The best writing advice in the business. Hosts Dan Wells and Howard Tayler record live episodes of the award-winning podcast, featuring some of your favorite authors as guests.
Business of Writing: Understanding the Publishing Industry
Summary:
Join Eric Flint, NYT Bestseller & author of the 1632 series, as he explores the basic parameters of the publishing industry & the affect it has on authors.
Business of Publishing: The Pros & Cons of Electronic Publishing
Summary:
Join Eric Flint, NYT Bestselling author of the 1632 series, as he explains the pros and cons of electronic publishing from the point of view of an author.
Writer's Craft: Writing Stories That Are Fun To Read
Summary:
If a reader enjoys reading your story, they’re going to want more, so we examine ways to make sure that your story is fun to read. Explore what makes a story ‘fun’ and learn how to use this knowledge.
We’ll teach you ways to write a story that is fun for the reader to read without losing the deeper message you want to convey. After all, smart messages and fun aren’t mutually exclusive.
How much time does an editor give to each manuscript crossing her desk? Often less than two pages. Learn the elements of drawing readers in & keeping them.
Description:
Bestselling author Jody Lynn Nye guides participants through the elements of writing narrative hooks, the first and one of the most important parts of any manuscript. Editors will scrutinize whether you have created enough interest to draw in readers in the first few paragraphs of a short story or pages of a novel, and will likely reject a work that does not have a successful hook. Discussion and demonstrations will be a part of this workshop.
Join the team from Baen Books as they announce the winner of the 2016 Baen Fantasy Adventure award and give a preview of some of the great new books coming from Baen in the coming year.
Writer's Craft: Comedy Gold - The Art, Science, & Non-Sequitur of Writing Humor
Summary:
You don't have to be born funny to tell a good joke, and even if you WERE born funny your jokes can be better. The tools and techniques you need are here. Prepare to laugh while taking notes.
Description:
Howard Tayler has been a student of humor ever since discovering that he could use words to send milk up someone else's nose. For decades he thought, like most people, that humor was a gift, and that the tricks for workshopping a good joke couldn't do more than fine tune the funny that was already there. He is quite happy to have been wrong. Humor, like cross-stitch, phlebotomy, and rocket science, is something people can learn to excel at, even if they weren't born telling lactate-launching lunchroom gags. In this presentation, Howard will lay down the basics, and then show you the tools you'll need to begin putting polished humor in your own works. Using the research of McGraw & Warner as a foundation, he’ll draw techniques from the works of Adams, Adams, Gaffigan, Pratchett, Niven, Twain, Watterson, and more. Don’t forget to take notes, don’t bring tomatoes, and do not drink milk.
Writer's Craft: Maintaining Mystery Without Losing the Reader
Summary:
A well-crafted mystery, especially one maintained over the entire course of a story, has incredible power, so we’ll show you how to make this happen without losing the reader along the way.