Tag: writing craft

• August 21, 2024Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP462 – Are You Making Boring Mistakes?

  Welcome back to another SPA Girls minisode. This one is a bit of a controversial take on mistakes writers make that make their work B O R I N G.  How do we know these? Because we've all made them! 

• May 17, 2023Guest Interview, Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP396 – The Secrets of Story with Matt Bird

  If you've been working on amping up your characters and writing a more compelling novel, this is the episode for you. We talk to Matt Bird - the Amazon bestselling author of The Secrets of Story: Innovative Tools for Perfecting Your Fiction and Captivating Readers and The Secrets of Character: Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love - about characters and other secrets involved in writing an awesome story your readers will love. Matt talks to us about what readers expect from characters and how to ensure they connect and fall in love with your characters early in your novel. He also gives practical examples of techniques that will engage your readers by helping you create flawed, vulnerable and compelling characters. We loved having Matt in the SPA and we know you'll enjoy this episode too!

• March 1, 2023Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP385 – How to Write a Compelling Hero

  Alpha, Beta, Tortured or Bad Boy? How do you like your heroes? This week Cheryl, Wendy and Shar discuss how to write a great hero (in their opinion) complete with controversial examples! In particular we cover: Character Connection Creating Conflict from Character Main Characters Should Be Equals Characters Should Have Complementary Strengths  Hero should Show Vulnerability Different hero types including Alpha, Beta, Bad Boy, Tortured and Playboy Don't miss out on our take on writing a great hero! 

• August 10, 2022Self-Publishing Process & Tools, Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP356 – Running With Your Ideas

  This week we talk about how to find new ideas, and how to use those ideas in new ways. How to find them in the everyday hustle and bustle of our lives, and how to turn them on their heads to create something intriguing and interesting to our readers.  We go through a series of story starters, of intriguing kernels that you can use to create an awesome story that your readers will love to read... 

• December 8, 2021Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP321 – The Writing Process

  In the SPA today, we talk about the evolution of our writing process. We delve into the changes that have taken place in our writing journeys over the last few years. The point is, there is no right or wrong way to do things! This is your journey.

• July 22, 2020Guest Interview, Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP 249 – Interview with Story Coach Lisa Cron

  Having trouble getting to 'the end' of your work in progress then this is the podcast for you! Lisa Cron is a story coach and the author of Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers From the Very First Sentence and Story Genius: How To Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages that Go Nowhere) both published by Ten Speed Press.

• February 13, 2019Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP174 – How To Write A Regency Romance

  This episode we talk to our very own Wendy Vella about writing Regency romance. Since 2013, Wendy has forged a very successful indie career writing historical and contemporary romance. Her Regencies have been on the Amazon's top seller lists many times and collectively she's sold over one million books to date. Wendy covers how she goes about researching her novels, the advantages of writing in a series and the elements that every aspiring historical romance writer needs to be aware of.

• February 22, 2018Self-Publishing Process & Tools

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP122 – How To Use Subplots to Amp Up Your Story

  This week we talk about a craft topic that's been bugging Trudi - subplots. Ever since reading Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews, who does it really well, she's been pursued by the idea that maybe she's not doing them properly... So this week, we discuss what they are, why you should be using them in your novels, and the different kinds of subplots that you could consider using in your novel. Done well, a sub plot can add a huge amount of depth to your novel, as well as tension, characterisation and conflict.  We think that adding a subplot to your current novel could be the difference between having a boring one-dimensional novel, and creating a layered book that everyone is gagging to read!! 

• April 27, 2017Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP79 – How To Write Dazzling Dialogue

  Writing dialogue is a very difficult skill to master, but this week we try to unravel some of the secrets around how to create dazzling dialogue for your characters. More than just a transcription of what people actually say, dialogue can be witty, fast paced and give insights into your characters... or it can be stilted, awkward and boring. Which would you rather have? Listen in to this episode for our take on the best ways to create dialogue that will make your manuscript sing!

• April 21, 2017Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP78 – How To End With A BANG!

  We did beginnings last week, so we thought we'd pay tribute to endings this time around... :) Many authors rush through the ending of their book, because by the time they get there, they're sick of the whole concept... But your ending is what will lead readers onto your next book, so you need to spend as much time on your ending as your beginning! If you write a fizzer that ends too quickly or doesn't deliver on your promises throughout the story, you're not going to get lifetime readers who follow your every move. With this in mind, we talk about chapter endings, and endings for the whole book. We give some ideas on what we do to make sure our endings are as good as we can make them, and give a few tips and tricks on creating the best ending you can!