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Welcome back to the Writing Apothecary and our last lesson for Genre. Today we're looking at sci-fi, horror and thriller. 

Science fiction or sci-fi as it’s commonly known is another sub-genre of speculative fiction. It typically deals with imaginative and futurist concepts such as

• Science technology
• Space exploration
• Time travel
• Parellel universes 
• Extra terrestrial

It’s also known as the literature of ideas because it often explores the consequence of scientific, social and technology innovations.  Sci-fi has beginning in ancient times where it blurs the lines between myth and fact. 
Some of the elements of sci-fi include:

• Temporary settings in the further or alternate histories. 
• Spatial setting or scenes in outer space or other worlds/parallel universes.
• Aspects of biology y in fiction for example: aliens, mutants and enhanced human
• Predicted or speculated technology like robots, advanced computer interfaces, and advanced weapons. Undiscovered scientific possibility such as teleportation time travel and faster than light travel or communication.
• New and different political and social systems, which include utopian, dystopian, post-apocalyptic ad post scarcity.
• Future history and evolution of humans on Earth or on other plants.
• Paranormal abilities like mind control, telepathy and telekinesis.

Ok let’s move onto Horror, which is another genre of speculative fiction. This genre intends to frighten, scare of disgust readers. Horror creates an eerie and frightening at most for the reader and is often divided into psychological horror and supernatural horror sub-genres. They can also be seen as a metaphor for larger fears of society. 

One of the most defining character of the horror genre it that it provokes an emotional, physical or psychological response within readers which makes them react with fear.

Some of the elements of Horror include but aren’t limited to:

• Ghosts
• Demons
• Vampires
• Werewolves
• Ghouls 
• The devil
• Witches
• Monsters
• Dystopian and apocalyptic worlds
• Serial killers
• Cannibalism
• Psychopaths
• Cults
• The macabre
• Gore 
• Torture

Which moves us to thrillers, they’re a genre that overlaps sub-genres. They’re characterise by the moods they elicit by giving readers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety.  

Thrillers are often villain driven and present obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. This genre is one of the most expansive because it can’t be narrowed down. You can have thrillers that are romantically driven, medically driver, police driven even politically driver and that is why this genre is so versatile, the only aspect that it needs it so allow the reader to have a common ground with the intensity of emotions they create. 

If a thriller, doesn’t by definition, thrill then it’s not doing its job. You want to take your readers breathe away as they read every word. 

Tell me what did you take away from this week's lesson? I'd love to know.

Also, I would really appreciate it if you took the time to rate and review the podcast it helps people find our community and gets the podcast out into the world a little more.

Want exclusive behind the scenes and early access to episodes join up to the mailing list over here.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Want exclusive behind the scenes and early access to The Writing Apothecary episodes? Join up to the mailing list over here.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thewritingapothecary
Follow Mandi on all socials: @mandikont

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Welcome back to another lesson of The Writing Apothecary.

Today we’re going to look at three different sub-genres: Fantasy, Romance and Mystery. If you’re wondering why these three? Well, fantasy is my jam, I really love everything about it and it’s the genre I know the most about. You know the age-old advice of write what you know applies here, ha! 

First, did you know that it was a genre of speculative fiction? It features magical and supernatural elements that don’t exist in the real world. Some writers, like myself, like to use the modern world and add fantasy elements and some are inspired by myth and folklore. Fantasy is different and distinguished from science fiction and horror by the absence of scientific and macabre themes, but that’s not to say that you can’t have the macabre in fantasy. 

The different kinds of fantasy that are named (and don’t feel like you need to stay in the confines of these) are: 

• High or epic fantasy
• Low fantasy
• Magical realism
• Sword and sorcery
• Dark fantasy
• Fables
• Fairy tales
• Superhero fiction

 Just among many others. Some of the elements and characteristics of fantasy are:

• Good vs evil
• The hero quest for power or knowledge
• Tradition bs change
• The induvial vs society
• Man vs nature
• Man vs himself
• Coming of age
• Love
• Betrayal
• Epic journey
• The unlike and/or reluctant hero.

Which leads us to romance. As we know it takes place between two people, as most commonly known but in the day and age, we know that romance doesn’t always happen just between two people. It can be multiple. It’s also a genre that many seem to just write off because it’s just love and all other things, but it’s a really popular market and has many sub-genres like:

• Contemporary
• Historical
• Romantic suspense
• Paranormal romance
• Sci-fi fantasy
• Time-travel
• Inspirational
• Erotic romance 
• Chick lit.  

Mystery novels are often known as a whodunnit novel where your readers turn into the detective to find out who the culprit is. The main character is also sometimes a detective or private eye who is trying to solve the case. 

The different kinds of mystery fiction include:

• Detective Fiction
• True Crime
• Cosy Mystery
• Legal Thriller
• Police Procedural
• Howtocatchem
• Hardboiled Fiction
• History Mystery
• Lock-room mystery

The standard method for a mystery relies heavily on the inciting incident where the main character finds the mystery aka the murder, or the cold case. Then there’s the investigation, the twist before the breakthrough, and finally the conclusion.

Tell me what did you take away from this week's lesson?

I'd love to know.

Also, I would really appreciate it if you took the time to rate and review the podcast it helps people find our community and gets the podcast out into the world a little more.

Want exclusive behind the scenes and early access to episodes join up to the mailing list over here.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Want exclusive behind the scenes and early access to The Writing Apothecary episodes? Join up to the mailing list over here.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thewritingapothecary
Follow Mandi on all socials: @mandikont

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome back to The Writing Apothecary and this month we're looking at Genre. 

If you're on the podcast's newsletter list you would have read that we're changing up the format a little. The podcast is moving to bi-weekly /fortnightly episodes to help with my sanity and give me some much needed space. It takes a lot to write, record and edit these episodes and I'm doing it all solo. I'm also taking time to focus on my novel and give you guys the best episode we can get. 

Genre is the French term for type, species, kind or glass of composition. It’s a term that is used to distinguish a broad range of different kinds of writing from non-literary to the literary. Genre forms by conventions that change over time as culture invent new genres and discontinue the use of old ones. Often though our stories fit into multiple kinds of genres and sub-genres. Some genres have rigid ad strict guidelines and trope to stick to while others have the flexibility to move with. They also have different modes of writing within genres like realism, satire and surrealism. 

There are many ways that genre can be determined and some of them are literary technique, tone, content and even length. But don’t get it confused with age categories, which can be either, adult, new adult, young adult of children. There are a lot of publishers who don’t see new adult as a category and plant books that are NA in the YA category and I think this is wrong, there is a need for that in-between book where a character isn’t quite an adult but isn’t quite a young adult. 

Genres are:

• Epics
• Tragedy
• Comedy
• Novel 
• Short Story

Join us for the subgenres we're going to be looking at in the rest of the episodes and the great interview.

Tell me what did you take away from this week's lesson?

I'd love to know.

Also, I would really appreciate it if you took the time to rate and review the podcast it helps people find our community and gets the podcast out into the world a little more.

Want exclusive behind the scenes and early access to episodes join up to the mailing list over here.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Want exclusive behind the scenes and early access to The Writing Apothecary episodes? Join up to the mailing list over here.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thewritingapothecary
Follow Mandi on all socials: @mandikont

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Welcome back to The Writing Apothecary and to our interview all about Dialogue with romance, fantasy and sci-fi writer Alyce Johnson. 

In our chat we have a cover:

• How important dialogue is to a story.
• What classifies as bad dialogue.
• If a story can survive without dialogue.
• How Alyce uses tension in her stories. 

I had so much fun and her novella was a brilliant read. 

If you love this episode feel free to send it to someone who would love to listen to it. 

Alyce's Bio
Alyce moved to Victoria from sleepy Tasmania in 2013 to attend the Victorian College of the Arts and study Screenwriting, completing her bachelors in 2015. She dabbled in gaming for a time, working with Tin Man Games. While with them she edited the Gamebook Adventure Songs of the Mystics and wrote and edited for Choices: And The Sun Went Out, another Gamebook Adventure, and Koorie, a project for the Education Department. Now working in administration for youth mental health, she still spends a large portion of her time writing, currently working on not only her first romance novel, but also on sci-fi and fantasy projects. Alyce has taken part in the National Novel Writing Month since 2015. In 2021 she published her first ebook, Expecting: Novella One of The Tales of the Infused.

Where to find her:
@AlyceJohnsonAuthor on Facebook

Where to buy her books:
Expecting: Novella one of The Infused on Amazon  and  Kobo.

If you feel called to leave a review and a 5 star rating on Apple Podcast, it'll help other like-minded creatives find us.

And if you'd love to work with me head on over to my site and check out the work with me 

Want exclusive behind the scenes and early access to The Writing Apothecary episodes? Join up to the mailing list over here.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thewritingapothecary
Follow Mandi on all socials: @mandikont

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome back to The Writing Apothecary and our last lesson on dialogue. 

I’d like to think that we all agree on how good dialogue is and what its purpose can be. You can use dialogue to make a story more lifelike and really it’s the part that allows your characters to speak for themselves. In real life, you can’t really get to know someone unless you talk to them and it’s the same principle for fiction. Your readers will decide if they like your character just by what they say and then they will make the assumption of whether or not they want to actually spend time with them. 

The main points in today's lesson:

• We all speak differently
• Character’s dialogue needs to be unique so they can stand on their own.
• Look at ways to give your characters different distinctions when it comes to their speech.
• Look at the way subtext works for your characters too.
• We are great at talking but we always have trouble communicating and why should our novels be any different? 
• Capitalising on miscommunication is a huge strength in fiction because it makes it more true to life. 
• When character seem like a puppet and that they’re just things and creations of us writers, and they are, but to the reader, they need to be lifelike.
• Bad dialogue also can expose your writerly voice into the piece, when a reader can see the mechanisms behind the writing and the entire illusion of a story is lost. 
• You can’t use words that are out of character for your own character. 
• Use profanity and swear words sparingly as they will jolt the reader out of the story.
• Whew and that’s it, dialogue is done. Tell me what you think about dialogue, I’d love to know what you classify as good and bad dialogue.

Tell me what did you take away from this week's lesson?

I'd love to know.

Also, I would really appreciate it if you took the time to rate and review the podcast it helps people find our community and gets the podcast out into the world a little more.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Want exclusive behind the scenes and early access to The Writing Apothecary episodes? Join up to the mailing list over here.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thewritingapothecary
Follow Mandi on all socials: @mandikont

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome back to The Writing Apothecary and to our next lesson on dialogue. 

Today we’re going to dig into the conventions of dialogue and have a look at indirect and direct speech. I think this is such an important aspect of writing dialogue. Without I think it’s harder to understand how to write it and how to get it down on the page. We all know that when we are reading a story there are conventions that are required when it comes to signifying who is speaking.

The main points in today's lesson:
- Dialogue conventions include: quotation marks, new paragraphs, and tags.
- Using conventions consistently will make sure that your story is polished and flows.
- Stage directions also allow your reader to see your characters better on the page.
- Direct dialogue is the ability to overhear what a character is saying in real-time.
- Indirect dialogue is where the dialogue is summarised rather than spoken.

Dialogue conventions are such an important part to your story, just as indirect and direct dialogue is. I’m hoping that this has helped you distinguish between them so that you’re able to write better dialogue when it comes to your story.

Tell me what did you take away from this week's lesson?

I'd love to know.

Also, I would really appreciate it if you took the time to rate and review the podcast it helps people find our community and gets the podcast out into the world a little more.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Want exclusive behind the scenes and early access to The Writing Apothecary episodes? Join up to the mailing list over here.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thewritingapothecary
Follow Mandi on all socials: @mandikont

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome back to another lesson and a new month. We're going to explore dialogue, a topic that can make or break your story. We’re going to look at the purpose of dialogue, indirect and direct dialogue, bad dialogue and conventions when it comes to dialogue. 

Today is a little introduction and some of the important points we cover in this episode:

• It’s exactly why a reader is so invested.
• Your character moves through the story with the ability to gives us dialogue, whether it’s indirect or direct. 
• Dialogue is everything in fiction that isn’t narration.
• Two main ways to show dialogue: Summary and Scene.
• Summary is where the action is summaries or “told” in inverted brackets.
•  Scene is showing the moment in real time .
• Dialogue needs to also fit your story. 

The key to good dialogue is to make seem real but not too real but also make sure it as something important to add.

Tell me what did you take away from this week's lesson?

I'd love to know.

Also, I would really appreciate it if you took the time to rate and review the podcast it helps people find our community and gets the podcast out into the world a little more.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Want exclusive behind the scenes and early access to The Writing Apothecary episodes? Join up to the mailing list over here.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thewritingapothecary
Follow Mandi on all socials: @mandikont

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome back to another interview for The Writing Apothecary.

Sarah and I have an amazing chat about all things plot, her debut novel Control my Night and just how characters and plot are inseparable.

In today's chat we cover:

• Just how Sarah breaks her plot down.
• How her plot arrived and she wrote it.
• And how she approaches her plotting.

Sarah's Bio:
Born and raised in Australia, Sarah spent the hot summer days inside reading, saving money on SPF, and being an overachiever at school (if it required research and references, she was here for it). Now a nostalgic thirty-something, she's calmed down on the overachieving (lie) but she is still super mindful about sunscreen application (truth—her skin doctor loves me). She is a serial cookie-in-tea dunker and Spotify playlist curator and adores writing slow-burn, high-stakes fantasy romance you can giggle-kick over. 

Sarah graduated from the University of Queensland, majoring in Communications and—when she's not travelling—resides in Brisbane, Australia with with her partner, a stack of TBR books she promises to read someday, and a growing array of indoor house plants. They’re still alive...ish.

Where to find her:
@sarahlrichhelm on Instagram, Tiktok and Threads
https://www.authorsarahlrichhelm.com/

Want exclusive behind the scenes and early access to The Writing Apothecary episodes? Join up to the mailing list over here.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thewritingapothecary
Follow Mandi on all socials: @mandikont

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome back to the last lesson on plot.

Once you’ve got your major dramatical question there needs to be a structure to support it and it might sound simple, but sometimes it gets lost with everything that is going on.  Every plot has a beginning, middle and ending. Plot and structure are inseparable. You can’t have one without the other. 

The main plot points of today's lesson:

•  The beginning has three key points
  • It has to drop your reader into the middle of the action.
  • It has to provide all of the background information to get the reader up to speed.
  • And it has to establish your major dramatic question. 
• With starting in the middle of the action, you need to make sure that your readers can get enough of what is going on and why .
• The key to really getting enough through is to give what the reader needs at the time, they don’t need to know more than what is necessary so that it doesn’t take away from the story. 
• The middle of a story will have some overlap with the beginning, it’s natural but they are both very different part of the story.
• In the middle of the book you are further developing the relationship your reader has to your characters.
• The conflict that happens here needs to keep building and building until it can’t no more. 
• A key aspect here is to make sure that you’re showing the climax of the story and not just telling your reader what happens.
• The End is the part of plot will be the shortest part of your piece. 
• It tends to be the part that wraps up the story, nicely and in a bow. 
• The end follows a pattern which I like to think of the three c’s: there’s the crisis, climax and the consequences.
• Your ending should feel inevitable but unexpected. You don’t want your reader to have guess what is going to happen before you get there. 
• Subplots serve as a lesser parallel to the main plot and in other cases a subplot can also be in contrast with the main plot point .

Plot and character are inseparable here. It’s all about your character's journey and their ability to work through it, so you need to make sure that your characters are strong, fully formed and three-dimensional to withstand the plot drama that is thrown their way. 
Tell me what did you take away from this week's lesson?

I'd love to know.

Also, I would really appreciate it if you took the time to rate and review the podcast it helps people find our community and gets the podcast out into the world a little more.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Want exclusive behind the scenes and early access to The Writing Apothecary episodes? Join up to the mailing list over here.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thewritingapothecary
Follow Mandi on all socials: @mandikont

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome back to another episode of The Writing Apothecary, this is a week at looking at drama, real life and plot steps when we start to play around with plot.  

Every plot has a major dramatical question that is either a yes or a no, with the few cases where it’s a maybe. It’s the central-most organised force in a novel, no matter what you’re writing, there will always be a single question that will need to be answered and your plot? 

The main points in today's lesson:
- Your protagonist is your most fleshed out, cohesive and dimensional character.
- They need a desire.
- Their desire leads to their goal.
- Conflict is needed to help push the plot along.
- As a writer, it's not our job to make our character's lives easy.

Stories that truly move us are the ones that have real depth and even with external conflict you need to have a balance of internal conflicts, because your protagonist should be able to show your readers what it’s costing them or what the effects of a wrong or even a good step means for them. 

Tell me what did you take away from this week's lesson?

I'd love to know.

Also, I would really appreciate it if you took the time to rate and review the podcast it helps people find our community and gets the podcast out into the world a little more.

Want exclusive behind the scenes and early access to The Writing Apothecary episodes? Join up to the mailing list over here.

If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. 

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thewritingapothecary
Follow Mandi on all socials: @mandikont