My Imaginary Friends Podcast

This week’s best thing: Readercon!

Mentions:

• Hamilton in Baltimore
• Fast Color movie
• Sycorax’s Daughters – Anthology of Black women horror writers
• “What Screenwriters Get Wrong About Outlines” – video with Alan Watt

This week’s best thing: I have an outline and started writing Earthsinger Chronicles book 4!!

This week’s best thing:

• Honorable Mention: Backstreet Boys subway sing-along
• Winner: Watching Shaka Zulu for the first time

Mentions:

• Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle – https://amzn.to/2FJq7a4
• Story Grid Editor Roundtable podcast on Black Panther – https://storygrid.com/editor-roundtable-black-panther/
• Story by Robert McKee – https://amzn.to/3043Ont

Little breakthroughs are what the process is all about!

This week’s best thing: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Mentions:

• Story Grid article: Discover Your Story’s Core 
• Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay
• Namesake by Kate Stradling
• Books with a Past – Maryland indie bookstore

Storytelling with prerequisites, concrete character goals, and the ever elusive ending.

This week’s best thing: Rocketman movie! Go see it! https://tickets.rocketman.movie/ (I hope Taron Edgerton gets an Oscar nom!)

Mentions:

• Beyond the Screenplay podcast – https://www.lessonsfromthescreenplay.com/beyond-the-screenplay/2019/5/3/episode-9-gone-girl-8khy4
• Lessons from a Screenplay Youtube channel – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErSSa3CaP_GJxmFpdjG9Jw
• Deepening character goals article: https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/writing-better-character-goals/#
• 4 types of endings – https://www.how-to-write-a-book-now.com/story-endings.html
• My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due – http://lpen.co/mysoultokeep

Fast drafting, writing rituals, and a mini rant on naming your fantasy months.

“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” —Terry Pratchett

This week’s best thing: New York Times’s Tiny Love Stories – https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/style/tiny-modern-love-stories-most-beautiful-hands.html

Mentions:

• Author Darynda Jones on her process: https://writersinthestormblog.com/2015/04/right-braining-with-darynda-jones/
• Alphasmart Neo on eBay
• Time Cubes
• Pacemaker – goal tracking for writers: https://www.pacemaker.press

This week’s best thing: New music from Sleater-Kinney! And video directed by Miranda July!

Mentions:

• Me and You and Everyone We Know – film by Miranda July
• No One Belongs Here More Than You – short story collection by Miranda July
• 20th anniversary of The Matrix – There is no spoon.
• Dramatica story theory – http://dramatica.com/
• Plot Outlining with Dramatica: https://www.how-to-write-a-book-now.com/plot-outline.html
• Enneagrams: The Psychology of Creating Characters: http://booklaurie.com/workshops_psych.php
• Guardian article – “Watched plots… Hilary Mantel and the writers under pressure from fans” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/24/watched-plots-hilary-mantel-and-the-writers-under-pressure-from-fans

Scheduling the time needed to chip away at my long to-do list.

This week’s best thing: The Jeffersons live on ABC

Mentions:

• The Career Author Podcast – https://thecareerauthor.com/
• Readercon – http://www.readercon.org/
• Tananarive Due – https://www.tananarivedue.com/

An overview of my first week plotting book 4 in my fantasy series.

This week’s best thing: Plotting! Perhaps my favorite part of the writing process.

Mentions:

• Michael Hauge character development – This article is what started it all for me in terms of understanding this method for creating inner conflict: http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/08/the-inner-struggle-guides-for-using.html
• Plot vs. Character by Jeff Gerke – https://amzn.to/2JMZTX0
• Creating Character Arcs by KM Weiland – https://amzn.to/2LVOp6t
• The Negative Trait Thesaurus – with Reverse Character Backstory tool – https://amzn.to/2YJmyIj
• Dan Wells 7 Point Plot Structure – https://hunterswritings.com/2016/09/16/7-point-story-structure-resources/
• Save the Cat Beat Sheet – https://jamigold.com/2012/02/how-to-use-the-save-the-cat-beat-sheet/
• The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin – https://amzn.to/2EuRDrx

Starting a brand new book… no, I’m not scared at all.

This week’s best thing: Soot and Slipper by Kate Stradling

Links:

• Namesake by Kate Stradling
• Project Management Software
  • Smartsheet
  • Trello
  • Notion
• Calendar templates 
• Write, Better, Faster course
• George RR Martin on endings
• Story Genius by Lisa Cron
• Creating Character Arcs by K.M. Weiland
  • positive, negative & flat character arcs!
• Save the Cat by Blake Snyder