Essential Guide to Writing a Novel

A podcast by James Thayer - Fridays

Fridays

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136 Episodes

  1. Episode 56 - How many characters are too many? And he wore his guilt like a harness.

    Published: 4/14/2023
  2. Episode 55 - How many words should we write a day? And the use of contrast.

    Published: 4/7/2023
  3. Episode 54 - Fear of failure, author photos, and the use of humor.

    Published: 3/31/2023
  4. Episode 53 - Embarrassing stuff, and the middle of the novel.

    Published: 3/24/2023
  5. Episode 52 - Making our sentences more lively, and avoiding reader disbelief.

    Published: 3/17/2023
  6. Episode 51 - The wonder factor.

    Published: 3/10/2023
  7. Episode 50 - The right kind of surprise ending, and wonderful character descriptions.

    Published: 3/3/2023
  8. Episode 49 - Avoiding the biggest mistake, and keeping the POV tight.

    Published: 2/24/2023
  9. Episode 48 - Writing strong dialogue, and Ray Bradbury on plotting.

    Published: 2/17/2023
  10. Episode 47 - A strong plotting technique, and leeches.

    Published: 2/10/2023
  11. Episode 46 - What if no one comes to our book signing? And crafting our narrative voice.

    Published: 1/6/2023
  12. Episode 45 - Techniques to make our dialogue riveting.

    Published: 12/30/2022
  13. Episode 44 - How to avoid another prospect-killing mistake.

    Published: 12/23/2022
  14. Episode 43 - Dialogue should do double duty. Here's how.

    Published: 12/16/2022
  15. Episode 42 - The single most important writing technique.

    Published: 12/9/2022
  16. Episode 41 - How can we know if we have the talent to write?

    Published: 12/2/2022
  17. Episode 40 - Creating villainous villains.

    Published: 11/25/2022
  18. Episode 39 - How to create characters readers love.

    Published: 11/18/2022
  19. Episode 38 - We shouldn't write these scenes, and strong techniqes for character description.

    Published: 11/11/2022
  20. Episode 37 - When to stop preparing and start writing.

    Published: 11/4/2022

5 / 7

Hosted by James Thayer, the podcast is a practical, step-by-step manual on how to craft a novel. It presents a set of tools for large issues such as story development and scene construction (Kirkus Reviews said Thayer's novels are "superbly crafted') and it also examines techniques that will make your sentence-by-sentence writing shine. The New York Times Book Review has said Thayer's "writing is smooth and clear. it wastes no words, and it has a rhythm only confident stylists achieve.