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PODCAST

The Write Focus

Successful writing requires The Write Focus. Hosted by M.A. Lee with occasional forays from Remi Black and Edie Roones, we focus on productivity / tools / craft / process for fiction and nonfiction, entertainment and academic writing.

fiction how to

All Episodes

18:29

Branding: 1st Impressions Matter / 4:29

The Write Focus ·

2023/07/12

We’re talking Branding. In this episode, it’s the reader’s 1st Impressions. 1st Impressions are so important. In every aspect of our daily life, whenever we encounter someone or something new, it’s the first impressions that immediately strike to our souls. There’s a reason for the clichéd “Love at first sight”. For books, 1st Impressions are CRUCIAL! It’s the crossing moment, the significant bridge that has the reader reach for the book. Without a strong 1st impression the browsing reader won’t

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16:19

Branding: The Key for Writers to Reach Readers / 4:28

The Write Focus ·

2023/07/05

1st, we have a last check-in for the June Writing Challenge. Even if you managed only a few thousand words or a few hundred, that’s still a success ~ because it’s more than a blank sheet of paper or a blank screen. Set your goal anew for July, and have at it with a weekly breakdown to achieve the monthly goal. This episode starts a series on Branding. We’ll talk the history and importance of branding and a few definitions. In later episodes, we’ll talk First Impressions and Iconography, wording

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11:39

Writing Challenge Check-in #4 ~ 4:27

The Write Focus ·

2023/06/28

We’re counting down the last days of the June Writing Challenge. Here’s the Week 4 check-in followed by my rattling chatter on inoculation against the writing doldrums ~ when we all feel like we’re accomplishing nothing even as we accomplish something great. Last for today ~ but not the least ~ is an excerpt from Phyllis A. Whitney’s Guide to Fiction Writing. Whitney is the grande dame of American mystery and romantic suspense and a best-selling international writer, with more than 70 novels penned

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12:15

Writing Challenge Check-in #3 ~ 4:26

The Write Focus ·

2023/06/21

Three weeks of June have vanished. How are you doing in the Writing Challenge? Today’s episode starts with the Challenge Check-in. I also present how I have developed ideas from nothing in the past … which is the method I use now and in the future. That’s the section on “Writers & Ideas”. Timings 0:39 Intro 0:44 Challenge Check-in 4:35 Writers & Ideas 11:15 Closing Total Time = 10:44 Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for

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13:35

Writing Challenge Check-in #2 ~ 4:25

The Write Focus ·

2023/06/14

We have the second 7 days of the June Writing Challenge. This week is the actual start of the novel; the first week sketched out scenes that would build into chapters. We also had basic research and setting up our masterbook last week. This week shows the benefit of foundational work as we pour into the Rough-Write stage of the novel. Besides our check-in for the first 13 days, I discuss how I’m a puzzler in the sketching stage, a pantster in the Rough-Write stage, and a Plotter in the Draft

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12:12

June Writing Challenge ~ Check-in #1 ~ 4:24

The Write Focus ·

2023/06/07

It’s the Writing Challenge, this June on The Write Focus. In addition, we give the #1 indicator of writing success and introduce the 7 writing stages for building any content type, fiction and nonfiction. The Writing Challenge started on June 1 (we promoted it in our May 31 episode). We’re attempting 1,500 words per day throughout the month. Achievement = 45,000, but even if we’re far short, we still have success ~ because we’ve avoided the dreaded blank page. TIMINGS 0:39 Intro 2:10 Stages of

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15:18

4:23 Ornaments (Significant Lists) / Discovering...

The Write Focus ·

2023/05/31

In this episode, we finish the series Discovering Characters. Tomorrow starts June, and The Write Focus will have a June Writing Challenge. We hope to write the equivalent of 1,000 words per day, giving us 30,000 words by the end of the month. That’s a great start on a novel or nearly a complete novella, or a handful of short stories. 1,000 sounds not a lot, but summer is filled with distractions and disruptions. Join us for the June Writing Challenge, 1,000 wpd. We’ll share our progress starting on

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22:10

4:22 / Transitions / Discovering Characters

The Write Focus ·

2023/05/24

We have two more episodes in the Discovering Characters series. Today’s episode is the 3rd of the Sliding Scales, the first being Progressions and the 2nd Transgressions. This 3rd Sliding Scale is Transitions. Circumstances can cause growth and change even when our hearts and minds may have intended to avoid any transformation. We often are pushed into our transitions, in ways that we never anticipated, and so it is for our characters. People may linger at a plateau for years. Eventually, however,

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21:15

4:21 / Transgressions / Discovering Characters

The Write Focus ·

2023/05/17

We’ve almost finished our Discovering Characters series. In the last episode, we presented how characters can be developed to reveal their growth or decline or their alterations. In this episode, we present the dark side of characters: the Transgressions. Only a couple of episodes remain in this series then we’re off on a Summer Challenge. For now, on with the episode. Timings 0:39 Intro for Transgressions 1:10 Aristotle’s Tragic Hero (5 elements) 6:25 Examples: Macbeth, The Bookshop, Ophelia 12:30

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13:49

4:20 / Progressions / Discovering Characters

The Write Focus ·

2023/05/10

From the beginning of this Discovering Characters series, we’ve built our primaries from the ground up with templates and interviews We’ve looked at our individual primaries, the protagonists and antagonists, as well as our secondary characters and their relationships with our primaries. The best characters are not static but change, whether they grow or decline. That’s today’s focus: Progressions. Timings 0:39 Intro 1:14 Sliding Scales 1:39 Progressions 1:47 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (with a bit

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34:29

4:19 / Character Lessons from Myths / Discovering...

The Write Focus ·

2023/05/03

We’ve reached the last major section of Discovering Characters, which is Décor or Special Touches for Characters and the Sliding Scales. We begin with Lessons from Myths, primarily Greek mythology, that huge melting pot of myths. Here in modern times we can barely see the distinctions in cultures that compose the myths. Time has blurred those distinctions for us, and now we look back and think one culture when it is many. The myth of Medea alone offers the collision of four different cultures. This

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16:39

4:18 / Mentors / Discovering Characters

The Write Focus ·

2023/04/26

Yoda. Q. Nanny McPhee. Spock. Gandalf. JARVIS. Dumbledore. Mary Poppins. Merlins. All mentors. A mentor is a wise elder who teaches, provide gifts, motivates and plants seeds. They are wise, mysterious, a little deranged, and incredibly awe-inspiring. They can be much-loved … or dark and dangerous. They can provides gifts willingly … or present challenges difficult to overcome. Mentors can act for or against the protagonist, wish him/her well or curse to oblivion, and know the answer yet give wrong

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20:11

4:19 / Tests from Enemies / Discovering Characters

The Write Focus ·

2023/04/19

Conflict moves stories. The protagonist faces the conflict, battling with it and dealing with it. Whether our focus is Jane Austen or Charles Dickens, George R.R. Martin or Dean Koontz, the swiftest action-adventure or the highest literary fiction, the protagonist battles a conflict-creator. The antagonist creates the deepest and longest conflict, yet other characters can also be conflict-creators, even if that character is not evil. These characters offer tests for our primary character. One such

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19:08

4:16 / Allies and More / Discovering Characters

The Write Focus ·

2023/04/12

While Teams actively engage with the primary characters and the story’s conflict, many other characters will populate stories. Whether in a short story, a simple anecdote in nonfiction, or in novels and epics, these other characters flesh out the skeleton of our writing. Allies, Foils, Love Interests, Blocking Figures, and more all participate in the conflict, driving it forward or directing the protagonist or antagonist. In this episode, we present five of the key types of Allies and

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28:15

4:15 /Team Roles / Discovering Characters

The Write Focus ·

2023/04/05

For writers, teams offer greater opportunities than a single protagonist or antagonist. We are not limited to character’s perspective throughout the writing. We can have two who alternate or a group of characters whose diverse perspectives open a wider opportunity for conflict and tension. Writers can have a lot of fun with teams. We can build a book or a series around a team. We can follow a single protagonist and the team through a series OR have a single protagonist with a changing team OR have

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18:51

4:14 /3 Stages to Build a Relationships: The Tripod /...

The Write Focus ·

2023/03/29

Continuing Last Episode’s Focus on the Couple Bond / Relationships Relationships of Choice are built in three stages. The bond between a couple is not driven solely by instinct or chemical pheromones. It is not mere attraction of the eyes. The links of the bond are formed by more than common association. An enduring Relationship of Choice requires three parts, occurring in stages. It’s a Tripod, and each leg, built one after the other, becomes dependent on the other. Contents 0:40 ::

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13:36

4:13 / Relationships: Contract vs.Choice

The Write Focus ·

2023/03/22

Marriage by Contract rather than Choice. Matchmakers. Divorce. Contracted Relationships, the legal contract of the Marriage Ceremony, and the Dissolution of the Marriage Contract is the focus of this episode as we venture into the Relationship section of Discovering Characters. Couples and the bonds that change individuals into couples are the focus of the first two episodes. Then we look at Team Roles, Allies, and more. For now, Couples in a Contract (and the wife as chattel ... grrr). Content 0:39

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14:02

4:12 / 4 Last but not Least Primaries / Discovering...

The Write Focus ·

2023/03/15

In our look at Jungian archetypes for primary characters, we have four that are the most unexpected of all. These four can become surprising protagonists. As antagonists, they seem pathetic--until we realize that we deal with these conflict-creators every day of our lives. It’s the 4 Last but not Least Primaries. Contents 0:39 Intro 1:12 Opening 1:54 Everyman / Victim 3:27 Lover / Stalker / Siren / Seducer 6:13 Innocent / Willfully Blind 7:47 Trickster / Fool 12:19 Closing Total Run Time =

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14:54

4:11 / 4 Bright Lights or Hot Messes / Discovering...

The Write Focus ·

2023/03/08

When we study character analyses, we’re often left with the sense that these discussed protagonists and antagonists are masculine rather than feminine. In this episode, we’ll look at women in the leadership position, positive forms as well as negative. Women can burn brightly, illuminating all around them, or can burn themselves up when they fall prey to the worst inside themselves. We’re looking at women as primary characters, from ancient days to the present. You may wish to reference our

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15:56

4:10 / 4 Unheroic Heroes / Discovering Characters

The Write Focus ·

2023/03/01

Our last episode examined the 4 Classic Hero Leaders who can become protagonists with developed personalities and flaws. Skew them sideways, and they become antagonists. The same will happen with the 4 Unheroic Heroes that are the focus of this episode: Warrior, Creator, Magician, and Sage … or looking at them as antagonists, Tool, Dreamer, Machiavellian, and Robot. Contents 0:39 Intro 1:18 Unheroic Heroes 2:46 Warrior / Tool 6:06 Creator / Dreamer 8:35 Magician / Machiavellian 11:28 Sage /

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