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Episodes
#47: Immediately Improve Your Ability to Set Goals and Meet Deadlines with This One Easy Tip
Last Week I gave you my 10 Essential Principles for creating an active hero. This week we go into the writer's dilemma of procrastination, or putting aside our writing projects for things that feel more urgent.The...
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#46: The Top Ten Indicators that Your Main Character is Driving the Action
Last week we discussed four things you must do if you've given your character the trait of "selfishness ". This week I want to discuss what it looks like for a main character to actually be the one who's driving the...
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#45: Four Critical Nuances to Incorporate When You Have a Selfish Protagonist
One of the things that comes up often in the work I critique is a main character who is fundamentally selfish. This happens because we try to make our characters flawed (which they should be), but we haven't thought...
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#44: Not All Stories Need a Happy Ending: Daring to Make Others Uncomfortable for the Sake of Truthful Storytelling
Last week we spoke about confronting the issue of fear in writing. This week we will continue our series by differentiating ‘nice’ and ‘kind,’ and what it looks like to make others feel uncomfortable for the sake of...
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#43: Crucial Factors Writers Must Overcome to Successfully Engage Culture in Story
Last week we discussed the importance of empathy. Not only for ourselves as writers, but for developing dynamic and engaging characters.
This week, we take that same principle and dive deeper as we apply it to our...
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#42: EMPATHY: The Number One Tool Writers Need to Develop Dynamic Characters
Last week, I gave you the 5 dialogue tricks every writer needs to create a clear and dynamic storyline. This week I discuss how to create dynamic characters through empathy.
The basis of story is understanding the...
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Five Essential Dialogue Tricks to Help Clarify Your Storyline for Your Readers
S2_E41: Five Dialogue Tricks For a Clear StorylineEPISODE DESCRIPTION - Last week, we discussed the importance of getting to your main action and character quickly. This week I give you 5 dialogue tricks to avoid ‘the...
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What Writers Need to Do at the Start of Each Scene to Keep Their Reader Hooked
EPISODE DESCRIPTION -Today we are diving into #7 in our series of “Aha Moments,” that I’ve had both as a writer, and as a story coach. One mistake that I see happen with a lot of writers, is that they wait too long to...
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SPECIAL EPISODE: Zena Unpacks Critical Changes in the Marketplace that Impact the Types of Stories Being Sold as a Guest on Writer's Chat
S2_E38 This special episode replays Zena's recent presentation as a guest on Writer's Chat, where she was invited to speak on how writers can make their story ideas commercial. The answer, Zena says, is not as simple...
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The Best Tip Ever on How to Reveal the Evolution of Important Character Relationships in Story
S2 E38. Today in our series of Aha Moments, Zena dives into TIP #6. In essence, the audience needs to see three encounters between characters before they will believe that the relationship has changed or evolved for...
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Unlocking the Secret of How to Write Great Setups and Payoffs
S2_E37. Unlocking the Secret of How to Write Great Setups and PayoffsOne of the best things I ever learned in terms of setups and payoffs is how to make a setup ne barely noticeable. A truly good setup is something...
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Two Easy Tips to Immediately Maximize the Dramatic Potential of Each Scene
S2_E36 See the main points for this episode below. Or DOWNLOAD FULL TRANSCRIPTS FOR FREE on the podcast page of our website. EPISODE DESCRIPTION - Today, I'm sharing tips number 3 and 4 of some of the aha moments I've...
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