The Writer's Block Podcast

Switching Roles

Normally the ladies of the Writers Block are the interviewer.  Today Debby will switch roles and share her experience being the interviewee.

May you be inspired, feel empowered, and B. Well.

All this and more on this week’s episode of The Writer’s Block Podcast recorded at the Studio 21 Podcast Café and hosted on the United Podcast Network.

When You Finish Your Memoir...

Shelly and Debby have both finished their memoirs and will share what they learned through this very personal experience.

• How does it feel to finish?
• It’s done what question should you ask your self before moving to the next step?
• What did writing this book teach you?

May you be inspired, feel empowered, and B. Well.

All this and more on this week’s episode of The Writer’s Block Podcast recorded at the Studio 21 Podcast Café and hosted on the United Podcast Network.

Weak Endings - #10 of the Ten Most Common Mistakes

Barbara Wallace award winning author of romance and mystery will continue her discussion of the most common writing mistakes.  Weak endings are bad in lovemaking and in stories.  Debby, Shelly and Barbara will help you reach a great climax to your book.

• If the reader remembers the ending, they will forgive any early misgivings
• Don’t let your deadline stop you from flushing out your endings
• Is the pot so complicated that you can’t get out of the story satisfactorily?
• You should have an arc for your character (the murder gets solved, someone dies…)
• Readers like when the story ties up the loose ends
• You shouldn’t drag the ending out too long either
• Happy ending are not always satisfying endings

May you be inspired, feel empowered, and B. Well.

All this and more on this week’s episode of The Writer’s Block Podcast recorded at the Studio 21 Podcast Café and hosted on the United Podcast Network.

Happy New Years!

2019 has been a crazy ride for the women of the Writer's Block.  Join the ladies as they revisit the resolutions, they set one year ago today.  The past year has been like a shot of adrenaline so 2020 is sure to sparkle.  

May you be inspired, feel empowered, and B. Well.

All this and more on this week’s episode of The Writer’s Block Podcast recorded at the Studio 21 Podcast Café and hosted on the United Podcast Network.

Stereotypical Characters and Flat Characters - #9 of the Ten Most Common Mistakes

Barbara Wallace award winning author of romance and mystery will continue her discussion of the most common writing mistakes.  Shelly and Debby and Barbara will teach you how to make your characters memorable.

• We spend a lot of time developing main characters but how much time do we spend on secondary characters?
• Is the secondary character necessary?
• They exist to further the plot
• How do you choose who is important to move the story along?
• Holmes, who lacks social awareness, had Watson to balance him out

May you be inspired, feel empowered, and B. Well.

All this and more on this week’s episode of The Writer’s Block Podcast recorded at the Studio 21 Podcast Café and hosted on the United Podcast Network.

Telling, Not Showing - #8 of the Ten Most Common Mistakes

Barbara Wallace award winning author of romance and mystery will continue her discussion of the most common writing mistakes.  Debby and Shelly will explore the benefit of showing rather than telling, which include how to emotionally connect your readers with your characters.

• It’s a weakness many authors have
• Telling is just giving the information
• Showing is demonstrating the narrative through the Human experience often through the
• Use all the senses
• Who is noticing what and why?
• Lay off the “ly” words
• Small details rather than the big picture
• Powerful verbs and adjectives
• Be specific to the character
• Dialogue vs simple narrative

May you be inspired, feel empowered, and B. Well.

All this and more on this week’s episode of The Writer’s Block Podcast recorded at the Studio 21 Podcast Café and hosted on the United Podcast Network.

Inconsistent Pacing - #6 of the Ten Most Common Mistakes

Pacing is the speed with which your narrative unfolds. The Writer’s Block welcomes Barbara Wallace to talk about the importance of pacing.

• Your book should be like a symphony
• The pace should be variable
• There should be a purpose to your pacing
• At what point in the writing process should pacing be addressed?
• Language and sentence structure can be used to control pace

May you be inspired, feel empowered, and B. Well.

All this and more on this week’s episode of The Writer’s Block Podcast recorded at the Studio 21 Podcast Café and hosted on the United Podcast Network.

Dialogue Is not Just Conversation - #5 of the Ten Most Common Mistakes

Today on the block, Barbara Wallace joins us to discuss the importance of honing your dialogue skills... in writing.  Dialogue is not just conversation between characters.  It is a vital story tool that, if done properly, should:

• Advance the plot
• Can often point out subtext
• Reveal story information
• Provide insight into character
• Heighten tension
• Character’s with heavy accents…don’t overdo it. Transition from very brief dialect and then make it easy for the reader going forward
• Repetitive words that you hear in real life have no place in the story…”Um, Like, Well” readers don’t want to read them over and over again
• Sex noises during love scenes are a no no
• Don’t over vary or over use your tags…”She Said, they replied, and he asked” are examples of good easy tags that can lubricate the dialogue
• Dialogue is not a tool for info dumping

May you be inspired, feel empowered, and B. Well.

All this and more on this week’s episode of The Writer’s Block Podcast recorded at the Studio 21 Podcast Café and hosted on the United Podcast Network.

Character Derailment - #3 of the Ten Most Common Mistakes

Barbara Wallace, award winning author of romance and mystery, will continue her discussion of the most common writing mistakes. 

This week's topic is Character Derailment.  This is when the character does something so "out of character" that the writer loses credibility and the reader loses interest.  Characters need to feel like real people to the reader so the writer can't make them do things just to move the story along or to hit a plot point. 

• Is your hero too stupid to live?
• Every scene should have conflict but it needs to stay within the confines of the character that you have created
• When you really understand your character you will be less likely to derail them
• What is pre-writing?
• What is your character's motivation?

May you be inspired, feel empowered, and B. Well.

All this and more on this week’s episode of The Writer’s Block Podcast recorded at the Studio 21 Podcast Café and hosted on the United Podcast Network.

Info Dumping - #2 of the Ten Most Common Mistakes

Barbara Wallace and Debby will discuss one of the biggest mistakes rookie writers make... info dumping.  To be fair, info dumping ins't limited to beginner writers, but the experienced writer usually knows when the words need to hit the cutting room floor.   Back-story, Transition scenes, and world building are three of the common dumping grounds.  Barbara and Debby will discuss how information can be woven through-out the story

• Too much too quick vs picking and choosing what is important
• Let the story play out like and onion layer after layer
• What would be important to the character in that scene right now
• Sometimes you do have to catch the reader up in the case of time traveling...6 months later...
• Science fiction tends to have the most info dumping with respect to technology

May you be inspired, feel empowered, and B. Well.

All this and more on this week’s episode of The Writer’s Block Podcast recorded at the Studio 21 Podcast Café and hosted on the United Podcast Network.