Fable & The Verbivore

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This week, Fable and the Verbivore are delighted to share our conversation with fantasy and writer affirmation author Kelly “KL” Depuy.

Kelly has authored and self-published two YA Fantasy novels (The Witches of Athium, The Coven of Athium) in her The Athium duology. In May of 2021, she released a book titled Affirmations for Writers: A Guide to Nurturing Your Creative Life with Affirmations that guides creatives through the daily process of managing the mental and emotional side of writing. She’s also currently working on a steampunk murder mystery series.

In this episode, Kelly talks candidly about struggles within her writing journey and how a daily affirmation practice has helped her identify and manage stumbling blocks. She discusses how she approached her duology, writing the 2nd book first and then realizing that the story needed to first setup how that world came to be. She also dives into how she constructed the many points of view within The Athium duology, writing their stories separately and then weaving the narratives together.

Kelly also touches on her own beta reading process, talking about the joy of having someone else become emotionally connected to her world and having feelings - whether positive or negative - about the characters and choices in it. She takes time and space to sit with feedback, reminding herself that negative feedback can help make her story better and that the person giving it wouldn’t bring it up unless they have faith that she can fix it. We felt this shift completely changed the viewpoint around negative feedback, making it a positive tool and an affirmation of her abilities as a writer.

Towards the end of our interview, Kelly reminds us to listen to and consider advice and guidance - but to do so with a grain of salt and while balancing the story you want to tell. Not allowing yourself to get blocked by overly prescriptive rules.

Kelly was such a pleasure to speak with and had many encouraging and perspective shifting pieces of writing advice. We hope you enjoy this episode, we certainly enjoyed having this conversation!

Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

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In honor of NaNoWriMo, this month Fable and the Verbivore are talking about beginnings, middles, and endings.

Today, we're talking about the midpoint of a story. Middles can be hard to write - keeping the story momentum moving forward and maintaining reader attention as you build to your ending can be a challenge.

In our conversation, we talk about possible ways to think about this middle section and some ideas for how to keep the story growing and changing - and how to avoid it falling into a slump or dragging. We touch on several ways to change up the tempo of the story and include some examples of midpoints from books and film. Here are a few:

The False Victory - A momentary victory that is achieved at great cost. Example: The Hunger Games

The False Defeat - An attempt to reach the goal that fails spectacularly, but lessons are learned which help identify an alternate path. Example: The Martian

A Major Event Happens - A game, ball, celebration, battle, or [insert other major event here] occurs, which promises to be important. It does end up being significant, but often in unexpected ways and spins the story off in a new direction. Example: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

A Shift in Context - An assumed truth is revealed to be wrong or the antagonist shifts from the person we thought to someone else. Example: Coraline

Character Midpoint Collision - The conflict between who a character has been and who they’re attempting to become comes to a head. They take a leap forward, try out their strength, and discover a new skill or strategy. Example: Collateral

We hope you enjoy this episode! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

These notes include affiliate links.

In honor of NaNoWriMo, this month Fable and the Verbivore are talking about beginnings, middles, and endings.

Today, we're talking about ways to open and set up a story. The importance of drawing your reader in, engaging their interest, weaving the world of your story around them, and creating a connection to your characters and the situation they find themselves in.

We touch on many examples of story openings from books we've enjoyed, focusing on how they address four key elements:

Create questions in the reader's mind

Establish character

Introduce setting

Illuminate theme

But we also discuss types of openings and some of the things to consider when choosing how to enter your own story. For instance, should it begin with a jump into action, dialogue, description, narration, or touch of your character's voice? The opening line may come easily to you or it may take multiple rewrites to figure out what works best. But by not putting too much pressure to get it right up front, you allow it to unfold naturally as it needs to.

Towards the end of the episode, we briefly touch on embedding story setups and planting elements early on that will later payoff - referencing the old theater rule that Stephen King mentions in his book On Writing. "If there's a gun on the mantel in Act 1, it must go off in Act 3. The reverse is also true." We’ll revisit this again when we discuss endings.

We hope you enjoy this episode! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Since NaNoWriMo is coming up at the start of November, Fable and the Verbivore are having a three-part conversation that unpacks prep work that we do prior to writing.

In this our third and final episode in this series, we talk about different approaches to outlining and plotting a novel - from planning to pantsing to plantsing.

Without getting too bogged down into story structure and beats, we compare and contrast discovery writing with creating a clear outline - recognizing that it’s possible to do one or the other or some combination of both. We discuss our own experiences and personal preferences as we write - what we’ve tried with different projects, what we plan, what we leave open to discover along the way, and ideas that have helped us.

We talk about the process of writing a story as like figuring out the road map that will take you from the story’s beginning (point A) to the end (point B). And how knowing- even generally - these points can help you navigate your way through.

We also discuss story shapes, how stories are defined by the change in the emotional trajectory that occurs and how knowing what type of story you’re telling can help you figure out the ups and downs that fit within your narrative arc. Specifically, we mention Kurt Vonnegut’s theory of the Six Core Story Shapes. They are:

Rags to Riches (rise)

Riches to Rags (fall)

Man in a Hole (fall then rise)

Icarus (rise then fall)

Cinderella (rise then fall then rise)

Oedipus (fall then rise then fall)

We recognize that there are many ways to approach figuring out how to tell your story and there is no right way. These are just a few ideas to try out and there are many other methods out there to use to explore and figure out what works for you.

We hope you enjoy this episode! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Since NaNoWriMo is only a couple weeks away, Fable and the Verbivore are having a three-part conversation that unpacks prep work that we do prior to writing.

Today, we talk about character development and questions and methods that we’ve used to help figure out who our characters are and what motivates them to act.

In this episode, we discuss some different approaches to connect with your characters and work towards finding out what they want, need, fear, and avoid. We recognize that there are many ways to approach this process. Here are a few that we touch on:

Save social media posts that feel quirky and distinctive - maybe even like a character you have in mind

Write down snippets of overheard conversations that feel interesting and connected to your story or sound like your character

Look your character metaphorically in the eye, see them

Directly interview (ask questions to) your characters

Listen for the distinctive voice of your characters

Give yourself and your characters the space and time to discover hidden truths

Get introspective and check in with yourself as to what feels authentic for your character

Fill out character sheets

Embody your characters, as an actor would

Pull tarot cards to see what ideas spark with your characters

Ask yourself how each of your characters would react in a bar fight

These are just a few ideas to try out and there are a myriad of other options out there to use to explore, develop, and connect with your characters. And absolutely any method that works is valid, no matter how strange it may seem. :-)

We hope you enjoy this episode! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Since NaNoWriMo is only a few weeks away, Fable and the Verbivore are having a three-part conversation that unpacks prep work that we do prior to writing. Today’s episode covers writing tools and resources that can potentially help with that process - specifically some of the ones we’ve found most useful.

In this episode, we discuss the benefits and limitations of different writing programs such as Scrivener, Word, and Google Docs. We also geek out on tactile tools such as notecards, colorful sticky notes, highlighters and colorful pens, notebooks, grease boards, and bulletin boards. From story spreadsheets to mood boards to Pinterest to story bibles, we talk about things that can help organize information in a variety of formats and allow it to be at your fingertips when you need it.  

There are also a great many authors who generously share their own writing practice and we talk about being open to giving something new a try and seeing if it’s for you. We specifically mention the story template that J.K. Rowling used for her first Harry Potter book and the excel spreadsheet that Angie Thomas used for The Hate You Give.

The major takeaway for us from this conversation is there is not a clear right way to approach a project and it often requires some trial and error to figure out what will work - and that may change with each project. And, sometimes, just paying attention to what’s not working and pivoting before you’re too far into the process is the best you can do.

We hope you enjoy this episode! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

This episode and the notes include affiliate links.

Today, Fable and the Verbivore are giving into our obsession with the online learning service Masterclass and talking about specific classes that we've enjoyed and things we’ve learned. The major selling point for this paid resource is that you can take online video classes directly from individuals who are masters in their field, it’s a personal type of window into the teacher’s experiences and knowledge that is hard to find elsewhere.

Because we have used and referenced these Masterclasses so often in previous episodes, we want to state up front that we’ve decided to become affiliates with them. This means that we receive a financial benefit if you use the links we’ve provided below to sign up, which we’ll use to help support the costs of running our podcast.

That said, we also reference some of the free articles that they have available as writing resources on their website and that we’ve used previously to prepare for our podcast conversations. Anyone can access this information free of charge.

In this episode, we each talk about some of the classes that we’ve enjoyed most and some of our key takeaways. Many of them are directly about writing, but some are about creativity and explorations into areas that sparked our curiosity. Just a few of the classes we cover are:

LeVar Burton Teaches the Power Storytelling

Neil Gaiman Teaches the Art of Storytelling

N. K. Jemisin Teaches Fantasy and Science Fiction Writing

Dan Brown Teaches Writing Thrillers

R. L. Stine Teaches Writing for Young Audiences

We hope you enjoy this episode! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Today, Fable and the Fable share our September book club episode - where we dive into The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

In addition to being fans of the movie since we were in our teens, we both had previously read and enjoyed this mad meta-adventure novel that inspired the film. So, this conversation is a revisit to a beloved story that neither of us had read for many years.

In this episode, we talk about some of the bold choices that the author made. The narrator is highly dislikable, there are parenthetical asides and italic notes from the character who is supposed to be abridging the original novel, and several scenes feature a significant amount of head hoping and slides through time. But, somehow, all of these choices make for a story that is self-aware, satirical, and rather brilliant.

He also has a fantastic grip on the elements that make for a great adventure. Creating suspense by revealing surprising information, but then holding back in other key areas. His characters are over the top and have significant flaws, but their stories pull you in and their unique quirks compel you to root for them to succeed.

This book felt to us like a risk, but a calculated one where the author knew what he wanted to create and did it without fear. And it absolutely paid off!

We hope you enjoy this episode! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

This post includes affiliate links.

Today, Fable and the Verbivore are thrilled to share our conversation with author, podcaster, and content marketing professional MJ McGriff.

MJ has authored and self-published two YA Sci-Fi books (The Fall, The Takeover) and one novella (The Mission) in her New Earth Series. Over the last two years, she’s written and released two YA Fantasy novels (Macario’s Scepter, The Secret Library) in her ongoing adventure series - The Magian. Steeped with journeys on the high seas, treks through the jungle, and snappy dialogue, these stories are centered on the experience of a former pirate named Samara and her twin sister Seraphina - who’s a nun. MJ’s currently working on book three of this seven book series - with the next installment due out next year.

In this episode, MJ talks about her experiences and lessons learned through releasing Macario’s Scepter during the pandemic. She gives great advice about planning a book release schedule well - notifying any professionals or arc/beta readers that you hope to work with well in advance and also adding in time to the book preparation process so that when the unexpected happens you’re able to pivot and still be on track.

MJ also discusses finding and leaning in to the writing community, as well as how she discovered the professionals she works with (for instance her cover designer and editor) through referrals. She advises that it’s never too early in the process to start building your community, as well as creating relationships where you are supportive and helpful for those writers in their work - in addition to seeking it for your own.

For adventure stories, MJ shares how important knowing the characters on a deep level is to her writing process - as their fears and weaknesses play such a key role in the situations and challenges they need to face in the story. It’s an adventure story where many fun and exciting things happen, but the characters drive the story.

MJ was such a delight to speak with and had so many fantastic pieces of advice. We hope you enjoy this episode, we certainly enjoyed having this conversation!

Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Fable and the Verbivore continue our focus on adventure storytelling with part two of our conversation, focusing on the stories we love and the things that make adventure stories so gripping and relatable.

In this episode, we touch on a significant number of our favorite adventure stories - both classic and modern: from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to The Goonies to The Count of Monte Cristo to Six of Crows - and many more!

We also dig into some additional elements of adventure stories that we didn’t touch on last week.

Puzzles that need to be solved and clues to collect

The MacGuffins or items/event/character/idea that drives the story

The all is lost moment, and the moment after where the character gets back up

Establishing danger and consequenes

Showing what a character is willing to risk to reach their goal

Throwing a character into an unfamiliar settings

We hope you enjoy this episode, we sure have enjoyed talking about our favorite adventure books and films! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore