Crafting Your Novel’s Key Moments With John Matthew Fox

What are the crucial linchpin moments in your novel and how can you keep a reader turning the pages? John Fox gives fiction writing tips in this interview.

In the intro, writing and publishing across multiple genres [Ask ALLi]; Pilgrimage and solo walking [Women Who Walk]; My live webinars on using AI tools as an author; Cowriting with ChatGPT: AI-Powered Storytelling by J. Thorn.

Today's show is sponsored by ProWritingAid, writing and editing software that goes way beyond just grammar and typo checking. With its detailed reports on how to improve your writing and integration with Scrivener, ProWritingAid will help you improve your book before you send it to an editor, agent or publisher. Check it out for free or get 25% off the premium edition at www.ProWritingAid.com/joanna

John Matthew Fox is an award-winning short story writer, a developmental editor, writing teacher and blogger. His latest book is The Linchpin Writer: Crafting Your Novel's Key Moments.

You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. 

Show Notes

* Writing a book based on a blog — what needs to change?

* Linchpin moments and why they are important

* How to write emotionally moving stories

* The difference between scenes and chapters

* How to write wonder

* Writing better endings

* Using AI tools when writing fiction and editing

You can find John at TheJohnFox.com or on TikTok @johnmatthewfox. John has courses for writers here.

Transcript of Interview with John Matthew Fox

Joanna: John Matthew Fox is an award-winning short story writer, a developmental editor, writing teacher and blogger. His latest book is The Linchpin Writer: Crafting Your Novel's Key Moments. So welcome back to the show, John.

John: Thank you, so wonderful to be back.

Joanna: Yes, indeed. Just in case people don't know you—

Tell us a bit more about how you got into writing and publishing.

John: I started my blog way back in the day, 2006, just to join the literary conversation. And over time, it evolved from a blog on literary news and commentary into more of a craft blog,