Essential Guide to Writing a Novel

A podcast by James Thayer - Fridays

Fridays

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136 Episodes

  1. Episode 36 - The most interesting to the least interesting aspects of a novel.

    Published: 10/28/2022
  2. Episode 35 - A close look at scene structure, and avoiding mushy sentences.

    Published: 10/21/2022
  3. Episode 34 - Why and how to practice writing, and more thoughts on thoughts.

    Published: 10/14/2022
  4. Episode 33 - Danger signs our plot is dull.

    Published: 10/7/2022
  5. Episode 32 - A formula for showing, and clear and spare writing.

    Published: 9/30/2022
  6. Episode 31 - Favorite novels and check-mark plotting.

    Published: 9/23/2022
  7. Episode 30 - Plotting and the power struggle.

    Published: 9/16/2022
  8. Episode 29 - The pattern of a novel.

    Published: 9/9/2022
  9. Episode 28 - The enchanter quality, and weather and rudeness.

    Published: 9/2/2022
  10. Episode 27 - The importance of genres and formulas. And thoughts about titles.

    Published: 8/26/2022
  11. Episode 26 - Navel gazing and how to avoid it. And more on showing

    Published: 8/19/2022
  12. Episode 25: The magic of writing. Cause and effect. And thinking.

    Published: 8/12/2022
  13. Episode 24 - Showing others our work. And strong sentence-by-sentence writing techniques.

    Published: 8/5/2022
  14. Episode 23: Editing our own manuscript

    Published: 7/29/2022
  15. Episode 22: A summary of earlier episodes, and techniques for musical writing.

    Published: 7/22/2022
  16. Episode 21: Creativity and how to get it.

    Published: 7/15/2022
  17. Episode 20 - Reasons we fail to start.

    Published: 7/7/2022
  18. Episode 19 - More on modifiers, including the useless and the dangling. And clunky reach words.

    Published: 6/6/2022
  19. Episode 18 - Lots of things to avoid: the negative, cliches, and too many modifiers.

    Published: 6/4/2022
  20. Episode 17 - Keep it simple but not too simple, and metaphors.

    Published: 5/29/2022

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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.