Alida and Robert sit down at the Story Works Round Table to talk fear this week. How do we get our readers to feel fear from just the written word? What craft tools can we employ? It’s one thing with a wide-angle narrative lens, but what about a close third POV? We dig into all of this and more! Love this topic? Join my workshop, Making Readers Fear & Fear For Your Characters on October 24th. Details at www.storyworksfiction.com

Story Works Round Table | Conversations About Craft | Before You Can Be a Successful Author, You Have to Write a Great Story

SWRT 225 | Fear

This week, Alida, Robert, and Kathryn talk about villains you can't vanquish: How do you handle a villain that can't wear a hat, black or otherwise? When your story calls for a force instead of a figure, what does that mean for your plot? For your character? What do you need to be aware of when writing a bad event or circumstance, instead of a bad guy? Are there genre-specific antagonistic forces?  Show notes and more at www.StoryWorksPodcast.com. Get workshops at www.StoryWorksFiction.com   Previously released as SWRT 085.

SWRT 224 | Antagonistic Forces

This month the Story Works Reading Series returns after summer break with a new piece of creative nonfiction by essayist, journalist, and writing professor, Jonathon Heide. I am honored to bring Jonathon’s essay, Eastern White Pine at the Corner of the Farm, to you followed by a conversation with the author about the intersection of nonfiction and storytelling, bringing your personal self into your writing, loggers and arborists and generations of family. Grab a cup of something warm and enjoy this episode of the Story Works Reading Series. Get Alida's creative writing workshops at www.storyworksfiction.com Submit your work to the Reading Series at www.storyworkspodcast.com 

SWRS 006 | Eastern White Pine at the Corner of the Farm

This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida, Robert, & Kathryn talk about writing dystopian fiction when the world we’re living in seems dystopian. What does a dystopian story have to offer readers who already feel left out or beat down? Maybe…a lot. Register for the writing workshop Memory Emotion Body at www.storyworksfiction.com now. Class begins in October.

SWRT 223 | Dystopian Fiction in Dystopian Times

This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida, Kathryn, & Robert talk about the changes we've noticed in storycraft when reading books of past eras. How has storytelling changed with the times and what elements of craft should we hang onto?  What books of old have you read and how do you think storytelling is changing? Let us know on our comments page! www.storyworkspodcast.com Get Alida's writing workshops at www.storyworksfiction.com 

SWRT 222 | Storycraft Over Time

This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida, Kathryn, & Robert talk about those big, really BIG, scenes. When your story demands an epic battle or riot or disaster, how can you create the right blend of massive action & personal emotion? What are the pitfalls of multiple points of view in epic scenes? And lots more today at the Round Table. Pull up a chair & join us! Register for this Sunday's Writing Backstory into Your Now-story & other workshops at www.storyworksfiction.com. Show notes at www.storyworkspodcast.com. 

SWRT 221 | Writing BIG Scenes

This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida, Robert, & Kathryn ask, how can we develop our characters if we aren’t naturally curious about people? We three writers find ourselves putting our friends, family, neighbors, even strangers under our version of the microscope. What do we--and our stories--gain as observers of human nature? Where does our authenticity come from as writers? Is there a method to our madness?  We’re always diving into the lives and minds of our characters in an effort to bring them to life for our readers, which makes us amateur, or armchair, psychologists. But how do we keep from getting it wrong? The key is not a technicality of research or analysis, or in our attitude toward others. We’ve found that compassion and empathy make for the best character development.

SWRT 220 | The Writer as Student of Human Nature

This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida, Robert, & Kathryn ponder whether or not people with a creative license need to worry about the conventions of grammar & punctuation. I don't think the answer will surprise you, but the whys, wherefores, & particular concerns we have with those craft elements may prove enlightening.  Show notes & more at www.storyworkspodcast.com Submit to the Story Works Reading Series now: www.storyworkspodcast.com/submit 

SWRT 219 | Nitty Gritty: Grammar & More

This week at the Story Works Round Table, we cover one of Kathryn’s current pain points: when description doesn’t happen while drafting and how to get it done in revision. The role of description is much richer in your story than you may think. (Previously released as episode 125.) Robert resists adding description while he fast drafts, knowing he’ll have to face it in later drafts. Kathryn struggles to get down in words what she knows has to be there. This leads to lots of placeholders in her draft, notes to fill in the details later…but all those To Do notes can get depressing! Kathryn’s flow state writing has gone missing due to life’s time constraints. Alida gives her a tip to turn stolen minutes into productive writing time—one we can all benefit from! We expand the conversation about using your “throat clearing” time for descriptive writing, something I’m adding to my writing practice today. Reconnecting with your story’s voice will help you nail your descriptions. You’re going to love the argument for the richness of detail while working with Robert’s notion of the “artfully vague.” At the end, Robert wonders if all this is any help to Kathryn. (I’m pretty sure it is!) Show notes and more at www.StoryWorksPodcast.com.

SWRT 218 | Better Description through Revision

This week Alida, Robert, & Kathryn continue discussing what we’re reading now and why we chose it. Why would a successful, beautifully-written book lose readers? What niche mystery has Robert excited to read more? Show notes, links & more at www.storyworkspodcast.com Submit to the fall season of the Story Works Reading Series now! www.storyworkspodcast.com/submit

SWRT 217 | What We're Reading Now & Why, part 2

This week, we return the subject of what we’re reading now. We get into not only the titles we’re into, but what makes them work and maybe not work as well as they could. We have a variety of reasons for what we choose to read beyond “pleasure” and the books are not all in our genres. You might be surprised by which popular and award-winning novel we dissect. How did you feel about All…? We're having an Ask Us Anything episode in the near future. Just head over to iTunes and leave us a review. Pose your craft question in your review and we'll address it on the episode! Show notes & more: www.storyworkspodcast.com

SWRT 216 | What We're Reading & Why We Chose It

This week on the Story Works Round Table, we talk about “those bits tacked on at the end of a story to explain everything…” Wait, who said that? We discuss the epilogue and dig into our favorite epilogue to love and hate at the end of the Harry Potter series. What did you think of it? Have you written epilogues to your novels? Let us know in the comments.  Want to be part of the conversation? Good! We're having an Ask Us Anything episode in the near future. Just head over to iTunes and leave us a review. Pose your craft question in your review and we'll address it on the episode! Show notes & more at www.storyworkspodcast.com Got a story? Submit to Story Works Reading Series at www.storyworkspodcast.com/submit

SWRT 215 | Epilogues

This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida, Kathryn, & Robert dissect the prologue. Can you be for or against prologues? When do writers do them wrong? And how do you do them right? As with so many of our Round Tables, we start out with something that seems so simple, yet find ways to sink our teeth into a juicy discussion! Want to be part of the conversation? Good. We're having an Ask Us Anything episode in the near future. Just head over to iTunes and leave us a review. Pose your craft question in your review and we'll address it on the episode! Show notes & more: www.storyworkspodcast.com

SWRT 214 | Prologues

This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida Winternheimer, Robert Scanlon, & Kathryn Arnold talk pacing. Isn’t it about word count and how quickly readers turn the pages? You know, that old chestnut, the Beach Read? It’s about the need to know what’s coming next, the reader’s desire to keep being drawn into and through the story. But it’s also about the ebb and flow of action, not an overall speed, but a rhythm that allows for ups and downs, quick and slow movements. Make the pace of your story organic to your character’s experience. Do not think of pace in terms of speed, but in terms of the reader’s experience of your story. Enjoy this unpacking of this seemingly simple topic, pacing, and join the conversation at our Story Works Writers Facebook group.  Show notes & more at www.storyworkspodcast.com Got a story? Submit to Story Works Reading Series at www.storyworkspodcast.com/submit

SWRT 213 | Pacing Your Novel

This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida, Robert, & Kathryn talk about reconnecting with a work-in-progress that has been shelved for a looooong time. Robert has returned to a manuscript after 4 years. Anyone who has been more than “resting” a manuscript will benefit from today’s discussion.  Join your hosts, Alida Winternheimer, Kathryn Arnold, and Robert Scanlon, at the Round Table every week by visiting http://storyworkspodcast.com. Show notes, links, comments, and more! 

SWRT 212 | Reconnecting with an Old Work-in-Progress

Each week, co-hosts, Alida Winternheimer, author and writing coach at Word Essential, Kathryn Arnold, emerging writer, & Robert Scanlon, author of the Blood Empire series, have conversations about the craft of writing fiction. They bring diverse experiences and talents to the table from both the traditional and indie worlds. Our goal is for each episode to be a fun, lively discussion of some aspect of story craft that enlightens, as well as entertains. Sometimes we have special guests. All episodes are available in video as well. Visit www.StoryWorksPodcast.com for videos, show notes, and more.

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Story Works Round Table | Conversations About Craft | Before...

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