Story from Scratch

What do you do when you've got multiple projects to juggle? This week's episode is all about figuring out what to prioritize when it comes to our creative endeavors. How do we decide what needs to ge…

This week on Quick Bits, we talk about negativity. Ever get into that headspace where you question whether you're any good at this creative thing at all? We've been there too, and it's a natural part…

This week, Kevin Valentine joins us once again to chat about his process writing the KRZ: Tiger Winds webcomic. We touch on pitching, finding the right collaborator, and seeing our brainchildren come…

This week, we're joined by Kevin Valentine, author of the webcomic KRZ: Tiger Winds. We talk about the inspiration behind Kevin's LGBTQ+ focused series, the shift the story underwent from prose to co…

This week on Quick Bits, Yale and Justin discuss our tendency to lost interest in our stories, whether while writing them or years afterwards. Sometimes, it's okay to move on from a project. But the …

This week, Yale and Justin discuss the merits (and drawbacks) of introducing a large cast of characters all at once. Is it better to slowly introduce your main cast one at a time, or are there situat…

This week, in a special episode, Yale and Justin take an in-depth look at two stories from tdotSpec's Speculative North Magazine. First, we examine Not a Vampire by Jeremiah Kleckner (which can be fo…

This week, Yale and Justin discuss to what extent they've planned out what books and series they intend to write in the future. Some writers develop complex worlds in which they plan to write dozens …

This week on Story From Scratch, we wonder just how clear we need to spell things out for our readers. Is it okay to make the reader work hard once in a while, or does subtlety only alieante your aud…

This week, Yale and Justin talk about their old writing... and how terrible it was. From frontloading paragraphs upon paragraphs of exposition, to going on author diatribes about things that have abs…

This week on Quick Bits, we discuss Justin's concept of a dynamic character arc. What if instead of having an arc where a character doesn't change until the climax of the novel, one were to write a s…

This week on quick bits, Yale and Justin talk about where to end a particular writing session. Do you stop at the end of a scene? End of a chapter? Is it better to write for a set amount of time or t…

This week on Quick Bits, Justin and Yale revisit the topic of themes. Do you ever wonder how to straddle that line between conveying a message and force-feeding your opinions down the reader's throat…

Welcome to Quick Bits! For the month of May, due to our busy schedules, we'll be publishing these shorter, more-focused episodes, each delving into a single topic. This week, we (by which we mean mos…

This week, for a change, Yale and Justin discuss things they actually like about the writing process. It's easy to find things to gripe about, but at the end of the day, we're doing this writing thin…

This week on Story From Scratch, Yale and Justin discuss how they approach the revisions process. Justin ponders Stephen King's advice about taking time away before beginning revisions, and Yale grap…

Our friend Peter G. Reynolds joins us once again, this time for a deep dive into the hurdles of writing books for children. After all, children aren't (usually) the ones who write children's books. T…

This week, we have a chat with children's author and podcaster Peter G. Reynolds. We talk about the influence writing groups have on our creative process and how an author can become pidgeon-holed wi…

This week, we get an update from Yale on how his querying journey has been going thus far... which leads us to the topic of how to deal with the anxiety of waiting and the crushing blow of rejection.…

This week, we respond to questions and comments from our listeners! Sticking to our theme for the month, we touch on various topics related to querying. Find out how many agents to query at a time, w…