Off Grid - a freewriter's journey

Try this method of creating thorough characters, scenes, and locations then trimming down to engage and capture the attention and imagination of your readers

Do you get stuck in neutral? Can't get off a single line of readable narrative or dialogue? Well, it's called writers block and we all go through it. Take a listen - here are some ideas to break the logjam and get back on track.

If you have tried to write your novel on a traditional word processor I know a good psychologist you should talk to. There is a better way. This episode is all about Scrivener by Literature and Latte. Take a listen, then try a free trial. Your writing process will thank you.

Download the transcript for a link.

Editing is more than proofreading. Whether you self-edit or use a professional it is crucial to spend time polishing your draft before putting it out for editing - give your editor the opportunity to do their best work - even if you self-edit. Here are some ideas.

This pod cast is taken from Book 4 of The Juno Letters. It relies heavily on a rather long example so you may want to download the narrative and follow along.

Photographs can be powerful plot agents for your books. Here is one example ...

Here is another example from one of my books - The Hotel Lancaster. Tye podcast is about using objects you see in the world around you as plot vehicles. I suggest you download the narrative on this one and read along.

There are times when borrowing a scene from one of your own works can be a useful tool. Take a look at a couple of examples. I suggest you download the narrative and follow along as it uses examples from several of my books.

This episode looks at some of the methodologies to improve your writing at the scene level.

I recommend you download the narrative and follow along. The example sections are much clearer when you can see the placement of the sentences and line breaks.

We'v e seen some examples of plot development, so let's go back and talk about some of the writing principles mentioned in those episodes - DETAIL vs CONTEXT.

This is part two of the topic, Letters and Journals.

It is based on book #11 of The Jun.o Letters series, Murder on the Red Ball Express.

See how a bizarre real-life letter led to a plot of a timely story