Writing Is Hard Work

After a long hiatus, I've returned to talk about social media, specifically Facebook and why I no longer use it. I discuss many other forms of social media and how the writer can use them to their advantage. I discuss botometer (https://botometer.iuni.iu.edu/#!/) and how you can use this simple tool to remove bots from your Twitter followers. I also talk about my friend Jerry Bennett and how he's used social media to build a following that has worked to his advantage.

On this episode I talk about submitting to Pitch Wars and also about what screenwriting can teach us about story structure when writing a novel.

I interviewed Stephen McMurtrey over the phone and boy did we have a great conversation! We talked about writing comic book scripts for Okie Comics Magazine, writing spec scripts vs shooting scripts (screenplays) and how we are both entering our submissions on 8/29 for Pitch Wars. Good luck to us both!

This episode is really just a primer for the upcoming blog post about a direction my writing will be taking soon. The blog post hits my website on Tuesday 8/14. I hope some of you out there are thinking the same thing.

I'm working on an epistolary novel, and I dish all the good tips I've discovered about writing in this format. How do you compile all of the "real-world" documents into a readable text that a reader can follow easily and not get bogged down.

Like I'm an expert, but as a student of great literature and a teacher of great literature I can tell you what makes our writing that much more amazing. Tune in for my four tips to helping you go beyond good to great.

I can't think of a better book to discuss at this time in our history than the prophetic "Fahrenheit 451". I spend some time discussing it, but mainly I discuss the fount of writing advice found in the pages of the afterward Bradbury wrote some 30 years after it was first published.

Sometimes I will interview up-and-coming artists on this show and today is a real treat. I had the privilege of interviewing Myloe Yeager. She's a writer in my writing group, Rose Rock Writers. She's been writing for some time and is working on a thrilling crime novel currently. Listen as she shares her writing advice, experiences and how she is currently trying to market herself.

I was able to sit down with screenwriter and fellow member of the Rose Rock Writers Group to talk screenwriting. Michael Dean is a teacher like me (he teaches science) but like me he is also working on a writing career. Mike had some great advice!

In this first episode Roger discusses the 10 writing tips he gleaned from J.R.R. Tolkien's letters. He originally researched and wrote the tips back in April of 2012, but he wanted to talk further about each one and explain the context of each in detail. Tune in for more podcasts where Roger will offer writing tips, interview local authors and generally provide help for writers who have not yet quit their day-job.