A good theme can provide the heart and glue that binds your story together. Characters, dialogue, setting, and symbolism are important in conveying your theme to the reader. In this episode, Russ and Tim dive into the common themes and how they used them in their writing.

J.D. Edwin, author of the sci-fi fantasy trilogy Headspace, joins us as we discuss querying, marketing, plotting vs pansting, and how to stay sane while writing a series.

Character archetypes were just the beginning, in order to further refine your characters you need to utilize direct and indirect characterization. This episode Russ and Tim discuss the finer details about characters, and the ways to tease that information to readers.

Looking to build out characters for your narrative? Character archetypes can help! This episode Russ and Tim discuss the various archetypes with examples and how they might be used to create interesting and unique characters.

Story archetypes are a great starting point for building your narrative. In this episode Russ and Tim discuss the seven core story archetypes that can be found in most fiction, how they can be used to create a engaging novels, and how they used (or didn't use) them for their own projects.

It all comes down to this...Act III. Our heroes have been removed from their normal world, thrust into a chaotic Act II world, been through the ringer, hit the bottom of the barrel, now it's time for them to shine (or maybe not?) and finish their journey. Join Russ and Tim as they wrap-up their deep dive into the Save the Cat! Act III story beats.

Doing their best to avoid strong act II vibes, Russ and Tim continue their deep dive into Save the Cat! Writes A Novel story beats with Act II.

Using Save the Cat! Writes A Novel as a jumping off point, Russ and Tim do a deep dive into the Act I story beats, and reference how this methodology was useful in crafting their own works.

Writer's block...

Do your characters have the right motivation? Proper motivation is necessary if you want your characters to make believable decisions that lead toward their goals, even if those decisions are flawed. In this episode, Russ and Tim discuss internal and external motivations, how they connect to goals, and how they can change as the story progresses.