Podcasts Can Teach You To Write

The November 2021 article in The Guardian The long and short-form of it: podcasts that will teach you how to write by Elle Hunt provides a list of five podcasts offers examples and tips from the pros.

One of my favorites is the New Yorker Fiction podcast. A New Yorker writer reads short story from the archives and then discusses it with the fiction editor, Deborah Treisman. All the podcasts are worth checking out.

See What Are Stephen King’s 10 Writing Tips? by Jason Hellerman. You’ll watch a twelve minute video of Stephen King discussing his tips from Outstanding Screenplays. Then read or listen to Hellerman list and reviews them. Each one is a guide to improving your writing and honing your craft.

Four possible problems with your story are:

1. Terrible structure
2. Too many characters, not enough development
3. Too much description
4. Needless dialogue

Read How to Write Good Fiction: 4 Foundational Skills and How to Build Them by J.D. Edwin at The Write Practice for excellent tips to identify and correct these problems.

Marion Roach Smith offer lots of tips for writing your memoir: The Twenty Top Tips for Writing Memoir

Family History Quick Start offers tips on starting and links to searchable resources

“I can’t think what to write about.” “Where do ideas for stories come from?” These are statements you hear often in writing class.

The Twilight Zone is one of my favorite shows. Rod Sterling’s comments about each show always added to my enjoyment of them. Here is a YouTube video of an interview with Sterling discussing writing with college students. He answers the question “Where do ideas come from?”

Here’s some good advice from Robin Finn. an author, essayist, and coach. Her debut novel, “Restless in L.A.” (February 2017, Inkspell) was named a Best New Novel of 2017 by Babble.com.

“As a Mom and a Writer, I’m Here to Tell You that Your Words Are Worthy. You are not too small or too busy or too late or too old or too overwhelmed to write. Your words are worthy. Anything else is a lie.” ~ Robin Finn in Feb. 23, 2021 Thrive Global.

Read the entire article here for writing and story sharing tips.

Completing a first draft means getting your ideas down on paper. You’ve accomplished something special when you can say, “I have a draft of my story.”

Here’s what some established writers have to say about writing the first draft.

• The best advice on writing was given to me by my first editor, Michael Korda, of Simon and Schuster, while writing my first book. ‘Finish your first draft and then we’ll talk,’ he said. It took me a long time to realize how good the advice was. Even if you write it wrong, write and finish your first draft. Only then, when you have a flawed whole, do you know what you have to fix. ~ Dominick Dunne, author of five bestselling novels and “The Way We Lived Then,” a memoir with photographs.
• “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” ~ Terry Pratchett
• “Get through a draft as quickly as possible.” ~ Joshua Wolf Shenk