21.40: The DREAM of a Structured Character Arc
What if a character arc had a structure you could actually map? This week, our hosts break down the DREAM arc: denial, resistance, explorati...
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Writing Excuses
Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
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21.39: Write What You Feel
Your life is probably weirder—and more useful to your writing—than you think. This week, our hosts explore how to turn lived experience into...
21.38: Rules, Tools, and History’s Fools
“Tools, not rules” gets flipped on its head this week. Our hosts revisit the Turkey City Lexicon, a snarky collection of writing “rules” tha...
21.37: Barrier Breaking: The World Is on Fire
How do you keep writing when the world is on fire? This week, our hosts talk about protecting our narrative energy when the news, social med...
21.36: Twists: How to Make the Unexpected Feel Inevitable
A great twist shouldn’t just surprise us—it should make us rethink everything that came before. This week, our hosts explore reader expectat...
21.35: The Four Acts of Kishōtenketsu
This week, our hosts explore kishōtenketsu, an Asian story structure that appears under different names in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam....
21.34: Knowing the Distance
How close is your reader to the story? Should they be closer? Today, our hosts get nerdy about narrative distance: the space between reader,...
21.33: When To Shift Gears
A story doesn’t always need the same tools from beginning to end. In this episode, we talk about recognizing when it’s time to shift gears—a...
21.32: Barrier Breaking- Time Constraints
There never seems to be enough time to write—but is time really the problem? Our hosts explore the reality of working within limited hours,...
21.31: Deconstructing Save the Cat
Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need by Blake Snyder was published in 2005 and is widely popular because it offers...
21.30: Chapter Breaks Soon
A lot of times people want to know what the "ideal length" is for a chapter. But chapters can range from one sentence, to a single scene, al...
21.29: How to Make a Scene
What makes a scene feel like a scene? This week, we unpack one of storytelling's most basic building blocks. Our hosts explore where scenes...
21.28: Narrative Transitions
How do you move readers from one scene to the next without losing momentum? Our hosts dig into different types of transitions—from scene bre...
21.27: The Expository Throttle
How can exposition be used as a pacing tool, and not just a way to convey information? We attempt to answer this question on today’s episode...
21.26: Setting the Pace
Our hosts explore the many tools writers can use to control pacing. We discuss how cadence, transitions, tone, sentence structure, and white...
21.25: Follow the Bouncing Ball
In this episode, our hosts explore how writers control their readers’ attention with the metaphor of a bouncing ball. We break down techniqu...
21.24: Deconstructing the Seven Point Plot Structure
Dan Wells joins our conversation as we break down the seven-point plot structure! Using examples from Star Wars, Toy Story, and other films,...
21.23: Barrier Breaking: Interruptions
In this episode, our hosts explore one of the most persistent barriers to writing: interruptions. From family members and pets to emails, me...
21.22: The Order of the Telling
*Time-Sensitive* Our final WXR cruise is almost sold out, grab your spot before June 4th, 2026 here! This week, we are talking about the ord...
21.21: Rhythm and Words
*Time-Sensitive* Our final WXR cruise is almost sold out, grab your spot before June 4th, 2026 here! Today, we’re continuing the conversatio...