Writer Unleashed

Is your writing group holding you back? Inhibiting for you? Confusing you? Making you doubt yourself? Or is it supporting you to grow? 

On today's episode of Writer Unleashed, we'll explore 4 ways your writing group may be grid-locking you, and the 5 most important things to look for in a writing tribe. 

Or should I just wing it, flying blind?

I get this question a LOT. And while there 's no one-size-fits all approach to the creative process, the outline first approach can stifle most writers and gridlock their stories.

So why the urge to outline? 

An outline is safe. Knowable. Certain.

Having that road map should produce our best stories, then, right?

Well, not exactly.

On today's episode of Writer Unleashed, learn why not knowing where your story's going can produce your strongest, most surprising work.

On today's episode of Writer Unleashed, we'll explore:

• Our urge to know where our story is going at the outset.
• How too much certainty shuts down our creative process.
• Why uncertainty opens up space for our most surprising and riveting work.

Inspiration is a mysterious, mercurial force.

Sometimes it shows up, sometimes it doesn’t.

But what if we could summon inspiration at will? If each time we sat down to write, we could reach that magic zone where the words flowed freely onto the page?

What if there were some particular rituals, or triggers to that special consciousness that guaranteed an unstoppable, no-holds-barred writing session?

On today’s episode of Writer Unleashed, we’ll explore:

• How to summon your inner muse.
• Why relaxing into your own creative process is essential.
• How to break through your resistance.
• How to keep inspiration flowing.

How do you nudge your way into a story? How do you generate ideas?

Do you start with a childhood memory? A vintage photograph? An overheard conversation?

We all have our own way in. And our creative processes are as singular as fingerprints.

On today’s episode of Writer Unleashed, we’ll explore 4 steps so you can generate story ideas on tap.

You'll learn:

• The art of scratching for a small idea first.
• How to capture stray ideas.
• How to recycle and transform your ideas. 
• Why the early stages of idea generation feel a lot like goofing off and why it's more productive than you think. 
• How to stay open and receptive, and most importantly, trust your instincts. 

For more free writing resources, visit NanciPanuccio.com

I used to live for the rush of that first draft. And dread revision. The more I tried to revise the more lost in the mess of my draft I'd become.

That's because I didn't understand what revision was, or how to do it.

Fast forward to today. I not only have control over my revision process, it's hands down my favorite part of writing.

So, what changed?

My misconceptions about the writing process and some slow, steady insights about how to approach rewriting.

On today's episode, we'll debunk common misconceptions about the writing process, explore what revision is, and how you can not only manage revision but dive into it with control, ease, and joy.

For more writing resources, visit me over at nancipanuccio.com

In order to nail down a solid, productive writing practice, to reach the level of mastery that ultimately leads to publication, you need to be in a state of flow. But how do we find flow in our writing when we’re not in the mood to write? 

And how do we stay in a state of flow? 

On today’s episode of Writer Unleashed, we’ll talk about:

How to anchor yourself in your work so that you can reach and stay in a state of flow easily.

How you can make vast improvements in your writing with small, focused, incremental changes.

And I'll give you a writing prompt so have your pen and paper ready.

NanciPanuccio.com

Happiness may be great in real life. But it’s fatal in story.

Few things numb readers more than characters surrounded by birdsong and puppies who aren’t risking something deeply important.

There’s no payoff when everything works out all hunky-dory. Or when the outcome is as simple as a character getting what he wants. Or not.

Readers are hungry for danger. 

We’re just hardwired that way.

We want drama.

On today's episode of Writer Unleashed, we'll explore:

• What we mean by drama.
• How to get your character into trouble for their own good.
• Why conflict is an overblown concept and what to focus on instead.
• How to raise the stakes to keep readers glued to the page.
• 5 questions to help you create the dramatic tension readers crave. 

Notable Book

Selected Stories by Andre Dubus

 
https://nancipanuccio.com

We want to move our readers emotionally. We want them to feel our character’s joy, pain, and everything in between. 

But one of the surest ways to sever the reader’s emotional connection is to be overly direct about how a character feels. 

In today’s episode of Writer Unleashed, we’re going to break down 4 techniques to get the greatest emotional payoff from your scenes. 

We'll explore:

• The biology of emotion.
• How to blast through the reader's intellect to his most primitive emotions. 
• How to avoid emotional cliches. 
• The power of juxtaposition.
• How to avoid melodrama. 
• The Think Large, Write Small approach. 
• How to recreate your character's emotional experience.  

Excerpt from Elizabeth McCracken's Niagra Falls All Over Again.

For more writing resources, visit NanciPanuccio.com.  

A flashback moves readers back in time. It interrupts the flow of the story to catch up on what happened before page 1. 

But when writers overuse flashbacks, readers grow impatient. They lose interest in, or even forget, what’s happening in the “now” of the story. Yes, we should explore our story’s past. But at some point in revision, we need to reign the past in. We need to select and shape only those flashback episodes that are crucial to understanding the story’s present. 

It all boils down to 2 things:

Relevance and resonance.

On today’s episode of Writer Unleashed, we’ll explore how to use flashbacks to:

• Deepen our understanding of your character’s desires and motivations. 
• Lend later scenes more dramatic power. 
• Add nuance and texture to your story.
• Imbue the story’s central conflict.
• Bear the story’s core meaning.

Notable Book

Revolutionary Road

For more writing resources, visit me at NanciPanuccio.com 

Time is finite. It’s not a renewable resource. We have so much crammed into our day - our jobs, our kids, our spouses, our homes.  And even if we do find pockets of time to write, we’re flat out stonkered by the time we get to our keyboard.

Because, here’s the thing. Writing requires clean focus. We need to be firing on all cylinders. It’s not just about finding the hours to write, it’s the quality of mind we bring to those hours.

But we all have more time than we think. And we have more control over our time than most of us would like to admit. 

On today's episode of Writer Unleashed, we'll explore:

• Why we don't all have the same 24-hours in a day.
• The 168 hours in a week paradigm. 
• Why tracking your time for 7 days will help you find the time you need to write.
• How to create your writing ritual.
• What it means to write like a pro.

Notable books:

Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Laura Vanderkam's 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

For more writing resources, visit me at NanciPanuccio.com