Write On SC

The Seven Deadly Sins (this link) in Roman Catholictheology, are the seven vices that spur other sins and further immoral behavior. First enumerated by Pope Gregory I (the Great) in the 6th century and elaborated in the 13th century by St. Thomas Aquinas.

The sins are:

1. Pride
2. Greed
3. Lust
4. Envy
5. Gluttony
6. Wrath
7. Sloth

We’ve done these before (episodes 151–157), but it’s been a while and this time we’re going to sharpen the focus on the si...

It’s been the summer of the Seven Deadly Sins series. This blog gives a quick summary of all seven sins and some examples of how to use them. 

The Seven Deadly Sins (this link) in Roman Catholictheology, are the seven vices that spur other sins and further immoral behavior. First enumerated by Pope Gregory I (the Great) in the 6th century and elaborated in the 13th century by St. Thomas Aquinas.

The sins are:

• Pride
• Greed
• Lust
• Envy
• Glu...

It’s been the summer of the Seven Deadly Sins series. This blog gives a quick summary of all seven sins and some examples of how to use them. 

The Seven Deadly Sins (this link) in Roman Catholic theology, are the seven vices that spur other sins and further immoral behavior. First enumerated by Pope Gregory I (the Great) in the 6th century and elaborated in the 13th century by St. Thomas Aquinas.

The sins are:

• Pride
• Greed
• Lust
• Envy
• Gl...

We took last week off for the holiday weekend but we’re back this week to finish the Seven Deadly Sins series. Remember we did this one before, but it’s been a couple of years. This blog gives a quick summary of all seven sins and some examples of how to use them. 

The Seven Deadly Sins (this link) in Roman Catholic theology, are the seven vices that spur other sins and further immoral behavior. First enumerated by Pope Gregory I (t...

The Seven Deadly Sins (this link) in Roman Catholic theology, are the seven vices that spur other sins and further immoral behavior. First enumerated by Pope Gregory I (the Great) in the 6th century and elaborated in the 13th century by St. Thomas Aquinas.

The sins are:

1. Pride
2. Greed
3. Lust
4. Envy
5. Gluttony
6. Wrath
7. Sloth

We’ve done these before (episodes 151–157), but it’s been a while and this time we’re going to sharpen the focus on the s...

This blog gives a quick summary of all seven sins and some examples of how to use them. So reading it might mean you don’t need our seven episodes but how about come along for the ride anyway?

The Seven Deadly Sins (this link) in Roman Catholic theology, are the seven vices that spur other sins and further immoral behavior. First enumerated by Pope Gregory I (the Great) in the 6th century and elaborated in the 13th century by St. Th...

We once did an episode on the character’s core wound and what’s occurred to me lately in my reading is that the core wound makes a really good secret. Something the character isn’t willing to admit to himself.

Charlie started watching Ted Lasso and in a recent episode he told his wife she didn’t need to keep trying to be happy with him. He let her go. I think the secret he was keeping – and something that made him a really compellin...

We’ve seen non-linear storytelling sometimes without knowing it. This article does a great job explaining what linear stories are:

In a linear narrative structure, the viewer finds it facile to comprehend the way the narrative is moving. This is mostly because the viewer is naturally fed with all the information required to process whatever is happening on screen.

And then explaining what non-linear stories do:

However in a non-linear...

Since last episode we worked on non-linear, this week we’re on the linear conversation.

Linear Storytelling (from this link)

Linear storytelling, the conventional and time-tested approach, follows a chronological sequence. It presents events in a straightforward manner, adhering to a clear cause-and-effect progression. This structure provides a sense of order, enabling audiences to follow the narrative with ease. A classic example of...

Have we ever done a show on May the 4th? Yes. Way back in 2019 we were 41 episodes into this journey and working through the hero’s journey (perfect timing) so we did a little May the Fourth be With You in that episode (link here).

So today we’re going to focus on Star Wars, not just sidebar it, and talk about worldbuilding (like this episode) and apprentice-mentor relationships (like this one) and writing in existing lore (like thi...

It’s the end of the term for me (Kasie) and so that time of year when I’m ruing the way I set up my class and how labor intensive all the grading is. I’m also fielding emails from students looking for a few more points and begging for higher grades. Sigh.

As such, I’ve had very little time for anything else although I did manage to take six more pages in the vampire rewrite to our writers’ group meeting on Wednesday. Slow progress t...

So Rex has been hired to help someone build a new Dungeons & Dragons game. As Gamemaster, he has some specific responsibilities. Maybe he can tell us about them? The game’s owner needs to organize himself and his resources and this is an experience we’re all familiar with.

So today we’re talking about some major projects and the general (and specific) tools and techniques for organizing them.

Examples of major projects that we’ve wor...

After we fully explained beginnings last week and kept coming up with the benign suggestions of “make it interesting” and “show don’t tell” we figured we ought to dive deeper into the bricks of the “show” universe. Those bricks are adjectives and they’re used to describe nouns and pronouns.

Adjectives are modifiers. They modify a noun to make it more specific. House becomes tiny house. Cat becomes lazy cat. Grandfather becomes grump...

It’s been a couple of years since we dealt with first lines and opening pages and in our revision efforts, we only just touched on where the story should begin and how many times we’ve rewritten Page 1.

So today we’ll look at what makes a strong opening page, how to work through the opening scene in revision, and whether you need to revisit that opening scene in subsequent pages or at the end (kiss the beginning as they say).

We’ve d...

You’re on what version of this vampire novel? Tenth? Yikes. It’s called revision and it lasts an indeterminate amount of time. What to google to prepare for this conversation:

• How many revisions does a novel need?
• How long does revising a novel take?
• What is a reasonable revision schedule?
• What is a good revision process?
• Where should someone begin when revising a novel?
• Why does revision get such a bad rep?

The answers, of cours...

Let's talk about Dragon Boat racing first. What is this sport? Who does it? How does it work?

Why was Dragon Boat racing the right occupation for Tripp Avery? What is it about the challenge of Dragon Boat racing that requires more of Tripp than anything else he's done? He worked his way up from poverty to prosperity, became a 'someone' out of 'no one' roots, so how is Dragon Boat racing a different kind of challenge?

We all write wha...

We did some revision work last week and didn't get to this part of the show notes. So here we go, a whole episode on what would have been one segment last week. ::wideeyedemoji::

So how is it actually done? Well, here’s the link explaining what Six Pass Plan among others:

1. The Framework Pass
2. The Story Pass
3. The Plot/Scene Pass
4. The Feedback Pass
5. The Writing Pass
6. The Tweaking Pass

These aren’t really after-the-fact at all. They’re in ...

We’ve spent a few weeks on the various plot structures available and basically been working off this resource that gives us 11 basic structures:

1. The Fichtean Curve
2. The Three Act Structure
3. The Hero's Journey
4. Freytag's Pyramid
5. The Five Act Structure
6. Save the Cat Beats
7. The Snowflake Method
8. Dan Harmon's Story Circle
9. The Seven Point Story Structure
10. The Story Spine
11. In Media Res

We’re now down to numbers 5, 7, 9 and 10, leaving out 11 becaus...

So two weeks ago, we talked about basic outlines and discussed the turning point method versus the beats method for figuring out the structure of the story. Then last week we went into the 3 Act Structure and basically whined about Aristotle.

In searching for 3 Act Structure resources, I found this link gives us 11 basic structures:

1. The Fichtean Curve
2. The Three Act Structure
3. The Hero's Journey
4. Freytag's Pyramid
5. The Five Act Structure
6. ...