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Jan 2025
28m 28s

Episode 150 - How to deliver a surprise ...

James Thayer
About this episode
Good stories are filled with surprises for the reader. There are right and wrong ways for us writers to deliver surprises, and I'll talk about them here. Also, the importance of a tie-up-later list. Here is a 20-episode master class on fiction writing—a start-to-finish course covering plot, characters, dialogue, scenes, sentence-level craft, and much mor ... Show More
Up next
Oct 30
Episode 241 - Riveting first sentences.
Our first sentence's main task is to launch the reader into the story. Here's how to begin our story with a riveting opening sentence. And at the other end of the story, after all the pages how should we write the walkaway?Support the showBuy the master class. 
23m 48s
Oct 23
Episode 240 - Make readers laugh out loud.
Not just comedy novels but rather almost all novels will benefit from humor. Here is how to exaggerate to make readers laugh. Also, avoiding dialogue tag modifiers so that our dialogue doesn't become unintentionally funny. Here is a 20-episode master class on fiction writing—a st ... Show More
27m 8s
Oct 16
Episode 239 - A method for ramping up our dialogue.
We writers should give readers what they want, and readers like dialogue. Here is a technique for making our dialogue more engaging. Also: the ten most beautiful words in the English language. And: how to change telling to showing so the scene grips the reader.Support the showBuy ... Show More
25m 39s
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