Write Pack Radio

Rest In Peace: When Your Favorite Characters Die.

In this episode of Write Pack Radio, the Write Pack explores what happens when your favorite characters (or just important characters) are killed in a story—be it as the author of the novel, story, or screenplay or as a member of the audience.  

If you have created a good character, and the readers get attached, they care and have experienced a connection to that character.

Sometimes the death of a character can end the characters arc to show the character’s redemption and reversal.

The Write Pack also discusses the tropes of death, such as those found on the website about Women in Refrigerators.

What makes a death matter in a story? Why does the character die? What are the risks if you kill off the character?

Characters and stories that are discussed (that are not written by the Write Pack (darn the luck)):

Sherlock Holmes

Yoda

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Spock

Marcus (from Babylon 5)

Sirius Black

George R. R. Martin novels (name any character)

Sturm Brightblade

The lawyer in Jurassic Park (first movie)

Darth Maul

Dumbledore

Fred Best (Ripper Street)

MI-5 Characters (and the second episode of the season effect)

Kat (from Battlestar Galactica—reimagined series)

Charles de Lint characters

The Three Musketeers (play version where they all died….and then had to reset)

Mark Anthony and Cleopatra

Romeo and Juliet

Emperor Claudius

Meredith Vickers (by the doughnut ship of death) in Pormetheus

And many many more

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Know Your Audience? Who are they?!

Write Pack Radio explores: How do you identify and connect to your audience? Where do you start?

Are you using the right social media? Are you hashtaging? Why is that important in finding your audience? Does it matter which social media do you go to? Can’t you just post the same stuff to all of them? Can’t you just promote, “Buy my book” all over social media or is that like spamming?

How often do you interact with your audience? How do you make it meaningful?

What about book launches? Should they always be in a bookstore? How can you draw your audience there? Are you thinking outside the box? Are you doing what you shouldn’t do?

Do you make your fans angry? Do you embarrass them?

What do you give your audience anything beyond the book?

Do you have your characters using twitter?

What about using other media to get word on your work out there?

Are you going to the conventions where your audience goes to?

What about sharing the playlist of the music you listen to as you write?

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New episodes every Sunday

Setting as Character

 

In this episode, The Write Pack is joined by a special guest, award winning mystery writer Rick Skwiot. Rick Skwiot is the award-winning author of three novels and two critically praised memoirs. He has published numerous feature stories, short stories, essays and book reviews in magazines and newspapers. Rick has taught creative writing at Washington University in St. Louis and at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he served as the 2004 Distinguished Visiting Writer. Rick has a new novel out that takes place in St. Louis, exploring the racial relations and the corruption from the all of education to the halls of power. You can find this new novel, Fail, on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other book sellers.

Join The Write Pack as we explore why setting is an important character.

What is it about settings that are not your normal expected locations that draws us into a book? Do readers grow tired of the normal playgrounds like New York, Los Angeles, and others?

How does setting effect the character and the mood of the story? Does character drive the plot or is it setting? How does it affect the psychological aspects of the characters?

Is the setting just physical or does it include the psychological and cultural aspects and how does it affect the story?

How do you link everything to setting?

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Why be a Writer?

With the insanity of the world or writing, the constant rejection, and the pressure that comes with being a writer, Write Pack Radio explores the question: “Why be a Writer?”

Writers don’t get paid sick days, paid vacation days, nor a guarantee that their work will ever see the light of day. Writers don’t have a pay day like those with regular jobs. Writers don’t get the respect they deserve that people with “regular jobs” normal do. You get rejected---A LOT! Sometimes writing can ruin relationships—friends and romantic ones. So why do it?

Every writer had a different answer, and each member of the Write Pack explores why they write. They separate the romance from the truth of writing. Each member goes into the why, the pain and personal triumphs of writing. 

 

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Elements of Story

In this episode Write Pack Radio explores the elements of story. When we start off writing we go to classes, read magazines and books on how to write, and go to workshops, but what are the elements of a good story?

Are characters more important than setting? Can you care about a character and still hate them? Do characters have to change? Is setting a character? Should series characters “reset” in episodic stories?

Does there have to be a plot? Is plot conflict? Is conflict separate of plot? Can a plot be a construction or deconstruction of a character? Are plots more important to some stories and less to others?

Are plot and story interchangeable? Can you write a story without a plot? What about realism, stream of consciousness,-are they stories or a treatment?

What throws you out of a story?

Characters not behaving as themselves?Tone shifts?Too easy of coincidences?Language doesn’t match the setting?When you lose confidence in the author?If the story feels forced?When the story is “by the numbers”?

Does the designing premise help boost a story over the wall of being mundane?

What have you learned as a writer and a reader about the elements of a story?

 

All episodes available at:

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New episodes every Sunday

Pitching your Work

It’s the wind up and the pitch across the plate . . . or is it across the table or the query or the twitter world?

In this episode, Write Pack Radio explores the scariest step in writing—pitching your work to a publisher or agent.

What are the dos and the don’ts of pitching? Where should you pitch? How do you find out about the agent or publishers to pitch to? Where can you meet these people to pitch face to face?

How long should your pitch be? Does this apply to a query letter?

When should you pitch your work?

Where do you research information on the agents and publishers?

What is practice pitching? How do you practice? Who do you practice with?

What should be in your pitch? What is high concept? Should you write it down and edit it?

Are there magic words you should use? How is your story exciting?

All episodes available at:

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New episodes every Sunday

Plot Fails and Forgivable Sins

Write Pack Radio explores the traps and sins of story plots:

Do your characters suffer from a case of the plots and barf backstory all over each other?Do your characters have an exposition couch?Did the characters’ journey take a turn around a cul-de-sac?Did they fall into a bamboo trap? Did your character walk through a giant plot hole?Did your characters have a convenient misunderstanding?

 

What are your plot problems? Do famous books and authors suffer from this? What about television shows? What about movies? What about comic books? What about Anime?

Are the plot problems forgivable?  

This is one of Jennifer Stolzer’s favorite episodes. Why? Tune in…it will be obvious.

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New episodes every Sunday

Fear in Suspense and Horror: Scare vs. Gore

In this episode, The Write Pack explores the use of scare vs. gore. What are some of the tropes in horror and suspense? What is a slasher? What is splatter punk? What is the psychological thriller and how does it differ? What is the goal of the story?

The Write Pack explores what makes better suspense?

And they explore what makes a great horror?

How is suspense and horror built up well and how does it fail?

What are the elements of scare and how does it differ from gore?

Why is gore popular? Has it changed or is it as needed in the modern day when war and atrocities are aired on the 6 o’clock news?

How is fear different from suspense?

Is a suspense story is a fear that is earned and a gore story is a fear that is created by shock?

Are children scary?

And learn what has scared The Write Pack!!!

 

All episodes available at:

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New episodes every Sunday

Futurism, Past-ism, Romanticism, or Wish Fulfillment

This is a topic that may sound like it should only belong to Science Fiction, but it can apply to all genres. When we write are we writing Futurism (or past-ism for historical fiction), romanticizing the world, or is it wish fulfillment?

Here is a thought…is the FBI a “real world” descendent of the futuristic ideas of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes?

Do we have agendas behind what we write? When we write about the past, the present, or the future are we writing about a world we wish would exist or did, does, or may exist?

What are some of the technological advancements that have come down from things discussed in the works of Verne, Clarke, Asimov, Bova, and Roddenberry? What social advancements? What ones are coming? (Tractor Beams (just starting to be discovered), force fields, space elevators, transporters, replicators, anti-agathic (anti-aging) drugs, and more)

How is the Western wish fulfillment?  What about Alternate History stories? Steam Punk? How does this come into play with mysteries? Is all Vampire fiction wish fulfillment? 

All episodes available at:

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New episodes every Sunday

In this episode of Write Pack Radio, the Write Pack asks:

How do writers, especially new writers weed through all the good and bad advice on writing? What are their sources? Is everything you read about writing worth your time? Are the lessons in school and college correct? Is even Write Pack Radio’s thoughts on writing on target? How can you tell what works or won’t work?

Where do you go for writing advice? What sources should you trust? What about books on how to write? What about the many books on aspects of writing? What is a Writers Toolbox? What is in your toolbox?

Have the academic cops arrested the Write Pack for exploring writing advice?

One piece of advice: Writing is an art. We all write differently. But you have to learn the rules of writing to learn where and how to break them.

You can find Write Pack Radio on Blog Talk Radio and iTunes. We can be found on Twitter and Facebook also.

 

Things discussed:

Blogs;

Twitter;

Books on writing books;

Articles on writing stories and books;

Books on writing strategy;

Focus groups and Beta Readers;

Writers Toolbox;

Stephen King’s On Writing;

Strunk and White;

The Zombie Rule;

“Be Verbs”;

Style guides and the “Hemmingway Style Guide”;

Show, Don’t Tell (but how?);

The Bookshelf Muse and writing thesauruses by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi; and

Knowing how to take and use advice.

All episodes available at:

   -  iTunes

   -  Blog Talk Radio

   -  TuneIn

   -  And other platforms

New episodes every Sunday