John Helps You Write Better
John Helps You Write Better is your all-in-one better-than-college help and advice in writing and publishing your books. It's all about giving you the career as a successful author you've always dreamed of.
- Update frequency
- every 2 days
- Average duration
- 25 minutes
- Episodes
- 300
- Years Active
- 2023 - 2025
Don't fear the tropes and cliches
In today's episode, I want to talk you about tropes and cliches. They're nothing to overthink or fear.
I've been sick. Have a podcast episode.
In today's episode, I've gotten out of bed to talk to you about pushing yourself to work and being kind to yourself about doing it
You need to start AND finish AND finish what you start.
In today's episode, I want to talk to you about that first draft you've been working on since the dawn of time and somehow still haven't finished it yet.
You're going to need to learn to take a punch.
In today's episode, I want to talk to you about how you're handling rejection and the less-than-ideal feedback you might be getting.
Why do you want to rush? What's the hurry?
In today's episode I want to ask you why you think "taking too long" matters and why you want to go faster.
And why exactly are you using AI?
In today's episode, I'd like to ask you about why you're using AI to "edit" your work.
Separate your character from your plot
In today's episode, I want to encourage you to make your character not just the being doing the plot, but a wholly formed person who happens to be doing a plot.
Local royalty vs global royalty AKA Who's the most specialest person?
In today's episode, I want to talk to you about the royalty problem in your story.
Global global versus local global - Worldbuilding and scale
In today's episode, I want to talk to you about how a character can operate in their world versus the world of the story.
Have you been complicating your world-building?
In today's episode, I've got the audio from a workshop I did this past weekend on world-building. I think it'll help you.
We never know what we're doing or where we're going, and that's fine.
As the year ends, I want to talk you about the not-knowing of making things and how it's okay to not know how things are going to be.
Answering 27 questions from webnovelists and new writers
In this nearly 90-minute Q&A session, I answer 27 questions from webnovelists and new writers. I think you'll find it really useful and enjoyable.
You and your voice and trying to be like other authors
In today's episode, I want to talk to you about trying to ape someone else's style.
How are you feeling about your progress?
In today's episode, I want to talk you about your goals and what you're doing to reach them.
Let's talk about beats and scenes
This is the audio from a workshop I gave on 12/21 to some webnovelists and self-publishing authors about scene and beat usage in their writing. I think you'll find this helpful
What the hell happened to Superman in the Superman movie?
In this episode, we need to talk about Superman.
And now, a word for co-authors
In today's episode, I'd like to talk to you about co-authorship.
How's that fantasy going?
In today's episode, I want to talk you about your fantasy of being a writer.
What do you think you're doing?
In today's slightly cantankerous episode, I want to ask you what you think you're doing.
How Do I Make A Plot? (Audio from A Plot Building Session)
In this bonus audio from this past weekend, here's me talking to a group of writers about what plot is and what plot isn't and how to build an effective plot.