have so, so many stories on the backburner. At a certain point, there’s got to be a limit to how much “new” energy for writing is positive…doesn’t there? How do we know the difference between a shiny new idea and a true gem? How do we balance between our projects? How do we deal with “want to write” versus “am writing”? Recommendation: Start an idea farm....
John is taking a break between the fourth and fifth drafts of A Thousand Roads. How does he bring excitement to reworking something he’s been working on for a long time? How dooes he manaage drafting processes?
Resolutions for the New Year can be a controversial topic. One thing’s for sure: they don’t work for everyone. For many of us, they can be downright counterproductive. If the concept of the resolution doesn’t work for us, is there a way for us to “resolve” do to something in a beneficial way? Recommendation: Become the jellyfish you’ve always wanted to be.
Here we are, at the very beginning of the third season of Write Right. We're joined this month by Elayna Mae Darcy, during which we'll be talking about beginnings and newness. This time, we talk about new podcasts each of us is hosting, and podcasts we love. Here's a complete list of our recommendations: Elan's new podcast: The Warbler Weekly Elan's recommendations: Steal the Stars, Writing Excuses, Crooked Media's many podcasts Elayna's new podcast: The Convention Kid Elayna's recommendations: ...
Our first episode! The SPE team discusses beginnings.
